Therefore after I have proposed, and opened to you the degrees of the Art of Alchymie, and the degrees of the Alchymists Fire: I will yet further shew, and declare to you in generall, various Transmutations of naturall things: of Metalls first, secondly of Stones, and thirdly of divers things in generall. The transmutation of Metalls therefore is a great secret in Nature, and it can hardly bee done by reason of many impediments, and repugnancies. Yet it is not against Nature, nor Gods ordination, as many falsly affirm. [Sidenote: The Transmutation of Metalls into Silver and Gold.] But that the five lesser, and impurer Metalls, _viz._ ♀ ♃ ♄ ♂ and ☿ may be transmuted into the greater, purest, and most perfect Metalls, _viz._ into ☉ and ☽, it cannot be done without the Tincture, or Philosophers stone. Now seeing we have before sufficiently opened the secrets of Tinctures in the seven degrees, and described them there, it is not necessary that wee spend any further labour in this, but rather bee satisfied with those things, which we have wrote in other books concerning the Transmutations of Metalls. [Sidenote: The Transmutation of Iron into Copper.] Now there are other Transmutations of imperfect, and impure Metals, as the transmutation of ♂ into ♀, which may bee done divers wayes. If plates of Iron bee boiled in water of Vitriall, or bee cemented with calcined Vitriall, or being red hot be quenched in oyl of Vitriall. These three ways Iron may be transmuted into very good, and ponderous Copper, which indeed flows well, and hath its weight as well as any naturall Copper. [Sidenote: The Transmutation of Iron into Lead.] Plates of Iron may bee as it were reduced, and transmuted into Lead, so that it bee as soft as naturall Lead, but doth not flow so easily: and the processe is this: Take Filings of ♂, and so much of the powder of Borax, mingle them well together, put them in a crucible, and into a wind furnace, let there bee made a strong Fire, but so that the ♂ doe not flow, but stand as it were in a Cement for a whole houre, then encrease the Fire, that it may bee red hot, and flow: then let the crucible cool of it selfe, and thou shalt find the regulus of Lead in the bottome of the crucible, soft, and malleable, as naturall Lead can be. [Sidenote: The Transmutation of Copper into Lead.] But to transmute ♀ into ♄ the processe is this: First of all bring Copper with ☿ sublimate, and fixt Arsenick to bee white, yea as white as ☽, then beat it small. Take this, and the powder of Borax, of each a like quantity, and first cement it, then let it bee melted into a regulus, and thou hast a true regulus of Lead. [Sidenote: The Transmutation of Lead into Copper.] Now on the contrary, it is easy to transmute Lead into Copper, neither doth it require much pains, and it is done thus: