ABSTRACT
Quicksilver is cold and moist, and God created all minerals with it, and it itself is aerial, and volatile in the fire. But since it withstands the fire for some time, it will do great and wonderful works, and it alone is a living spirit, and in all the world there is nothing like it that can do such things as it can . . . It is the perennial water, the water of life, the virgin's milk, the fount, the alumen,132 and [whoever] drinks of it shall not perish. When it is alive it does certain works, and when it is dead it does other and the greatest works. It is the serpent that rejoices in itself, impregnates itself, and gives birth in a single day, and slays all metals with its venom. It flees from the fire, but the sages by their art have caused it to withstand the fire, by nourishing it with its own earth until it endured the fire, and then it performs works and transmutations. As it is transmuted, so it transmutes. . . . It is found in all minerals and has a "symbolum" 133 with them all. But it arises midway between the earthly and the watery, or midway between [mediocriter]134 a subtle living oil and a very subtle spirit. From the watery part of the earth it has its weight and motion from above downwards, its brightness, fluidity, and silver hue. . . . But quicksilver is clearly seen to have a gross substance, like the Monocalus,135 which excels even gold in the heaviness of its immense weight.136 When it is in its nature 137 it is of 131 Theatr. chem., IV, pp. g48ff. 132 Here a synonym for Mercurius. Cf. Ruland, Lexicon, p. 24. 133 In the strictest sense of the word, a "symbolum" is a coin broken into two pieces, so that the halves "tally." Cf. Aegidius de Vadis, "Dialogue" (Theatr. chem., II, p. 107): ". . . concord and discord, which we take to mean symbolization." · The symbolum here means the capacity of elements to combine; it is the "retinaculum elementorum," the rope of the elements. (Lully, "Theorica et practica," Theatr. chem., IV, p. 133.) 134 Instead of medioxime. 135 Presumably derived from μορόκαυλος (bot.), 'one-stemmed', but more probably a misprint for monocolus (μονόκώλος), 'one-footed', or for the late Latin monocaleus, 'having only one testicle, semi-castrated/ (Cf. Du Cange, Glossarium, s.h.v.) Monocaleus might be a reference to the androgynous nature of Mercurius. The conjecture monocerus {μονοκερωτ) is possible, since the unicorn signified Mercurius and was well known in 16th-and especially i7th-cent. alchemy. (Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 518, 547.) According to Horapollo the scarab, which in the Leyden Papyrus is identical with Osiris, is one-horned (ibid., par. 530). ΐ3β The text is not in a good state. I have therefore placed a full point after "praeponderat" and begin a new sentence with "dum in sua natura." 137 Obviously its arcane nature.
