To the Reader.
ſopher hath the life to come ſo cleerly ſet before his eyes, as thy face is ſeen in a glaſſe. Thus much by way of reply to the frivolous objections of thoſe that beleeve not the verity of this Art, and not onely ſo, but wil not beleeve it. If you ſhould diſcover to them the
proceſſe of the philoſophers ſtone, they would laugh at your ſimplicity, and I wil warrant you
never make uſe of it. Nay if you ſhould make projection before them, they would think that even in that there were a fallacy, ſo unbeleeving are they: ſo I finde them, and ſo I leave them, and ſhal for ever finde them the ſame.
There is another ſort of men by whom this Art hath been much ſcandalized, and they indeed have brought a great Odium upon it by carrying about, and vending their whites, and reds, their ſophiſticated oils, & ſalts, their dangerous and ill prepared Turbithes and Aurum vitæ's. And indeed it were worth while, and I might doe good ſervice for the Nation, to diſcover their cheats, as their ſophiſticating of Chymical oils with ſpirit of Turpentine, and ſalts with ſalt extracted out of any wood aſhes
and
