If this saying be taken literally, it onelyonly increasethincreases the quality of fire and Mer=
cury, and introducethintroduces noeno new quality in the subject: for every like being added
to its like makes a similar augmentation: and therefore PhysitiansPhysicians affirmeaffirm -
that contrary diseases are cured and taken away by contrary medicines, -
soeso weewe see that fire is extinguished by water, but sustained by adding
fire: The Poet is of the same opinion saying: Venus ragethrages in wine, fire in
fire: but it may be answered, that fire and fire, Mercury and Mercury are
very different one from another: for there are many kinds of fires with the
Philosophers, many allsoalso of Mercury: Moreover the same heat and cold -
being distant onelyonly in place or situation, differs from another of its owneown -
kind, soeso as to attract to it that which is like to itselfeitself, that heat fixed in -
any part is attracted and drawnedrawn forth by the same heat, and that the -
joyntsjoints being stupefydstupefied with the cold of winter, and allmostalmost dead with cold
water, are restored if they be put into it, not by externallexternal heat iḿediatelyimmediately
administredadministered: as indeed a greater light obscures the lesseless, soeso allsoalso greater heat the
lesseless, and greater cold the lesseless: neverthelessenevertheless it is requisite for the externallexternal
heat and cold to be lesseless, than that which was before fixed or imprinted on the
parts or joyntsjoints, otherwise the same impression would be made, as before, and -
the like would be much more increased, than drawnedrawn out, by the like: for -
the drawing out of cold by cold water, and of fiery heat by heat is agreableagreeable to
nature, because every sudden mutation into a contrary is dangerous to it, and -
lesseless acceptable, but that which is by little and little, and as it were by degrees
is tolerable: soeso weewe say, there is one internallinternal fire, and is allreadyalready infixed -
and essentiallessential in the PhilosophicallPhilosophical subject, another externallexternal, which may
allsoalso be understood of Mercury: that is an internallinternal fire æquivocallyequivocally because
of its fiery qualities, virtues, and operations, externallexternal univocally: ExternallExternal fire
therefore must be given to the internallinternal, and the like Mercury to Mercury, -
that the intention of the art may be completed: To mollify or mature any -
hard or crude thing by coction, weewe use fire and water: for water dissolves -
hardnessehardness, and penetrates into the compact parts, heat adding strength and -
motion to it; as appears by example in the coction of Peas, which are of
themselves sound and hard, but doedo swell, are broken, and reduced to a -
pulpepulp by water, the heat of fire rarefying the water by ebullition, and
making it of a more thinnethin or allmostalmost airy substance: SoeSo the heat of
fire resolves the crude parts of fruit or flesh into water, and causethcauses them
to evaporate with it into aireair: after the same manner fire and Mercury
here are fire and water, and the same, fire and Mercury are the mature
and crude parts,

of which the crude are to be matured by coction, or the
mature purged from superfluityessuperfluities by the ministery of fire and water: -
Now that these are two fires, and two MercuryesMercuries principally and solely ne=
cessary to the art, weewe will here breifelybriefly demonstrate: Empedocles deter=
mined two principles of all things, love, and variance, or freindshipfriendship and dis=
cord: that by variance corruptions were made, generations by love: such vari=
ance is manifestly beheld between fire and water, fire causing water to eva=
porate, if it can, water on the contrary extinguishing fire, if admitted to it: -
but for all that it is conspicuous that generations may be made of the same -
with some certainecertain freindshipfriendship; for by heat a new generation of aireair is made
of water, and by the same the induration of water into a stone, and soeso
out of these two Elements as it were the first are made allsoalso the other two, -
and by consequence the production of all things: Water was the matter -
of heaven, and of all corporallcorporal things: Fire, as the formeform, moves and in=
forms this matter; soeso this water or Mercury yeildsyields the matter, and fire -
or Sulphur, the formeform: which two, that they may come to operation, and
move themselves mutually by solution, coagulation, alteration, tinction,
and perfection, have need of externallexternal helps, as instruments, without -*
which noeno effect could follow: For as a Smith effects nothing without -
hammer and fire, soeso neither the Philosopher without his instruments, -
which are water and fire: And this water is called by some the water of -
clouds, as this fire occasioned fire: It is without doubt calldcalled the water of
clouds, because it is distillddistilled, as the dew of May, of most thinnethin parts: for -
as the dew of the saydsaid monethmonth being included in an eggshell is affirmed to
rayseraise the eggeegg, or its continent, high by the heat of the SunneSun, soeso allsoalso
this water of the clouds, or dew makes the Philosophers eggeegg ascend, that
is, sublimes, exalts, and perfects it: The same water is allsoalso most Sharp -
vinegar, which hathhas made a body a mere Spirit: for as vinegar is of dif=
ferent qualityesqualities, namely to penetrate to the bottomebottom, and astringe, soeso
this water dissolves and coagulates, but is not coagulated, because it is -
not of a proper subject: Now this water is had from the fountainefountain of -
Parnassus, which contrary to the nature of other fountains is at the top -
of* a mountainemountain, made by the hoofehoof of the flying horse Pegasus. -
There must allsoalso be actuallactual fire, which notwithstanding must be go=
verned and qualifyedqualified by its degrees, as by bridles. For as the SunneSun -
procedingproceeding from Aries into Leo gradually increasethincreases heat to things -
growing, by approaching allwayesalways nearer, soeso is it here necessary to be
done: for the Philosophers infant must be nourished by fire, as milkemilk,
the more heehe growesgrows, the more fruitfullfruitful . . . . . . . .