| |
| | Mary Anne Atwood: Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy ~ Chapter 2 |
 | | The theory of Alchemy, though arcane, is very simple; its basis indeed may be comprehended in that only statement of Arnold di Villanova, in his Speculum, --- That there abides in nature a certain pure matter, which, being discovered and brought by art to perfection, converts to itself proportionally all imperfect bodies that it touches. |
 | | This Proteus, then, or Mercury, or quintessence of philosophers, is warily concealed by them under an infinity of names, all more or less applicable, yet delusive; for though every epithet is admissible, inasmuch as nothing can be said amiss of a Universal Subjet, yet the right conception is hard to gather from their books. |
 | | Just so is the Vital Spirit said to be, by the art of Alchemy, promoted from one form of being into another by its won prepared must or leaven; and as such, in turn, it reacts convertively on the elements of its original extraction; having previously passed on, through many stages, from imperfection to perfection. |
| www.rexresearch.com /atwood/atwood2.htm (4095 words) |
|