mouth whereof muſt be ſigned or ſealed with a couering of the ſame matter, or with lute. And as in the mynes, ye heat doth not immediatly touch the matter of Sulphur and Argent-uiue, becauſe the earth of the mountian comenth euery where between: So this fire muſt not immediatly touch the veſſell, containing the matter of the foreſaid things in it, but it muſt be put into another veſſell, ſhut cloſe in the like manner, that ſo the temperate heate may touch the matter aboue and beneath, and where ere it be, more aptly and fitly: wherevpon Ariſtotle ſayth, in the light of lights, that Mercurie is to be cōcocted in a threefold veſſell, and that the veſſell muſt bee of moſt hard Glaſſe, or (which is better) of earth poſſeſſing the nature of Glaſſe.
CHAP. VI.
Of the accidentall and eſſentiall colours appearing in the worke.
THe matter of the ſtone thus ended, thou ſhalt knowe the certaine maner of working, by what maner and regiment, the ſtone is often chaunged in decoction into diuerſe colours. Whereupon one ſaith, So many colours, ſo many names. According to the diuerſe colours appearing in the worke, the names likewiſe were varied by the Philoſophers: whereon, in the firſt operation of our ſtone, it is called putrifaction, and our ſtone is made blacke: whereof one ſaith, When thou findeſt it blacke, know that in that
black-
