Emblem XVI.
One Lyon hath wings and the other hath none.
The Discourse:
It is a thinge known by experience that a Lyon does not so much excell
other animalls either in bignesse and strength of body as in the generousnesse
of his Nature. When he is hunted, being ashamed to run away, he makes his
retreat leisurely if he finds himself oppressed by multitudes; when he
is out of the view of his Pursuers he makes haste away, thinking the basenesse
of his flight is atoned for by his endeavour to conceal it. He leaps upon
the Prey that He follows, but He never uses that motion in his retreat.
His bones are solid, without any vacuity, and are said to be so hard that
Fire will be struck out of two of them as from a Steel and Flint. He fears
Fire above all thinges. He seems to derive his Substance from the Nature
of the Sun, for in force and heat he excells other animalls as the Sun
doth the Starrs. He always appears with fiery and open Eyes, as the Sun
beholds the Earth with an open fiery Eye.
A Lyonesse fighting for her whelps fixes her Eyes upon the Ground, least
she should be afrighted at the Hunter's spear. When the Lyon perceives
the coition of the Panther he takes revenge upon the Lyonesse for Adultery
and inflicts severe punishment. She therefore washes away the scent in
a River, or being conscious of her offence doth follow the Adulterer flying
for fear of the Mate.
The Philosophers therefore observing the wonderfull Nature of this Beast
have made diverse Allegories from Him, which they use as so many Hieroglyphicall
writings relating to their secret work. And finding the Lyon to be a firm
and constant animall void of deceit himself- and consequently of suspicion
of others- they resemble the best part of their Philosophickal work to
so noble a Character. For as he flyes not, so neither does that; as his
bones are solid, so that is fixed and knows no Conqueror. But as the Lyonesse
is not always innocent and free from Adultery, so neither is Luna or Mercury
without some spot or blemish, but by the Ignorant is joined sometimes to
one sometimes to another sort of Matter, from whence an adulterous conjunction
of thinges different in Nature may be said to proceed, rather than a true
Matrimony to be contracted. For the products of the Lyonesse and the Leopard
have no comely Manes about their Neck and shoulders, which is the signall
Ornament of the Lyon's legitimate offspring. Therefore let the Philosophickal
Lyonesse be joined to her proper Male, and there will be born a whelp that
is genuine and generous, which may easily be known by his paw. But this
should not be any sort of Lyonesse, but one that has wings, which may be
able to fight and contest with the Lyon as relying upon the swiftnesse
of her plumes that she may not be suppressed by the violence of his wrath,
but may be prepared for flight if at any time he become furious without
just reason. For when she is about to flye away and He retards her, He
is incited with a greater Love towards her, and a firmer friendship is
contracted after such a Variance.
But you will ask, whoever saw a Lyonesse with wings? Or what use can
be made of her plumes? There is a deep Valley near the Mountein Cythæronem
in which are seen none but flying Lyonesses. But to the Top of that Mountein
there resorts a Red Lyon, of the same kind as that which was slain by Hercules.
The Lyon therefore must be taken and brought into the valley, and then
immediately He will be coupled with the winged Lyonesse. She also will
easily suffer herself to be overcome, because like will be seduced by like.
Afterwards they must both be advanced out the said Valley to the Top of
the Mountein, and henceforth they will never desert one another but will
always remain together in inviolable wedlock. The taking of these Lyons
I confesse is not easy, but Lyable to many dangers. But neverthelesse it
must be attempted. A Lyon feeds not with the Lyonesse, but wanders apart
as Tradition relates; therefore they are to be sought and hunted for in
different places. But if these two Lyons can be taken when they are Whelps,
when their Claws first appear and they begin to walke which is two months
after their Birth, then afterwards they may be joined upon their coming
to riper Age, and the whole matter will be effected without any danger.
But they are born in the Spring time, which requires the closest observation;
seeing the Lyons after whelping use crosse and winding wayes least their
Den should be found out, great Care and diligence must be used to seek
them and deprive them of their whelps.
Emblem XVII.
Four Orbs govern this work of fire.
The Discourse:
The Philosophers in many places make mention of four sorts of fire necessary
to the Naturall work, namely Lully, the Author of the Scala, Ripley, and
many others. The Scala says that Raymund speaks thus of fires: It is to
be remarked that here lye contrary operations, because as the fire contrary
to Nature doth dissolve the spirit of a fixed body into the water of a
Cloud, and binds the body of a volatile Spirit into a congealed Earth,
so contrarywise the fire of Nature congeals the dissolved spirit of a fixed
body into a Globular Earth, and resolves the body of the volatile Spirit
fixed by the fire contrary to Nature, not into the water of a Cloud, but
into Philosophickal water.
Ripley speaks more clearly of these fires.
Gate 3, Stanza 15:
Foure Fyers there be whych you must understond,
Naturall, Innaturall, against Nature, alsoe
Elementall whych doth bren the brond.
These foure Fyers use we and no mo:
Fyre against Nature must doe thy bodyes wo;
That ys our Dragon as I thee tell,
Fersely brennyng as Fyre of Hell.
16. Fyre of Nature ys the thyrd Menstruall,
That Fyre ys naturally in every thyng;
But Fyre occasionat we call Innaturall,
And hete of Askys and balnys for putrefying:
Wythout these Fyres thou may not bryng
To Putrefaccyon for to be seperat,
Thy matters togeather proportyonat.
17. Therefore make Fyre thy Glasse wythin,
Whych brennyth the Bodyes more then Fyre
Elementall; yf thou wylt wyn
Our Secret accordyng to thy desyre
Then shall thy seeds both roote and spyre,
By help of Fyre Occasionat,
That kyndly after they may separat.
They are called Fires because they have a Fiery Virtue; the Naturall
in coagulating, the Unnatural in Dissolving, The Fire against Nature in
corrupting and the Elementary in administering heat and the first motion.
And there is an order observed in them like that of a Chain, that the second
may be incited to action by the first, the third by the second, and the
fourth by the third and first, so that one be both Agent and Patient in
a different respect. That which is observed of Iron rings held together
by a Magnet and joined by mutuall contact may be seen likewise in these
Fires. For the Elementary like a magnet doth send forth its virtue through
the second and third even into the fourth, and joins one to the other by
mutuall operations, and causes them to cohere together till internall action
be effected amongst the uppermost. The first is Elementary Fire both in
Name and substance, the second is æriall or volatile, the third is
watery or of the Nature of Luna, the fourth is Earthy. There is no need
of speaking of the first because it is present to every man's sight and
feeling. The other three are the Dragons, Menstruums, Waters, Sulphurs
or Mercuryes. Dragons because partaking of venom they devour Serpents of
their own race and alter whatever bodyes are mixed with them, that is,
dissolve and coagulate them. They are called Menstruums because the Philosophers'
Infant is produced and nourished from them till the time of his Birth.
Lully in his book of Quinta Essentia, verse 3, has a double menstruum,
a Vegetable and a Minerall. Ripley in the preface to his Gates has three
which agree and are but one in reality. For the generation of the Infant
is made from them all, and white water precedes its birth which is not
of the substance but of the superfluity of the Infant, and therefore is
to be separated.
They are waters because in Fire they show a watery Nature, that is they
flow and are liquid which are propertyes of water. It is certain that the
propertyes of Water are diverse and wonderfull, some whereof do petrifye,
being coagulated into hard stones suitable for building. Not unlike these
are the minerall waters of the Philosophers, which grow harder and turn
into a stony resistance.
They are likewise called Sulphur from the Sulphurous virtue which they
have in them. For the Sulphur of Nature is mixed and made one with the
other Sulphur, and the two Sulphurs are dissolved by one, and one is separated
by two and the Sulphurs are contained by the Sulphurs, as Yximidius says
in the Turba. Now what Sulphurs are Dardaris in the same place declares
in these words: Sulphurs are souls hidden in the four Elements, which being
extracted by Art do naturally contain one another and are joined together.
But if you can by water govern and well purifye that which is hidden in
the Belly of the Sulphur, that hidden thinge meeting with its own Nature
rejoineth it, even as water with its like. Mosius also sayeth: I will now
tell you what it is. One indeed is Argent Vive and that Fiery, the second
is a Body compounded in it, the third is the water of Sulphur by which
it is first washed, corroded and governed till the whole work is perfected.
What has been said of Sulphurs, the same must be understood of so many
Mercuryes, for so says the same Mosius: Argent Vive, Cambar, is Magnesia,
but Argent Vive or Orpiment is Sulphur, which ascends from a mixed compound.
But I shall produce no more Testimonyes because they are infinite. These
four Fires are included in four Orbs or Spheres; that is, each has its
particular Centre from which and to which their motions tend. But neverthelesse
they are kept so bound together, partly by Nature and partly by Art, that
the one can operate little or nothing without the other, so that the Action
of the one is the Passion of the other, and so the contrary.
Emblem XVIII.
Fire loves making thinges fiery, but unlike gold, it does
not make gold.
The Discourse:
Nature's way of working in all individualls of the universe is to use
one single processe to complete and perfect one single motion. As appears
in the Anatomy of man's body, in which one Muscle only serves for one motion,
that is the Attractive, but another opposite to the first for the Expansive,
so that if any member is to be brought into a bending motion it must be
effected by various muscles put into a Circle. So the operation of fire
is one and single, that is, to make hot or be fiery and to Assimilate to
itself and burn all thinges to which it is applied if they be combustible.
Hence Avicenna says in his book of Congelation of Stones, What falls
into salt pits becomes salt, and what falls into fire becomes fire, but
some thinges sooner, some more slowly according to the Power of the Actives
and resistance of the Passives. And there is a place in Arabia which coloureth
all bodyes which exist in it of its own colour. So each Naturall thinge
possesses a virtue infused into it by Nature by which it acts upon those
thinges which are mixed or applied to it by assimilating or altering their
Nature and form. That which in Vegetables and Animalls is generation by
the propagation of seeds, the same processe in simple and simply mixed
bodyes is the infusion of Virtue and Assimilation.
Thus the Sun, the light of heaven, casts its rayes upon the Earth which,
when collected into concaves or burning glasses, demonstrate themselves
to be produced from such a cause and to seem as if they were the projectible
forms of the Sun. From whence it is evident that the Rayes of the Sun are
nothing else but a fiery flame extended and dispersed into an ample latitude,
which being collected and condensed again into itself by concavous, Diaphanous,
circular and repercussive instruments such as Concavous and Steel mirrors,
do shine forth as a flame and burn all that approaches it.
In the same manner there is a certain Virtue dispersed as a Vapor throughout
every Elemented body which, if it be gathered together and attracted into
one, turns into water, and from that water into earth. Hence Avicenna in
the place quoted before says that water becomes Earth when the Qualities
of Earth overcome it, and so on the contrary. But there is a certain matter
which some ingenious men use when they would coagulate to form a thinge
that is Dry; this matter is compounded of two waters and is call Lac Virginis.
So far that Author. There are some who think themselves able to double
or further multiply the Virtues of the Loadstone, one of which kind we
have seen set in Silver of scarce a pound weight which attracted and held
up an Iron Anchor of eight and twenty pound; which it was impossible for
it to have done if its force had not been increased and strengthened, which
undoubtedly was effected by the revocation of the dispersed virtues into
one point, or by the attraction of them from a greater body into a lesse.
There are others who affirm that a Leadmaking Stone may be made of the
Sulphurous breath of Saturn, infused and retained by common Mercury, till
it be coagulated; which immediately turns Common Mercury into Lead. Some
boast that they can from Antimony or its Stellated Regulus make Copper
from the Fume of Copper in as short a space as a man can eat an Egge; and
further, that they have made all metalls in such a way. I will not detract
from their reputations, though to me it does not seem probable. I know
not whether they are more confident or successfull who endeavour to deduce
gold from gold, according to the saying of the Porta Aureus: He that desires
Barley sowes only Barley, In Gold are the seeds of Gold. Every naturall
thinge hath indeed a virtue of multiplying itself, but this is brought
into action in vegetables and Animalls only, not in Metalls, Mineralls,
Earthy Fossils or meteors. Some plants sprung from a small grain of seed
do often times yield a thousand seeds or more, and so multiply and propagate
themselves; and so yearly Animalls also have their product in greater or
lesser Number, according to each of their Natures. But Gold, Silver, Lead,
Tin, Iron, Copper or Argent Vive are never known to multiply themselves
or their kind after that manner, although it is often found that one may
be commuted into another and made more noble. Nevertheless the Philosophers
affirm that the principle of ignifying is in fire, and so that of Aurifying
is in Gold. But the tincture must be sought for by whose Intermediation
Gold is to be made. You must search for this in its own proper principles
and generations and not in thinges of another Nature; for if Fire produceth
Fire, a Pear a Pear, a Horse a Horse, then Lead will generate Lead and
not Silver, Gold will Generate Gold and not the Tincture. But besides all
this the Philosophers have a peculiar Gold which they do not deny must
be added to the Aurifick Stone as a Ferment at the End of the Work, seeing
it leads the thinge fermented into its own Nature, without which the whole
composition would never return to Perfection.
Emblem XIX.
If you kill one of the four, they will all suddenly dye.
The Discourse:
The Poets feign that Geryon, King of Spain, consisted of three bodyes,
and that he had Oxen of a Purple Colour and that a Dogg with two heads
and a Dragon with seven were set over them to watch them. The same Geryon
is reported to be the Son of Chrysaor, sprung from the blood of Medusa
as the Dragon was from that of Typhon and Echidna. But since all these
agree neither with History nor the Truth, and yet fall in exactly with
the Chymicall Allegories, we think we have reduced them to that proper
head by applying them to that Subject. For by the threefold body of Geryon
we understand three Faces beheld in one Father according to the sense of
Hermes, or as others would have it four Faces, they having regard to the
four Elements, for a Triangle must be made of a Quadrangle as that was
made of a Circle, and so this must return into a Circle. Now there is so
great a consanguinity and naturall conjunction of the Bodyes of Geryon
or the Elements that one being overcome and slain, the rest also dye of
themselves and putrefye without the application of any Manuall Force.
As to thinges with two bodyes, it is well known that one being dead
the other Wastes and consumes, as we saw in Italy of a boy of four years
old who had two bodyes: the head of one Brother was hid within the body
of the other, and was fixed to him just at the Navel, and so hung down
from thence, and being much lesse than him was carryed about by him. If
you pressed the hands or feet of the lesser more hard than ordinary, the
bigger felt the pain; nay, and hunger too, when the belly of the latter
was Empty for want of Sustenance. And this is the Combination and Sympathy
of Nature, whereby the members and parts of one and the same body, or of
a body joined and born with another, are mutually moved and affected together,
whereof if one be sound and unhurt it is not necessary that the others
should so remain. But if one be grievously hurt, the rest do also sympathise
and perish by the same malady. So if one Neighbour gains much money, yet
no profit accrues thereby to another of his Neighbours, but if he suffers
losse by Fire his neighbour receives much damage- for your affairs are
in danger when the next house has taken fire. Therefore it is in no way
repugnant to Truth that from the death of one of these brothers, the destruction
of the rest should happen. This may come to passe by diverse means, either
because they were born at the same birth from one father and mother, and
therefore as they had the same beginning, so likewise they have the same
period of their dayes- which thinge (as we have read) has happened to some
persons. Or perhaps by the inclination of the Starrs, or by being joined
together not only in their Souls but also in the Ligaments of their bodyes,
or by a consternation of mind such as strong imagination in time of pestilence,
or by the Vow of a League.
In the Indies, under the Dominions of the great Mogul (he that now reigns
being the ninth successor from Tamerlane), there are certain Gentiles who
go by the Name of Pythagoreans, among whom this Ancient custom is observed:
that if the Husband dye, the wife is burnt with fire, or lives in perpetuall
infamy deserted by all and esteemed as a Dead woman. Which was therefore
ordained that wives might be afraid of poisoning their Husbands unlesse
they also are resolved to dye with them.
So in the Philosophickal Work when one brother is dead, the others perish
by Fires, not compelled but Voluntarily, that they may not survive in infamy
and sorrow. Or if one be assaulted with a Club, Sword or Stone he will
raise a Civil war with his brethren, as in those Gyants sprung out of the
Earth who were born from Dragons' Teeth to oppose Jason, and who at another
time and place rose up to resist Cadmus. In this manner will all of them
fall by a mutuall destruction of one another. For touch or hurt him that
carryes Air, and he will rise up against two together that are nearest
him, namely against him which carries Water and him that carries Fire.
And these will on both sides oppose themselves against him that carries
Earth and him that first promoted the quarrell, till they have received
mutuall wounds of which they will dye. For it is thus resolved among the
brothers that the more earnestly and vehemently they love one another,
so if once they begin to hate their anger shall be more implacable and
not be appeased but by death. This can be compared to the sweetest honey
which, in a Stomach too hot or Liver corrupted, is turned into the most
bitter Gall.
Kill him therefore that is alive, but so that you may bring him to life
again when he is dead, otherwise his death will not avail you. For his
death will be an advantage to him after his resurrection, and Death and
darknesse and the Sea will fly from him as Hermes testifies in Capitulum
3 of the Tractatus Aureus, verse IX: And the Dragon which observed the
Holes will fly from the rayes of the Sun, and our dead son liveth and the
King cometh from the Fire. Belinus in his Metaphor in the Rosary mentions
the same thinge: And let this be done when you have drawn me partly from
my Nature, and my wife partly from her Nature- you must then also kill
the Natures, and we are raised up with a new incorporeall resurrection
so that afterwards we cannot dye.
Emblem XX.
Nature teaches Nature how to subdue Fire.
The Discourse:
The common token and symbol by which the Philosophers may know one another
is: That Nature is guided, taught, governed and subdued by Nature, as a
Schollar by a Mistresse, a Waiting Maid by her Lady, a Subject by a Queen,
a Daughter by a Mother or a Kinswoman by a Kinswoman. The truth of this
appears by daily experience in the Education of Youth amongst men, the
Institutions of Learning, Government and the like. Pliny writes of Nightingales
that one teaches, attends, observes, imitates and overcomes another in
singing, or being overcome laments, and that sometimes being Vanquished
in the conflict and her throat torn with her notes she perishes and falls
down dead in the midst of her singing. We see also how all sorts of birds
begin to instruct and accustom their young ones, being yet tender and not
quite fledged, how to flye. So it is not only Nature but Art and Use that
brings them to the habit of flying, though Nature alone gave power and
organs for the exercising of that Action, without which no Art or Institution
can find place or Foundation. So Colts are taught to run by the Mare, Whelps
to bark by the Bitch, and young Foxes to be cunning by their Den. Nor is
there any animated or sensitive Nature or species of Nature which does
not guide, instruct and govern another Nature, which is its offspring,
or else suffer itself to be overcome by another Nature as a Parent.
We do not find such discipline in Vegetables, but the use and handywork
of Man is observed to prevail much upon them. For whilst the Corn is in
the blade it may be cleansed from Tares and unprofitable Thistles; whilst
a tree is yet a Twig it may be bent and made to grow as you please; and
so in Metalls and Philosophickal subjects, one nature keeps, preserves
and defends another Nature in Fire, as is known to Founders and Refiners
but especially to Masters of Naturall thinges. Iron added to silver or
gold, being yet very tender and spirituall, mixed in its mines with Cadmia,
Arsenick or depredating, devouring Antimony, becomes very helpfull and
performs the part of a midwife if it be cast upon the minerals to be burnt
in the Fire of Furnaces. After the same manner, when Iron itself is to
be changed into Steel, it is saved from burning by some white Stones that
are found upon the Seashore. Some do cast the powders of Chrystall glasse
or the gall of glasse upon metallick powder to be dissolved, that they
may not perish by overmuch Fire. For this purpose the Philosophers use
Eudica, which Morienus Romanus says is the gall of glasse and to be had
in glasse vessels. For the heat of Fire consumes the body with hasty burning,
but when Eudica is applied it will cure bodyes changed into Earth from
any burning. For when bodyes do no longer retein their souls they are soon
burnt. Eudica (the Faex of Glasse) is indeed agreeable to all bodyes, for
it revives and prepares them and defends them from all burning. This therefore
is the nature which teaches another Nature to fight against Fire and to
be inured to Fire; this is the Mistresse that instructs the Schollar, and
if you consider well, the Queen governing the Subject and the Daughter
giving Honour to her Mother. This is the Red servant which is joined in
Matrimony with his Odoriferous Mother, and of her begets a progeny far
more noble than its Parents. This is Pyrrhus son of Achilles, the young
man with Red Hair, golden vestments, Black Eyes and white feet. This is
the Knight that has the Torque or Collar about him, armed with a sword
and shield against the dragon that he may rescue from his jaws the pure
and unviolated Virgin named Albifica, Beya or Blanca. This is the monster-killing
Hercules who freed Hesione the Daughter of Laomedon from that monstrous
whale which she was exposed to. This is that Perseus who, by showing the
Head of Medusa, defended Andromedes the Daughter of Cassiope and Cepheus
King of the Ethiopians from a sea monster, and having freed her from her
chains afterwards married her. This is He that may be compared with those
Ancient Romans, the Restorers and Deliverers of their Country: M. Curtio,
L. Scævola, Horatio Coclite, Manlio Capitolino and the rest, who
can free a city as well as his mother from Dangers. For this is the way
and method of Nature, tending to the perfection of any work. She deduces
one thinge from another and a more perfect thinge from an imperfect, making
an Act out of a Power; but she does not finish all in a moment, but by
doing one thinge after another at last arrives at her End. Nor does she
do this alone, but she likewise in the first place constitutes herself
a Deputy to whom she leaves the Power of life and death, that is the power
of Forming other thinges. For example, in the generation of a man she uses
a long processe of ten months. But according to Aristotle she first frames
the Heart as her Deputy and the Principall organ, and then the Heart delineates
forms and perfects the other members which are necessary to nutrition,
life, sense and the generating power, and imparts to them life and vivifying
spirits by its Systole and Diastole; that is, by the dilating and compressing
of Arteries, so long as it is not hindered by diseases and violence. And
so one nature teaches another, which you must remark and follow as the
most clear example of the Philosophickal Work.
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