Heaven."[1b] It was this Spirit, concentrated in all its potency in a suitable material form, which the alchemists sought under the name of “the Philosopher’s Stone”.  Now, mystical theology teaches that the Spirit of CHRIST, by which alone the soul of man can be tinctured and transmuted into the likeness of God, is Goodness itself; consequently, the alchemists argued that the Philosopher’s Stone must be, so to speak, Gold itself, or the very essence of Gold:  it was to them, as CHRIST is of the soul’s perfection, at once the pattern and the means of metallic perfection.  “The Philosopher’s Stone,” declares “EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES” (nat. c. 1623), “is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetrative, and fixed substance, which brings all metals to the perfection of gold or silver (according to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature....  Know, then, that it is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire as successfully as any stone.  In species it is gold, more pure than the purest; it is fixed and incombustible like a stone [i.e. it contains no outward sulphur, but only inward, fixed sulphur], but its appearance is that of a very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous, and easily capable of tingeing a plate of metal....  If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more than the truth; if we described it as corporeal the expression would be equally correct; for it is subtle, penetrative, glorified, spiritual gold.  It is the noblest of all created things after the rational soul, and has virtue to repair all defects both in animal and metallic bodies, by restoring them to the most exact and perfect temper; wherefore is it a spirit or ` quintessence.’ “[1c]

[1a] BASIL VALENTINE:  The Twelve Keys. (See The Hermetic Museum, vol. i. pp. 333 and 334.)

[2a] From the “Smaragdine Table,” attributed to HERMES TRISMEGISTOS (ie.  MERCURY or THOTH).

[1b] The Book of the Revelation of HERMES, interpreted by THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS, concerning the Supreme Secret of the World. (See BENEDICTUS FIGULUS, A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature’s Marvels, trans. by A. E. WAITE, 1893, pp. 36, 37, and 41.)

[1c] EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES:  A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby.  (See The Hermetic Museum, vol. ii. pp. 246 and 249.)