urnine work of the present philosopher, Mr. Johann Isaak Hollandus, is
not to be understood of common lead ... but of the lead of the
philosophers."

And in Hollandus himself we read: "In the name of God, Amen.--My child,
know that the stone called the Philosopher's Stone comes from Saturn. And
know my child as a truth that in the whole vegetable work [vegetable on
account of the symbolism of the sowing and growing] there is no higher or
greater secret than in Saturn. [Cf. the previously cited passage from
Alipili.] For we find, ourselves, in [common] gold not the perfection that
is to be found in Saturn, for inwardly he is good gold. In this all
philosophers agree; and it is necessary only that you reject everything
that is superfluous, then that you turn the within outward, which is the
red; then it will be good gold. [H. A., p. 74, notes that Hollandus
himself means the same as Isaiah L, 16. 'Wash you, make you clean; put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes,' etc.] Gold cannot be
made so easily of anything as of Saturn, for Saturn is easily dissolved
and congealed, and its mercury may be more easily extracted from it."
[That means therefore that the conscience easily develops after the
destruction of superfluities or obstacles in the plastic lead man.] "And
this mercury extracted from Saturn is purified and sublimated, as mercury
is usually sublimed. I tell thee, my child, that the same mercury is as
good as the mercury extracted from gold in all operations." [Herein lies,
according to H. A., an allusion to the fact that all men are essentially
of one nature, inasmuch as the image of God dwells in them all.]

"All these strange parables, in which the philosophers have spoken of a
stone, a moon, a stove, a vessel, all of that is Saturn [i.e., all of that
is spoken of mankind] for you may add nothing foreign, outside of what
springs from himself. There is none so poor in this world that he cannot
operate and promote this work. For Luna may be easily made of Saturn in a
short time [here Luna, silver, stands for the affections purified]; and in
a little time longer Sol may be made from it. By Sol here I understand the
intellect, which becomes clarified in proportion as the affections become
purified.... In Saturn is a perfect mercury; in it are all the colors of
the world, [that is, the whole universe in some sense lies in the nature
of man, whence have proceeded all religions, all philosophies, all
histor