there is implanted, spiritually and invisibly, a certain power and
virtue in those metals and minerals; which fume, moreover,
resolves in the earth into a certain water, wherefrom all metals
are thenceforth generated and ripened to their perfection, and
thence proceeds this or that metal or mineral, according as one of
the three principles acquires dominion, and they have much or
little of sulphur and salt, or an unequal mixture of these; whence
some metals are fixed--that is, constant or stable; and some are
volatile and easily changeable, as is seen in gold, silver,
copper, iron, tin, and lead." (Basil Valentine.)

"To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their
material correspondences, to control, purify, and transform them
by the living power of the Spirit--this is true Alchemy."
(Paracelsus.)

"Destruction perfects that which is good; for the good cannot
appear on account of that which conceals it.... Each one of the
visible metals is a concealment of the other six metals."
(Paracelsus.)

These sayings read like sentences in a forgotten tongue.

Humboldt tells of a parrot which had lived with a tribe of American
Indians, and learnt scraps of their language; the tribe totally
disappeared; the parrot alone remained, and babbled words in the
language which no living human being could understand.

Are the words I have quoted unintelligible, like the parrot's prating?
Perhaps the language may be reconstructed; perhaps it may be found to