Addition.
On the first matter and generation of metals there are as many opinions as philosophers who wrote on that, but, in my opinion, Theophrastus Paracelsus came very close to the aim, when said minerals are being born from element water and vegetable from element earth. The latter, despite having their roots in the sea water, their chaos takes hold in the earth and in there they grow up, so their real roots are in earth, as their chaos looks for air, in which they rise and extend. All the same Paracelsus stated minerals seeds to be male, of course for their form, and because of the heavenly influence, but their matter and body take from sea water, and in the deep of the earth, in the same way they are warmed up till maturity in their matrix, by terrestrial fire operations, or pagan heat, which from the center of the earth tends to go upwards, according to its hot-chill scale, in the same way prescribed locations and matrices of the earth are different for different heavenly influences, which with their beams towards a point in the center of the earth they can strike to get different qualities and impress different forms, and with the addition of both terrestrial and celestial mercurial substances, different genders and natures are being created. For instance this is the way the element water ( the salty sea water which every single day and night is impregnated with the Sun and Moon, and is not only the external side which surrounds and laps the earth, but penetrates and passes through with internal abysses and hidden ducts of water) this empty and lifeless earth, with his saline nature emits and in this act and imprint of conception or heavenly influx I stop to explain further.
Side-note: Fresh water from Marine Abysses.
Now we talk of fresh water, there are various types, which first from the marine abysses enter the viscera of the earth, and because of their salt, more or less the total of it is then absorbed in the earth and get dispersed, over an over till of all that salt only an exiguous taste of salt remains. The same is evident with our common salt when ordinary cooking, both concerning the center of the water element (in fact the outer part and surface is simply insipid water) with its salt all the metals and minerals which represent the purest parts, and with addition in many ways ( the thing is done with the help of the art), it dissolves and what’s more ( gold above all) regenerates in its mother, and in its natural virtue can abundantly multiply and transmute.
The experience has demonstrated how greedily the motionless and empty earth attracts the nature of salt: as the more the salted water in a bag of clay gets filtered and let through ( know that the clay can be regenerated by adding more clay) the more fresh the water is, as the bad taste remains in the clay.
Side-note: Mercurius Philosophorum is the Sperm of Metals.
Nobody should be amazed by the fact that in the neglected mercurius of salt as much as principle of metallic generation there is such value. In fact any spermatic thing is a saline liquor, hence it follows, Mercurius, which is the principle next to the sperm of metals, takes its origin from salt, and with the art Mercurius can be prepared from any salt. Why what is possible for the art cannot be possible for nature? But when investigating with our ratio and eyes we are prevented from penetrating the abyss, in fact the achieving of Archeus is a thing possible only for the hardworking servants of nature and laboratory.
Side-note: Sun and Moon do provide the Seed.
So in which way the inner and deep areas of the earth through the internal water ducts from the huge depth of the salted sea is fecundated a and watered: the Sun and Moon through rain, dew and other stellar influences, to the surface of the earth grant a seed, from which herbs, trees, leaves and shrubs grow up and thrive. So a grease and heavy vapor from the deep of the earth rise upwards, provides a feminine seed, who with addition and impression of the superior firmament influxes, both feminine and masculine, gives born to metals and minerals in the deep viscera of the earth. In fact even more subtle, agile and volatile vapor which is raised up to the surface of the earth, this is the liquor of the earth as well as female seed by which with astral addition and impression, both female and male, on the earth surface may grow up trees and herbs, of which now we may use.
Orthelius Commentary on L. P. Composition.
Now I will treat the matter of metals and first generation concerning the Composition of the Philosophers Stone. Sometimes the topic shall be understood and sometimes is clearly apparent, either dealing with the form and sulphur from the metallic seed, or the matter and mercurius from the primordial humidity.
The error about L.P. matter.
Thera are some who put the Philosophers Stone matter on the same side of metals first matter, in fact one thing is the intention of nature another the intention of the art. The aim of the art is not to generate metals, to it neither owns the matter nor process, what nature needs it creates, while what the art makes, and even something of great entity, nature per se doesn’t create in any of its places. In fact the Opus auspicates other methods and matters. Nevertheless, although in a different way, of course imitates nature, an not hinder, otherwise of course imitates nature, its sources and principles, those things from which nature derives, looks for and draws.
Within Gold the Seed is Multiplied.
So the matter of the art could be alike those of nature, even if not the same. On the other hand the Opus of Nature is guide and author to the art, both in managing, abundantly, as in the formation of the aurous Stone, as what in the art does push and multiply. This is what is achieved. Not what the artist is achieved in getting the matter: in fact what is created the creator doens’t need. On the other hand the ultimate matter in which Nature finishes is always the first which the art is short, and this is where the art starts, this thing can be found in gold. So takes origin from that. Surely in nature nothing grow up without seed: since everything has a seed, in it with the helping nature and through art we can multiply, its increasing or accretion of matter is abundant. On the other hand no one with a healthy mind would deny the presence of a seed within gold. Because of this seed through art it can multiply. And consequently gold represents both matter and subject, from which is the form of the seminal Stone, as well as the form of attraction of its primary principle.
Agent and Patient in the Art.
If it true that parent nature generates everything, and multiplies twofold, as sea and woman or agent and patient, therefore will be necessary for art to imitate nature. In such a way the agent of art, or form, will be the above mentioned seed of gold which makes looking like itself to multiplicate its matter. When it comes to patient and matter, Mercurius brings it to multiply the tincture and rise in place of the ferment, which Philosophers said to be their. No matter what of their names Philosophers get without distinction.
When it is barely perceptible in the beginning, in the end it becomes evident. If it is allowed of different sex, anyway Nature points at the necessity of a common origin, and thus we can see the one that is in its own nature enjoy and be happy, store and multiply (These terms do not apply in playful situations, but express in encryption the Mercurius interactions with itself and the substances derived from it.).
Child of the Sun.
In fact Nature conquers, gets and keeps Nature. In the same way the seed of gold in its first generation gets its origin from heavenly influx. The same concerning its regeneration and multiplication, the Mercurius Philosophorum is expected to result from Sun and Moon beams, and other Stars, called natural ratio. One is the solving air, the other the solute, one is volatile: the other is fixed. From whose conjunction, and to us, the regal and very noble child is being born, child of the Sun.
The Receptacle of Heavenly Influx.
Futhermore, because of the astral influx, the material principle of the Stone as well as other ones, are all universal and spiritual, but because of a specific body, they are not detectable with our senses: of those a receptacle-body, to exist in the universal nature or situation, not even it has to be close to the excellent simplicity of the elements. As the element Earth has it in within, it is not a general receptacle of all the celestial influxes, equally nurse and mother of all growing up things ( nevertheless it doesn’t have in itself the mother-water, as the sky is the real father and genitor of all natural things).
We conclude here, the earth is a subject of first order, in which the hermetic art, Philosophical subject and magnet, the above mentioned celestial influx is attracted and incorporated.
In conclusion we can say that the first matter of the Stone, no less than the matter of metals, similarly participates of heaven and earth, and for its making that thing from its origin to itself is claimed.
The general speech will be schematically represented in the following diagram: 
Next chapter Orthelius Commentary on Sendivogius. Chapter 1 .