Atlanta Fugiens

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all thinges that are mixed and compounded of Elements to his Tryall and Judgement. Some few only are excepted
from his Tribunall by the speciall Privilege and Indulgence of Nature, who is Empresse of all thinges. Over these he
has no right by himself alone, unlesse he joins to him the Areopagites as other assistant Judges. And Salamanders
are such as are above his Violence, which they do not fear.
Avicenna in his Porta reckons up the various Temperaments of bodyes which are all unequall and therefore
corruptible by Fire and other injuries. But He affirms that there is one exactly equall which has as much Heat as
Cold and as much Drynesse as Moisture, not according to Weight but Justice as the Physitians term it; and this is
that which is more Patient then Agent, in which if Fire endeavours to resolve Water its adversary into Air which is
its Familiar, the Earth does not admitt this Resolution because it is incorporated with Water. And the Internall Fire
of the Compound doth by its suffrage approve this pretence of the Earth, because he is the intimate Friend of the
Earth. Therefore Vulcan's Judgement ceases, and he uses yet another Intrigue by endeavouring to burn the Earth into
cinders as he is accustomed to do. But Water adhering to Earth brings exceptions against him and shows that she is
united to the Earth and the Air, as the Fire by one side is to the Earth. Therefore he that would reduce the Earth to
Ashes would likewise reduce the other Elements, and so Vulcan being disappointed suspends his Judgement least
He should become ridiculous.
This Body is like the Truest Salamander, in which the Elements are Equalled by the Balance of their Powers.
Concerning this Rosarius out of Geber saith: Likewise the Philosopher would have the Substances of Mercury
mortified, but naturally his Mercury is in that Venerable Stone as is plain to all men. And a little further on: Also the
Philosopher would have the Substances of Mercury Fixed, as is evident because he teacheth the ways of Fixing with
many Cautions and Devices. But who can doubt the Substance of that Precious Stone to be most Fixed? Certainly no
man that knows it. By which it appears that the Stone is by Fixation to be reduced to the Nature of the Salamander,
that is to the greatest Fixednesse which neither declines nor refuses Fire. For it is no Salamander till it has learnt to
endure Fire with the utmost patience, which must of necessitye be effected in long processe of time.
Hereafter in the 35th Emblematicall discourse it will be showne how Achilles and Triptolemus were by night placed
under embers of Fire till they could endure the most Vehement Heat, thus by use and custom attaining to the
propertyes of a Salamander. For Custom is a second Nature. But unlesse Nature communicates the Power and as a
Mistresse begins the Alteration, Custom will be able to do little or nothing. And thence it is impossible to fix Ice at
the Fire, but to fix Christall is possible because Nature has begun it. The same must be thought of Watery and
Volatile Mercury, which in its own Nature cannot be Fixed but by the Marriage and Coition of Sulphur, which is the
Philosophickal Tincture and Fixes all flying Spirits.
Emblem XXX.
Luna is as requisite to Sol as a Hen is to a Cock.
The Discourse:
Avicenna in his Book de Anima does severall times offer us this admonition: That no Eggs should be taken by the
Artist unlesse they were of such Hens as had been trod by a Cock. That is that the Female subject is of no Value
without the virtue of the Male, and so on the contrary that the Cock is of no use without the Hen. For these two
sexes are to be joined in the Philosophickal Coop, and that so multiplication may from thence proceed. But the
Philosophers do more especially use this similitude of a Cock because he has a nearer correspondence with the
Power of the Sulphur than the Male of any other kind of Bird, seeing one Cock can preside over many Hens and
does not easily endure any Rivall upon the Territoryes of his own Dunghill, for He knows and esteems himself to be
sufficient for all his mates. He is the Bird of Mars, made as the Poets feign by the transformation of the boy Gallus,
whose businesse it was to watch the Sun least he should espye the Adultery which Mars committed with Venus; and
He is very Martiall in war, for He will fight with his Enemy even till death. In the Philosophickal work he represents
the Sun, as the Hen does the Moon For there is the same necessitye of joining Sol with Luna as the Cock with the
Hen. The Cock is likewise raised to the Sun, with whom He both rises and goes to sleep. He often looks up to
Heaven and erects his Tayle on high, which falls in the shape of a sickle. He fights for his Hens against Serpents, He
is the forerunner of Light and is Loved by Latona because he was present at her delivery. For Latona brought forth
Sol and Luna, from whence the Cock is appropriated both to the Mother and the Son.
But Sol, Luna and Latona agree with Chymicall subjects and so do the Cock and Hen, for these two came out of
Eggs and do likewise produce eggs, from whence their Chickens may be Hatched. So likewise the Philosophers have
their Eggs, which will passe into birds of the same kind if they are nourished with a temperate heat such as the heat [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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