I am a Goddesse (saith hee, speaking in the person of Nature) for Beauty and Extraction famous, born out of our own proper Sea, which compasseth the whole Earth, and is ever restlesse. Out of my Breasts I poure forth Milk and Bloud; Boyle these two, till they are turned into Silver and Gold. O most excellent Subject! out of which all things in this world are generated, though at the first sight thou art Poyson, adorn'd with the name of the flying Eagle. Thou art the first Matter, the seed of Divine Benediction, in whose Body there is Heat and Rain, which notwithstanding are hidden from the wicked, because of thy Habit, and virgin vestures which is scatter'd over all the world. Thy Parents are the Sun and Moone, in Thee there is Water and Wine, Gold also and Silver upon Earth, that mortall man may rejoyce. After this manner God sends us his Blessing and Wisdome with Raine, and the Beams of the Sun, to the eternall Glory of his Name. But consider ô Man, what Things God bestows upon thee by this means. Torture the Eagle till shee weeps, and the Lion bee weakened, and bleed to death. The Bloud of this Lion incorporated with the Teares of the Eagle, is the Treasure of the Earth. These Creatures use to devoure and kill one another, but notwithstanding their love is mutuall, and they put on the

Proprietie, and Nature of a Salamander, which, if it remains in the fire without any detriment it cures all the Diseases of Men, Beasts and Metals. After that the Ancient Philosophers had perfectly understood this Subject, they diligently sought in this Mysterie for the Center of the Middlemost Tree in the Terrestrial Paradyse, entring in by Five litigious Gates. The first Gate was the Knowledge of the true Matter, and here arose the first, and that a most bitter Conflict. The second was the Praeparation by which this matter was to bee praepared, that they might obtain the Embers of the Eagle, and the Bloud of the Lyon. At this Gate there is a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and bloud, and a Spirituall bright Body. The Third Gate is the Fire, which conduceth to the Maturitie of the Medicine. The Fourth Gate is that of Multiplication and Augmentation in which Proportions and Weights are Necessarie. The fifth and last Gate is Projection. But most glorious, full rich, and high is hee who attains to the fourth Gate, for hee hath got an Universall Medicine for all Diseases. This is that great Character of the Book of Nature, out of which her whole Alphabet doth arise.

The fifth gate serves onely for Metals. This Mysterie existing from the Foundation of the World, and the Creation of Adam is of all others the most ancient, a knowledge which God Almighty by his Word breathed into Nature, a miraculous power, the blessed fire of Life, the Transparent Carbuncle, and red Gold of the Wise men, and the Divine Benediction of this life. But this mysterie, because of the Malice and wickednesse of men, is given onely to few, notwithstanding it lives, and moves every day in the sight of the whole world, as it appears by the following parable. I am a poysonous Dragon, present every where, and to bee had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve and Compound; out of my body thou shalt draw the Green, and the Red Lyon: but if thou doest not exactly know mee, thou wilt with my Fire destroy thy five Senses. A most pernieious quick poyson comes out of my Nostrils, which hath been the Destruction of many. Separate therefore the Thick from the Thin artificially, unlesse thou dost delight in extreme Povertie. I give thee faculties both Male and Female and the Powers both of Heaven and Earth. The Mysteries of my Art are to bee performed magnanimously, and with great

Courage, if thou wouldest have mee overcome the Violence of the Fire, in which Attempt many have lost both their Labour and their Substance. I am the Egg of Nature known onely to the Wise, such as are pious and modest, who make of mee a little world. Ordain'd I was by the All-mighty God for men, but (though many desire mee) I am given onely to few that they may relieve the poore with my Treasures, and not set their mindes on Gold that perisheth. I am call'd of the Philosophers Mercurie: my husband is Gold (Philosophicall.) I am the old Dragon that is present every where on the face of the Earth; I am Father and Mother; Youthfull and Ancient; weak and yet most strong; Life and Death; Visible and Invisible; Hard and Soft; Descending to the Earth and Ascending to the Heavens; most high and most low; light and heavy; In mee the Order of Nature is oftentimes inverted, in Colour, Number, Weight and Measure. I have in mee the light of Nature, I am dark and bright, I spring from the Earth, and I come out of Heaven, I am well known, and yet a meer Nothing, all Colours shine in mee, and all Metals by the Beams of the Sun. I am

the Carbuncle of the Sun, a most noble clarified Earth by which thou mayest turne Copper, Iron, Tin, and Lead into most pure Gold.

Now Gentlemen you may see which way the Philosophers move, they commend their Secret water, and I admire the Teares of Hyanthe. There is something in the Fansie besides Poetrie, for my Mistris is very Philosophicall, and in her Love a pure Platonic. But now I think upon't, how many Rivals shall I procure by this Discourse? Every Reader will fall to, and some fine Thing may break her heart with Non-sense. This Love indeed were meer Luck, but for my part I dare trust her, and lest any man should mistake her for some things formerly named, I will tell you truly what shee is; She is not any known water whatsoever, but a Secret Spermatic Moysture, or rather the Venus that yeelds that moysture. Therefore doe not you Imagine that shee is any crude, phlegmatic, thin water, or shee is a fatt, thick, heavie, slimie humiditie; But lest you should think I am grown jealous, and would not trust you with my Mistris, Arnoldus de villanova shall speak for me, hear him. Ampliùs

tibi dico, quod nullo modo invenire potuimus, nec similiter invenire potuerunt Philosophi, aliquam rem perseverantem in igne, nisi solam unctuosam Humiditatem. Aqueam humiditatem videmus de facili evaporare, Arida remanet, & ideo separantur, quia non sunt Naturales. Si autem eas humiditates consydereremus, quae difficulter separantur ab his quae sunt Naturales, non invenimus aliquas nisi unctuosas, & viscosas. I tell thee further (saith hee) that wee could not possibly find, neither could the Philosophers find before us, any thing that would persist in the fire, but onely the Unctuous Humiditie. A waterie Humiditie, we see, will easily vapour away, and the Earth remains behind and the parts are therefore separated because their Composition is not natural. But if wee consider those humidities, which are hardly separated from those parts which are naturall to them, wee find not any such but the unctuous, viscous Humidities. It will be expected perhaps by some Flint, and Antimonie-Doctors, who make their Philosophicall Contrition with a Hammer, that I should discover this Thing out-right and not suffer this strange Bird-lime to hold their pride by the Plumes. To these, I say, it is water of Silver, which some have called water of the Moon, but 'tis Mercurie of the Sun, and partly of Saturn,

for it is extracted from these three metalls, and without them it can never bee made. Now they may unriddle, and tell me what it is, for it is Truth, if they can understand it.