Of Qh^ngmg Metals * 1 6 j

Treat of any Argument of like kind as this is, but they are lull of such experimentsand Heights as here effer themselves to be handled by us (for they arc very cr mmohthings, and in every mans mouth) therefore we will in this place speak entiy ofthose things which arc easily to be gotten , and yet carry, wi.h them a very goodyfhs/w , inlomu h tha^ the best and stiarpest cen ure may be deluded and mistak< n bythe beautiful gloss that is cast upon them; and it may gravel itu qu ckest and skiltulrlest judgement, to ejefine upon the suddain whether they arc true or ouwetfeit.Yet let them be esteemed no better then they deserve. But this you must know,that as flight and triv ial as they ate , yet they require the handling of a very skilfulArtificer: and whosoever thou art that gœst about to practice these experiments, ifthou be not a skilful and well experienced workman thy lei', be lure to t -ke theadvice and counsel of those that are very good Artists in thi kind ; for otherwisethou wilt certainly miscarry in them, and be defeated of thy put pose. The chief andespecial things which are of force to endue Brass with a whi.cr colour, arc thele:Arsenick or Oker j that kind of quick silver which i ib'limited, as the Alchemistscall it; the scum or froth of silver, which is called by the Greek' Litharge ron ; theMarchasite or fire-stone ; the Lees of wine; that kind of Salt which is round in A-frick under the sand, when the Moon is at the full; which is commonly called SaltAmmoniack ; the com ,on and ordinary Salt which the Arabians call by the cameof Ai-htli; Sait-pcter, and lastly Alome. If you extract the liquor out of anyof these, or out of all these, and when k is dissolved, put your Brals,being ted hor,into it to be quenched, your Brass will become white: Or else, if you melt yourBrass, and affoon as it is molten, put k into such liquor, your Brass will becomewhite: Or else, if you draw forth into very (mall and thin p ties, and po wn thosebodies we now speak of,into (mall powder,and then cast both the bras* thai is to becoloured, and the bodies that must colour it, into a melting or casting vessel, andthere temper them together to a good mediev, and keep them a great while in thefire, that it may be thoroughly me.ted, the brass will become white. Or else, ifyou melt your brass, and then calf upon it some of that colouritg in smalllumps, (fir if you cast it in powder and dust, it is a doubt that the forceand rage of the fire will utterly consume it, so that it shall not be able toinsect or stain the mettal) but if you cast good store of such colouring upon the mol-ten brass, it will endue your brass with a strange and wonderful whiteness, inso-much that it will seem to be very silver indeed. But that you may learn the better,b~w to work such experiments, and beside-, that you may by occasion of thosethings whuh are here set down, le*rn how to compound and work other matters,we will now set forth unto you certain examples, how we may make

Brtfs to counter feit Silvtr •

for when once you are trained up a little in the practice of these matter', then theywill sink more easily into your understanding, then by all yonr reading they cando :therefore as we have spoken of such things as will do this feat, so also we will teachyou how to work artificially. Take an earther pot, andlet it upon the fire withVery hot coals heaped round about it - put lead into it, and when you fee that yourlead i* molten by the force of the fire, take the third part of so much silver a thereWas lead, and pown it into'mall powder, and pu it to the lead into the pot; butyou must 'prirtkle it in onely by little ard little, that it may be fcorchc d, and evenburned a it were by the heat of the fire, and may float like a it were ovle on thetop and surface of the lead i and some of it may be so wasted by the vehetnenev ofthe heat, that it vanisti away into the moak. Then let them rest a while, so Ion*ts there be any remainders of the coa s left. After you have so done, break the ves-sel into pieces, and take away the scum and dross of the mettal; and whereasthere will stand on the top of the mettal a certain oyle as it were, or a kind of gel-ly, you must take that, and bray it in a morter, and cast it into a vessel by little andlittle where there is brass melted; and though the brass be three times so mu h inWeight as that selly i», yet the gelly will endue all that brass with a white silver co-le ut Nay,if there be more then three times so much melted brass put into that metal,it wtll make it all like unto silver. But if you would have your brass endued with a