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What Makes Us Human

“How do you go from a bunch of cells to something that can think?” This question,
asked by the 9-year-old son of one of the authors, speaks to a puzzle that lies at the
heart of this book. How are we as humans able to explore such questions about our
own origins, the workings of our mind, and more? In this fascinating volume, devel­
opmental psychologists Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis delve into how such
human capacities for reflection and self-awareness pinpoint a crucial facet of human
intelligence that sets us apart from closely related species and artificial intelligence.
Richly illustrated with examples, including questions and anecdotes from their
own children, they bring theories and research on children’s development alive. The
accessible prose shepherds readers through scientific and philosophical debates,
translating complex theories and concepts for psychologists and non-psychologists
alike. What Makes Us Human is a compelling introduction to current debates about
the processes through which minds are constructed within relationships.
Challenging claims that aspects of thinking are inborn, Jeremy Carpendale and
Charlie Lewis provide a relationally grounded way of understanding human
development by showing how the uniquely human capacities of language, thinking,
and morality develop in children through social processes. They explain the emer­
gence of communication within the rich network of relationships in which babies
develop. Language is an extension of this earlier communication, gradually also
becoming a tool for thinking that can be applied to understanding others and
morality. Learning more about the development of what is right in front of us, such
as babies’ actions developing into communicative gestures, leads to both greater
appreciation of the children in our lives and a grasp of what makes us human.
This book will be of interest to anyone curious about the nature of language,
thinking, and morality, including students, parents, teachers, and professionals
working with children.

Jeremy Carpendale is Professor of Developmental Psychology at Simon Fraser

University in British Columbia, Canada, and the father of two.

Charlie Lewis is Professor of Family and Developmental Psychology at Lancaster

University, UK, and the father of two.
What Makes Us Human

How Minds Develop through Social

Interactions

Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis

First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-53792-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-53793-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-12510-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Taylor & Francis Books
To Hannah and Max, and Deborah, plus Charlie’s gang: Rosie,
Tom, Camilla, Lyndsey, Laurie, William, Edward and Otto
Contents

List of figures viii

Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi

1 The problem: What is it to be human? 1

2 The baby in the social cradle 23
3 Wittgenstein’s baby: How do words work? 45
4 A brief history of babies: How do babies get the point? 63
5 Thinking about the social world: How do children
understand others? 85
6 Becoming a moral being: Early development, emotions, and
neuroscience 103
7 Knowing right from wrong: Or, how does morality develop? 120
8 From molecules to minds: Can genes determine thinking? 140
9 The myth of the desert island baby: Is the mind a machine? 166
10 Social relations and reason: What are the implications of
self-awareness? 191

References 205
Index 228
Figures

2.1 An “embarrassment-like” reaction in small babies studied

by Vasudevi Reddy 32
2.2 An early demonstration of joint attention by Vincent Reid
and Tricia Striano: infants are first shown this photograph
of an adult looking at two objects 36
2.3 The infants are then shown this photograph of just
the objects 36
2.4 To test for the emergence of gaze following researchers
explore when infants look to where an adult has turned 37
4.1 A pointless point 71
4.2 Pointing 72
4.3 Jeremy’s aunt at around 11 months of age in 1913 73
6.1 Helping (line A) and hindering (line B) events watched
by babies 104
10.1 The letter orientation task 194
Preface

We wanted to write this book, first, because it concerns our own

research questions, regarding the development of children’s thinking
about the social world, their language development as well as moral
development. Second, the available books on this issue tend to present
one side of the story. We want to tell the other side. For example, Steven
Pinker, a professor of psychology at MIT, entitled one of his books How
the Mind Works, and the philosopher Jerry Fodor responded with a
book entitled The Mind Doesn’t Work that Way. We also disagree with
Pinker but for quite different reasons, and this book is our response to
the position that Pinker shares with many others. A subtitle to this book
could be “how the mind really works.” Finally, we want to answer
questions posed to us by our children. Jeremy’s daughter, Hannah, at
3½ asked, “Daddy, what is meaning?” and “How do I remember
things?” and “What is thinking?” She happily went out to play while we
spent the next years grappling with these fascinating yet complex pro­
blems. Later, as an adolescent, she quizzed her father about his position
on the mind–body problem. Both Hannah and her brother Max asked
how people made up words for things, which Jeremy took as asking
about how language works. Max, at 9, asked, “How did things start to
think?” And he said that all his other questions like do ants sleep and
does the universe go on forever came down to his big question, which
was, “how do you go from a bunch of cells to something that can
think?” Then, at 16, he asked what Jeremy thought of the idea of a noble
savage and the evolution of altruism, and can we be certain of any
knowledge, and, by the way, is there any such thing as free will?
Although we don’t claim to resolve all these complex issues, we do want
to present a view of the development of human thinking as a way to
approach these questions.
This book is intended for anyone interested in the nature of the mind,
language, morality, thinking and, above all, the process of human
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x Preface

development, which drives and explains all these skills. These mir­
aculous developments occur under our noses, in our own homes and so
are taken for granted and appear less complex and mysterious than other
wonders of the world. But the mind is one of the most complex things to
attempt to understand, and its development is fascinating. We believe
that it is possible and timely to present some of the intriguing and
important debates within developmental psychology in a way that is
accessible to interested readers, regardless of their background. We will
not assume a background in developmental psychology because we do
not think that it should take years of graduate school to be able to
understand what is at stake in these continuing debates. This book will
be of interest to anyone fascinated by questions concerning the nature
and development of thinking and human minds. This will include par­
ents, teachers, and readers intrigued by what it takes for a child to
develop human social skills. Understanding more about the development
that is happening right in front of us, such as babies’ actions developing
into gestures, leads to both a greater appreciation of the children in our
lives and a grasp of what makes us human.
Acknowledgements

This book has been in progress for some time so too many people to
name have contributed in diverse ways. These include discussions with
our mentors Michael Chapman, Michael Chandler, John Shotter, and
John Newson, with colleagues Ulrich Müller, Bill Turnbull, Tim Racine,
and Tanya Broesch, and with friends who read chapters, including Rosie
Smith, Al Walters, Rolly Lorimer, and Kay O’Connor. There are many
students, too many to name but particularly Viktoria Kettner, Beau
Wallbridge, Vicki Parnell, Jim Stack, Stephanie Malone, and Joanna
Lunn, whose questions helped us further consider and refine our ideas.
We especially want to acknowledge our children Max and Hannah and
Tom and Camilla and our partners, Deborah O’Connor and Rosie, as
well as all of the children in our lives, grandchildren, nephews and
nieces, and great nephews and great nieces. Having so many children in
our lives constantly reminds us of the primacy of relationships and cog­
nitive development in what makes us human. These children have made
us question what we take for granted, so that we can see what is in front
of us afresh in every developing relationship.
Chapter 1

The problem
What is it to be human?

In which we describe human forms of thinking and discuss possible

explanations.

We are what we are through our relationships with others.

—George Herbert Mead1

When we look at the stars and wonder about the beginning of the uni­
verse, or ponder the origins of life, we rarely pay attention to the fact
that it is our human minds that allow us to ask and attempt to answer
such questions. How human ways of being and thinking develop is just
as wondrous and fascinating. Explaining the subtleties and complexities
of this process is still beyond our complete understanding. The nature
and development of the human mind is the subject of this book, and it
touches our lives much more than distant galaxies or ancient fossils.
Perhaps it is because human ways of living and thinking are so familiar
and taken for granted that they appear less mysterious than the key
processes examined by other sciences. But attempting to understand the
mind and explain the development of how we interact and think is an
enormously complex and fascinating field of study. As developmental
psychologists, we study the miraculous development of the mind that
occurs in our own homes and under our noses. How is it that humans
grow from young babies who are still learning to coordinate their
reaching in order to grasp objects to adults who can have a conversation
as well as wonder about the stars?
What is thinking and how does it develop? How is it that you can
read and understand this sentence? How is it that those curious marks
on the paper somehow convey meaning? How do we understand what
others say? Furthermore, how is it possible to think about and reflect on
these questions? We have a tendency to overlook the fact that we can
even ask and attempt to answer questions such as “How did the universe
2 The problem

begin and will it end?” Snails, mice and deer are not concerned with such
matters. Even though dogs, ravens and chimpanzees show intelligent
activity, they are not troubled by questions about how it is that they can
solve problems. Why is it that humans, and not other species, can worry
about the future and reflect on themselves? How did humans evolve and
develop the capacities for looking backwards with regret or pride and
forward in hope or fear? How is it that such capacities for imagination
exist in humans, and tend to be taken for granted, yet do not seem to be
present in other species?

Varieties of social species

To understand what it is to be human we first consider what humans are
not. We contrast ants and humans, not to draw attention to similarities,
but rather to point out how achievements, which may appear similar on
the surface, are achieved through radically different means. Some might
suggest that what is important about being human are accomplishments
such as spreading across the planet, building large structures and living
in cities, as well as developing agriculture and tending livestock. But for
millions of years over 11,000 ant species2 have been hunting, gathering,
farming, tending livestock, and building huge structures relative to their
size, even with air conditioning, where they live in groups of millions.
Indeed there are thousands of species which conduct a range of these
activities. They capture or kill ants from neighboring nests—activities
that could be described as taking slaves and waging war. Whereas some
species of ants made the transition from hunting and gathering to agri­
culture 50 to 60 million years ago, humans experienced this shift not
much more than ten thousand years ago. Ants have mastered the diverse
environments in which they thrive, all without science, and without
explicit awareness.3
Some ant species have even challenged human populations. In 1518
and 1519 Spanish colonists of Hispaniola were so overwhelmed by
stinging ants that many families abandoned their homes. The horrified
colonists, needing someone to plead with God on their behalf, used a
lottery to select a patron saint, St. Saturninus, a third-century martyr,
and they held a procession and feast to deter their tiny assailants.4
Rather than attempting divine intervention, the ants used more effective
strategies against the humans, but the infestation did subside over a
period of years.5
This appeal to a saint for divine protection suggests important differ­
ences between ants and humans. Ants don’t have systems of belief such
as religions, or diverse forms of art from music to sculpture. Humans
 The problem 3

write books about ants, but ants don’t write about us, or indeed about
anything. Ants don’t complain about working conditions and start
unions or establish political parties. They don’t sing operas, form heavy
metal accordion bands, or talk about the weather and organize picnics
(although they may attend them). Of course, ants don’t talk at all. Ants
may die doing what humans might describe as defending their nests, but
they don’t get medals. The idea of an ant hero sacrificing her life in the
way a human may for a belief doesn’t make sense in their way of life.
Humans, in contrast, live for beliefs and die in the name of causes.
Aspects of human cultures from the Egyptian pyramids to Stonehenge to
the carved cedar memorial poles of the Haida of Haida Gwaii don’t
seem to be essential for physical survival, and yet they somehow are vital
for the belief systems people depend on. Status, traditions, family crests,
and how others think about us are foundational aspects of being human,
yet they seem to be missing in other species. Humans have diverse cul­
tural belief systems—we live in social worlds based on justifications; we
give each other reasons for our action. We are a story-telling species; we
need purpose and meaning in our lives.6 We have histories. We reflect on
the past, and wonder about the future, whereas ants live only in the
present. Although we can describe their activity as preparing for the winter,
that form of awareness is not needed for their lives. Ants have what we
might describe as brutal campaigns against their neighbors but they
don’t reflect on the morality of these raids, whereas we humans may.
What are these differences due to?
Perhaps being human has to do with self-awareness. Jeremy’s son,
Max, was 8, when he asked the fascinating question: “Do animals know
they are alive?” Of course, other animals are alive, but they do not seem
to be aware of this in the way that humans are. We humans know we
are alive. Can we explain how humans—a part of nature—have evolved
to the point of being aware of themselves and of nature? The Dutch poet
Cees Nooteboom put it in a way that has been familiar to developmental
psychologists since the 1920s, and within Tibetan Buddhism:7 “We are
nature’s method of thinking about itself.”8 Humans, it seems, are the only
life form on this planet, the only part of the universe as far as we know,
that is aware of itself.
This self-awareness means that humans are most likely the only spe­
cies on the planet with the understanding that we are alive, and, there­
fore, can become aware of the implication of this knowledge, which is
that we will die. This awareness of the future and of our death is the
knowledge that got humans kicked out of the blissful ignorance of
Eden.9 Knowledge of others’ view of ourselves is shown in the biblical
story of the Garden of Eden, with its roots in The Epic of Gilgamesh,10 a
4 The problem

4000 year-old poem from ancient Mesopotamia. This serves as a meta­

phor for the implications of our self-awareness and of humans’ eternal
quest to avoid death. Our ability to imagine the future can potentially
fuel our search for purpose and meaning in life. Humans are a species
with the ability to ask questions about where we come from, and we
need stories to provide a secure, comfortable place for us in the otherwise
inhospitable and overwhelmingly vast universe.11
We argue that an understanding of the “self” develops within social
relations through becoming aware of others’ view of ourselves. This
makes us so vitally concerned with how other people think about
us—others’ respect is important for our sense of who we are. We live in
webs of interpersonal commitment to each other based on trust. Our
friendships and relationships are fundamental to our lives. We construct
identities around how others view us. We have selves in the sense
that we can reflect on ourselves from others’ perspectives. Pet owners
might claim that their animals also have selves, but although they may
be selves in the sense of having particular ways of acting and interact­
ing—a personality, in a way—they don’t have selves in the sense of
being self-aware. This, we argue, develops through taking others’ per­
spectives. We develop as persons because we grow up being treated as
someone rather than something.12
We focus on the differences in the ways in which ants and humans
learn to live within radically differing environments because to under­
stand what it is to be human, to recognize the human mind, it is vital to
notice the crucially different ways in which ant societies and those of
other species work compared to human social groups.
We both come from a school of developmental psychology which
holds that human social interaction is the key to what makes us
human. We contend that the differences between our species and ants
are a consequence of the nature of our social relations. The ability to
master these social processes leads each of us as individuals to develop
a human mind. You might think that other species also interact with
each other, but there is an important difference. Ants follow trails
marked by pheromones, chemical signals, left by other individuals, but
laying a trail does not require understanding how others respond to the
chemicals left behind. This simple form of communication has made
possible the incredibly complex organization in the societies of social
insects. Although we can also see this form of unintentional commu­
nication in human interaction, most human communication works in a
crucially different way. We are aware of the meaning that our actions
or words have for other people. Of course, misunderstandings do
occur, requiring repairs to achieve mutual understanding. Such
 The problem 5

awareness of how others understand us is not necessary, or at all in

evidence, for the forms of communication used by ants and many other
species. It is difficult to convey the importance of this difference and its
far-reaching consequences.
It is this awareness of others’ view of us that we are concerned with in
this book. We focus on how such awareness originates, and we are
interested in what humans can do with this form of communication that
arises first, and gradually, in social interaction.13
Many other animal species are skilled at engaging with their world
in flexible and intelligent ways. Ravens, chimpanzees and many other
animals can be very adept in that sense. Humans, however, are able to
engage in reflective thought. This adds an additional level of complex­
ity through which to engage with the world. Thinking and language
are so much a part of our everyday experience that we are apt to
overlook what they are and how we use them to acquire such a
sophisticated system of self-reflection and communication. Indeed we
only reflect on this when scientists (or children) ask difficult questions.
Our ways of thinking and interacting with each other are so natural
that they are difficult to notice. One skill of novelists and artists is to
reveal the significance of those everyday experiences—the importance
of aspects of our world that are right before our eyes. We take it that
it is the role of scientists to bring to our attention what was always
there, but overlooked. The neglected issue that we are bringing for­
ward is the nature of the human mind and its capacity for perceiving
and reflecting on the world. We focus particularly on the significance
of the everyday interactions between babies and their caregivers for the
development of human communication and thinking. In Gregory
Bateson’s words:

It is as if the stuff of which we are made were totally transparent

and therefore imperceptible and as if the only appearances of which
we can be aware are cracks and planes of fracture in that transparent
matrix.14

Once we are aware of the problems, it is no small task to explain the

human mind. As Alexander Pope15 asked:

Could he, whose rules the rapid Comet bind,

Describe or fix one movement of his Mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning, or his end?
(“Essay on Man,” Epistle II)
6 The problem

The level of self-awareness achieved by humans has many consequences

for how we understand our lives, but the task we take on in this book is
to explain how this awareness develops. If we are right that crucial
human forms of thinking develop within our relationships with others
then there are many parts to the story that we have to provide. As
developmental psychologists we have to document closely how children
acquire these skills. What are the conditions, the ingredients, and pro­
cesses which make this possible? We will describe the developmental
niche, the biological, social, and emotional cradle, in which human
babies grow up.16 In order to do so we must be clear about the foundations
on which our approach is built.

Assessing our assumptions

The end may hang on the beginning.
—Beryl Markham17

Beryl Markham was actually referring to the dangers of flying fabric

covered biplanes across Africa in the early part of the twentieth century,
but the same lesson also applies to doing good science. It is essential
to be careful regarding the unexamined assumptions on which theories
are built. In attempting to explain human thinking, theorists often fail to
notice the assumptions they start from, yet these preconceptions already
set up the problems and even constrain the possible answers. The unno­
ticed assumptions that are part of the fabric of contemporary debate are
an awkward obstacle that we must overcome in presenting our view of
the nature of human forms of life and thinking. Although psychology
prides itself on being an empirical science, the starting points for theories
are, in fact, sets of preconceptions or philosophical assumptions; there
is nothing empirical about them. These are sometimes termed worldviews
because they represent particular perspectives. We see these as the first
step and the one that we don’t even notice.18 But it is that step which
sets us on a particular path and commits us to the end point.
Attempts to explain human thinking can be grouped into two con­
trasting types of approaches that are based on different worldviews. One
of these frameworks begins with the individual mind as taken for gran­
ted. If it is assumed that the mind is there to begin with then, from this
perspective, it is thought that children must face the problem of figuring
out that other people that they see as bodies also have minds. In philo­
sophy this is called “the problem of other minds.” It is thought to
involve somehow overcoming the gap between the individual and others.
We focus on this perspective in Chapter 5.
 The problem 7

Individualistic approaches assume that individual minds are the start­

ing point, which are required in order for social relations to be possible.
And, therefore, the problem babies face is to learn how to communicate
with others. This way of thinking can be seen in The Confessions of
Saint Augustine, first published in 379 AD, and a best seller for over fif­
teen hundred years! This view is evident in Augustine’s description of
what he believed his life was like as an infant:

Gradually I became aware of my surroundings, and wished to

express my demands to those who could comply with them; but I
could not, since the demands were inside me, and outside were their
fulfillers, who had no faculty for entering my mind. So I worked my
limbs and voice energetically, trying to signal out something like my
demands, to the best of my little (and little availing) ability.19

Of course, Saint Augustine, just like the rest of us, would not actually be
able to remember his early life as an infant. Instead, his attempt to
reconstruct his experience must be based on his adult assumptions about
infant development. Augustine’s account presupposes an adult way of
thinking. It is as if he imagined that as an infant he had language and
thinking skills, but had somehow ended up in a foreign country and
could not yet speak the local language.20 This was how he perceived his
difficulty making himself understood.
There is a tendency for adults to take their own experience for
granted and assume that babies are just like us. Adults have the
experience of having a mind that seems to be private and it feels that it
must have always been this way. So, we assume that babies are like
this too—they must be born that way. This tendency to project our
adult way of experiencing the world onto babies has been termed
adultocentric,21 and this way of thinking is surprisingly common in
theories. It would equate babies with adults, isolated in separate prison cells
attempting to find some code with which to communicate between
cells, such as tapping on the bars. This is the analogy used by the
American philosopher, George Herbert Mead22 to point out the pro­
blem with this way of thinking. Adultocentric explanations are based
on the workings of individuals’ minds (and so can also be referred to
as internalist or mentalist). They begin with what Willis Overton calls
a “split” between the mind and the world, in which the infant’s mind
works so that he or she can already reflect upon that world.23 But if
the mind is assumed to start with, then a problem with this perspective
is that it does not explain how the mind develops.24 And this is our
task in this book.
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8 The problem

In contrast, the second framework, which we endorse, does not begin

with the individual mind, but instead with social processes. It, thus, explains
the emergence of mind through this interaction. From this perspective,
for interaction to begin it is not necessary that babies understand others
as having minds. This can develop through social experience. This per­
spective is referred to as a relational or developmental systems approach.
These contrasting frameworks emerge in the various areas covered in
this book including views of knowledge, language, social development in
infancy and childhood, as well as evolution.
As a clear example of this systems way of thinking, consider Donald
Winnicott, the English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, who famously
asserted that, “there is no such thing as a baby.” But we can see babies!
So why did he make this baffling remark? Winnicott went on to clarify
that, “if you set out to describe a baby, you will find you are describing a
baby and someone.”25 He intended to draw our attention to the inter-
connectedness of infants and caregivers—the fact that babies are totally
dependent upon, and necessarily develop within, a few key relationships.
This means that we must study the whole system in which the baby
functions and develops—the pattern changes as the infant becomes more
skilled.
Not only do the patterns of interaction between babies and their par­
ents or caregivers gradually change, infants learn about how their par­
ents respond in particular contexts. From this simple beginning, forms of
communication between babies and parents gradually become refined,
leading to the complex exchanges we experience as adults.
The relational argument, in contrast to Saint Augustine’s view, is that
human minds emerge through interaction with other people. It explains
mind and intelligence as the developmental outcome of these social pro­
cesses that are rooted in the natural world of biological and physiologi­
cal features—we should not lose sight of the fact that humans are bodies
in time and space.
The quotation from George Herbert Mead that we started this chapter
with, that “we are what we are through our relationships with others,”26
is not just some new age intuition. It is a tradition in philosophy and
psychology that converges with recent work in developmental biology,
neuroscience, cultural studies and feminist relational approaches, as well
as some forms of cognitive science.27
If persons acquire the ability to engage in human forms of thinking
within this social environment, then we also need to explain how this
social-cultural niche evolved. This is a reciprocal (infant and caregiver
contribute to the interaction) and bi-directional (both parties influence
the other) developmental (both adapt to the other and change as a result)
 The problem 9

and evolutionary process (we return to just what has evolved in Chapters
2 and 8). We explain human thinking as an emergent product of typical
activity patterns. We believe that developing awareness of ourselves
requires taking others’ perspectives toward our self. In this way we
become aware of ourselves because of others’ reactions to us. That is,
having a self depends on communication with others. This idea can be
traced back to the philosophy of Socrates and other Greek thinkers, and
to other cultures. For example, the Zulu expression “Umuntu, Ngu­
muntu, Ngabantu” (“a person is a person through other persons”) per­
vades African traditional thinking about human nature and formed the
basis of the philosophy of Nelson Mandela. Umuntu is the practice of
human interaction and this is related closely to “Ubuntu,” which is the
sense of being or identity that emerges from social relatedness. Desmond
Tutu explains that:

Africans have this thing called UBUNTU. It is about the essence of

being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It
embraces hospitality, caring about others, being able to go the extra
mile for the sake of others. We believe that a person is a person
through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up,
inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably
dehumanize myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in
terms and therefore you seek to work for the common good because
your humanity comes into its own in belonging.28

Similar ideas about dependence on other people for becoming a person

can be found in other cultures. For example, the Japanese kanji symbol
for a person is a representation of one person being supported by
another person, accentuating the idea of personhood in relation to
others. And kanji symbols are derived from Chinese characters. This sort
of a relational perspective is typical in indigenous cultures such as
Canadian First Nations, and this extends to approaching justice through
rebuilding healthy relationships.29 Even though individualism is often
dominant in Western scholarship there is also a theme concerning com­
munities and social networks.30 A relational perspective can be found in
some sciences. Ecology, for example, is focused on relations, and current
biology and genetics are now relational, as we will discuss in Chapter 8.
In fact, it could be argued that when we look closely enough at anything
we see interrelationships.
An obstacle to explaining relational approaches is that they are
sometimes not on readers’ conceptual maps. Perhaps this is because there
are generally assumed to be two alternatives in explaining development:
10 The problem

either to focus on the individual and biological characteristics or, if

that is questioned, to consider how the person is shaped by social forces.
According to this second position it is “society,” as represented by
parents and teachers, which shapes young children. It is classically
known as the socialization approach of social learning theory put for­
ward in an extreme form by B. F. Skinner and in a more nuanced way by
Albert Bandura. But it starts from the same problematic assumption as
individualism, as both theories assume a split between self and other that
we describe above—either Augustine’s self as an adult in an infant’s
body or learning theory’s stress on external shapers of human skills. For
them the question is which pre-existing part—the individual or the
environment—is more important.
But, of course, everyone assumes interaction is essential so isn’t that
the same as relationism? No, not quite. Relationism takes interaction a
step further. It is a third option that holds that we must focus on the
whole system consisting of babies and parents who look after them. This
is a matrix in which biological characteristics and social relations are
inextricably interwoven and mutually create each other. The action is in
the relations between babies and their parents, and this shift to empha­
size the developmental process makes a crucial difference. If we focus on
such relations we see how they create the social and emotional world in
which babies develop. Persons are developmental outcomes of this
process.
We have a tendency to see just objects, instead of the relations
between them. For instance, we see the airplane and the ground, but not
the airflow around the wing. So, it is hard to understand how something
as big as a Boeing 747—the size of an apartment building—can fly. To
see relations takes imagination, or a wind tunnel and smoke, in order to
make the airflow around the wing visible. These general approaches are
applied at all levels to all topics from neuroscience and evolution to
meaning, language, and culture. And they result in very different answers
to our question about the development of human thinking.
In presenting a relational account there is the danger that critics will
jump to the conclusion that we disregard the importance of biology and
evolution. Nothing could be further from the truth! In thinking about
how human intelligence emerges from the social process we must think
about genetics and neuroscience, as well as the evolved characteristics of
infants and parents31 that make this process possible. Doing so means
that it is essential to take development seriously. Filling in the evolu­
tionary side to our story requires explaining how the social process
starts. If human minds depend on particular forms of communication
(not the other way around), then we have to explain how social
 The problem 11

interaction develops. There is an evolutionary side to this story. From

this perspective, what has evolved are biological characteristics of the
infant that influence his or her social environment, and set the social
process going in which communication and then mind and thinking can
emerge. In part, the environment nurtures development and is social
because babies need to be cared for. It is this essential point that we
emphasize throughout this book.32

Taking development seriously

We think that the tendency in recent cognitive science to take the adult
mind as the model to be explained leads to dead ends. Instead it is neces­
sary to approach the problem differently. As developmental psychologists,
we observe the process of abilities being put together over developmental
history. In the eloquent words of the psychologist Elizabeth Bates:

Looking at the adult end of that development, we can be over­

whelmed (narcissists that we are) at the complexity and perfection
of a symbol-using mind. But if we trace this marvel to its beginning
in human infancy, we will see that this particular work of art is a
collage, put together out of a series of old parts that developed quite
independently. This does not make the achievement any less
wonderful. But it does begin to make it more understandable.33

It is this understanding that we are after. We resist the tendency to look

at the polished end product of the symbol using human mind, and
instead we observe how these abilities gradually develop, how these
skills are put together within interaction.
Bates goes on to remind us that if we are thinking about the evolution
of a trait we do not have to assume that this is encoded in the genome.

Nature is a miser. She clothes her children in hand-me-downs, builds

new machinery in makeshift fashion from sundry old parts, and
saves genetic expenditures whenever she can by relying on high-
probability world events to insure and stabilize outcomes. Looking
at the beauty of her finished products, we often fail to see that they
are held together with tape and safety pins.34

There may be expectable aspects of the environment that play a role in

the development of a diverse range of human skills. One of these “high
probability events” in infants’ lives is other people. Not only is the
environment that babies develop in vital for their survival, it is
12 The problem

necessarily social and serves as a wonderful medium in which they learn

to become human.

Biology and development

What is it that produces such differences between humans and other
species? Can human thinking be explained simply as determined by our
genes? This is a continuing hot topic in the popular press. In a sense,
genes must feature in any explanation. But they are only one factor
among many others. DNA is a relatively inert molecule, not an active
agent that can determine outcomes. Through complex cellular processes
involving various forms of RNA (single strands of repeated amino acids),
genes are an essential part of the process in the first step in con­
structing proteins. But they do not even provide the complete story in
folding proteins and it is still a very long way from such molecules to
thinking (see Chapter 8). Genes are a crucial factor in a cascade of
additional levels of interacting factors that are involved in human devel­
opment, but neither genes alone nor the chemistry involved in the firing
of neurons will provide a complete story regarding the nature of a pro­
mise or why Charlie is a Tottenham Hotspur fan. What is also essential
for the development of humans—a critical part of the complex develop­
mental system leading to human forms of thinking—is other people. It is
this developmental story that we will spell out in this book.
Could it be that our large brains account for the differences between
humans and other animals? This is what we are often told in the popular
press. Certainly, having a large and complex human brain is an essential
and necessary ingredient in being human. But is this really the whole
story? Can we understand the human mind by studying the brain alone?
No, we don’t think so. Although it’s important to understand how neu­
rons work, this alone won’t give us insight into what is essential about
human experiences like the ability to make promises. This should be
clear from a thought experiment that several developmental psycholo­
gists and philosophers have dwelt on, of having a baby grow up on a
desert island. To make survival easier let’s imagine such an island where
all the material needs are miraculously available, but there is no human
contact. Unlike Robinson Crusoe, marooned when he was already an
adult with the ability to talk and think, we (and many others) would
contend that a baby growing up without other people would not develop
human forms of thinking. Just why we subscribe to this view will be
inferred from the topics and issues that we discuss throughout this book.
At this stage we can conclude that a focus solely on the brain as an
explanation for thinking overlooks how neural connections must be
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 Here follows an Explication of the Poetical Table, teaching us to
make the Oil of Sulphur in quantity.
95. We reade that Vulcan, that is, a combustible Sulphur, took
Venus to Wife, by which is meant the incombustible Oil of Sulphur;
now whilst Vulcan was busie at his work in the Caves of the Earth,
for he was a Miner and a Black-smith, Venus betakes her self to
Mars, who lies with her; now when Vulcan found his Wife in the
embraces of another Man, he calls all the Gods to his help, who
appearing, cast an Iron Net over Mars and Venus that they might
not escape, but with great shame be exposed to the derision of the
Gods.
96. When Vulcan is kindled in a Furnace made for that purpose,
that is, labours in metals, the flame carries Venus, i. e. the Oil of
Sulphur into Mars his lodging, that is, into the Recipient, which must
be fill’d with Steel Wire, where she commits Adultery with Mars, that
is, begins to dissolve the same, and produceth a Vitriol, which when
exposed to the moist Air, becomes resolved into a clear sweet water,
which from the Steel Wire runs into the Vessel appointed to recieve
it, which sweet water is nothing else but Arostrus the Son of Mars
and Venus, or the martial Oil of Sulphur, or to speak more plainly,
the Vitriol of Mars.
97. This Vitriol of Mars is called by the Philosophers the juice or
water of the Birch Tree, and of which they say the Philosophers
Stone may be prepared, for many of them have writ concerning it,
and pointed to this sweet Iron Juice, which they have termed Birch
Tree Waters, because of the likeness it has therewith, for when in
the Spring-time we make a hole with a Piercer, reaching to the Pith
of the Tree, and thrust into it a Quill or Faucet, much sweet water
proceeds from it, which some make use of to brew Beer, because
the same is accounted very good against the Stone in the Kidneys
and Bladder.
98. This Vitriol also is Virgil’s Arbor Opaca, or dark Tree, whose
Branches he declares to be easily flexible; now what is more flexible
than Iron, or Copper Wire, which are therefore compared to the
Birch, which is a very juicy Tree, and hath very flexible branches.
99. That this shady Tree is the fittest, according to Virgil’s
Doctrine, to break off one golden Twig after another is also certain,
for I have tried it divers ways and found it to be true, that it affords
its golden Twigs very freely to him that knows how to handle
Proserpina.
100. But if the Artist be acquainted with the use of our Sol
attracting Magnet, he may then with ease and more profit, without
Distillation or Fire, break off the said Twigs, than he could do with
the help of Proserpina.
And thus I conclude this third Century, the fourth and fifth follows,
which will be found of better use than this.

T H E F O U R T H C E N T U R Y.
To extract the Sol that is in Granates.
1.
I
f Granates be melted with Glass, that contains Lune, the Lune
containing Glass will unite it self with the Sol that is in the
Granates, which with an Aq. Regia may be afterwards separated.

To make a good Mercury of Wine.

2. Recipe Crude Tartar and pour upon it a Lye of Salt of Tartar,
distill in an Alembick, and you’ll have a strong Mercury of Wine,
which is a much stronger and more fiery Spirit, than Spirit of Urine,
especially if some Sal Armoniack be added to it.

To make a Mercury of Metals.

3. And if before we dissolve a Metal or Mineral in the foresaid lye
of Salt of Tartar, or in the Crude Tartar, before that both these
contraries be put together, then the volatile Spirit of Tartar will bring
over the Tincture or Mercury of the said metal or mineral in the form
of a subtile Spirit. In this manner we may drive the Mercury of all
minerals and metals over the Helm.

What the Soul of the greater and lesser World is.

4. Plato call’d common Salt the Soul of the great World, and if so,
then Salt of Tartar may very well be accounted the Soul of the lesser
World: for whatsoever is in the Macrocosm, the same is also in the
Microcosm.

All superfluities of Nature afford a volatile Salt.

5. For the Salt of Hartshorn of Hair, Soot, Blood, and of the Seeds
of Mustard, Cresses and Scurvygrass, &c. are much of the same
Nature as Salt of Tartar.

A Good Bath.
6. Common water sprinkled upon red hot Flints or Pebbles that are
found in running Streams, affords an hot Vapour, which by reason of
the subtil Sulphur of the Stones it carries up with it, is very
penetrating, so that in this manner without any other Fire we may
prepare an hot dry Bath, very available to cure many Diseases by
sweating, the great vertue of it chiefly proceeding from the
sulphureous Spirit of the Stones.

To separate Sol from Luna by fluxing in a Crucible.

7. When we have a mind to separate Sol from Luna by means of
Sulphur we need not make use of granulated or filed Saturn for
precipitation, but instead thereof we may make use of Antimony,
because the granulated or filed Saturn is made hard and influxible by
the Sulphur: neither shall we make use of common Venus for
precipitation, as Erker teaches, but such a Venus as hath been made
friable with Arsenick or Orpiment, by which means we shall get more
Sol than without Arsenick, because Arsenick and Orpiment contain
much volatile Sol, which in this Operation becomes fixed with the
Luna.

To recover the Sol and Luna which is got into the Pores of the
Crucible.
8. The Crucible must be beaten into fine Powder, and put into a
reverberatory fire, stirring it continually by which means the
Antimony and Sulphur vapour away, and the Sol and Luna remains
with the Earth, which, with strong Waters may be separated.

Another way to perform the same.

9. Or we may add filings of Saturn to the powder of the Crucibles,
and give them a strong heat, by which means the Saturn will take in
the Sol and Luna. N. B. But the Separation with strong Waters is the
more easie way of the two.

To extract the Colour from Sol.

10. Venus, Jupiter and Regulus Martis melted into a mass with Sol,
and Venus, the Jupiter and Regulus Martis afterwards separated
from the Sol by Niter, then melt other metals as before with the Sol,
and separate them as before with Niter, which must be continued till
the Sol have lost his Colour.
11. The dross being afterwards melted in a Crucible, and a small
quantity of Coles made of Blood cast upon it, the extracted Tincture
of Sol will separate it self from the dross, falling to the bottom like a
Regulus. N. B. The metals Venus, Jupiter and the martial Regulus
may be separated from the dross onely with common wood Coal.
12. Niter fixed by the Regulus of Antimony, and distill’d with Sal
Armoniack, gives an excellent Mercury of metals, which hath a scent
like musk.

To extract Sol out of Stones.

 13. If we take Sand or Stones that contain Sol, and melt them
with Lead ashes into Glass, and reduce them again with fixed Salt,
then by cupelling this Lead ashes, and the reduced Sand or Stones
severaltimes, we shall have the Sol that was in the Stones.

To extract Sol from Stones.

14. The black or brown Pebbles found in Brooks, and which break
smooth like Glass, being mixed with the best Eagles wings and
distilled by retort, yield much Sol.

A Tincture from Metals.

15. Jupiter is the highest Regent over the upper Constellations. Sol
gives to all Stars their Light, Mars rules upon Earth, and Saturn in
the Earth, and of these four an universal Tincture may be prepared.
16. Mars and Saturn in particular yields great riches, when being
reduced to Glass they are several times driven through a
Reverberatory, according to that of the Ancient Philosophers; by
Saturn and Mars, fire and art, great wealth may be found.

That there is a renovating vertue hid in Spiders.

17. Spiders renew themselves every month by casting their skins,
wherefore a medicine prepared of them by the Flame of Spirit of
Wine renews man.
18. It is also to be observed that all Birds, especially those that
feed upon Flies and Worms, when they are sick, cure themselves by
eating Spiders.

Secrets of Serpents.
19. All sorts of Serpents renovate themselves once a year by
casting their skins, wherefore if we extract them with Spirit of Wine,
and correct them by burning away the Spirit of Wine, they yield an
assured medicine against all Poyson, and renews man.
 20. Regulus of Antimony being duely fixed with Sol, tingeth as well
in the wet as dry way.

Sol and Sulphur yield a Tincture.

21. Common combustible Sulphur cannot join with the
incombustible Sulphur of Sol, without such a medium as partakes of
both their Natures, viz. Antimony: when by this means the
combustible Sulphur is fixed by the incombustible Sulphur of Sol, the
Sol gives it ingress into imperfect metals to tinge them.

To make Sol red.

22. If the Blood of the Lion be digested with Tartar and Aqua
Fortis, this purple Colour will be changed into a red, and separate it
self from the Salt, falling in form of red powder to the bottom, and is
a most excellent Colour for Painters.

To make Purpurissa, or a Paint to make the Face look ruddy.

23. Dissolve Sol and Jupiter in Aqua Regis, digest and edulcorate
with Water, yields an excellent paint for Women. N. B. But a little Oil
of Talk ought to be added to it.

An Experiment upon Purpurissa or the Blood of the Lyon.

24. When we digest or boil the Blood of the Lion so long till the
red Colour becomes as white as milk, and then pour upon it as much
Water, as has been evaporated during the boiling, this milk will be
chang’d again to Blood.
25. Of the blue Paint called Smalt, by means of Salt of Tartar may
a most excellent Paint be made for Limners, not inferiour to
Ultramarine.
26. Of Mercury, Jupiter, Sulphur and Sal. Armoniack is made the
Paint called Aurum Musicum.

A Cementation that graduates Venus into Sol.

 27. Recipe Vitriol calcined to Redness, mix it with Salt and Coal
dust, lay this with thin Copper Plates stratum super stratum, put
them into a Fire that may keep the Plates of Venus red hot for six
hours without melting them, by which means the Sol in the Venus
will be encreased; if we repeat this Cementation several times till the
Venus be of a golden colour, the gain will be much greater. N. B. The
cause of this melioration is, because the Coal Dust hinders the
corrosive Spirits of the Vitriol and Salt from corroding the Venus, and
therefore onely penetrates and graduates the same.

To make all Corrosives sweet.

28. Vitriol distilled with Salt yields a Corrosive Spirit, but if Coal
Dust be mixed with them, they give a sweet Spirit, which graduates
Lune into Sol when digested therein.
29. Recipe, Calx of Jupiter mixed with Mercury of Lune, and
therewith Cement plates of Venus, by which means the saline Spirits
introduce the white Sulphur of Jupiter into the Venus, and change it
into Lune containing much Sol.

A sweet graduating Spirit, usefull to the Melioration of Metals.

30. Recipe, Coal Dust, mix them with Sal Mirabilis, and distill by
retort, and you will get a sweet graduating Spirit, exalting some
Metals to Sol.

The Philosophical Work.

31. The Father of all things is the warm Son, their Mother is the
moist Moon, the Earth is the Womb, the Wind carries the Seed
through the Suns driving into the Womb the Earth, which foments,
and at last brings forth the Child.

Sulphur is the Father of all Metals.

32. The Central Fire in the Earth mounts upward continually into
the hollow places of the Earth, and meeting with water or moisture,
cleaves to it and makes Stones, as also all Metals and Minerals of
different natures and properties, according as the water is pure or
impure.

Sulphur is the universal Coagulator.

33. A sulphureous vapour is that which coagulates Mercury, as
well in Vegetables and Animals as Minerals.

Demogorgon the Grand-father of all things.

34. The Central Fire in the great World keeps it in continual
motion, and causeth the growth of all things as well upon, as under
the Earth, being the Governour of the great World.

The Vital Spirit, or radical moisture, is the Life and Growth of all
Men.
35. As the great World is governed and maintained by the
Demogorgon or Central Fire, so Man the little World is governed, and
maintained in continual motion and growth, by the Vital Spirit seated
in his heart.
36. Fire is the Father of all things, Water the Mother, the Earth is
the Womb, the Wind or Air drives the Fire, being the universal
Agent, into the Water, being the universal Patient, in order to bring
forth Fruit. See my Treatise of the divine Character.
37. Man, Beasts, Fish and Fowl, and all that lives and grows, draw
their life from the Air, onely the Salamander draws his life, and has
his Body from the Fire, wherefore also in power and strength he
excells all living Creatures.
38. The secret Fire of the Chaldeans, which at all times draws Fire
out of the Air, wherewith the Jewish Priests kindled their Sacrifice, as
may be seen in the Maccabees, is made of Steel, Niter and Sulphur.
39. When we abstract an Aqua Regia wherein Sol is dissolved from
the Butter of Antimony, the Soul of Sol and Antimony comes Bloud-
red over the helm, which poured upon a Solution of Lune, the Lune
falls to the bottom, and draws the Tincture of Sol and Antimony to
its self out of the Water, and the Lune by this means becomes red,
and is a Tincture and Universal medicine for humane and metallick
Bodies. N. B. The remainder of the Sol and Antimony that did not
come over is wholly fixt, and a good Diaphoretick, thus the Souls of
the dead, i. e. of Sol and Lune are brought up from Hell. See
Nuisement de spiritu & sale Mundi.
40. When in the manner now said with the Butter of Antimony, we
bring over the Soul of Mars we get a much higher Tincture than
from that of Sol, and in coming over becomes wholly fixt. See my
Treatise de 3 principiis Metallorum.
41. In like manner may from the Butter of Arsenick and Lune a
white Tincture be brought over the helm, tinging Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn into Lune. N. B. These Tinctures in coming over
are fixed by Plato’s Stygian Water, so as to need no further fixation.
42. But if we precipitate these Tinctures of Mars and Antimony
with the Solution of Sol, and then edulcorate and dry the same, we
by this means do obtain a dry graduating Water, which being molten
with any white or red metals makes them yield good Gold, and Lune
on the Cupel to the great profit of the Artist.
43. Oil of Vitriol mixed with Sal Armoniack, is also of good use to
bring over Tinctures, but not in that quantity as Butter of Antimony.
44. Our dry, sweet universal tinging water dissolves white Pebbles
and Crystals, and changeth the same into precious Stones of several
colours, excepting onely their hardness, which it cannot
communicate.
45. The easiest way to get the Sol or Lune that is in Jupiter, is by
casting it upon molten Venus, which draws the Sol and Lune to it
self out of the Jupiter.
46. In like manner doth the Regulus of Antimony when in flux
readily draw to it the Sol and Luna in Jupiter, and then washing the
Regulus with Niter we get the Sol and Luna contained in Jupiter.
 47. But this operation ought not to be done in Crucibles made of
common Earth, which easily break and spill the metal, but in those
that are made of a fat crucible Clay, mix’d with coal dust, as is
taught in the fifth part of my Furnaces.
48. As the Sulphur in Tartar coagulates a thin water into a hard
Hepar, or Liver so called, so likewise doth a fixt Sulphur coagulate
Mercury into Sol and Luna.
49. The often calcining of Salts and dissolving them in Water, doth
purifie them, and makes them easily fluxible, and in particular Vitriol
may by this means be so purified, as to yield its Oil with a very small
heat.
50. The Solution of Saturn and Lune poured into a volatile Spirit of
Mars or Venus, draws the tinging volatile Sulphur out of the Water to
it self, and makes the same Corporal and fixed.
51. Tartar contains a coagulating and tinging Sulphur, for it
coagulates Water into a Hepar, and tinges red metals to a white
Stone, which may be pulverized; this Sulphur is the cause why Tartar
will not dissolve in cold Water as other Salts.
52. When therefore the Tartar is freed of this Sulphur that
coagulates all Water, then much good may be done therewith as well
in Physick as Alchimy, and many other Arts besides.
53. Tartar by being boiled in a strong Lye, lets go its coagulating
Sulphur, and a neutral Salt proceeds from them both; but if we have
a mind to separate the Lye from the purified Tartar we must do it
with an acid, that may mortifie the Lye, by which means the purified
Tartar will be left snow white.
54. If the Lye be kill’d with a Spirit of Niter or Aqua Fortis, then
from both these contraries proceeds a good Niter.
55. But if we make use of a Spirit of Salt, then there is made up of
both a tartarized Spirit of Salt.
56. If we take distill’d Vinegar to mortifie the Lye, then from the
joyning of those both proceeds a neutral volatile Salt which is a good
Diuretick in the Gout and Stone.
57. This is the best way of purifying Tartar, which after this
Operation is of far greater use in Physick and Alchimy than the
common Tartar.
58. Tartar as hath been said, contains a coagulating and tinging
Sulphur, coagulating all Water into a thick Hepar, and exalting the
Colours of metals. Thus we see that by boiling Golden or Silver
Vessels with Tartar, their several Colours are exalted.
59. And whosoever has the Art of separating this Sulphur from
Tartar, may by means thereof effect great and wonderfull things.
60. A like wonder working Sulphur is likewise found in Animals,
and more especially in man, who brings it with him into the World.
61. Whence some Philosophers tell us, that Adam brought the
Philosophers Stone with him out of Paradise, and after his death
carried it with him into his grave.
62. Minerals also afford the same coagulating fixing and tinging
Sulphur, for which reason the Philosophers Stone is said to be
Animal, Vegetable and Mineral, because of each of these three
Kingdoms an Universal medicine may be made for men and metals.
63. But the easiest way is, when we extract the best part of all
these three Kingdoms, and conjoyn them according to Art for an
Universal medicine.
64. Wine is the chief of Vegetables, Man of Animals, and Gold of
Metals.
65. Spirit of Wine purges and purifies all things, with its purifying
Flame; as may be seen in my Purgatory of the Philosophers.
66. The volatile Salt of Animals, and especially of Man purifies all
things by its volatilizing Virtue, as appears in our most secret Sal
Armoniack.
67. The incombustible Sulphur of metals tingeth the Bodies of men
and metals, to the highest pitch of Health, as may be seen in the
third Appendix to the seventh part of my Pharmacopœa Spagyrica.
68. Demogorgon with his Russet mantle and green Coat, is the
Grandfather of all the Heathen Gods i. e. of all metals.
69. And like as in the Earth he doth generate and bring to
perfection all metals, so also out of the same, if the Artist knows
how to manage him, he perfects all unripe and imperfect metals, in
a short time, with the help of Fire, to that degree that they shall
endure the Test as well as Sol or Luna.
70. This wonderfull virtue of fixing all volatile minerals, the
Philosophers call their secret Fire or proper Agent, wherewith not
onely the imperfect metals, as Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, and Mars, but
also volatile Mercury, combustible common Sulphur, Antimony,
Orpiment, and Arsenick may be fixed, so as on the Cupel to leave
Sol and Lune.
71. And as this Demogorgon, or invisible secret Fire of the wise
Men, doth fix the unripe minerals and metals into Lune and Sol; so
likewise can it fix the said minerals and metals, and exalt them to an
higher degree than that of Sol, even to the plusquam perfection of
true Tinctures, whereby all imperfect metals may be changed into
Sol.
72. This our Demogorgon hath the virtue even as it comes raw
and unprepared out of the Earth to change and meliorate all metals
as follows.
73. It makes Saturn as hard and white as Lune, when tinged with
it, of which all manner of Vessels and Dishes may be made, it onely
wants the sound of Lune and enduring of the Test.
74. If a little of this Tincture be cast upon fluxed Venus it presently
becomes white and hard as Steel, continues as fusible as before,
and yet is so hard that it cannot be filed, so that several Vessels may
be made of it, not subject to bending or breaking.
75. When cast upon melted Jupiter, it makes it hard as Lune, and
sounding like it, is of great use to make all sorts of Vessels of.
 76. And amongst other things that may be made of it with great
profit, this is one, viz. that Looking-Glasses may be made thereof,
which being polished continue a long time clear and fair, without
being obscured in moist Weather, as other metalline Glasses are, and
all this by reason of the extraordinary hardness of the metal. See my
Treatise of Looking-glasses.
77. This Tincture cast upon Lune, makes the same Coal-black
throughout, so that it is no more like Lune, of which Bells and Clocks
may be made of a far better and clearer sound than those that are
made of Venus and Jupiter.
78. By this means also in times of War, or other danger Lune may
so be disguised as not to be known for such, and so may be a good
way to preserve it from being taken by the Enemy.
79. In like manner it makes Sol so hard that it can no way be bent
or destroyed, and therefore might be of good use in many of the
following cases.
80. It would be very proper for some great Emperour or King to
make his Statue of, it being indestructible, and not to be diminished
or injur’d by any way whatsoever.
81. Money coin’d of this Sol would be of good use if a King or
Prince had a mind that his Coin should not be transported
elsewhere, because differing so much from common Sol it would not
be passible in other Countries.
82. This golden Coin also would not be subject to be clipt or fil’d.
83. Medals also might be made of this Sol, and would be a great
curiosity besides the indefectibleness of them.
84. It would be excellent also to make Rings of, especially such as
are designed for the remembrance of Friends, as lasting for ever.
85. It would be very proper to cast Seals of, or the divine
Character or other secret Sigils. See my Treatise of the Divine
Character and Seal of God.
 86. Or the said Divine Character being exprest upon my Lapis
Ignis (which being but for a little while carried in ones mouth, cures
many grievous Diseases without any other Medicine) might be set in
this hard Sol, and so without wasting be carried constantly about
one. See my Treatise of the Mineral Squilla in order to a long life.
87. Great Princes also might have Armour and Arms made of this
hardned Sol, which would be much better than any of Iron or Steel,
which easily take rust, to which Sol is not Subject.
88. Of this Sol might also very conveniently be made Candlesticks
and Lamps, with other Vessels for the use of the Church and Altar.
89. To many more uses this Sol might be put, especially for that
by reason of its hardness, it suffers it self to be polished to that
degree, as to cast a great lustre from it, like the Sun.
90. As to the further use hereof, See my Treatise de tribus
Lapidibus ignium secretorum.
91. With the hardned Lune, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn,
many profitable and curious things may be done, which for brevitiy
sake are here omitted.
92. The Sulphur of the Philosophers when set free from his dark
Prison, wherein he is detain’d by his Brethren, by our Key that opens
all Locks, gives his Deliverer for reward, the possession of the three
Kingdoms in the World, viz. enabling him to make all Vegetables
grow swiftly, and very fruitfull, to cure the Diseases of all Animals,
and to meliorate and exalt all Metals.
93. And when the Philosophers, saith Sendivogius, see this
Sulphur restor’d to liberty, swimming in their Sea, they worship it,
and draw it out with a Silver Line, though others do it with their Sol
attracting Magnet, and fix it into an universal Medicine, wherewith
they afterwards effect wonders: As may be seen in my Elias Artista,
and Purgatory of Philosophers.
94. The Philosophers say, except first you make our Sol (that is,
the redeemed Sulphur) and Mercury white, you’l never be able to
make them red.
95. They say also, our Sol tingeth not except it be first tinged it
self, that is exalted in its colour.
96. All things in the World have their rise from Fire and Water, and
derive their Purity or Impurity, from the Purity or Impurity of their
Parents.
97. The common Fire brings forth its Fruits very slowly, whether
they be Stones, Minerals, Animals, or Vegetables.
98. And so do likewise the warm and dry Sun, and moist Earth:
but when we assist Nature with Art, then she works much more
swiftly, and brings her Fruits to maturity in much shorter time.
99. The Meteors in the Firmament which are made of Fire and
Water, especially Thunder and Lightning, produce sometimes Stones,
and cast them to the Earth.
100. A common fulminating Powder made of Sulphur, Niter and
Tartar gives a stinking offensive smoak, corrupting some things, and
meliorating others: whereas a Fulmen prepared of Niter, Jupiter and
Mercury, yields a particular tinging mercurial Water. The Fulmen of
Venus tinges Mars into Copper, that of Lune graduates Venus into
Lune; and the Fulmen of Sol graduates and tinges Mars into Sol.
The universal Fulmen of the great Tincture graduates all Metals
into Sol, which God of his mercy grant unto us, Amen.

T H E F I F T H C E N T U R Y.
The best particular and cheapest Universal.
1.
W hen with the help of Sendivogius his Chalybs, or Glauber’s
Magnet, we have extracted the colour from Sol, and again
restored it through Venus and Antimony, we may by oft repeating
the said extraction and restoration get great profit, this being one of
the best particulars that can be. This multiplication of Sol may very
well be compared with the generation of Man, for as a Man in
generating, doth with meat and drink restore the loss of his Seed, by
which means he continues the said multiplication for a long time, by
turning the meat he eats into Prolifick Seed; so likewise the Chymist
changeth Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Lune into Sol,
by feeding the dis-spirited Sol that has lost its colour with them,
restoring it to its former strength and vigour.
2. The Sperm of Man is not the Seed of Man, but onely the Shell
and receptacle thereof, as may be seen in Old Men, whose Sperm is
unfit for generation by reason of the weakness of their vital Spirit.
3. So likewise the Seeds of Vegetables, are not all pure Seed, but
the House and Vehicle thereof, that is, of the growing and
multiplying virtue, which appears in that when the Seeds have been
kept so long till this vital virtue is exhaled from them, they never
bring forth any thing.
4. No more can Sol be said to be the Seed of metals, but onely the
receptacle thereof, for the Seed is not the whole Body, but onely the
lively colour of the Body, and the vegetative and multiplicative virtue
that is hid in it.
5. Now as the Seed of Vegetables is more perfect and noble than
the Vegetables, so likewise is mature fixt Sol, more perfect than
Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, though in the imperfect
metals also a Seed be hid, but not so fixt and good as that in Gold.
6. The imperfect metals may be compared to an Herb, whose
Seed is not yet ripe, which being put into the ground cannot grow or
multiply, but rots in the Earth.
7. The virtue of Corals lies not in their whole Bodies, but in their
colour; and therefore Paracelsus bids us not to make use of Corals in
substance, but extract their Tincture, and use that for Physick,
wherefore also he rejects white Corals, as being an unripe Fruit,
from any use in Physick.
 8. For this reason also the immature gray Pearls, which are
frequently found in Cockle Shells in fresh running waters, are looked
upon as useless in Physick.
9. And this not without reason, for as unripe Grapes are the cause
of griping of the Guts, and hurt the Body; so ripe Grapes nourish
and strengthen the same, especially when by fermentation they
have quitted their Fæces.
10. All imperfect metals subvert and trouble the Stomach, and
cause vomiting and purging, and that by reason of their unripeness.
11. Whereas on the contrary Sol taken into the Body causeth not
the least alteration, but powerfully strengthens the same when
reduc’d to Potability.
12. Thus Sol may be compared to ripe Grapes, which when eaten
raw, do indeed no hurt to the Body, but rather affords some
nourishment, yet cannot strengthen the Heart, Brain, and whole
Body, and make a chearfull mind; but when by fermentation they are
delivered from their skins and other impurities, they readily and as it
were in a moment perform all this.
13. In like manner when Sol by fermentation hath laid aside his
gross Body and become Spiritual, if then made use of, it not onely
nourisheth as ripe Grapes, but exerts its virtue like a Spirit or Q.
Essence of Wine, penetrating the whole, and making it lively, strong
and vigorous throughout.
14. Neither do the other metals display their hidden virtue, untill
by fermentation and distillation, they be subtilized and their gross
Bodies laid aside.
15. Thus when Lune by fermentation and distillation is subtilized,
then it draws away all Diseases of the Brain, and corroborates the
same exceedingly even as Sol doth the Heart.
16. Venus so purified strengthens the Reins and procreative
faculty.
 17. The volatile sweet Spirit of Mars, removes all obstructions
whatsoever, provokes the terms in Women, and opens the
Hæmorroides in Men.
18. The sweet Spirit of Saturn cures all inward and outward hot
Distempers.
19. The sweet Spirit of Jupiter cures all Distempers of the Lungs.
20. The volatile Spirit of Mercury cures the venereal Distemper.
21. N. B. These volatile spirits of metals must be cautiously used,
as being of very great force.
22. The manner of preparing them, may be seen in my Book of
Fires, but most plainly set down in my description of the most secret
Sal Armoniack.
23. All Spirits act according to their nature and property either
good or ill, as the Bodies are good or evil from whence they are
taken.
24. The Spirit quickens, the Body or Flesh profits nothing, saith
Christ, John 6.
25. These words are ill interpreted, when understood by some, as
if Spirits onely were of use, and Bodies not at all, which is a great
mistake, as it is applied by some.
26. Indeed in Metals, Vegetables and all Animals without the use
of reason, who grow, move, and live, by the driving of their in-born
Spirit, it does hold true, for when their Spirits are by Art separated
from their Bodies, the said Bodies are thenceforward of no use, as
being upon the separation of their Spirit, dead and without all virtue.
27. But the case is different with Man, who being created in the
Image of God, and endowed besides his Animal Spirit, with an
immortal Soul, which latter onely and immediately derives from God,
and not from nature, as the mortal Spirits of Animals do.
28. Wherefore Pythagoras was much mistaken, in believing that
the immortal Souls of Men, when departed from their Bodies did
immediately enter into those of Beasts.
29. Which mistake of his seems to have been occasioned hence,
because he knew how by Art to take away the Soul, i. e. Tincture
from Sol, and transfer the same to an imperfect metal, thereby
making the same in all things like to true natural Sol.
30. Certain it is that this may be done by art, for the fixt Body of
Sol may be destroyed, its Soul extracted, and by being joyn’d to
another metal make it good Sol.
31. When this disanimation of Sol is duely performed, the Body is
left wholly dead, and is in all things like a volatile unmalleable
mineral, and cannot endure the test, but fumes away like Arsenick
with a little Fire.
32. But in case this disanimating of Sol be not rightly done, so that
the Body continues as white as Lune, and malleable (which is a sign
that some life is still left in it) then his Colour may be restored again
by means of imperfect minerals, as well as his former fixedness in
the Fire.
33. But when the Body of Sol will no longer endure the fire, but
goes away in smoak, then we can say it is truly dead and no more
Sol.
34. He that finds difficulty to believe this, let him reade Paracelsus,
Sendivogius and other Philosophers.
35. Sendivogius saith, Our Steel, that is, our Magnet, can draw from
the Rayes of the Sun, what many have sought for and not found; if
this our Magnet copulate eleven times with Sol, the Sol becomes
weakned almost to death, and the Steel or Magnet shall conceive
and bring forth a Son more illustrious than his Father.
36. From which words it appears that Sendivogius had the Art to
disanimate Sol, else could never have writ so plainly concerning it.
37. It is certain also that there are some, that at this time can do
as much within a few hours, I having lately been an Eye-witness of
the same, with three other persons in company.
 38. It is not necessary to say any more how this cheap and
speedy way of disanimating Sol is to be performed; forasmuch as all
the Philosophers writings are full of it.
39. However to pleasure the unskilfull I will add thus much, that
this may be done four several ways.
40. But the easiest and cheapest way is by means of Spirit of
Wine, and a microcosmical saline Spirit; yea this extraction may be
performed by a Spirit of Wine alone, without any animal Spirit, or by
an animal saline Spirit without the Spirit of Wine.
41. If this were not so, we might have reason to accuse both
ancient and modern Philosophers of falshood, who tells us that
Adam brought the Philosophers Stone with him out of Paradise, and
after his death took it with him into his Grave.
42. Which words may seem strange to some, forasmuch as he
was driven bare and naked out of Paradise.
43. Yet the Authority of those who assert this being so great and
incontestable, it cannot well be called in question.
44. What therefore the Philosophers meant by this Stone which
Adam brought with him out of Paradise, is well worthy our Enquiry.
45. The Philosophers commonly say our stone is a stone and
nostone, &c. which implies thus much, that to outward view it is a
stone, but in deed and in vertue, a Concentrate form of Sol.
46. Wherefore Petrus Bonus saith, We do not seek Sol, but the
form of Sol.
47. What is then properly this form of Sol?
48. Answ. It is a substance which to outward view looks like a
contemptible stone, and yet is of such superlative Vertue, that when
joyned with imperfect metals on the Fire, it transmutes them into
the highest perfection of Sol.
49. It may further be demanded, whether Adam brought such a
matter with him out of Paradise, whereby this transmutation of
metals into Sol may be performed?
50. Ans. Yes he did bring such a matter with him out of Paradise,
and after death took it with him to his Grave, wherewith all Diseases
of mankind may be cured, and all metals changed into the finest Sol.
51. If this be so, might some say, Adam must either have been
very blind, in not discerning the Treasure he was possessed of; or
very envious in not communicating the same to his Posterity.
52. I cannot believe that Adam, out of envy withheld this secret
from his Children, but rather suppose that the blindness into which
his fall had cast him, was the cause of his not percieving the great
Jewel he had about him.
53. But how could he be blind, who was made by God himself, and
after his own Image?
54. Adam was certainly blind, and his blindness proceeded from
his Pride, because he aspired to be like to God; he was not blind as
to his outward Eyes, but his heart was blinded, which is by far the
worst blindness of the two: For all sin and wickedness blinds the
hearts of men, that they cannot percieve the folly of their doings.
55. Thus Adam also by means of his disobedience to God, became
so blind, as not to percieve, or be sensible of the Love that God had
for him before his Fall, and how richly he had endowed him.
56. Whence also his Children were so wicked and blind, that the
one Brother slew the other; which wickedness hath still encreased in
their Posterity, as appears by the deluge, and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah.
57. And thus the World from day to day still grows worse and
worse, notwithstanding the Examples of God’s Vengeance against
Sinners.
58. And all this proceeds because men are so generally blinded by
the Devil in sin and wickedness.
 59. But to leave this, it may be further question’d; that seeing all
mankind is become so blinded through Adam’s fall, as not to discern
the Jewel they carry about them; who then was the Person that first
discovered, that man was the Possessour of so great a Treasure?
60. Ans. Who was the first discoverer of this Treasure I cannot
tell, but thus much is certain, that it was an honest man and fearing
God; because God doth not reveal his secrets to the wicked;
wherefore Tho. Aquinas saith, Our Holy Art, either finds a man holy,
or makes him so.
61. But some will say, don’t we reade of Heathens that have been
Possessours of the Philosophers stone; and how can we imagine that
those who have no knowledge of God, and are blinded with sin,
should ever be able to find out So great a Mystery?
62. Ans. Those Heathens that have been Possessours of this great
secret, were not without the knowledge of God; for they lived
according to the Law of Nature, honouring God and loving their
Neighbour; wherefore also God accepted of them. They learnt to
know God from his Works of Wonder, and according to their
knowledge, loved, honoured and feared him; and so were made
Partakers of his grace, light, and the knowledge of his secrets.
63. We are also to know that the Ancient Philosophers know more
than one way to attain the Philosophers Stone; though indeed the
most of them sought it in minerals and metals, which is the longest
way.
64. And that because it is impossible to change the metallick
species, without bringing metals back into their first matter. See my
Treatise of the principles of metals, and the seventh part of my
Pharmacopœa Spagyrica.
65. But others have taken a nearer way to attain this secret; and
to some Christians God hath been pleased to discover the shortest
way of all, by revealing unto them that he made Adam every way
perfect, giving him all that was necessary, either for his Soul or
Body.
 66. Now that Adam could not discern how richly God had
endowed him, was his own fault, because he was disobedient to
God, following the deceitfull Serpents advice.
67. And after this manner doth the Devil yet daily deceive Men, by
perswading them to do against the commands of God, and that their
disobedience shall not bring any such mischief upon them as God’s
threatnings seem to import.
68. This then is the reason why Men do not understand the
secrets of God, because they give too much way to Sin, whereby
they become blinded, that they can neither see nor hear the good
that comes from above.
69. Now the reason why most of the Alchymists have sought for
this great gift of God in minerals and metals, and especially in Sol, is
this, because their intention was to multiply Sol, which they
supposed could no way better be done than by sowing it like other
Seeds in the Earth, but could not imagine that besides common Sol,
there were other subjects, wherein the Sol-making virtue did reside.
70. Which opinion of theirs was probably grounded upon that
saying of the Philosophers. What you sow, that you will reap.
71. This seems at first sight very rational, that from filth or
excrements no good, and so no Sol can come; but let us hear the
other side also, and we shall be otherwise informed.
72. For the Philosophers say that their Medicine is Vegetable,
Animal and Mineral; so that Vegetables and Animals are not
excepted.
73. Albertus Magnus, writes that the greatest mineral aurifying
virtue is in Man, and especially in his Head between the Teeth, and
proves it; because in dead Men’s Skuls he had found grains of Sol
sticking between the Teeth.
74. The same is also confirmed by Thomas Aquinas, Rhasis, Janus
Lacinius, and others.
 75. There is also an old Book, whose Authour is unknown, which
treats at large of that subject which Adam brought with him out of
Paradise, wherein the Operator is warned to have a great care of the
fumes of the matter as he would avoid the Plague, or the most
deadly Poyson. From this Authour I have alledged some passages in
my other Writings, and shewed that the Philosophers Stone may be
prepared of any subject whose Elements may be separated.
76. Now certain it is that from all Animals and Vegetables, the
Elements may be separated, and consequently follows, that from all
Vegetable and Animal Subjects, the Philosophers Stone, or universal
Medicine for the Bodies of Men, and Metals may be prepared.
77. Morienus Romanus, who prepared this Medicine for King Calid,
declares that he took the subject matter of it from Man.
78. For when the King asked Morienus, in what kind of subject the
Philosophers Stone was to be lookt for; he answered, the Medicine is
in thy self O King; wherefore also after that he had finished the
Work, he wrote round about the Glass, in which the Medicine was,
these words: He who carries all about him, needs not the help of
another.
79. Thereby intimating, that he always carried about with him,
whatsoever was necessary for the preparing of the Medicine, and
therefore did not stand in need of the King’s assistance.
80. This same honest Morienus, writes plainly concerning the
preparation of this Medicine, and doth as it were with his finger
point us to the matter, in these words of his, quoted by Arnoldus de
villa nova; Grind the Phlegmatick and Cholerick with the Sanguin,
untill it become a tinging Heaven, &c.
81. Arnoldus explains these words of Morienus thus: The
Phlegmatick is cold, as Mercury, the Sanguin is warm and moist, as
the Sol or Gold, the Cholerick is hot and dry, as Sal Armoniack:
intimating that of these three, Mercury, Sol, and Sal Armoniac, the
Philosophers Stone is to be prepared.
 82. But that he meant not this concerning common Mercury, Sol,
and Sal Armoniack is apparent from this, that Morienus, as soon as
he had prepared the Medicine for the King, went away privately,
without expecting any reward from the King; it also appears from
the answer before mentioned, which he made to the King, that he
spoke of such a Mercury, Sol, and Sal Armoniack which every Man
carries about with him.
83. This is abundantly confirmed by all the Philosophers that went
his way, forasmuch as they declare that no charges are required to
the preparation of it, that their subject is a contemptible matter cast
out upon Dunghills, and trod under feet, and that the Poor have it as
well as the Rich.
84. Morienus yet more clearly intimates this, in telling us that the
matter whilst it is preparing, exhales a smell like to that which comes
from the Graves of the Dead, which is a very offensive smell.
85. Now like as Vegetables whilst they are putrifying give forth an
ill scent, and Animals a worse, as appears in the stink of rotten
Eggs, and the putrefaction of Man’s Blood, especially when the same
are putrified in a close Glass in warm Horse Dung.
86. For without putrefaction, there can be no separation of the
Elements by Distilation, and if no separation be made, neither can
any melioration or exaltation be expected.
87. We know that every Chaos, as it is a product of the four
Elements, contains many impurities, and in particular much dead
Earth, and Water void of all virtue; and that the Element of Fire
alone is proper to heal and meliorate Men and Metals.
88. Wherefore seeing that no separation of the Elements can be
without a foregoing putrefaction we must conclude putrefaction to
be the beginning of our Work, without which no good end can be
expected.
89. Now he that knows our Horse Dung, and how to putrifie the
well known and every where to be found most universal natural
subject by means of the same, he will easily afterwards by
Distillation separate the most pure and all things penetrating and
meliorating Element of Fire, from the gross Chaos to his great
satisfaction, and make use of the same to the astonishment and
wonder of the ignorant.
90. But in this state it is onely good for the health of Man; and
therefore in order to its meliorating of Metals, the pure Element of
Fire must be first fix’d with Sol, by which means it obtains ingress
into imperfect Metals, reducing them to the perfection of Sol.
91. Now when the pure Element of Fire is separated from the
Chaos, and reduced to the highest degree of purity, then it stinks no
more, neither is poisonous as it was before purification, but is an
Antidote against all poisons whatsoever, wherefore also the
Philosophers have called their Medicine Theriaca.
92. But all this is to be understood onely of that subject which
every man carries about with him, and brings with him out of his
Mothers Womb.
93. If any one following the Letter of Morienus, should take for his
subject common Mercury, Sol and Sal Armoniack, neither will he be
mistaken, but if he rightly proceeds will have a good Work, though it
be not at all necessary to make use of common Sol and Mercury,
because our natural subject contains both a living Sol and Mercury.
94. It is no prejudice to our Animal Subject, if we join Minerals
with it, because our Sol joins it self with all subjects, and unites it
self readily with them. But if we be ignorant of the due proportion
and composition of Sol, Mercury, Sulphur, or any other metal or
mineral, then it is better to prepare our Medicine out of this one
subject onely, because so there is less danger of erring, as I can
witness by experience.
95. I have also found by experience that this Microcosmical
Subject is alone sufficient, without the addition of any minerals or
metals, to meliorate all imperfect metals.
96. As to a particular this of all others hath pleas’d me best, viz.
Recipe common Sol, and with the help of our Magnet disanimate it
so, that it may be no longer Sol, as not enduring the Test, and
smoaking away with a small Fire like Arsenick.
97. Then take this Sol and conjoyn it with our Microcosmical
Subject, with which digest a solution of Lune, by which means the
Lune will be meliorated, and on the Cupel leave Sol to good profit.
98. But if we joyn common Mercury and common Sol with it, and
cast this mixture into a solution of Mars, and digest it for some days
then the pure Sol and easily flowing Mercury graduates a good part
of the gross and difficultly flowing Mars into good Sol, to the great
satisfaction of the Artist.
99. And if we unite Lune and Jupiter therewith, and cast this
mixture into a solution of Venus, and digest it the moist way, then by
means of our secret Salt these two white united metals change the
red Venus with little loss of weight into good Lune that will abide the
Test. And it is indeed matter of wonder, that our universal Salt,
should be of so great virtue, when fermented with white or red
metals, to change other imperfect metals into good Sol and Lune on
the Test.
100. Wherefore this shall be my conclusion, that in Man is hid the
greatest virtue of changing all metals, as well as the Bodies of Men,
both universally, and particularly; which if intended for the
melioration of metals, the adding of fixt Sol and Lune for a ferment
will facilitate the ingress into other metals, and further diffuse its
tinging virtue.
N. B. I shall not be satisfied till I have given a fuller and plainer
description of this Royal Labour, which I intend to do in the sixth
Century, if God permit.
 Novum Lumen Chymicum:
OR A

N E W C HYMI C A L LI G HT.
Being a Revelation of a certain new invented
secret, never before manifested to the
World.
Whereby a clear and unextinguishable light is set before the Eyes of
the blind World, and, as it were, palpably demonstrated, that good
Gold may be found and attained with profit, every where
throughout the whole World, as well in cold as in hot Regions, so
that in all those places, where Sand and Stones are found, a Man
cannot set his Foot, where, not onely Gold, but also the true
matter of the Stone of Philosophers is afforded.
R E A D E R,

I
will now address my self to the discovering of the wonders of
God, not hitherto heard of; to wit, that throughout the whole
Earth, no less in cold than in hot Countries, where there are
Sand and Stones to be had, good Gold may be extracted from
thence with profit. Because a Man cannot set his foot in any place
where Gold doth not exist. Nevertheless Chalk, or Lime-Stones, are
to be thence excepted; because they onely seldom or never contain
any thing of Gold, otherwise all sandy and rocky Stones, all Flints of
what colour soever, as also all Sand, fine and course, all sandy
Stones upon high Mountains, in deep Valleys, in the bowels of the
Earth, in Ponds and Rivers, and lastly, all the Sand on the Sea-shore,
none excepted, although it hath as yet obtained no colour, but be
white and clear. The which indeed will seem incredible to very many,
but is asserted by me as a sincere truth, which I never found, by
reading or hearsay, but have proved by many and various
experiments. Some of which I will here set down for the confirming
and demonstrating the truth of my Writings, that by those, all Men
of a sound mind may be able to discern, that my Assertion is no
Dream, nor fabulous trifle, but sufficiently founded upon experience
in the light of nature.
Therefore I would not have thee judge of those things which thou
understandest not, nor canst not at present apprehend, but
remember that the wonders of God triumph with magnificence and
power. But search out those things in every part before thou
presumest to interpose thy immature judgment. And although in the
proof thou shouldst be mistaken as may easily happen to one
making tryal, yet do not impute the errour to my Writings, but rather
to thy own unready Wit. For I will here write nothing but what I
have oftentimes performed, and can yet perform at any time.
Consult other searchers after this matter, among which I think all
cannot err, in a matter so easie, that even a Boy of ten years of Age
may apprehend it, for what belongs to the possibility of it, but it will
be evident to many of them with me, That there is Gold in all Sand
and Stones, through all places of the World. But there is no need
that I should here shew the way of extracting it from them, in a
great quantity or large use, but rather I shall beware, that I put not
so sharp a Dart into the hands of my Adversaries, to wound my self,
for I have published this to gratifie candid Friends, not Counterfeits,
but least of all the Compilers of notorious Libels, in which opinion, I
will remain and acquiesce.

W e will now proceed to the Trial whether those things which I

have here written be true, and are able to abide the Examen
of the Cupel, to wit, that in all Sand, there is good Gold.

The first Specimen of Probation.

R ecipe one Ounce of white Sand or Flint, which you esteem to be
altogether void of Gold, with which mix three parts of Minium,
or of any other Ashes of Saturn. Put this mixture into a Wind
Furnace, or to the Bellows, let it flow well together for an hour, and
it will turn to a yellow glass; suffer it not to stand too long lest the
glass of Saturn perforate the Crucible, and run out into the Ashes.
Pour out the glass and powder it, and mix it with half its weight of
Sal Alcali or Pot ashes, put this mixture into an Iron Crucible, into
which you have first put some bits of Iron, or old Nails; give fire and
cause the matter to flow, and the glass of Saturn will be continually
reduced by the Mars, and at length return into Lead: Pour it out into
a Cone, and the Regulus of Saturn will sink to the bottom, and the
Sand or Flint will be uppermost as a dross. After all is cold, take out
the Regulus of Saturn, which hath drawn to it self so great a
roughness and blackness from the Iron, that it cannot easily be
cupellated: which you may remedy thus: put this black Regulus of
Saturn into a Crucible in a Wind Furnace, cause it to flow well; and if
there be of that one Ounce, cast upon it a Drachm or somewhat
more of Salt-peter, and make them flow together, then the Salt-peter
will attract the roughness from the Saturn and turn it into Scoria.
Which being poured out and the Regulus of Saturn separated from
the Scoria, it will be white and tractable, and easily runneth upon
the Cupel. This I call washing. But if thou knowest not how to
perform this Lotion, which yet in it self consisteth in an easie labour,
put thy black and rough Regulus of Saturn into such an Instrument
(as they call Treib Scherbe) or, a close Cupel, under a covering [or
Muffle,] and suffer it so to be defecated for the space of half or at
least a quarter of an hour, pour it out and separate the Scoria from
the Regulus; which will be white and tractable. But the Lotion by
Salt-peter is much the better.
Of this Regulus of Saturn, and of that same Lead of which the
Ashes of Saturn were made, take equally the same weight, exactly
weighed with the lesser weights, put each of them apart upon a
dephlegmed Cupel, suffer them to run; compare one with the other,
and you shall find, that Saturn which was blown off with the Sand or