A New Light of Alchemy

2He took Mercury and began work, putting it in glass and applying fire. As usual, Mercury evaporated. The wretched alchemist, ignorant of nature, beat his wife, saying, “No one could have come here except you. You took my Mercury out of the glass.” His wife defended herself in tears and said quietly to her husband, “You will make shit out of this.” The alchemist took more Mercury, put it in the vessel again, and guarded it so that his wife could not take it. But Mercury evaporated again in its usual way. Remembering that the first matter of the philosophers’ stone ought to be volatile, the alchemist rejoiced greatly. Now that he had this matter, he fully persuaded himself he could not go wrong. He boldly began treating Mercury, then learned to sublime and calcine it in extraordinary ways: with salts, sulphur, metals, ores, blood, hair, strong waters, herbs, urine and vinegar. He could discover nothing that served his purpose. He left nothing in the world untouched with which he had not treated good Mercury. When he could make no progress at all, he came across the saying that it is found in the dunghill. He began treating Mercury with various kinds of dung, together and separately. Exhausted and full of thoughts, he fell asleep.