Essais chimiques d’eckartshausen

On the Fundamental Separation of Metals

1

Our Sulfur of nature is the universal salvation, the key to the interior of nature⁴.

2

By this key, the bodies are opened, to receive: the terra virginea⁵.

3

This terra virginea, this substance of nature is the fixed substratum, just as the sulfur of nature is the volatile. The sulfur of nature is the higher center; the substance of nature, the lower.

These two must be brought together, and this is what art consists of.

1 °. - Separate the principles of the body;

2 °. -- Purify these principles;

There are countless paths in the art, and countless subjects where the principles can be extracted, but the shortest paths are the best⁶.

Do not be led astray by all the methods by which some have obtained, in the most tiring manner, these two fundamental stones or matters.

You know the sulfur of nature or the volatile stone. That's enough. By this you will get the fixed body or the terram virgineam⁷. You don't need to know more than to use these principles.

Nature's sulfur is the volatile earth that hovers above our heads.

The substance of nature is dry water which does not wet the hands; both are matter, but in two different forms.

3. 
   One could understand here by "sulfur of nature" the Fire-water distinct from the hidden sulfur of metals, which is not however heterogeneous.
   
4. 
   This “terra virginea” comes from the “subjectum artis”, prepared philosophically in order to develop its attractive faculty which will be exerted on the sulfur of nature ”. Compare what the author said, a few pages above, on the passage from the universal to the stone.
   
5. 
   Among the substances from which the scientific inquisitor can suppose to choose or extract the elements of the work, very few will meet his expectations. If he works without firm principles or according to erroneous principles, disappointments - useful, however, if he knows how to take advantage of them - will not be spared him. In any case, let him beware of the dangerous temptation to work on vulgar mercury.
   
6. 
   In other words, our starry Virgo.
   

Our material is, therefore:

single, double, triple and quadruple, 10
and, for this reason, universal.

It is single, because the Superior and the Inner are united in it; the radical Moisture of nature, in which the Sulfur of nature and the Substance of nature combine.

It is double, considered as sulfur of nature or higher principle, and as substance of nature or lower principle: as form and matter.

It is threefold, containing the Spirit, the Groin and the Body, or: strength, organ and form.

It is quadruple because it contains a fixed humidity and a fixed dryness - or the four elements

Fixed humidity, without water

Fixed drought, without earth,
Volatile humidity, without air,
Volatile drought, without fire.
And this is what the true knowledge of universal matter consists of. By these properties alone it is universal. In this matter, all terrestrial power is included; alone, this power must be developed and implemented.

You should know that the Ancients looked for this earth in different bodies, then they calcined it over a high fire and in this way obtained the natural sulfur that they then exposed to the air, in order to obtain our Acid⁸.

The white earth and our sulfur are therefore the same matter and its solvent must be dissolved again with it, since it differs from it simply by the proportion and the digestion, their relations being those of the extensum to the concreto.

When therefore the wet earth⁹ or the Sulfur-Phosphorus, is united with our dry water or natural substance (terra virginea), the result is the Rebis of the Ancients, that is to say two things in one.

When we project a sufficient portion of phosphoric acid into our earth and dissolve it, this solution is called mercurius duplicatus.

3. 
   Here the Dry Way and the Wet Way branch off.
   

The partially exposed process requires delicate adaptation. D'Eckartshausen returns to this in the chapter entitled Principles for a Philosophical Work.

3. 
   “Die nasse erde”; expression not to be taken literally.
   

The perfection of the work consists in uniting the heavenly Spirit with matter; this Spirit resides in our Sulfur of nature, and it is apprehended by the earth.

In the sulfur of nature are the elements; in the terra virginea, the elements closest to generation (proxima ad generationem).

In this Sulfur is the real entity (entia realia) of minerals, -but the internal force moves the external and determines it morphologically.

Only the Universal must be determined, either in metal or in any other body, and in this determination consists the practical teaching of the production of metals.

Man can act, through the Universal, only on what is already created presently; specify its' Universal, at will, in what is created. To create is the property of Divinity alone, for all that was to be created is already there. Man can therefore only specify.

Our white earth is transformed nature or natura naturata; our sulfur is transforming nature. To unite them one to the other, that is the science!

This white earth is the first visible and graspable substance created by God; it always appears in white form. The ancients said: Omnia in manu Dei a / ~ a sunt. ut ab ipso tingi poissant¹⁰. (All things in the hand of God. To be tinged by his power.)

This white earth resides within everything; it is the tabernacle of the sun. It is not necessary to prepare it. When we have the universal key of nature, we can open any body and extract the internal.