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work is commonly cal’d the groſs work, but ’tis one of the greateſt Subtilties in all the Art. Cornelius Agrippa knew the firſt Præparation, and hath clearly diſcovered it, but the Difficulty of the ſecond made him almoſt an enemy to his own Profeſsion. By the ſecond work, I underſtand not Coagulation' but the Solution of the Philoſophical Salt, a ſecret' which Agrippa did not rightly know, as it appears by his practiſe at Malines, nor would Natalius teach him, for all his frequent, and ſerious intreaties. This was it, that made his neceſsities ſo vigorous, and his purſe ſo weak, that I can ſeldome finde him in a full fortune. But in this, he is not alone: Raymund Lully the beſt Chriſtian Artiſt that ever was, received not this Myſterie from Arnoldus for in his firſt Practiſes he followed the tedious common proceſs, which after all is ſcarce profitable. Here he met with a Drudgerie almoſt invincible, and if we add the Task to the Time, it is enough to make a Man old. Norton was ſo ſtrange an Ignoramus in this Point, that if the Solution and Purgation were performed
in
