“I will therefore nowe deliver unto you a great and hidden secret. One part is to bee mixed with a thousand of the next body, and let all this be surely put into a fit vessell, and sette it in a furnace of fixation, first with a lent fire, and afterwardes encreasing the fire for three dayes, till they be inseperably joyned together, and this is a worke of three dayes: then againe and finally every part heereof by it selfe, must be projected upon another thousand parts of any neere body: and this is a worke of one day, or one houre, or a moment, for which our wonderfull God is eternally to be praised.”
from The Mirror of Alchimy, composed by the thrice-famous and learned fryer, Roger Bachon, sometimes fellow of Martin Colledge: and afterwards of Brasen-nose Colledge in Oxenforde. Also a most excellent and learned discourse of the admirable force and efficacie of Art and Nature, written by the same Author. With certain other worthie treatises of the like argument. London. Printed for Richard Olive, 1597