Of The Manner Of Extracting The First Matter Of The Philosophers' Stone

PART II.

OF THE MANNER OF EXTRACTING THE FIRST MATTER OF THE PHILOSOPHERS' STONE, AND THE USE IT IS PUT TO IN PURIFYING THE IMPERFECT METALS, AND TRANSMUTING THEM INTO GOOD GOLD.

LESSON XI.

TAKE the foregoing instructions as thy principal instrument, and know that our soul has the power, when the body is free, as we before said, of any pollution, the heart void of malice and offence; I say the soul is then a free agent, and has the power, spiritually and magically, to act upon any matter whatsoever; therefore I said the first matter is in the soul; and the extracting of it, is to bring the dormant power of the pure, living, breathing spirit and eternal soul into act. Note well that every agent has its power of acting upon

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its patient. Every essence that is distilled forth is received into a recipient, but that recipient must first be made clean. Even so must the soul and heart of man: the vile affections must be thrown away, and trampled under foot; then shalt thou be able to proceed in thy work, which do in the manner following.

LESSON XII.

The expence thou must be at will be but a trifle: all the instruments necessary are but three, viz. a crucible, an egg philosophical, and a retort with its receiver. Put your fine gold, in weight about 5 dwts., file it up, put it into your philosophic egg, pour upon it the twice of its weight of the best Hungarian ☿, close up the egg with an Hermetic seal, put it for three months in horse-dung, take it out at the end of that time, and see what kind of form thy gold and ☿ has assumed; take it out, pour on it half its weight of good spirit of sal ammon., set them in a pot full of sand over the fire in the retort, let them distil into a pure essence, add to one pt. of this ☿ two pts. of thy water of life, or prima materia, put them into thy philosophical. egg, and

LESSON XIII.

set them into horse-dung for another three months; then take them out, and see what thou hast--a pure etherial essence, which is the living gold; pour this pure spiritual liquor upon a drachm of molten fine gold, and you will find that which will satisfy thy hunger and thirsting after this secret; for the increase of thy gold will seem to thee miraculous, as indeed it is. Take it to a jeweller's or goldsmith's; let him try it in thy presence, and thou wilt have reason to bless God for his mercy to thee. Do thy duty as he has commanded thee, and use all the benefit thou shalt receive, in actions worthy of thy nature.

LESSON XIV.

When thy spiritual eve is opened, and thou shalt begin to see to what end thou wert created, thou Shalt want no necessary thing either for thy comfort or

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support; only keep in the rules we have prescribed in the beginning of this little treatise--Fear God, and love thy neighbour as thyself; be not hasty to reveal any secrets thou mayest learn, for the good spirits, both day and night, will be thy instructors, and will continually reveal thee many secrets. Think not that thou canst either profit or benefit so much by the instruction of those who profess great advantages in classical education and high schooling; be assured they are, in spiritual knowledge, much in the dark: for he who desires not spiritual knowledge cannot attain it by, any means, but by, first, coming to God; secondly, by purifying his own heart; thirdly, by submitting himself to the will of the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct him in all truth, to the attaining of all knowledge, both human and divine; and by arrogating nothing to our own power or strength, but by referring all to the mercy and goodness of God.--Amen.