But generation, and renovation of Metalls is made thus: As a man may return into the womb of his Mother, _i.e._ into the Earth, out of which hee was first made a man, and shall again bee raised at the last day: so also all Metalls may returne into living ☿ againe, and become ☿, and by Fire bee regenerated, and purified, if for the space of forty weeks, they bee kept in a continuall heat, as an infant is in his Mothers wombe. So that now there are brought forth not common Metalls, but Tinging Metalls. For if Silver bee regenerated (after the manner as wee have spoken) it will afterward tinge all other Metalls into Silver, so will Gold into Gold, and the like is to bee understood of all the other Metalls. [Sidenote: The Soul is that medium wherewith the soule is united to the body.] Now forasmuch as _Hermes_ said, that the soule alone is that medium which joines the spirit to the body, it was not without cause hee said so. For seeing Sulphur is that soule, and doth like Fire ripen, and digest all things; it can also bind the soule with the body, incorporating, and uniting them together, so that from thence may bee produced a most excellent body. Now the common combustible Sulphur is not to bee taken for the soule of metalls, for the soule is another manner of thing then a combustible, and corruptible body. [Sidenote: What the soule of metalls is.] Wherefore it can bee destroyed by no Fire, seeing indeed it is all Fire it selfe: and indeed it is nothing else but the quintessence of Sulphur, which is extracted out of reverberated Sulphur by the spirit of wine, being of a red colour, and as transparent as a Rubie: and which indeed is a great, and excellent _Arcanum_, for the transmuting of white metalls, and to coagulate living ☿ into fixt, and true Gold. Esteeme this as an enriching treasure, and thou maist bee well contented with this, onely secret in the Transmutation of Metalls. [Sidenote: Where is the generation of metalls and mineralls.] Concerning the generation of mineralls, and halfe metalls nothing else need bee known then what was at first said concerning metalls, _viz._ that they are in like manner produced of the three Principles, _viz._ Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, although not as metalls of perfect, but of the more imperfect, and baser Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, and yet with their distinct colours. [Sidenote: Whence the generation of Gemmes.] The generation of Gemmes is from the subtilty of the Earth, of transparent and crystalline Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, even according to their distinct colours. [Sidenote: Also of Common Stones.] But the generation of common Stones is of the subtilty of Water, of mucilaginous Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt. For of the mucilaginousnesse of Water are produced all stones, as also sand, and gravell are thence coagulated into Stones, as wee often see. [Sidenote: An artificiall generation of Stones.]