made known, which they cal a property, being the vertue of washing engendred in the compound: but when the grauity of the compound passeth his bounds, either by addition or diminution, y^e vertue itself breaketh the limits of equality, & becõmeth contrary, according to y^e distẽperãce of the cõpound. And this thou must vnderstãd to happen in the cõposition of our mastery. CHAP. I. Of the foure Masteries, or principall works of the Art, to wit, solution, congelation, _albification, and rubification_. Now begin I to speake of the great worke which they call Alchimy, wherein I will confirme my woordes, without concealing ought, or keeping backe any thing, saue that which is not conuenient to bee vttered or named. We say then that the great work contained in it foure masteries (as the Philosophers before vs haue affirmed) that is to say, to dissolue, to congeale, to make white and red. And these foure quantities are partakers, whereof two of them are partakers betweene themselues, and so likewise are the other two. And either of these double quãtities hath another quantity partaker, which is a greater quantity partaker after these two. I vnderstand by these quantities, the quantitie of the natures, and weight of the medicines which are orderly dissolued and congealed, wherin neither addition nor diminution haue any place. But these two, to wit, solution and congelation, shal be in one operation, and shall make but one worke, and that before composition: but after composition, their works shall bee diuers. And this solution and congelation which wee haue spoken of, are the solution of the bodie, and the congelation of the Spirite, and they are two, yet haue but one operation. For the Spirites are not congealed, except the bodies bee dissolued, as likewise the bodies is not dissolued, vnlesse the spirit be cõgealed: & when the soule & the body are ioyned togither, either of them worketh in his companion made like vnto him: as for example, when water is put to earth, it striueth to dissolue the earth by the moisture, vertue and propertie which it hath, making it more subtile then it was before, and bringing it to be like it selfe: for the water was more subtile then the earth: and thus doth the soule worke in the bodie, and after the same manner is the water thickened with the earth, and becommeth like vnto the earth in thicknesse, for the earth is more thicke then the water. And thou must knowe that betweene the solution of the bodie, and congelation of the spirit, there is no distance of time or diuerse work, as though one should be without the other, as there is no difference of time in the coniunction of the earth, and water, that one might be knowne & discerned from the other in their operations: but they haue both one instant, and one fact, and one and the same worke conteineth them both at once before composition: I say before composition, least he that shall read this booke, and heare the names