AvicenneAvicenna in his bookebook of the SouleSoul diversdiverse times admonishethadmonishes, that noeno -
eggs are to be taken for art, but onelyonly of those hennshens, which had a cock:
that is, the fæmininefeminine subject avaylesavails nothing without the masculine -
virtue, and on the contrary, nor a cockecock profitable without a hennehen:
for both these sexes must be joyndjoined together in the PhilosophicallPhilosophical coupecoop,
that multiplication may be made: The Philosophers doedo indeed use
the similitude taken from a cockecock, because in the first place heehe is -
more correspondent to the power of Sulphur, than any other male of
birds, one being able to serve many hennshens, and not easily suffering a
rivallrival in the same dunghill, thinking himselfehimself convenient and suffi=
cient for everyone. HeeHe is the bird of Mars, transformdtransformed, as the Poets
fable, from the youth Gallus, who was entrusted to observe Sol, that -
heehe might not discover the adultery of Mars with Venus, and very
MartiallMartial in fight, contending with his adversary even to death: In -
the PhilosophicallPhilosophical workework heehe repræsentsrepresents Sol, as the hennehen dothdoes Luna:
there is therefore the same necessity of joyningjoining Sol with Luna, as a -
cockecock with a hennehen: The cockecock is allsoalso consecrated to Sol, at whose -
approach heehe risethrises, and goes to sleep with him: heehe often looks up to -
heaven, and erects his hooked tayletail upright: heehe fights against Serpents in
defencedefense of his hennshens: heehe is an acceptable messenger of light and Latona -
being præsentpresent at her labourlabor: Latona indeed brought forth Sol and Luna,
and therefore heehe is appropriated to the mother and SonneSon: But Sol, -
Luna, and Latona doedo in ChymicallChymical subjects agree, soeso allsoalso the cockecock
and hennehen: but these allsoalso procededproceeded from an eggeegg, and againeagain doedo -
lay eggs for the production of young chickens; soeso allsoalso doedo the Philoso=
phers eggs turneturn into birds of the same kind, provided they be kept -
warmewarm with temperate heat, as is the heat of a brooding hennehen, which
endures continually: For whereas amongst other birds the male allsoalso
sittssits upon the eggs, the cockecock alone shewsshows himselfehimself free from this
office or burthenburden; and therefore all the care and pains of hatching the
eggs, and producing chickens lyeslies upon the hennehen; where her sedulity
and diligence may be observed, how hastily SheeShe eats and drinks, and
unloads her belly, and presently runnsruns backeback to her eggs, before they be -
cold: Then with what force and violence SheeShe defends her chickens,
with what tendernessetenderness SheeShe receives and covers them being naked under
her wings, with what a voycevoice, as with a bell, SheeShe calls and keeps them -
together, with what study SheeShe breaks the harder crumscrumbs or seeds for -
them, and præsentspresents them with her beakebeak, as on a knife, this workework of -
nature is worthy of admiration. And all these things are, that man
may neither want eggs nor chickens for aliment: After the same man=
ner the Philosopher or artist dothdoes most diligently and

providently -
proceed in all his operations; For heehe picks up eggs there where a cockecock -
hathhas been, trying them whether they be addle, after that heehe cleansethcleanses -
præparesprepares, and disposethdisposses them in his vessellsvessels, as nests, and administers due
heat, whereby the subjects mixdmixed together daily act and suffer one by -
another, till after a long time passing through various colourscolors they come
to one colourcolor and essenceessense: In which operation Solution, coagulation,
Sublimation, ascension, descension, distillation, calcination and fixion
as intermediate are perfected: for a hard and compact thing cannot -
be altered, therefore Solution is præmisedpremised, that is may be made liquid
and soft: and where a thing is dissolved, it is convenient allsoalso to be -
coagulated, not to its former hardnessehardness but a honyishhoneyish tractability; -
Sublimation separates the pure from the impure, and makes a thing
vile more worthy, the inferiourinferior superioursuperior; and therefore this nei=
ther ought to be wanting, for it is as the mistressemistress and directressedirectness -
of all: when sublimation is made, some parts ascend higher, which
is ascension, and others againeagain descend, and soeso descension is made:
Distillation allsoalso clarifyesclarifies the whole being often interposed, and that
which remaynesremains in the bottomebottom is calcined: then both are fixed, and
soeso the workework is completed. But if a man gather all these parti=
cular operations under a generallgeneral, which is Coction, heehe will not -
erreerr much from the purpose: for as soeso many chickens as there are,
which runnerun here and there dispersedly, doedo resort to one mother or
nurcenurse the hennehen, soeso doedo soeso many severallseveral wayesways of operating con=
curreconcur to the womans workework, that is, coction alone: It is Luna, which -
comes to be exalted to the sublimity of Sol, for whose sake all these
things are done, that is, durable matrimony is intended between Sol -
and Luna, which if effected, all legations, desponsations, copulations,
dubitatious, etc. will cease, and the bed and flesh of both will be one,
mutuallmutual and constant love, æternalleternal peace, and an indissoluble alli=
ance: Sol without Luna is of noeno great esteemeesteem, and Luna without
Sol of meanemean and sordid condition: But SheeShe receives splendoursplendor, and
dignity, with strength or constancy of mind and body from Sol her -
husband, and Sol from Luna multiplication of offspring, and pro=
pagation of kind: hereupon SaythSays the Rosary: If onelyonly one of them -
Should be in our stone, the medicine would never flow easily, nor, -
yeildyield the tincture, and if it should yeildyield, it would not tinge, unlesseunless
for soeso much as allsoalso the remainder would be, and the Mercury would
evaporate in fume, because the receptacle of the tincture would not
be in it: And Geber in his bookebook of examinations proves, that if Sol -
and Luna be incorporated together with art, they are not easily -
separated . . . . . . . . . . . .