Gold becomes white by Sulphur in the manner already detailed. But the other two, Mercury and Salt, are white, and of a golden nature. These so tinge a sulphurous body that it loses its redness and grows white. Sulphur takes the tint of other colours. For though the whole be red, or white, or clay-coloured, its colour is changed by the tincture which is composed of Mercury and Salt. When, therefore, the body is Sulphur, the tincture of Alchemy can easily change its colour. It is necessary, however, in this case, that the other tincture, the Alchemical to wit, should tinge the Mercury and Salt from whiteness to redness. In this way gold assumes the colour which it ought to have. And it should be realised that there are complexions in gold and in other metals, just as there are in man himself.
Another fact which should be accepted is that the white complexion also is changed by corporal transmutation. So also is redness. These two colours separately inhere in redness. Yellowness inheres in whiteness; and these are subject to the primary colours. This transmutation can be effected by means of Alchemy, but under the condition that it shall be directed to the complexions, and that it shall first of all be tested in man, so that one shall be made of a melancholy or a sanguine temperament, just as cattle may be made black or white, and that by a tincture. Nature, indeed, in her mineral working, acts exactly as she does with man in his generation. In the same way man also ought to act in the generation of Nature, as being superior to Nature in this respect, if only Nature has gifted him with the astral mysteries of the arts. This method of treatment, however, I now relegate to astronomy.
Attention also must be paid to the fact that at this juncture Nature takes the lead in matters of the kind described. In Sulphur there is nothing save a body, in Salt nothing, only in Mercury. Sulphur and Salt are so far available that the one gives the body in which is gold, the other adds strength. In what relates to the nature, force, and virtue, all this is due to Mercury. Whatever property there is in Sulphur belongs to all alike. There is nothing in it except body where Mercury is not present. So in Salt. But know that Salt is a balsam, and conserves Mercury so that its virtues and properties shall not putrefy or decay. Thus, this virtue is incorporated with gold, and if it be separated after coagulation in Salt it cannot be detected by Art, as neither can the properties of Sulphur be discovered. But all these are readily found in Mercury. So when Art separates, it deserts the body, nor takes any heed of its medicine. In like manner, it deserts Salt, together with its medicine. And although the body has some influence as a body, and Salt as Salt, still, these medicines must not be sought therein, but only in Mercury, which contains all things. For this is the rationale of creation, that in all the outgrowths from the four elements of Nature, not only are those things present which are of themselves seen and understood, but these also contain within them the magnet which, in decoction and preparation, attracts to itself the essences of the three primals, that is, the Quintessence, as the ancients term it, though they ought rather to call it the quart-essence. For the mineral
