Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici

This triple or supreme universal Mercury is therefore the first seed of all metals, as of the other two kinds. It coagulates and hardens little by little through the action of the continuous heat within the mines, and receives the tincture when perfectly purified. But it takes on specific character in different kinds, and assumes different forms and colours according to the place and adjacent matter, making metals, minerals and stones within the earth, and every sort of tree and plant upon its surface, according as it is animated by the sun’s rays. Without them it would remain incapable of generation. For from the beginning Nature established this law: that the sun should perpetually heat and nourish matter, so that its threefold power, animal, vegetable and mineral, should continually be turned and brought into effect. And that is why Hermes writes that the sun is its father.