th _Sol_ and _Luna_ are
absolutely necessary, and "whoever...shall think that a Tincture can be
made without these two Bodyes,... he proceedeth to the Practice like one
that is blind."(1)

(1) BERNARD, Earl of TREVISAN: _A Treatise, etc., Op. cit_. pp. 83 and
87.

KELLY has teaching to the same effect, the Mercury of the Philosophers
being for him the menstruum or medium wherein the copulation of Gold
with Silver is to be accomplished. Mercury, in fact, seems to have been
everything and to have been capable of effecting everything in the eyes
of the alchemists. Concerning gold and silver, KELLY writes: "Only one
metal, viz. gold, is absolutely perfect and mature. Hence it is called
the perfect male body... Silver is less bounded by aqueous immaturity
than the rest of the metals, though it may indeed be regarded as to
a certain extent impure, still its water is already covered with the
congealing vesture of its earth, and it thus tends to perfection. This
condition is the reason why silver is everywhere called by the Sages
the perfect female body." And later he writes: "In short, our whole
Magistery consists in the union of the male and female, or active and
passive, elements through the mediation of our metallic water and a
proper degree of heat. Now, the male and female are two metallic bodies,
and this I will again prove by irrefragable quotations from the Sages."
Some of the quotations will be given: "Avicenna: 'Purify husband and
wife separately, in order that they may unite more intimately; for if
you do not purify them, they cannot love each other. By conjunction
of the two natures you get a clear and lucid nature, which, when it
ascends, becomes bright and serviceable.'... Senior: 'I, the Sun, am
hot and dry, and thou, the Moon, are cold and moist; when we are wedded
together in a closed chamber, I will gently steal away thy soul.'...
Rosinus: 'When the Sun, my brother, for the love of me (silver) pours
his sperm (_i.e_. his solar fatness) into the chamber (_i.e_. my Lunar
body), namely, when we become one in a strong and complete complexion
and union, the child of our wedded love will be born.... 'Rosary': 'The
ferment of the Sun is the sperm of the man, the ferment of the Moon,
the sperm of the woman. Of both we get a chaste union and a true
generation.'... Aristotle: 'Take your beloved son, and wed him to his
sister, his white sister, in equal marriage, and give them the cup of
love, for it is a food whi