Index of notable matters treated in this little book. A. Ebb and flow of the sea: its true cause — p. 105 Alchemists’ art destroys gold — 145 Alchemists make nothing out of everything — ibid. All things were created through God’s Word — 73; subsist in it — ibid.; are administered, directed, governed, preserved, nourished, and multiplied through it — ibid. A beginning must bear witness to its end — 76 The human soul or spirit is a ray of the divine essence — 197; alone, whether male or female, it cannot multiply without union with the other — ibid.; first arose from God — 198; still arises through propagation — ibid.; nothing in the world is more precious than the human soul — 224

An apple that has lost smell, taste, and colour through decay leaves only waste — 23 The philosophers’ aroma — 184 The Hermetic art helps avoid errors in philosophy and religion — 225 Stars: their origin — 177 Resurrection of the dead — 229 B. Basilius’s all in all — 176 Bees wisely conceal their work — 241 C. Chymists err in thinking they can open a body through violent fire or strong waters — 23 The principal end of chymical study — 39 Comets: when God the Lord creates them — 94; are signs of divine wonder and wrath — ibid. Common opinion should not always be followed — 60

The corruption of one thing is the generation of another — 144 The rib from which woman was formed was already animated — 196 D. God’s decrees are immutable — 215 Distinction between universal matter not yet specified and metallic matter compounded and specified by its own nature — 178 Thunder: its origin — 95 E. Echeneis — 176 Precious stones are glorious wonders and noble creatures of God — 115; how they can be transformed — 116 Theophrastus’s immature mineral electrum — 176 Elements are in themselves nothing but water — 6, 9, 85; all things consist of them — 24; balanced elements can cure every disease — 24; were not actually separated from one another by God in creation — 34; possess life and sensation — 42

Elohim signifies the whole Holy Trinity — 42 An end must bear witness to its beginning — 76 Earth was created from the waters — 5, 7 and following; cannot bring forth seed, herb, or grass without rain’s moisture — 25; must fall apart without air or spirit — 28; is fastened to heaven by a golden chain — 35; earth and water possess animal and vegetable power only potentially — 129 Earthquakes: their origin — 95; occur more in sulfurous than other places — 96 Waste always exceeds substance — 222 Exhalations: their origin — 96 Haste comes from the Devil — 172

F. The lazy do not attain the Hermetic art — 241 The firmament was created on the second day — 5; God called it heaven — ibid. Fire is concealed in water — 9; cannot endure without air — 28; that which consumed Job’s sheep and servants was not true fire — 21 G. Prayer is necessary to the Hermetic art — 189 Distilled waters that lose taste, smell, and colour through age retain only phlegm — 23 Patience is required for the art — 189 The spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 is created, not God the Holy Spirit — 44, 51 Generation does not occur without union — 197 Taste, smell, and colour are the soul and quintessence of all things — 22 Waters were created first of all — 5

Preparing glass that can be stretched and hammered — 184 True gold still in its growing root is found only in the elements — 32; once it reaches its limit it cannot be raised higher — 143; is subject neither to corruption nor putrefaction — 144 God is the true eternal mover and principle of motion and rest in all animate things — 48; created everything through his eternal subsistent Word — 26; acts through nothing except his Word — ibid. H. Helvetius, On the Golden Calf — 167 The Hermetic art imitates creation — 3; Hermetic philosophy consists of practice and theory — ibid. The heavens will be transformed into crystalline clarity and spiritual being — 229; will become immovable — 230

The human being is twofold — 220; the earthly human being consists of substance and wastes — 221; is God’s image by imitation — 227 Theophrastus’s homunculi and their generation outside the womb are lies — 195, 198 I. Fire cannot exist without a subject — 213 Jurisprudence is not a science — 58 K. King of all mysteries — 179 The chymical art was better known among Jews than other nations — 201; does not come from the Devil — 190 The practitioner should possess sufficient means — 193 L. The Philosophers’ Stone, after the human soul, is the noblest and most perfect thing on earth — 143, 168; nobler than gold — ibid. Where there is no life, no killing can occur — 194

Air arose from water — 8; is in itself nothing other than the subtlest water — 9; penetrates all substantial parts — 27; all living and growing things stir and move in it — ibid. Light is an accident — 206, 207; is a body — 216 M. There are different ways to accomplish the philosophical magistery — 108; it cannot be perfected with only one of the two principles — 198 Crude matter must be distinguished from matter separated from superfluities — 151 May dew is not the subject of the Hermetic art — 164; can greatly help in hot diseases — 165 Seawater yields no universal medicine — 161

Mercury is not without Sulfur and Salt — 35; is air — 87; receives into itself only what is homogeneous with its essence — 220; ordinary mercury cannot relinquish its volatility — 147; concentrated Mercury: its source — 178 Ordinary metals are dead — 149 Metals have no particular seed — 81; arise from the elements — ibid.; all have one origin — 111; how they are generated — 114; arise from water — 124 N. Nature: what it is — 59; was created first by God — ibid.; is the subject in which God acts — 63; should be learned from Holy Scripture — 71; is immutable — 76; preserves its order precisely and inviolably in God’s Word — 77

Nature’s time — 169; can be improved by art — 165; how — 77; pagan Nature is a mere fiction — 25; whoever knows nature has found the chief key to the foremost sciences and greatest mysteries — 56 Nature preserves her laws — 8 Helmont’s nymph — 176 P. Sin adheres to the accidental part of the human being — 221 Without God’s Word, philosophy is mere foolery, folly, and senselessness — 73 A philosopher must utter no falsehood — 194; must expose whoever does so — ibid. Philosophical principles: what they are — 85; must be drawn from one single subject — 90 Privation presupposes possession — 144 Proofs must be conclusive — 213

R. Rain causes grass to grow — 15 Rainwater is artfully made in respect of efficient cause — 17; formal cause and origin — 18; form and quality — 19; is thin, subtle, and transparent — ibid.; sweet and pleasant — ibid.; if salty, foul-smelling, red, or many-coloured, is either punishment or a miraculous sign — 19, 20; is spiritual and simple — 20; contains all colours — 21; resides in the air — 26; is closely related to the subject of the Hermetic art — 78; can yield a universal medicine — 4; a splendid and exceedingly subtle spirit — 23; also a spiritual oil and salt — 24

Fire management and weight are the two foremost points in chymical practice — 112 There is no return in nature — 144 Holy Scripture is religion’s rule — 72; without religion philosophy is folly and senselessness — ibid. Particular things cannot in practice be resolved into prime matter — 11 S. Solomon knew the art of making gold — 201 Salt is an earth — 86; is not without Mercury and Sulfur — 35; Philosophers’ Salt — 181, 182 Schamaiim in Genesis 1 means the waters — 5 There are two kinds of separation — 32 Creation should be learned from Holy Scripture — 71 Weight comes from water — 142 The soul is propagated, not created — 196 Opinions must be weighed, not counted — 51 Silver, after gold, is the purest and noblest metal — 113