Lead, the saturnine ancestor, and the paradox of gold’s perfection

“ Metals, too, were credited with medicinal virtues corresponding [187] with their names or with the deities and planets with which they had been so long associated. The sun ruled the heart, gold was the sun’s metal, therefore gold was especially a cordial. The moon, silver, and the head were similarly associated. Iron was a tonic because Mars was strong.
“Have a care,” says Culpepper, “you use not such medicines to one part of your body which are appropriated to another; for if your brain be overheated and you use such medicines as cool the heart or liver you may make mad work.” ”

“ And here again was assumed not ordinary sulphur, but a fancied perfect sulphur—the "sulphur of the philosophers."
Again the seven metals were associated with the seven planets of the ancients—gold with the sun, silver with the moon, copper with Venus, lead with Saturn, iron with Mars, mercury with Mercury, tin with Jupiter, and these planets were supposed to exert influences upon the generation and development or perfection of the metals in the earth. The base metals were often supposed to be undergoing a gradual development toward perfection. ”

“ The alchemists regarded gold as the most perfect metal, silver being considered more perfect than the rest. The reason of this view is not difficult to understand: gold is the most beautiful of all the metals, and it retains its beauty without tarnishing; it resists the action of fire and most corrosive liquids, and is unaffected by sulphur ”

“ The alchemists held that the metals are one in essence, and spring from the same seed in the womb of nature, but are not all equally matured and perfect, gold being the highest product of Nature’s powers. In gold, the alchemist saw a picture of the regenerate man, resplendent with spiritual beauty, overcoming all temptations and proof against evil; whilst he regarded lead—the basest of the metals—as typical of the sinful and unregenerate man, stamped with the hideousness of sin and easily overcome by temptation and evil ”

“ Gold, the most perfect of the Metals, by touching the four sides of the square, argueth its great perfection: Silver is not far from the perfection of Gold. And among the rest of the Metals, Argent-vive, Iron, and Copper have the half, but Lead and Tin only the fourth degree of perfection. ”

“ Lapis calaminaris, Lead, Tin, Iron and Copper, to be purged from their superfluous sulphur, if thou wilt draw more perfect metals, viz. Gold and Silver out of them with gain. And so I make an end of metallick lotions; recommending to Chymists, Nitre, Tartar, Flints and Lead; for who knoweth to use them, shall not lose his labour in Chymistry; but ’tis to be lamented, that every where good earth and fixt in the fire, is not to be gotten, retaining Lead and Salts; for without our old Saturn little or nothing can be done in refining metals ”

“ When, for instance, a Refiner mingles Gold and Lead, and exposing this Mixture upon a Cuppell to the violence of the fire, thereby separates it into pure and resulgent Gold and Lead ( which driven off together with the Dross of the Gold is thence call'd Lithargyrium Auri ) can any man doubt that sees thest two so differing substances separated from the Mass, that they were existent in it before it was committed to the fire. ”

“ An error, Messire Jacques! None of your formulas end in reality. Alchemy on the other hand has its discoveries. Will you contest results like this? Ice confined beneath the earth for a thousand years is transformed into rock crystals. Lead is the ancestor of all metals. For gold is not a metal, gold is light. Lead requires only four periods of two hundred years each, to pass in succession from the state of lead, to the state of red arsenic, from red arsenic to tin, from tin to silver. ”

“ All Philosophers do suppose, that the Heart in Saturn is better than that in Gold it self, and for that reason do they call Lead a Leaprous Gold, and say, that if it could be mundified by a true washing, some great matter would proceed thereout of. Many Men have very much busied themselves about this washing, but yet have not attained unto ought else, save that they have brought the Saturn into a white, fugacious, and liquid Body, concerning which labour I have made mention in this Treatise of metallick Cates and Sawces, and also in the third Part of the Prosperity of Germany. ”

“ Every chemist and every artist will make gold; kitchen utensils will be of silver, and even gold, which will contribute more than anything else to prolong life, poisoned at present by the oxides of copper, lead, and iron, which we daily swallow with our food. ”

“ The facts that pieces of silver were found in tin and lead mines, and gold was found in silver mines, were adduced as proofs that, as the author of The New Pearl of Great Price says, "Nature is continually at work changing other metals into gold, because, though in a certain sense they are complete in themselves, they have not yet reached the highest perfection of which they are capable, and to which nature has destined them." What nature did in the earth man could accomplish in the workshop. For is not man the crown of the world, the masterpiece of nature, the flower of the universe ”

“ Gold was looked upon as the most perfect metal, and all other metals imperfect, because not yet "purified." By some alchemists they were regarded as lepers, who, when cured of their leprosy, would become gold. And since nature intended that all things should be perfect, it was the aim of the alchemist to assist her in this purifying process, and incidentally to gain wealth and prolong his life. ”

“ If the base metals are not gold, it is only through some accidental hindrance; they are-all potentially gold. But, of course, this seed of gold is most easily obtainable from well-matured gold itself.... Remember that I am now speaking of metallic seed, and not of Mercury.... The seed of metals is hidden out of sight still more completely than that of animals; nevertheless, it is within the compass of our Art to extract it. The seed of animals and vegetables is something separate, and may be cut out, or otherwise separately exhibited ”

“ Now, as I have pointed out already, the central theorem of mystical theology is, in Christian terminology, that of the regeneration of the soul by the Spirit of CHRIST. The corresponding process in alchemy is that of the transmutation of the "base" metals into silver and gold by the agency of the Philosopher's Stone. Merely to remove the evil sulphur of the "base" metals, thought the alchemists, though necessary, is not sufficient to transmute them into "noble" metals; a maturing process is essential, similar to that which they supposed was effected in Nature's womb. ”

“ Wherefore those Chemists are fools [76] who think that nature's will is to perfect all metals into gold; she might as well be making ready to change all stones to diamonds, since diamond surpasses all in splendour and hardness, because gold excels in splendour, gravity, and density, being invincible against all deterioration. Iron as dug up is therefore, like iron that has been smelted, a metal, differing a little indeed from the primary homogenic terrestrial body, owing to the metallick humour it has imbibed ”

“ The work of nature is assisted by alchemy, which mingles ripe gold with quicksilver, the gold comprising in itself a well-digested sulphur, by which it matures the mercury to the “anatide proportion” of gold, subtilising the elements and wonderfully abbreviating the natural process for producing the precious metal of the mines.
JOHN FONTAINE.
The life of this artist is buried in the obscurity of his closet or laboratory, where he divided his time between attention to his furnaces and the composition of curious verses. He was alive at Valenciennes in the year 1413. ”

“ Fire melts, water changes the color or disintegrates, air hardens, and earth darkens. To make brass of gold, or gold of brass is not impossible if one might know what would break down the dissimilarity between them.”
“Then why do you not keep trying until you find the secret?”
The alchemist drew a long breath. “There are things that interest me more. Though I am an alchemist I am much concerned with the spirit which is behind material things. I would learn if life itself is a matter of substance, if there is not the same difference between man and man that there is between metal and metal. ”

“ Electrolysis. When gold is dissolved in a solution of potassium cyanide, and the solution electrolyzed, the gold is deposited in very pure condition on the cathode.
2. Cupellation. When the gold is alloyed with easily oxidizable metals, such as copper or lead, it may be refined by cupellation. The alloy is fused with an oxidizing flame on a shallow hearth made of bone ash, which substance has the property of absorbing metallic oxides but not the gold. Any silver which may be present remains alloyed with the gold.
3. Parting with sulphuric acid. ”

“ Now that fire do’s not alwayes barely separate the Elementary parts, but sometimes at least alter also the Ingredients of Bodies, if I did not expect ere long a better occasion to prove it, I might make probable out of your very Instance, wherein there is nothing Elementary separated by the great violence of the Refiners fire: the Gold and Lead which are the two Ingredients separated upon the Analysis being confessedly yet perfectly mixt Bodies, and the Litharge being Lead indeed; but such Lead as is differing in consistence and other Qualities from what it was before. ”

“ Just as those who refine gold from the dross which it contains not only get this base alloy to melt in the fire, but are obliged to melt the pure gold along with the alloy, and then while this last is being consumed the gold remains, so, while evil is being consumed in the purgatorial [102] fire, the soul that is welded to this evil must inevitably be in the fire too, until the spurious material alloy is consumed and annihilated by this fire. ”

“ A Miner finding the oar of copper, useth his skill delivered by the ancients to his utmost endeavour, whereby he may cleanse it and reduce it to metal: where first he breaks it into pieces, and boyls it, for to take away the superfluous sulphur, then by vertue of melting, he brings it into a stone (so called) which afterward again he commits to fire, and freeth it by the addition of lead, of its gold and silver ”

“ Whosoever he be that hath seen or experienced somewhat in metals, knows, that the separation of the more excellent metals from the more vile, is to be done by the benefit of the Fire: for if so be that Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Lead, Tin, should be melted together into one mass, and you would separate them by the Fire the one from the other; this cannot be done any other way, but by adding to that mixture some other adventitious and destructive thing whereby the baser metals may be dissipated and deprived of their metallick form, of which sort is common Sulphur and such-like ”

“ The gold procured by the refining process with lead, is free from copper and lead, but it may contain iron, tin, or silver. It cannot be separated from iron and tin without great difficulty, and expense, if the proportion of gold be too small to admit of the employment of muriatic acid. ”

“ That Metalls have an enmity, and hate one the other naturally, as you see in Lead, which is naturally a very great enemy to Gold. For it breaks asunder all parts of Gold, it makes it foule, weak, spoiles, and destroyes it even to death, more then any other Metall.
Tin also hates, and is an enemy to all Metalls: for it makes them base, immalleable, hard, unprofitable, if it bee mixed with them in the fire, or in melting. ”

“ But seeing they are ignorant of the natures of metals and their properties, and know not how to do any thing, they cannot become masters of their wishes. Now in this extraction, there is a two-fold cause presents it self, viz. Sympathy, and Antipathy. The gold by reason of the kin and amity30 it hath with the lead, draws thencefrom unto it self the spiritual silver; and because of an inbred hatred it has to salt, it drives away the same from it self. ”

“ Yes, Matter Doctor, You now have within your hand, the most pretious Treasure in the World. For this is the true Stone of Philosophers, than which, no Man ever had a better, nor shall have any other. And I my self did elaborate the Composition, from beginning to end. If you have another convenient Chamber, I will Shew you Metal transmuted into Gold, by such a Stone as this (When I had brought him into another Chamber.) Behold (said he) these five Pendants, were, by the benefit of this Philosophick Tincture, prepared of Saturn, or Lead ”

“ But know this, that not every tryal of lead will be furnished with gold, but the oar to be ever enriched with silver, experience being witness.
Many such things are found in Nature incredible to the ignorant, and those that are unexercised. But if we mortals were more diligent in reading the book written with the hand of God in the pages of the four Elements, surely we should Find more secrets and wonders in them, but skill and wealth is got with sweat of face and not by sloth; therefore labour and pray. Metals are also meliorated by the help of gradation like to germination. ”

“ Point X. Every imperfect Metal, without the mixture of other Metals, may be ripened by this Secret alone in the fire, in an hours space, so that it will yield Gold and Silver, but without profit; an indication that the viler Metals, may by Art be promoted into the Nature of the perfect, to the great profit of Metallurgists. ”

“ For the Saturn is not dissolved by the Spirit of Salt, but onely swells up, and becomes foliated, and yet remains whole or entire, nor is it much unlike unto lovely lookt Talk, which shines with a delicate whiteness: and therefore the Philosophers say, sow your Gold in white foliated Earth. Without doubt they meant not common Gold, for then they would not have said, our Gold, but would have simply said onely Gold, had they not intended a peculiar Gold, or first Ens of Gold. ”