A New Light of Alchemy

5I asked further, “Sir, is this water drawn in another way, and is it found everywhere?” He said, “It is in every place, and no one can live without it. It is drawn in marvellous ways, but the best is that extracted by the power of our chalybs, found in the belly of Aries.” I asked, “What is it useful for?” He answered, “Before proper cooking it is the greatest poison; after suitable cooking it is the greatest medicine. It gives twenty-nine grains of blood, each grain of which will supply you with 864 fruits of the solar tree.” I asked, “Can it be improved further?” “According to philosophical writing,” he said, “it can be exalted first to ten, then to a hundred, then to a thousand and ten thousand, and so on.” I pressed him: “My lord, do many know this water, and does it have a proper name?” He cried openly, “Few know it, but all have seen it, see it, and love it. It has names, many and various, but its proper name is the water of our sea: the water of life that does not wet the hands.”