On Animal Distillation
Aphorism I
The secret of animals preserves and completes the animal, because it replaces food and also serves as a leaven for liqueurs, to convert them into immediate food.
II
It must therefore be very pure and very subtle, so that it can penetrate even the smallest parts of the animal to nourish them.
III
It is made with the same method as the other elixirs: the two roots are separated, purified with seven distillations, and reunited according to the weight suitable for this kingdom. Together they become permanent water that still needs to be purified seven times or until a perfect assimilation and intimate union of the substances that have become part of the composition of this elixir.
IV
The two roots must be purified exactly before they are reunited because the volatile fuels and nourishes the fixed root and, therefore must be united immediately.
V
Similarly, nature purifies liquors by making them circulate in the different channels, some of which end in tubes that serve to separate the impure substances and incapable of converting into element through natural heat, the others end in their own ducts to filter the purest substance, which must change into the nature of the fed mixture.
VI
The spirits are very free in their action, and produce effects which we admire when they are in pure and subtle food.
VII
According to the proportion with which the spirits radiate with fewer obstacles, all the springs of the machine are more flexible and the sequences of their movements more ready. From this it follows that one conceives with more clarity, that one judges with more justice, that the memory is more powerful, the sensations more vivid and the organs more delicate and more animated.
VIII
On the contrary, all the sensations and functions both of the body and of the spirit are disturbed when impure vapors interrupt the movement of the spirits and the alterations of the springs, as happens in drunkenness and in fits of hysterical passion in women.
IX
This is why the chemist purifies the two roots, dissolves the fixed with the volatile with multiple infusions or imbibitions, and finally unites them composing the pure radical humid of the animal.
X
The Poets represent this system of chemical purification with the fable of Ganymede, the Eagle, the Nectar, and the Gods.