Atome; and, when I had cleansed
my nayl, and had injected the
collected matter, wrapt in paper,
upon Lead in Flux, I could see no
Transmutation of it into Gold; but
almost the whole Mass of Lead
vanished into Aire, and the
remaining Substance was transmuted into
a Glassy Earth. At the
hearing of this, he smiling, say'd
You could more dexterously play
the Thief, than apply the Tincture.
I wonder, that you, so expert
in the Fire, do no better understand
the fuming Nature of Lead.
For if you had wrapped
your Theft in yellow Wax, that it
might have been conserved from
the Fume of Lead, then it would so
have penetrated into the Lead,
as to have transmuted the same
into Gold. But now a Sympathetick
Operation was performed in
Fume, and so the Medicine permixed
with the Fume, flew away:
For all Gold, Silver, Tin, Mercury,
and like Metals, are corrupted
by Lead Vapours, and
likewise converted to a brittle
Glass. While he was thus speaking,