"Know ye then, O Sons of Science, there are seven bodies, of which gold is the first, the most perfect, the king of them, and their head, which neither the earth can corrupt nor fire devastate, nor the water change for its complexion is equalized, and its nature regulated with respect to heat, cold and moisture; nor is there anything in it which is superfluous, therefore the philosophers do buoy up and magnify themselves in it, saying that this gold, in relation to other bodies is, as the sun amongst the stars, more splendid in Light; and as, by the power of God, every vegetable and all the fruits of the earth are perfected, so gold by the same power sustaineth all.
"For as dough without a ferment cannot be fermented so when thou sublimest the body and purifiest it, separating the uncleanness from it, thou wilt then conjoin and mix them together, and put in the ferment confecting the earth and water. Then will the Ixir ferment even as dough doth ferment. Think of this,
and see how the ferment in this case doth change the former natures to another thing. Observe also, that there is no ferment otherwise than from the dough itself.
"Observe, moreover, that the ferment whitens the confection and hinders it from turning, and holds the tincture lest it should fly, and rejoice the bodies, and makes them intimately to join and to enter one into another, and this is the key of the philosophers and the end of their work, and by this science, bodies are meliorated, and the operation of them, God assisting, is consummate.
"But, through negligence and a false opinion of the matter, the operation may be perverted, as a mass of leaven growing corrupt, or milk turned with rennet for cheese, and musk among aromatics.
"The sure colour of the golden matter for the red, and the nature thereof, is not sweetness; therefore we make of them sericum--i.e., Ixir; and of them we make the enamel of which we have already written, and with the king's seal we have tinged the clay, and in that have set the colour of heaven, which augments the sight of them that see.
"The Stone, therefore, is the most precious gold without spots, evenly tempered, which neither fire, nor air, nor water, nor earth is able to corrupt; for it is the Universal Ferment rectifying all things in a medium composition, whose complexion is yellow and a true citrine colour.
"The gold of the wise, boiled and well digested, with a fiery water, makes Ixir, for the gold of the wise is more heavy than lead, which in a temperate composition
is a ferment Ixir, and contrariwise, in our intemperate composition, is the confusion of the whole.
"For the work begins from the vegetable, next from the animal, as in a hen's egg, in which is the greatest help, and our earth is gold, all of which we make sericum, which is the ferment Ixir."