Multiplication

Use in the book

The negative argument on page 71 groups vegetation, regeneration, more-than-perfection and multiplication as ends for which ordinary metallic solutions are insufficient. A product can be subtle, liquid or apparently quicksilver-like without thereby acquiring the generative power needed for this series. The shared requirement is the proper relation to first matter.

Page 75 makes multiplication an outcome of the metal’s new birth in its mother’s body. Page 91 then locates the promised increase in philosophical projection, where the regenerated silver or gold is said to beget fruits of its own kind from lower metals with the help of Art. This is the context in which the principle that like comes from like operates.

The second road on page 100 makes the sequence especially clear. The universal Stone first more-than-perfects metals by fermentation; those metals afterwards possess power to multiply themselves in a moment by projection upon lower metals. The suddenness belongs to the asserted action of the prepared agent, not to its entire preparation or to ordinary metallic growth.

The following pages explain the higher condition as one from which form and being can be imparted at the root. Within the doctrine, multiplication therefore presupposes transmutation rather than merely counting more pieces of an unchanged substance. Conversely, the useful separations and ripenings excluded on page 105 should not be redescribed as the multiplication of the Stone simply because they improve a precious-metal return.

The word marks one of the promised effects that makes more-than-perfection more than an emphatic adjective. It also shows how deeply the work’s agricultural vocabulary is qualified by the alleged powers of a prepared medicine.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 71Ordinary metallic liquors are denied sufficiency for multiplication and its prior conditions.
2. 1599 p. 75New birth is directed toward more-than-perfection and multiplication.
3. 1599 p. 91Projection is described as the artful production of like fruits from lower metals.
4. 1599 p. 100Fermentation precedes the metals’ instant multiplication in projection.
5. 1599 p. 102The higher state imparts form and being to lower metals.
6. 1599 p. 105Profitable separation and ripening are excluded from the universal-derived operations under discussion.

Translation in this edition

“Multiplication” should not imply a fixed yield, exponent or material balance supplied by the treatise. The text names neither quantity nor ratio. Its in momento describes an alleged sudden effect after preparation and should not be detached into a promise of instant manufacture.