A New Light of Alchemy

2When nature creates things from the elements, she generates them through God’s will from the first matter, which God alone knows. Nature creates things and multiplies them from the second matter, which the philosophers know. Nothing happens in the world without the willing of God and nature. Each element is in its own sphere, yet one cannot exist without another. One lives from another, although when joined they do not agree. Water is the most worthy of all the elements, because it is the mother of all things. The spirit of fire floats above it. Through fire’s agency, water becomes the first matter—through the contest, that is, of fire with water. Winds or vapours are thus generated, fit to be congealed with earth or through crude air, which was separated from it at the beginning. This happens ceaselessly by perpetual motion, because fire or heat is aroused only by motion. This is readily seen in a blacksmith reducing iron with a file: with vigorous motion the iron grows as hot as though it had glowed in a fire. Motion therefore causes heat; heat moves water; water’s motion causes air, the life of all living things. Things consequently grow in this way, as I said above, from water. Subtle, light things arise from its subtler vapour; heavy and more precious things from its oil; and things far more beautiful than the former from its salt.