Dissolution
THE FOURTH TREATISE OF THE MEANS BY WHICH NATURE ATTAINS HER ENDS
ARISTOTLE in the Book of Origins speaks thus: “SUN and Man create a Man, for the Sun’s force and spirit give life, and the process has to begone through seven times, by means of the Sun’s heat.”
But as the Philosophers in their work have to aid Nature with Art, so have they also to govern the heat according to the Sun, so as to create the before-mentioned Stone, which as well has to undergo seven processes. For such a work requires:
SECONDLY: The Heat is necessary, because through its power the earth becomes freed from darkness and blessed with light instead. In regard to which SENIOR says: that heat turns every black thing white, and every white thing red. So, as water bleaches, fire gives off light, and also colour to the subtilized earth, which appears like a Ruby, through the tinging Spirit she receives from the force of the fire, thus causing SOCRATES to say: that a peculiar light shall be seen in the darkness.
Jupiter
Seven Stages
