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The Mirror of Alchimy

Chapter 24: CHAP. XI. That this worke imitateth the Creation of the worlde.
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About This Book

A compilation of alchemical treatises sets out definitions of the art, explains its two basic principles—mercurial and sulfurous substances—and presents a theory of how metals arise and aspire toward gold. It offers procedural guidance for selecting and preparing the matter for a philosopher’s stone or elixir, includes commentary on the Smaragdine Table and allied aphorisms, and contains a discursive essay on the relation between art and nature alongside practical chapters on laboratory operations such as decoction, fixation, purification, and methods for transmutation.

CHAP. XI.
That this worke imitateth the Creation of the worlde.

HE giueth vs also an example of the composition of his Stone, saying, So was the world created. That is, like as the world was created, so is our stone composed. For in the beginning, the whole world and all that is therein, was a confused Masse or Chaos (as is aboue saide) but afterward by the workemanship of the soueraigne Creator, this masse was diuided into the foure elements, wonderfully separated and rectified, through which separation, diuers things were created: so likewise may diuers things bee made by ordering our worke, through the separation of the diuers elemẽts frõ diuers bodies. Here shal be wonderfull adaptations: that is, If thou shalt separate the elements, there shall be admirable compositions, fitte for our worke in the composition of our Stone, by the elements rectified: Wherof, to wit, of which wonderfull things fit for this: the meanes, to wit, to proceede by, is here.