w how the _Archaeus_ operates further by the Spirit of _Mercury_ in the
Earth, or Veins of the Earth, take this Advice, that after the
spiritual Seed is formed by the impression of the Stars from above, and
fed by the Elements, it is a Seed, and turns it self into a _Mercurial_
Water, as first of all the great World was made of nothing, for when the
Spirit moved upon the Water, the Celestial Heat must needs raise a Life
in the cold watrish and earthly Creatures; in the great World it was
Gods Power, and the Operation of the Celestial Lights; in the little
World it is likewise Gods Power, and the Operation to work into the
Earth by his Divine and Holy Breath. Moreover the Almighty gave and
Ordained means to accomplish it, that one Creature had obtained power to
operate in the other, and the one to help and assist the other, to
perform and fulfil all the Works of the Lord; and so an influence was
permitted the Earth to bring forth by the Lights of Heaven, as also an
internal Heat, to warm and digest that which was too cold for the Earth,
by reason of its humidity, as unto every Creature a peculiar fashion
according to its kind; so that a subtile sulphurous Vapour, is stired up
by the Starry Heaven, not the common, but another more clarified and
pure Vapour, distinct from others, which unites it self with the
_Mercurial_ Substance; by whose warm property, in process of time, the
superfluous Moisture is dryed up, and then when the foulish property
comes to it, which gives a preservation to the Body and Balsam,
operating first into the Earth by a spiritual and sydereal influence,
then are Metals generated of it, as it pleaseth the Mixture of the three
Principles, the Body being formed according as it assumes unto it the
greatest part of those three. But if the Spirit of _Mercury_ be intended
and qualified from above upon Animals, it becomes an Animal Substance;
if it goes upon Vegetables by order, it becomes a Vegetable Work; but
if, by reason of its infused nature, it fall on Minerals, it becomes
Minerals and Metals, yet each one hath its distinction as they are
wrought, the Animals for themselves, the Vegetables, on another manner
and form by themselves, and so likewise the Minerals, each one a several
way, whereof to write particularly would be too tedious, and yield large
and various Narrations.

Many one may here demand and not without cause, how such a Spirit of
_Mercury_ may be procured, how to be made, and after what