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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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