The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

62The material intermediates of the stone are of different degrees, for they are drawn successively from one another. The first are philosophically sublimated mercury and perfect metals. Although the metals are extremes in nature's work, they are counted as intermediates in the philosophical work. From these first intermediates the second are drawn, namely the four elements, which are circulated and fixed in turn. From the second the third are produced, namely both sulphurs, whose multiplication completes the first work. The fourth and last intermediates are ferments or unguents, produced successively in the work of the elixir from a proportioned mixture of the things just mentioned. Through the right governance of all these the perfect elixir is finally created, the highest limit of the entire work. In it the philosophers' stone rests as in its centre, and its multiplication is nothing other than a brief repetition of the preceding operations.