The Sixth Book: Of the Resurrection of Naturall things.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Sedziwój, Michal, Paracelsus, and French, John
The reduction of calcined and Precipitated Mercury.
Mercury calcined can never bee restored againe without sublimation; for unlesse it be sublimed after calcination, it will never bee revived, wherefore thou shalt first sublime it, and then reduce it as other Sublimate.
The resuscitation of Azure Cinnabar, Aurum vitæ, also of Precipitate, that they may bee reduced into Quicksilver is thus:
Take either of these, grind it small upon a marble, make it up into a past with the white of an egge, and sope, then make pills of the bigness of Filbeards, which put into a strong earthen gourd, upon the mouth of it put a plate of Iron, with many little holes in it, and lute it on, and distill it per descensum with a strong fire, so that it may fall into cold water, and thou shalt have the Quicksilver again.
The renewing of Wood that is burnt.
Now the resuscitation, and restoring of Wood is hard, and difficult, yet possible to Nature, but without much skilfulness, and industry it can never bee done: But to revive it, the processe is this:
Take Wood which must first bee a Coale, then Ashes, which put into a gourd together with the Resine, Liquor, and Oyle of that tree, of each a like weight, mingle them, and melt them with a soft heat, and there will bee a mucilaginous matter, and so thou hast the three Principles, of which all things are produced, and generated, viz. flegm, fatnesse, and Ashes.
The flegme of Wood is its Mercury, the fat its sulphur, the ashes its salt.
The Flegm is Mercury, the Fat is Sulphur, the Ashes is Salt. For whatsoever fumes, and evaporates in the Fire is Mercury: whatsoever flames, and is burnt is Sulphur, and all Ashes is Salt.
Now seeing thou hast these three Principles together, put them in Horse-dung, and putrefie them for a time. If afterward that matter bee put in, and buried in fat ground, thou shalt see it live again, and a little tree spring from thence, which truly in vertue is farre more excellent then the former. This Tree or Wood is, and is called Regenerated Wood, renewed, and restored, which from the beginning was Wood, but mortified, destroyed, and brought into coales, ashes, and almost to nothing, and yet out of that nothing is made, and renewed. This truly in the light of Nature is a great mystery, viz. that a thing, which had utterly lost its form, and was reduced to nothing, should recover its form, and of nothing bee made something, which afterward becomes much more excellent in vertue, and efficacy then it was at first.
A generall rule for raising of things againe.
But to speake generally of the Resurrection, and Restauration of Naturall things, you must know, that the chiefest foundation here, is, that that bee restored to every thing, and made to agree with it, which was taken from it in mortification, and separated from it, which is hard to bee here specifically explained. Wherefore wee shall conclude this book, and shall speak of these things more at large in the next book, Concerning the transmutations of naturall things.