into water. And as you have heard concerning Coagulation, so know also concerning Solution, namely, that no corporeal matter can be resolved into water unless it originally was water, and such is the case with all mineral substances.[1]
Tincture is the seventh and last step, which concludes the work of our mystery, with reference to transmutation, makes all imperfect things perfect, transmutes them into their noblest essence and highest state of health, and changes them to another colour. Tincture, therefore, is the noblest matter with which bodies, metallic and human, are tinged, translated into a better and far more noble essence, and into their supreme health and purity. For a Tincture colours all things according to its own nature and its own colour. But there are many and various Tinctures, and not only for metallic and human bodies, since everything which penetrates another matter, or tinges it with another colour or essence, so that it is no longer like what it was before, may be called a Tincture. So then there are manifold tinctures, that is to say, of metals, minerals, human bodies, waters, liquids, oils, salts, all fat substances—in a word, of all things which, with or without fire, can be brought or reduced to a state of fluxion. For if the tincture is to tinge, it is necessary that the body or material which is to be tinged should be open, and in a state of flux; for unless this were so, the tincture could not operate. For it would be just as though one were to cast saffron, or some other colour, into coagulated water or ice; it would not tint the ice so quickly with its colour as if one were to put it into other water. And, although it might tinge the ice, it would at the same time reduce it into water. Wherefore, metals also, which we wish to tinge, must be liquefied by fire, and freed from their coagulation. And here it should be known that the more hotly they are liquefied the more rapidly the tincture runs through them, just as fermentation penetrates the whole mass and imparts acidity to it, and the better it is covered up, and the warmer the mass is kept, the more perfectly it ferments, and the better bread it gives: for fermentation is a Tincture of the farinaceous mass and of the bread.[2]
- ↑ All created things proceed from a coagulate, and afterwards this coagulate must pass into a liquid. From a liquid, then, all procreated things proceed, whether these be liquids or solids possessing a defined shape. Further, the solid can never be so perfectly liquefied as not to strive to return to its solidity. For example: salt, when it is dissolved in water, seeks to revert into its original state. It is the same with all other substances. Moreover, no solid is so completely dissolved but that it will actually return into its original shape, by means of the nature it retains. Understand that any solid proceeds from one of the three principles—sulphur, mercury, and salt—whichsoever it may be. Sulphur is never liquefied so completely as not to leave some solidity adhering to it. This is also the case with salt and mercury. Great attention must be paid to this solidification and dissolution. The one frequently prevails over the other. . . . Understand, therefore, of things in general, that they proceed from three principles; but that from which they proceed is a solid, as, for example, seed, earth, all fruits, and all growing things. Nothing exists which is not a solid. But this is not the solidification of which mention is made here, but is above it and was before it. For fruits were produced from that liquid, and were again solidified. The result is that here a certain kind of generation takes place, and, if it be not followed again by a second digestion, as in the digestion which ensued after the first dissolution into fruits, that which finally remains becomes the principle of tartar.—Aliud Fragmentum de Tartaro.
- ↑ The brutes themselves have an innate knowledge, good and bad. None the less has man, also, his tinctured knowledge, which is bad and good, being tinctured from the stars as regards his earthy nature and condition. In consequence of this nature a most supreme and exhaustive investigation of philosophy is permissible. The right and proper understanding of the animal condition of human nature is contained in an understanding of the tincture of the animal man. Man has two tinctures, one, as regards his inferior being, from the stars, and the other, supernatural, from God.—De Pestilatate, Tract I.
