He affirmed it to be the mother of all art and
science, citing the opinions of Paracelsus, Sandivogius, Raymond
Lully, and others, in support of his assertions. He maintained that it
was pure and innocent and honourable both in its purposes and means.
What were its objects? The perpetuation of life and youth, and the
production of gold. "The elixir vitae," said he, "is no charmed
potion, but merely a concentration of those elements of vitality which
nature has scattered through her works. The philosopher's stone, or
tincture, or powder, as it is variously called, is no necromantic
talisman, but consists simply of those particles which gold contains
within itself for its reproduction; for gold, like other things, has
its seed within itself, though bound up with inconceivable firmness,
from the vigour of innate fixed salts and sulphurs. In seeking to
discover the elixir of life, then," continued he, "we seek only to
apply some of nature's own specifics against the disease and decay to
which our bodies are subjected; and what else does the physician, when
he tasks his art, and uses subtle compounds and cunning distillations,
to revive our languishing powers, and avert the stroke of death for a
season?
"In seeking to multiply the precious metals, also, we seek but to
germinate and multiply, by natural means, a particular species of
nature's productions; and what else does the husbandman, who consults
times and seasons, and, by what might be deemed a natural magic, from
the mere scattering of his hand, covers a whole plain with golden
vegetation? The mysteries of our art, it is true, are deeply and
darkly hidden; but it requires so much the more innocence and purity
of thought, to penetrate unto them.
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