Quicksilver is a watery substance medlied strongly with subtle earthly
things, and may not be dissolved: and that is for great dryness of
earth that melteth not on a plain thing. Therefore it cleaveth not to
thing that it toucheth, as doth the thing that is watery. The
substance thereof is white: and that is for clearness of clear water,
and for whiteness of subtle earth that is well digested. Also it hath
whiteness of medlying of air with the aforesaid things. Also
quicksilver hath the property that it curdeth not by itself kindly
without brimstone: but with brimstone, and with substance of lead, it
is congealed and fastened together. And therefore it is said, that
quicksilver and brimstone is the element, that is to wit matter, of
which all melting metal is made. Quicksilver is matter of all metal,
and therefore in respect of them it is a simple element. Isidore saith
it is fleeting, for it runneth and is specially found in silver forges
as it were drops of silver molten. And it is oft found in old dirt of
sinks, and in slime of pits. And also it is made of minium done in
caverns of iron, and a patent or a shell done thereunder; and the
vessel that is anointed therewith, shall be be-clipped with burning
coals, and then the quicksilver shall drop. Without this silver nor
gold nor latten nor copper may be overgilt. And it is of so great
virtue and strength, that though thou do a stone of an hundred pound
weight upon quicksilver of the weight of two pounds, the quicksilver
anon withstandeth the weight. And if thou doest thereon a scruple of
gold, it ravisheth unto itself the lightness thereof. And so it
appeareth it is not weight, but nature to which it obeyeth. It is best
kept in glass vessels, for it pierceth, boreth, and fretteth other
matters.

If an adamant be set by iron, it suffereth not the iron to come to the
magnet, but it draweth it by a manner of violence from the magnet, so