[29] ALEXANDER VON SUCHTEN: _Man, the best and most perfect of God’s creatures. A more complete Exposition of this Medical Foundation for the less Experienced Student._ (See BENEDICTUS FIGULUS: _A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature’s Marvels_, translated by A. E. Waite, 1893, pp. 71 and 72.) The Growth of the Metals. § =20.= The alchemists regarded the metals as growing in the womb of the earth, and a knowledge of this growth as being of very great importance. Thomas Norton (who, however, contrary to the generality of alchemists, denied that metals have seed and that they grow in the sense of multiply) says:-- “_Mettalls_ of kinde grow lowe under ground, For above erth rust in them is found; Soe above erth appeareth corruption, Of mettalls, and in long tyme destruction, Whereof noe Cause is found in this Case, Buth that above Erth thei be not in their place Contrarie places to nature causeth strife As Fishes out of water losen their Lyfe: And Man, with Beasts, and Birds live in ayer, But Stones and Mineralls under Erth repaier.”[30] [30] THOMAS NORTON: _Ordinall of Alchemy_ (see _Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum_, edited by Elias Ashmole, 1652, p. 18). Norton here expresses the opinion, current among the alchemists, that each and every thing has its own peculiar environment natural to it; a view controverted by Robert Boyle (§ 71). So firm was the belief in the growth of metals, that mines were frequently closed for a while in order that the supply of metal might be renewed. The fertility of Mother Earth forms the subject of one of the illustrations in _The Twelve Keys_ of “Basil Valentine” (see § 41). We reproduce it in plate 3, fig. A. Regarding this subject, the author writes: “The quickening power of the earth produces all things that grow forth from it, and he who says that the earth has no life makes a statement which is flatly contradicted by the most ordinary facts. For what is dead cannot produce life and growth, seeing that it is devoid of the quickening spirit. This spirit is the life and soul that dwell in the earth, and are nourished by heavenly and sidereal influences. For all herbs, trees, and roots, and all metals and minerals, receive their growth and nutriment from the spirit of the earth, which is the spirit of life. This spirit is itself fed by the stars, and is thereby rendered capable of imparting nutriment to all things that grow, and of nursing them as a mother does her child while it is yet in the womb. The minerals are hidden in the womb of the earth, and nourished by her with the spirit which she receives from above.