“In some time I met my good friend and told all my mishaps, hoping that he would supply me as before; but he, considering that my failures had made me wise, would not trust me with more, lest I should pluck the Hesperian tree as I chose for my own and other men’s hurt. He said to me, ‘Friend, if God elects you to this art, He will in due time bestow the knowledge of it; but if in His wisdom He judge you unfit, or that you would do mischief with it, accursed be that man who would arm a maniac to the harm of his fellow-creatures. While you were ignorant, I gave you a great gift, so that, if Heaven ordained, the gift should destroy itself. I see it is not right you should enjoy it at present; what providence denies I cannot give you, or I should be guilty of your misconduct.’ “I confess this lesson of divinity did not please me; as I hoped so much from him, his answer was a disappointment. He further said that God had granted me knowledge, but withheld the fruit of it for the present. “Then I gave him to understand how I had discovered the skill of the water, ‘by which, in time, I may obtain what you deny, and which I am resolved to attempt.’ “‘If so, then,’ he replied, ‘attend to what I say, and you may bless God for it. Know that we are severely bound by strong vows never to supply any man by our art who might confound the world, if he held it at will; and all the evil he does is left at the door of that adept who is so imprudent. Consider what a prize you had both of the _stone_ and of the _mercury_. Would not any one say that he must be mad that would throw it all away without profit? “‘Had you been guided by reason you might have enough of what I gave you. Your method was to add to the purest _gold_ but a grain of the _stone_; in fusion it would unite to it, and then you might go about the work with your _mercury_, which would speedily mix with that gold and greatly shorten the work, which you might easily govern to the _red_; and as you saw how I wedded new _gold_ to _such sulphur_ and _mercury_, you saw the weight, time, and heat, what more could you have wished? And seeing you know the art of preparing the _fiery mercury_, you might have as much store as any one.