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.Alchemist: That is exactly what I do.Nature: No; you do nothing but cross me, and deal with my children against my will.Where you should revive youkill; where you should fix, you sublime; where you should calcine, you distil; and thus my obedient son Mercuryyou torment in the most fearful manner.Alchemist: Then I will in future deal with him gently, and subject him only to gradual coction.Nature: That is well, if you possess understanding; otherwise, you will ruin only yourself and your possessions.Ifyou act in opposition to my commands, you hurt yourself more than him.Alchemist: But how am I to make the Philosopher's Stone?Nature: That question does not justify your ill treatment of my son.Know that I have many sons and daughters, andthat I am swift to succour those who seek me, provided they are worthy.Alchemist: But who is that Mercury?Nature: Know that I have only one such son, he is one of seven, and the first among them; and though he is now allthings, he was at first only one.In him are the four elements, yet he is not an element.He is a spirit, yet he has abody; a man, yet he performs a woman's part: a boy, yet he bears a man's weapons; a beast, and yet he has the wingsof a bird.He is poison, yet he cures leprosy; life, yet he kills all things, a King, but another occupies his throne; heflees from the fire, yet fire is taken from him; he is water, but does not wet the hands; he is earth, and yet he is sown;he is air, and lives by water.Alchemist: Now I see that I know nothing; only I must not say so.For I should lose the good opinion of myneighbours, and they would no longer entrust me with money for my experiments.I must therefore go on saying thatI know everything; for there are many that expect me to do great things for them.Nature: But if you go on in that way, your neighbours will at last find you out, and demand their money back.Alchemist: I must amuse them with promises, as long as I can. Nature: And what then?Alchemist: I will try different experiments; and if they fail, I will go to some other country, and live the same lifethere.Nature: And then?Alchemist: Ha, ha, ha ! There are many countries, and many greedy persons who will suffer themselves to be gulledby my promises of mountains of gold.Thus day will follow day, and in the meantime the King or the donkey willdie, or I myself.Nature: Such philosophers are only fit for the gallows.Be off, and take with you my most grievouscurse.The best thing that you can do, is to give yourself up to the King's officers, who will quickly put an end to youand your philosophy!Sendivogius - The New Chemical LightConcerning Sulphur.[Transcribed by Jerry Bujas.]NEW CHEMICAL LIGHTSECOND PARTCONCERNING SULPHURThe Author's Anagram:Angelus Doce Mihi Jus (Angel, Teach me Right.)PREFACEAs I am not at liberty to write more plainly than the Ancient Sages, gentle Reader, you may possibly be dissatisfiedwith my Book, particularly as you have so many other philosophical treatises ready to your hand.But you may besure that no necessity is laid upon me to write at all, and that if I have come forward it is only out of love to you,having no expectation of personal profit, and no desire for empty glory, for which reason I here refrain, as I havebefore done, from revealing my identity to the public.I was under the impression that in the first part of this work Ihad already given a lucid account of our whole Art.But my friends tell me that there is one point with which I havenot yet fully dealt, and vehemently urge me to write this second treatise about Sulphur.The question is, whethereven this Book will convey any information to one before whom the writings of the Sages and the Open Book ofNature are exhibited in vain.For if you could incline your ear to the teaching of Nature you would at once be able toemancipate yourself from the tutelage of printed volumes; in my opinion it is better to learn from the master himselfthan from one of the disciples.In the preface to my twelve Treatises, and again in the twelfth chapter, I have already hinted at the reason why thereis now so great a multitude of books on this subject, that they confound and hinder the student instead of helpinghim.The confusion is rendered worse confounded by the ill-will of the Sages, who seem to have set pen to paper forthe express purpose of concealing their meaning; and by the carelessness with which some of the more importantvolumes are copied and printed; the sense of a whole passage is often hopelessly obscured by the addition oromission of one little word (e.g
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