Alembic

Meaning

II.1.7 compares condensation within the earth to the gathering of liquid in an alembic head. The comparison helps explain how a rising mixed vapour takes a watery form through passages in the earth. Earth is not thereby identified as a literal constructed alembic, and the likeness does not specify a material that the reader could collect by reproducing the apparatus. The stated condition is distance from the central hearth: vapour meets the infused air and earth farther from its source of heat, as vapour liquefies in the alembic head.

The name also needs the later operational control: II.3.33 classifies what an alembic does under sublimation, while reserving a watery sense of distillation for pouring or filtering. Familiarity with the apparatus must not lead a reader to override that local terminology. Here its primary role is an image of condensation and embodiment, not a complete technical instruction.