@



Réfer. : AL2401Y
Auteur : Flamell, Nicholas.
Titre : A short tract.
S/titre : Or Philosophical Summary.

Editeur : J. Elliot and Co., London.
Date éd. : 1893 .
@


A SHORT TRACT,
OR
PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY
------- By NICHOLAS FLAMELL. -------
H E that would understand the whole subject of metals, and how they are transmuted one into another, ought first to find an answer to the question, from what substance they spring, and how they are formed in their ores. For this purpose he must observe the
changes that are continually going forward in the mineral veins
of the earth. Hence they may be made subject to transmutation
outside of their ores if they are first made spiritual, so that they
may be reduced to their sulphur and mercury, which is performed
by Nature. Now all metals have been formed out of sulphur
and quicksilver, which are the seeds of all metals, the one
representing the male, and the other the female principle.
These two varieties of seed are, of course, composed of elementary
substances; the sulphur, or male seed, being nothing but fire and

@

142 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
air (i.e., good sulphur, resembling fire, free from the mutable
properties of metals, and not that common sulphur which is
not a metallic substance at all); while the quicksilver, or female
seed, is nothing but earth and water. These two seeds were
figuratively represented by the ancient Sages under the forms of
two dragons, or serpents, one of which had wings, while the
other had none. The wingless dragon is sulphur, because it
never flies away from the fire. The winged serpent is quicksilver
which is borne away through the air (the female seed, which is
composed of water and earth) -- because in a certain degree it
flies away or evaporates. Now, if these two seeds, separated
one from another, are united spermatically by triumphant Nature,
in the book of Mercury, the first mother of metals, the Sages
call the substance that results, the flying dragon, because this
dragon, being kindled with its fire, in its flight pours abroad
into the air fire and a poisonous vapour. The same happens
to mercury, which, if placed in a vessel over an ordinary fire,
has its internal, hidden fire kindled; and then you may see how
the outward vegetable fire kindles the inward natural fire of
mercury. You will notice that it exhales into the air a
certain poisonous fume or vapour, the stench of which is
such as to prove that it is nothing but the head of the dragon
which is leaving Babylon in great haste, even the philosophical
Babylon which is encompassed by a double or treble vessel.
Other Sages have likened this Mercury to a flying Lion, because the Lion devours other animals, and refreshes and
strengthens himself at will with the blood of all animals except
those which have power to resist his rage -- and because mercury,
too, is known to deprive other metals of their specific form,
and to absorb and incorporate them. Gold and silver, however,
are strong enough to resist its violence; although it is well-known
that mercury, when exposed to an exceptional degree of heat,
devours and swallows even these two metals. Yet neither of
them is changed into the nature of the mercury, howbeit, they
are enclosed in its womb; for gold and silver are more permanent
and more perfect than crude mercury, this being an
imperfect metal, notwithstanding that there is in it the substance
of perfection. Common gold, which is a perfect metal, and
silver, and all the imperfect metals, are developed out of

@

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 143
mercury. For this reason, the ancient Sages have called it the
Mother of the Metals, and hence, being itself a metal, it must
contain a two-fold metallic substance, namely, the inner substance
of the Moon, and that of the Sun (which is unlike the
other). Of these two substances mercury is formed, and they
are cherished in its body in the form of spiritual essences. Now,
as soon as Nature has formed that mercury of these two spirits,
she strives to transmute them into a perfect bodily form; and
therefore, when those two spirits have grown up, and their two
varieties of seed awake, they desire to assume their own proper
bodies; and then the Mother, mercury, must die, and having
died a natural death, can never be quickened any more into that
which it was previously.
Vainglorious and arrogant Alchemists have obscurely hinted that perfect and imperfect bodies must be transmuted
into fluid mercury, but this assertion is only a trap for the unwary.
lt is true that mercury consumes imperfect metals, like
lead and tin, and thus increases in quantity; but, by doing so,
it loses its perfection, and is no longer the mercury that it was
before. If, indeed, it could be so mortified by a chemical
process as to shut out all hope of its ever quickening itself again,
it would be changed into something else, as happens with cinnabar,
or in sublimate. But, when it is coagulated by a chemical
process, whether by a swift or a slow method, its two bodies do
not assume a permanent form. By the natural process this
coagulation is indeed successfully carried out; and thus we never
find a vein of lead, for instance, which does not contain a few permanent
grains, at least, of gold and silver. The first coagulation
of mercury is lead, which is most suitable for fixing it, and
bringing it to perfection. For lead is never without some fixed
grain of gold and silver, which are impacted to it by Nature for
the purpose of multiplication and development, as I myself
have experienced, and am able to testify. So long as it is in
its mercury, and not separated from its mineral, it can continue
to increase its substance from the substance of its mercury.
But if this fixed grain is taken away, and severed from its
mercury (or the mineral in which it is found), it can no longer
gain in size. It is with this grain as with the green fruit that
is formed on a tree when the blossom has been shed. If it is

@

144 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
plucked off before it is ripe, it can come to nothing. If it is
left on the tree, it is nourished and increased by the sap and the
juice of the parent stem, and thus gradually attains to its proper
size, and to maturity. But, until ripeness has been attained, the
fruit continues to attract to itself the sap and juice of the tree,
that is to say, so long as the connection with the parent tree is
not severed.
Almost the same thing happens with gold. Such a grain attracts to itself the mercury of the lead, and incessantly " fixes "
it into its own mercury, whereby it grows and gradually increases
in size. The mercury of perfect or imperfect metals is the parent
tree, and the grain (of gold) can be nourished with nothing but
this mercury. But as soon as you sever the connection with the
parent mercury, that growth of the grain must immediately come
to an end; it is as though the unripe fruit had been plucked
from the tree: you would vainly endeavour to restore the vital
connexion. When you have once removed an unripe pear or
apple from its native branch, it would be foolish indeed to join
it to the tree once more, and expect it to ripen. Instead of
growing, it will gradually shrivel up, and become smaller. The
same thing may be observed in the case of the metals. For if
any one were to take common metallic gold and silver, and tried
to resolve those metals into mercury, he would be doing a very
foolish thing. It is a result which cannot be brought about by
any chemical process, however subtle and ingenious, just as fruit
which has once been plucked in an unripe state can never again
be vitally joined to the parent tree. It has, indeed, been well
said by the Sages that if gold and silver be joined together
through their proper mercury, they have power to render all
other (imperfect) metals perfect. But these Sages did not speak
of common gold and silver, which must always remain what they
are, can never become anything else, and certainly cannot aid the
development of other metals. It is fruit that has been plucked
before the time, and therefore is dead and withered. No, the
living fruit (the real living gold and silver) we must seek on the
tree; for only there can it grow, and increase in size, according
to the possibilities of its nature. This tree we must transplant,
without gathering its fruit, into a better and richer soil, and to
a sunnier spot. Then its fruit will receive more nourishment in

@

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 145
a single day than it was wont to receive in a hundred years,
while it was still in its former sterile soil.
I wish you to understand that Mercury, which is a most excellent tree, and contains silver and gold in an indissoluble
form, must be taken and transplanted into a soil that is nearer
to the Sun (i.e., in this case, gold), where it may flourish exceedingly,
and be abundantly watered. Where it was planted
before, it was so shaken and weakened by the wind and the
frost, that but little fruit could be expected from it. So there it
remained a long time, and bore no fruit.
But in the garden of the Sages, the Sun sheds its genial influence both morning and evening, day and night, unceasingly.
There our tree is watered with the rarest dew, and
the fruit which hangs upon the trees swells and ripens and
expands, from day to day. It never withers, but makes more
progress in one year than it did in a thousand years in its
former sterile situation. Or, to drop metaphor, let the mercury
be taken, and warmed day and night in an alembic over a
gentle fire. Yet it should not be a coal or a wood fire, but
a clear and pellucid heat, like that of the Sun itself -- a gentle
and even warmth. Growing fruit must not be exposed `to too
much heat, or else it is withered, and shrivelled up, and is
never brought to perfection. It must have a genial warmth,
and be supported by a moderate moisture in the tree, if it is
to flourish and expand. For heat and moisture are the food
of all earthly things, both animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Ordinary coal or wood fires are too violent for our purpose,
and give no nourishment like the heat of the Sun which preserves
all bodies through its natural influences. For this
reason the Sages use none but this natural fire, not because
it is made by the Sages, but because it is made by Nature --
Nature, that creates all things, whether they be animal, vegetable,
or mineral, and warms them, each at its own proper
degree.
Therefore, I will not say that man by his art can make natural things; but I do say that human art can impart
greater perfection to that which Nature makes. For this
purpose the ancient Sages have had but one object in
view, namely, to produce from the moon and the true mother

@

146 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
mercury, the mercury of the philosophers, which in its operation
is much more potent than natural mercury, and is
useful for working upon simple, perfect, imperfect, cold,
and warm metals. Now, the Philosophical Stone is good
for perfect and imperfect metals, and soon restores
and brings them to perfection without any diminution,
addition, or real change of any kind. For, apart from perfecting
them, it leaves them in the state in which they were before.
I do not say that the Sages combine common gold, silver, and
mercury for this purpose: this is the method only of ignorant
charlatans, who thereby hope to prepare the mercury of the
Sages; but they never succeed in producing this, the real first
substance of the Stone. If they would obtain it they must go
to the seventh mountain, where there is no plain, and from
its height they must look down upon the sixth, which they will
behold at a great distance. On the summit of that mountain
they will find the glorious Regal Herb, which some Sages call
a mineral, some a vegetable. The bones they must leave, and
only extract its pure juice, which will enable them to do the
better part of the work. This is the true and subtle mercury
of the philosophers which you must take. Now, first it prepares
the white tincture, and then the red. For the Sun and Moon
are prepared by the same method, and yield the red and white
tincture respectively, and the preparation is so simple that it
might be seen to by a woman while she works at her spindle
-- just as she might set a hen on some eggs, without washing
them first, and without any other trouble but that of turning
the eggs every day that the chickens may break the shells
all the sooner. In like manner, you must not wash your
mercury, but only put it with its like (which is fire) into ashes
(corresponding to the straw), into one glass vessel (which is
the nest), in a suitable alembic (which is the house). If you
do this there will come out a chicken, that will deliver you
with its blood from all diseases, and feed you with its flesh,
and clothe you with its feathers, and shelter you from the cold.
Therefore, I pray and beseech the Creator of all things to
grant His grace to all faithful Alchemists, that they may find
the chicken, which, through God's unspeakable goodness and
mercy, has now been vouchsafed to me. I have written this

@

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 147
tract for your sakes, to encourage you, and point out to you
the right way: I hope and trust that my words will enable
you to understand more fully the works of other Sages.
Farewell!

===============