ſidence remaining in the bottome be reſerved with the former reſidence. Let the water be again poured upon the earth, bee abſtracted, and ſeparated as before, untill nothing remain in the bottome, which is not ſeparated in Balneo. This being done lee the water which was laſt ſeparated be mixed with the reſidue of its fire, and be macerated in Balneo three or four dayes, and all be diſtilled in Balneo, that can aſcend with that heat, and let what remains be deſtilled in aſhes from the fire, and what ſhall be elevated is aeriall; and what remaines in the bottome is fiery. Theſe two laſt Liquors are aſcribed to the two firſt principles, the former to Mercury, and the latter to Sulphur, and are accounted by Paracelſus, not as elements, but their vitall parts, being as it were the naturall Spirits and ſoule, which are in them by nature. Now both are to be rectified, and reflected into their center with a circular motion, that this Mercury may be prepared with its water being kept cleare, and odoriferous in the upper place, but the Sulphur by it ſelfe. Now it remaines that we look into the third principle: let the reverberated earth being ground upon a marble imbibe its owne water, which did above remain after the laſt ſeparation of the Liquors made in Balneo, ſo that this be the fourth part of the weight of its earth, and be congealed by the heat of aſhes into its earth, and let this be done ſo oft, the proportion being obſerved, untill the earth hath drunk up all its water. And laſtly let this earth be ſublimed into a white powder, as white as ſnow, the feces being caſt away. This earth being ſublimed, and freed from its obſcurity is the true Chaos of the elements, for it contains thofe things occult, ſeeing it is the ſalt of nature, in which they lye hid, being as it were reflexed in their center. This is the third principle of Paracelſus, and the ſalt, which is the matrix, in which the two former ſpermes, viz. Of the man, and woman, the parents of the Homunculus, viz. of Mercury, Sulphur are to be put, and to be cloſed up together in a glazen womb ſealed with Hermes ſeales for the tree generation of the Homunculus produced from the ſpagyricall Embryo: and this is the Homunculus or great Arcanum, otherwiſe called the nutritive Medicament of Paracelſus.
