126 The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 



words, he will think that I am either 

 mad or drunk with wine. Well, I shall 

 then only be subjected to the same 

 suspicion as the disciples of the Saviour. 

 The water which rises by sublimation to 

 the mountain tops is purer and more 

 wholesome than that which is found in 

 the bowels of the earth. But if it be 

 driven upward, the earth still remains to 

 the Sages, and the salt can be extracted 

 as a means of separating the good from 

 the evil, the pure from the impure, the 

 gross from the subtle, the medicine from 

 the poison. Just in the same way, we 

 sons of earth are laid in the earth, and 

 there putrefy and are corrupted, till at 

 the last we are sublimed by the fire and 

 heat of heaven, and are purged of all 

 our sins and impurities, and become sons 

 of God and heirs of eternal life. 



Let no one be offended at this 

 comparison of earthly and temporal 

 sublimation to heavenly and spiritual 

 sublimation. What I say, I say ad- 

 visedly, and yet I know very well the 

 difference between black and white, 



