The Summary of Physics Restored

49Nature has left us a certain specimen of that ancient confused mass, or first matter, in a dry water that does not wet. Springing from the earth's cavities or even from lakes, it flows forth pregnant with the manifold seed of things, wholly volatile under even the slightest heat. Whoever knows how to draw out its inward elements once it is coupled with its male, skilfully separate them and join them again may boast that he has attained nature and art's most precious secret, indeed a compendium of heavenly essence.