Bologna'lı Thomas'a Cevap: İlk Madde Üzerine

Whoever wants to know things must know them by their causes, because experience which is not preceded by knowledge easily deceives. Now it is the theory of science that gives us a perfect knowledge of this practice before we put our hand to the work. To begin, and to come to the point, just as Water which by its nature is cold and humid, if it is mixed with vegetables, receives entirely different qualities in the decoction; it receives the quality of the things with which it is mixed. In the very same way, argent vif (quicksilver or mercury), being mixed with things that are familiar to it, it receives another nature and quality, just as being joined to the Sun (Gold), it receives the qualities of gold or the Sun; if to the Moon (Silver), those of the Moon. And this is why these species must be cooked in it, and this Mercury is their water, which being altered successively receives their qualities. This water takes their nature no more nor less than vegetables cooked in simple elemental water, which is their first matter and nourishment, as it is for animals and things that have feeling. And similarly, Quicksilver is the matter of all metals, and is like water compared to animals and vegetables, and receives the virtue of the things that adhere to it and are mixed in its decoction. From this it follows that being very cold, it can be made very hot in a short time. And now, as you say very well, there is no metal that is so adherent to it as Gold. This is why, as some believe, Gold is nothing other than a Quicksilver coagulated by the virtue of its sulfur.