First, second and third matter

Use in the book

Core treatises and preliminaries. In Chapter III the first matter of metals is twofold: warm aerial moisture called Mercury and the earth’s dry heat called sulphur. In Chapter IV the merely initial moist vapour is not what practitioners should try to recover by endless dissolution. They should seek second matter, already conceived into a determinate form. Chapter VI calls the multiplying seed second matter and reserves the hidden first source to nature and God.

Chapter VII then calls the plant, animal or human being first matter in its respective illustrative kingdom, with its reproductive seed second matter. This is an explanatory reorientation, not an invitation to collapse a tree, cosmic vapour and Mercury into one substance. The epilogue’s third matter names an unproductive field of work outside the one salt, with qualified exceptions for the author’s Sol and Luna.

Treatise of Sulphur. The fire chapter says that the Creator supplies first matter and the philosopher second matter. The principles chapter, addressing metals, calls sulphur and mercury proximate matter and the four elements remote matter, while also insisting on all three principles. Later quicksilver is named the first matter of this work. These uses need not denote a single item with contradictory origins: the relevant work and level of explanation change.

The alchemist’s assumption that common sulphur must be first matter is exposed by his failures. The author also distinguishes the commonly named matter from which philosophical mercury is made from philosophical mercury itself, which is produced through art. Thus neither “common” nor “first” licenses identification from a bare name. Knowledge of natural origin, intermediate stages and proper kingdom remains necessary.

Places to read

1. Treatise III · Passage 1LatinPrima metallorum materia duplex est: Two jointly necessary aspects open the metallic account.
2. Treatise IV · Passage 1Latinnon prima sed secunda tantum quaeratur materia: The proper artistic target is contrasted with reduction to initial vapour.
3. Treatise VI · Passage 5Latinsperma multiplicativum esse materiam secundam: The multiplying seed is expressly second matter.
4. Treatise VII · Passage 1Latinprima materia est herba vel arbor: The kingdom example gives first matter a different immediate referent.
5. Epilogue · Passage 8LatinSi in tertia materia operatus fueris nil efficies: Third matter belongs to the exclusionary conclusion, not a complete universal three-stage scheme.
6. Sulphur · Fire · Passage 7LatinPrima materia a Creatore, secunda a Philosopho: Matter is distinguished by the supplier and explanatory level.
7. Sulphur · The Three Principles · Passage 4LatinDuplex enim est materia metallorum: Proximate and remote matter concern metals.
8. Sulphur · The Three Principles · Passage 13Latinargentum vivum materiam primam istius operis esse: The qualification “of this work” fixes the later claim’s scope.

Translation in this edition

Core treatises and preliminaries. First/second matter should be read as source-specific relations rather than automatically equated with a later philosophical system. The author himself acknowledges apparently contradictory formulations in the epilogue.

Treatise of Sulphur. The English preserves local qualifications such as “of metals” and “of this work.” The three-principle/two-proximate-material wording is retained rather than silently harmonized.