Contains several poetical pieces of famous English philosophers who have written the Hermetique Mysteries. Faithfully collected into one volume, with annotations thereon, by Elias Ashmole. Contains Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy; Ripley's Compound of Alchemy, George Ripley to King Edward the Fourth, Verses Belonging to An Emblematical Scrowle; Charnock's Breviary of Natural Philosophy; Fragments Copied From Thomas Charnock's Own Handwriting; Liber Patris Sapienti; Hermes Bird; Geoffry Chaucer's The Tale of the Chanons Yeoman; The Work of John Dastin; Pearce's The Black Monke Upon the Elixir; Carpenter's Work; The Greene Lyon; Sir Edward Kelle's Work; Thomas Robinson's De Lapide Philosophorum; and The Hermet's Tale. Many unusual and interesting plates. This book is very rare and highly recommended as a foundation of alchemical writing.