i&j. Natural Magick. Doo^5.

to a vessel made of glass, and you must fence and plaister the glass round about ortthe outward side with thick loam tempered with chopc straw, and it must be laid onvery fast; and that it may stick upon the vessel the better, your glass must not besmooth, but full of rigoles, as if it were wrested or writhcn. When your vessel isthus prepared, you must fettle and apply ic to a reflexed fire, that is, to a fire madein such a place, as will reflect and beat back the heat of it with great vehemency tothe best advantage: and underneath your vessels neck, you must place a large pan,or some other such vessel ok great capacity and receipt, which must be half full of coldwater: then close up all very fast and sure, and let your fire burn but a little, and givebut a small heat for the space of two hours; afterward make it greater, so that thevessel may be throughly heated by it, even to be red hot; then set a blower onwork, and kt him not leave off to blow scr the space of four whole hours together,and you shall see the quick silver drop down into the vessel that is half full of water,being flighted , as it were, out of the Mettal by the vehement force of the fire.Commonly the quick-silver will stick to the sides of the vessels neck , and thereforeyou must give the neck of the vessel a little jolc or blow with your hand, that so thequick-silver may fall downward into the wacer-vessel. By this practice I have ex-tracted oftentimes out of every pound of Mettal almost an whole ounce of quick-silver ; yea,sometimes more then an ounce, when I have been very diligent andlaborious in performing the work. Another experiment I have seen, which drewme into great admiration,

Lead converted into quicksilver:

A counterfeiting practice, which is the chief cause that all the quick-silver almostwhich is ubally to be had, is hut bastard stuff, and meerly counterfeit ; yet ic isbought and sold for currant, by reason of the neer likeness that it hath with the best.Let there be one pound of Lead melted in an earthen vessel, and then pur unco icalso one pound of that Tinny mettal which is usually called by the name of Marcha-sice: and when they are both melted together, you must stirrethem up and down,and temper them to a perfect medley with a wooden ladle: Tn the mean space youmust have four pounds of quick silver warmed in another vessel standing by, to castin upon that compounded Mettal • for unlels your quick-silver be warm, it will notclose nor agree well with your Mettals: then temper your quick silver and yourMettal together for awhile, and presently after cast it into cold water; so shall icnot congeal into any hard lump, but store on the top of the water, and be veryquick and lively. The onely blemish it hath, and that which onely may be except-ed against it, is this, that it is somewhat pale and wan , and not all thing* so nim-ble and lively as the true quicksilver is, but is more flow and slimy, drawing as icwere a tail after it, as other viscous and (limy things are wont to do. But put i: in-to a vessel of glass, and lay it up for a while ; for the longer you keep it, the quickerand nimbler it wUl be.

Chap. III.

Of Brass - aud how to transform it into a worthier Mettal.

will now alledge certain experiments concerning Brass ; which though theyare but flight and trivial, yet we will not omit to speak of them, because wewou’d fain latisfic the humour of those, who have a great desire to read of and beacquainted with such matters. And here we are to speak of such things as are goodto stain the bodies of Mettals with some other colour then naturally they are enduedwithal. Yet I must needs confess that these are but sained and counterfeit colour-ings,. such as will not last and stick by their bodies for ever; neither yet are they ableto abide any trial, but as soon as everthey come to the touchstone, they may easilybe discerned to be but counterfeits. Howbeic, as they are not greatly to be desired,because they are but deceivable , yet notwithstanding they are not utterly to be re-jected as things of no value. And because there arc very few Books extant which

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