ABSTRACT
Species, says Friar Bacon, are not transmuted, but their subject-matter rather,-Species non transmutantur, sed subjecta specierum optime et propriissime :-therefore the first work is to reduce the body into water, that is, into mercury, and this is called Solution, which is the foundation of the whole art.! And the first preparation and foundation of the Hermetic art, says the author of the Rosarium, is Solution and a reduction of the body into water, which is argent vive: for it is well known to artists that species cannot, as themselves, be transmuted, since they are not liable to sensible action and corruption; but the Subjects of species rather, since they are corruptible and may be changed: yet neither can the Subjects of species be transmuted, unless they are reduced first into their original matter, and made free to pass from one into another form. But this is not contrary to reason, because one form being expelled, another may be introduced, as is evident in rustic operations-as in the making of glass from 1 See Rogeri Bachonis Radix Mundi et Speculum AlchE'mire.
