The opinion or flattery of men attributes wonderfullwonderful births to some -
persons above others, but certainly fabulous, as to Alexander the great,
begotten not by Philip King of Macedonia, but Jupiter Hammon; to -
Romulus and Remus, by Mars; to Plato, borneborn of the virgin Perictione
violated by the image of Apollo: soeso the Heathen would demonstrate
themselves to proceed from the Gods, as allsoalso Thessalus the SonneSon of Hippo=
crates the PhysitianPhysician dothdoes amongst other things endeavourendeavor to perswadepersuade -
himselfehimself to descend from Apollo at Athens: but weewe cannot easily beleivebelieve
them, who know, that they were neither men nor Gods, to whomewhom they
referrerefer the originalloriginal of their lineage: And if the Heroes were amongst
men as divine, weewe conceive all those magnificent actions boasted in -
the world, through the adulation of Subjects, disciples, or others, were things
faignedfeigned of them, and insinuated into the opinion of the vulgar by -
forged writings: The thing is different, that the Philosophers ascribe an unusu=
allunsual conception and nativity to their SonneSon; for heehe hathhas something peculiar -
above all other things borneborn in the world, heehe being conceivdconceived in baths, and
borneborn in the aireair. WeeWe know that women being barren through overmuch
coldnessecoldness and siccity may be much helped by hotthot baths, soeso as to be made
able and fittfit for conception, but that it should be done in baths is a thing
unheard of: that seems to appertaineappertain to him alone, by reason of the won=
derfullwonderful power of nature farrefar different from other things. They elswhereelsewhere say,
that heehe must be conceivdconceived in the bottomebottom of the vessellvessel, and borneborn in the -
AlembickeAlembic: which opinion is more conspicuous: For the waters of baths, if -
there be any, will not be at the top, nor in the midlemiddle, but in the bottomebottom of
the vessellvessel, and in the AlembickeAlembic are airy vapoursvapors: where therefore con=
ception is made, heehe ascends into the AlembickeAlembic, and his birth appears in a
white colourcolor: BlacknesseBlackness rules in the bottomebottom, concerning which saythsays the
Rosary; Conception is, when the earth is dissolved into a blackeblack pouderpowder, and
begins to retaineretain somewhat of the Mercury; for then the male acts upon
the female, that is, Azoth upon the earth. And a little after: Conception -
and desponsation is made in putrefaction in the bottomebottom of the vessellvessel,
and the generation of things generated will be made in the aireair, to wittwit,
in the head of the vessellvessel, that is, the AlembickeAlembic: And conception in
baths is nothing elselse but putrefaction in dung: for soeso the same Rosary
continuethcontinues: The body dosdoes nothing, unlesseunless it be putrefydputrified, and it cannot
be putrefydputrefied, except with Mercury: And soonesoon after: Putrefaction

must
be effected with a most gentle heat of warmewarm and moist dung, and by
noeno other thing, soeso that nothing ascend, because if any thing should
ascend, there would be a separation of the parts, which ought not to be,
till the male and female be perfectly joyndjoined together, and one re=
ceive the other, the signesign of which perfect solution is blacknesseblackness in -
the superficies. His birth is white, which is consummated at the top
of mountains, that is, in the aireair or AlembickeAlembic; which is by Rosinus to
Euthicia thus explained: The wise man saydsaid. Take things out of their
mynesmines, and exalt them to higher places, and send them from the top
of their mountains, and reduce them to their roots: And afterwards: But
by mountains heehe signifydsignified Cucurbits, and by the tops of mountains
AlembicksAlembic: and to send is according to similitude to receive the water
of them by an AlembickeAlembic in a Receiver: and to reduce to the roots, is to
that, from which they proceed: and heehe named Cucurbits mountains,
because Sol and Luna are found in mountains: soeso allsoalso in the moun=
tains, which are Cucurbits, are their Sol and Luna generated: These
are his words: Afterwards heehe becomes red, and begins to goego upon the
waters, that is, upon metallsmetals melted by fire, which stand in the formeform
of a mercuriallmercurial water: For heehe is the lord of waters, upon which
heehe exercisethexercises authority, as Neptune, and is the king of the Sea,
and the possessor of mountains. Of Xerxes King of Persia they -
report, that being upon an expedition into Greece, heehe sent an -
embassy to the Sea, and to the mountainemountain Athos, that they would
doedo him noeno wrong, that by the force of waves, this of fire, other=
wise that heehe would take revenge upon them both: But the tale -
was told to them that were deafedeaf, and the Sea drowned some of his
ships, and Athos destroyddestroyed not a few by fire. Hereupon the King be=
ing angry, did, as lord of the Sea and mountains, coḿandcommand a cer=
tainecertain number of stripes to be inflicted upon the first, and a great
part of the mountainemountain heehe cast into the sea: but these things doedo
demonstrate the rashnesserashness rather than the prudence of soeso great a
king: HeeHe, of whomewhom weewe speakespeak, purgethpurges all waters from obstacles; -
and impurityesimpurities, not by edict, but fact, and freely passethpasses through them,
which allsoalso (which is more) heehe congealethcongeals, soeso as by their hardnessehardness to
bear his chariots, in which ships sayldsailed before: HeeHe makes mountains
æquallequal with vallyesvalleys, and fears not the flames of fire, and therefore
goes freely wheresoever heehe please, from the pillars of Hercules in
the farthest parts of India, to the pillars of Dionysius . . . .