solid Substance of the Metal could penetrate or force itself thro’ the ponderous Mass of the hard Stone, into the Veins that are found pregnant with Metal and loaded with it. Nor is it less difficult to conceive by what Way the same Metal secretly passes into those concealed Places, if it was liquid in its first Origin, as it is highly probable that it was. And thus the genuine Matrix of Metal is known; the Heat of the Metallic Mines is also known: It seldom equals the Warmth of a Man in Health, but often sinks below the 66ᵗʰ Degree in the Scale of _Farenheitius_’s Thermometer. Hence they who are versed in these Mysteries direct, That the breeding Matter of the _Arcanum_ should be inclosed in a pure Glass Vessel, and cherish’d with a _Majal Heat_; which we find, by Experience, to be of 50 Degrees. And this has been found out to be at a Medium throughout the Year, by the most exact Observations; which we owe to the industrious Care of _Cruquius_. The Food of the Metal remains yet more obscure as to what is that seminal, proliferous and genital Matter. Most of these Philosophers say, That Quicksilver is the common Matter of all Metals: That this being changed by the Power of the vital Seed, gives a Metal which is defined or determined according to the peculiar Property of the seminal Efficacy: That every Metal, when the Quicksilver and this Metallific Power (which they call Sulphur) are maturely and, as it were, thoroughly boil’d and concocted, is brought to a perfect Species of each such Metal. And from hence, That every Metal is again resolved into these two Principles, Mercury and Sulphur. But that there is an original Flaw or Blemish inherent in Quicksilver from its first Production, that wonderfully grows up with it, and is intimately concreted to it, and therefore not without the greatest Difficulty to be separated from it; and consequently the Quicksilver wou’d not be very simple, nor free, but is by that strange Matter inherent in it, of a definite Nature, and therefore wou’d hardly suffer itself to be obsequious to the particular Virtue of the Metallic Seed, and be drawn into the single Nature of one Metal: But if by a most difficult Art, the Quicksilver be thoroughly purged of that foreign Blemish or Foulness, then it would become liquid, metallic, most weighty, and most simple; neither by any Art or Nature divisible into different Things; and in which the vivified Seed of every dissolved Metal wou’d most perfectly multiply itself; in which the Gold itself dissolving, being cherish’d and maturated, wou’d be the last so much sought for, and so much celebrated Reward of the Labour.