Distinguish pure from impure

Meaning

The conclusion defines true nature-conforming alchemy first by learning to recognize and distinguish bad or impure from good or pure. Recognition precedes assistance: only through such discrimination can weak or damaged Nature be helped. This is not simply an instruction to separate visible dirt. The paired verbs include an act of judgment about what is suitable and beneficial. Ripening fruit and multiplying seed then illustrate the kind of furtherance intended. The English retains both “recognise” and “distinguish,” and the contrast with costly false arch-alchemy makes clear that expensive apparatus or promises of gold cannot substitute for this understanding.