A New Light of Alchemy

3The more thoroughly purified the place, the finer the metals it yields. Know that this vapour continually moves out from the centre to the surface, purifying places as it goes. This is why ores are now found in places where none existed a thousand years ago: in its advance, the vapour continually refines what is crude and impure, drawing a little along with itself in succession. This is nature’s repetition and circulation. It continues to sublime, producing new things, until the place is thoroughly purified; and the more it is purified, the nobler the things it produces. In winter, when cold air binds the earth, that unctuous vapour also congeals. When spring returns, it mixes with earth and water and becomes a magnesia, drawing to itself the like Mercury of the air. Through the rays of sun, moon, and stars, this Mercury gives life to all things, and so brings forth grass, flowers, and the like. Nature is never idle even for a moment. Metals are generated in this way: long distillation purifies the earth, and they are then generated by the arrival of the fatness. They do not arise in another way, as some vainly imagine through a mistaken interpretation of the philosophers’ writings.