Transactis annis Arabum sexcentis et duobus, rogasti me de quibusdam secretis. [_Accipe igitur lapidem[357] et calcina ipsum_] assatione leni et contritione forti sive cum rebus acutis. [Sed _in fine parum commisce de aqua dulci; et medicinam laxativam[358] compone de_] septem rebus ... vel de quot vis; sed quiescit animus meus in [_duabus rebus quarum proportio melior est in sesquialtera proportione_[359]] vel circiter, sicut te potest docere experientia. [_Resolve_[360]] tamen aurum[361] [_ad ignem et mollius calefac_]. Sed si mihi credas, accipias unam rem, hoc est secretum secretorum, et naturæ potens miraculum. [_Mixto[362] igitur ex_] duobus, aut ex pluribus, aut [_Phœnice_[363]], quod est animal singulare, [_adjunge, et incorpora per fortem motum; cui si liquor calidus adhibeatur,[364] habebis propositum ultimum_[365]]. Sed postea cœlestis natura debilitatur si aquam infundis ter vel quater. Divide igitur, debile a forti in vasis diversis,[366] si mihi credas. [_Evacuato[367] igitur quod bonum est._] Iterum adhibe pulverem, et aquam quæ remansit diligentur exprime, nam pro certo partes pulveris deducet non incorporatas. Et ideo illam aquam per se collige, quia pulvis exsiccatus ab ea habet incorporari medicinæ laxitivæ.... [_Regyra cum pistillo,[368] et congrega materiam ut potes, et aquam sepera paulatim_] et redibit at statum. Quam aquam exsiccabis, nam continet pulverem[369] et aquam medicinæ, quæ sunt incorporanda sicut pulvis principalis. The phrases within brackets, which constitute the recipe, will be found collected together and translated in their proper place in Chap. II. It would be presumptuous to suggest that the foregoing solution of Bacon’s Argyle steganogram is free from error; but I may express a hope that the errors are few and inconsiderable—a hope founded upon the completeness of the method disclosed. Whatever errors may be found, there can at least be little doubt that the occult meaning of the two chapters is the refining of saltpetre. One sentence, two sentences, or even more, might be selected from the description of almost any long chemical process which would apply with equal propriety to some other process; but it is incredible that a long, varied, and connected process, such as the refining of saltpetre, could be extracted by any method from documents professedly devoted to the philosopher’s stone, unless this process had been designedly inserted there, piecemeal or whole, by the author himself. For the figurative interpretation given of two or three words and phrases, we have Bacon’s own warrant. He threatened to employ _verba œnigmatica_ and _verba figurativa_, and he has been taken at his word; with the result that a rational chemical process has been extracted from what was previously unintelligible. Having said all he had to say about the ingredients, Bacon proceeds to deal with their mixture in Chap. XI., in which he employs a cryptic method without disguise:— CAP. XI.