Lycurgus that Law=-makerLawmaker of the Spartans ShewedShowed to the people in -
an assembly in the Theater by an ocular example, how farrefar customecustom
and use whether good or evillevil may prævayleprevail, heehe bringing in two whelps
produced at one litter, and between both setting a pottpot full of meat, -
and a hare, one of which whelps seeing the food and the hare, left
the food and pursudpursued the hare, because heehe was soeso accustomed, but
the other not regarding the hare, emptyedemptied the pottpot, heehe being allsoalso -
soeso accustomed: which being done, behold, saythsays heehe, here you see by
little ones, how farrefar education and customecustom may prævayleprevail, even in those,
which nature hathhas produced exactly alike, and of the same litter: After
this manner therefore is it convenient to rectify or direct nature to bet=
ter things, which is as wax, easily flexible to vice or virtue. That -
which heehe hathhas demonstrated to be true in politickspolitics, the Philosophers
doedo agree to be allsoalso soeso in PhysicksPhysics. How effectualleffectual customecustom is in -
men and brutes daily examples are seen throughout the whole world,
in vegetables allsoalso are many obvious, but in minerallmineral and metallickemetallic -
bodyesbodies weewe have not soeso much experience: yet neverthelessenevertheless they fix
their stone by customecustom in fire agreableagreeable to it, as they in innumerable -
places doedo signify: For it must be nourished by fire, as a child by milkemilk
upon its mothers breasts: whereupon saythsays Emiganus; behold the babe -
sucking, and hinder him not: And Bodillus, The infant borneborn is nou=
rished by milkemilk and fire alone, and by little and little whilst heehe
is very young, and the more heehe is burned, his bones being comforted,
heehe is brought to youth, to which attaining, heehe is able to provide for -
himselfehimself: And Arnold in the Rosary booke 2. Chapt 7. Yet the Medicine
must be a long time roasted by fire, and nourished as a child -
with the breasts. These same things have the most ancient Philo=
sophers been pleased to demonstrate by the allegoryesallegories of Triptole=
mus and Achilles accustomed to lyelie and being hardened in fire, they
both denoting nothing elselse but the ChymicallChymical subject, besides which
the fable would be insignificant and absurd, unworthy either to be
appropriated to other morallmoral things, or inculcated to the ears of the -
learned: Ceres did as a NurceNurse feed Triptolemus in the day time -
with milkemilk, and in the night laydlaid him in fire, whereupon the -
youth being very well nourished, his father Eleusius at length -
tooketook notice of it: hereupon Ceres killdkilled Eleusius, and gave the -
youth Triptolemus a chariottchariot drawnedrawn

with winged Dragons, -
whereby heehe passdpassed through the aireair into all parts of the world, -
and taught men how to sow cornecorn: But this Triptolemus is the -
tincture nourished by fire after a PhilosophicallPhilosophical manner, which
being drawnedrawn by Serpents, that is, Mercury, taught men how the
Philosophers seeds are to be cast into their earth. These same things
are ascribed to Osiris, who to that end tooketook a view of the whole world,
as weewe have elswhereelsewhere demonstrated, and to Dionysius, who travelled -
throughout the world teaching men the use of wine: Now these three
Triptolemus, Osiris, and Dionysius are of one intention and office, -
yea one thing; as allsoalso Achilles, who being most valiant was to be -
sent to the TrojaneTrojan warrewar; his father was Peleus, that is, earth, or the
mountainemountain Peleus, his mother Thetis goddessegoddess of the Sea or waters; from
these Achilles descended: But at their nuptiallsnuptials the golden apple of Eris
was produced, the first cause of the TrojaneTrojan warrewar, wherefore pro=
cedingproceeding from those nuptiallsnuptials reason there was that heehe should determine
it: Achilles is saydsaid to be hardened by his mother after the same manner -
as the aforesaydaforesaid Triptolemus by Ceres, concerning whomewhom weewe have
saydsaid enough in the 6th bookebook of HieroglyphicksHieroglyphics, which here to repeat -
weewe thinkethink superfluous. The nutriment therefore of the Stone is fire,
but it is not thereby (as some may falsely imagine) extended into lon=
gitude, latitude, and profundity, nor dothdoes it receive increment in -
weight; because it acquires onelyonly virtue, maturation, and colourcolor from
fire, carrying all the rest with it as viatickeviatics provisions: For when its -
parts are from severallseveral places congested, purged, and conjoynedconjoined, it hathhas in
it all things requisite for it: Whereupon saythsays a Philosopher in the Ro=
sary. Omnia fert Secum quibus indiget hæc aqua fœtum.
Nor indeed is any strange thing added to it from the beginning to the
end, except it be homogeneous, nor separated, if not heterogeneous: -
But every man ought to consider, before heehe begin any thing, how heehe
may come to the knowledge of those Dragons that are to be joynedjoined to
the chariot of Triptolemus, which are winged and volatile, which
if you desire to know, you will find them in the PhilosophicallPhilosophical dung: -
for they are dung, and are generated from dung, and are that vessellvessel,
which Mary saythsays, is not negromanticallnegromantical, but the regiment of your
fire, without which you will effect nothing: I have revealed to you -
the truth, which by incredible pains I acquired from the monuments
of the Ancients, not without the expense of many years . . . .