The uninitiated read with amazement in many alchemists that “our subjectum,” that is, the material to be worked upon, is also identical with the vessel, the still, the philosopher’s egg, etc. That becomes intelligible now. Hitchcock writes (H. A., p. 117) very pertinently: “The work of the alchemists was one of contemplation and not a work of the hands. Their alembic, furnace, cucurbit, retort, philosophical egg, etc., etc., in which the work of fermentation, distillation, extraction of essences and spirits and the preparation of salts is said to have taken place was Man,—yourself, friendly reader,—and if you will take yourself into your own study and be candid and honest, acknowledging no other guide or authority but Truth, you may easily discover something of hermetic philosophy; and if at the beginning there should be ‘fear and trembling’ the end may be a more than compensating peace.” The alchemist Alipili (H. A., p. 34) writes: “The highest wisdom consists in this, for man to know himself, because in him God has placed his eternal Word.... Therefore let the high inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of nature learn first to know what they have in themselves, and by the divine power within them let them first heal themselves and transmute their own souls, ... if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee. If thou knowest not the excellency of thine house, why dost thou seek and search after the excellency of other things? The universal Orb of the world contains not so great mysteries and excellences as does a little man formed by God in his own image. And he who desires the primacy amongst the students of nature, will nowhere find a greater or better field of study than himself. Therefore will I here follow the example of the Egyptians and ... from certain true experience proclaim, O Man, know thyself; in thee is hid the treasure of treasures.” A seminalist has concluded from this that the prima materia is semen, a stercoralist, that it is dung. George Ripley describes the subject of the philosopher’s stone as follows: “For as of one mass was made the thing, Right must it so in our praxis be, All our secrets of one image must spring; In philosophers’ books therefore who wishes may see, Our stone is called the less-world, one and three.” The stone is therefore the world in little, the microcosm, man; one, a unity, three, [Symbol: Mercury] mercury, [Symbol: Sulphur] sulphur, [Symbol: Salt] salt, or spirit, soul, body. Dichotomy also appears, mercury and sulphur, which can then generally be rendered soul and body. One author says, “We must choose such minerals as consist of a living mercury and a living sulphur; work it gently, not with haste and hurry.” [Cf. Tabula Smaragdina 9, “suaviter” ...]