what is the beginning. It is necessary that a physician should first be familar with the disease with which he has to deal; when he knows this, the method of treatment will spontaneously unfold itself. But to know a disease is the end, not the beginning. The art resides in the departure, not in the entrance. The entrance is dark and dubious; the issue is evident. In this knowledge lies hid. I point out this, therefore, as the foundation, namely, that every matter must be thoroughly known at its commencement, so that it may also be more exactly understood for what purpose the matter has been framed. Now, if man ought to lay out before himself the works of God, and rightly use them, it is necessary that they should not be hidden from him; otherwise he will be sure to abuse them. What good is an axe to a person who is ignorant of its purpose? Let him hand it over to one who knows all about it. In the same way, whatever God has created ought to be in the hands of a man who knows how he ought to employ it. Men should know and learn these things, not mere trifles and phantoms conjured up by the devil.
But when I propose to write about the origin of minerals, I shall do this not of myself, but from my experience, and by means of him from whom I myself received it. What I said in my first paragraph, I here repeat, namely, that the last must be known before the first, and from the last the first should be understood. I make this clear from the example of Christ, who was not understood until He sent the Holy Spirit, who, at His coming, revealed all things. By Him we understand Christ, though He came after Christ. So, from the same ultimate, that is, by the Holy Spirit, we now understand both the Father and the Son.
Now this fits in exactly with the philosophy of minerals, because the ultimate matter is made up of those things which teach the beginning of their mother, or of their birth. From them this birth must be understood. Already in other philosophic paragraphs I have named these three substances, Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, as being the principle of all those things which spring from four matrices, that is, the four elements. In the generation of minerals it is necessary to explain that iron, steel, lead, emerald, sapphire, flint, duelech, etc., are nothing else than Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. Everything produced by Nature is frail and corruptible, and it can be ascertained by Art from what it has issued forth. And here is a proof from Nature, since those three substances just spoken of are in the air, no less than in other things, such as fire, balsam, mercury, etc. If, by the aid of Art you resolve steel, gold, pearls, or corals, you will still find Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. When these are extracted by Art, nothing more of that mineral remains, but all is dissolved. Seeing, then, that the dissolution of substances reveals particularly what they are, and what is in them, you can gather that those things are three, namely, Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. These three are the body, and everywhere there is one body and three substances. Concerning these three substances I will now begin my teaching, by which you may know that in the ultimate matter there are three substances, neither more nor fewer, and out of these three all
