 Chapter 1 of The Story of Alchemy The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir It is neither religious nor wise to judge that of which you know nothing. From A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby by Phila Leithes, 17th Century Preface The story of alchemy and the beginnings of chemistry is very interesting in itself. It is also a pregnant example of the contrast between the scientific and the emotional methods of regarding nature. And it admirably illustrates the differences between well-grounded suggestive hypotheses and baseless speculations. I have tried to tell the story so that it may be intelligible to the ordinary reader. M. M. Pattison Muir, Cambridge, November 1902 Chapter 1 The Explanation of Material Changes Given by the Greek Thinkers For thousands of years before men had any accurate and exact knowledge of the changes of material things, they had thought about these changes, regarded them as revelations of spiritual truths, built on them theories of things in heaven and earth, and a good many things in neither, and used them in manufacturers, arts and handicrafts, especially in one very curious manufacturer, wherein not the thousandth fragment of a grain of the finished article was ever produced. The accurate and systematic study of the changes which material things undergo is called chemistry. We may perhaps describe alchemy as the superficial and what may be called subjective examination of these changes, and the speculative systems and imaginary arts and manufacturers founded on that examination. We are assured by many old writers that Adam was the first alchemist, and we are told by one of the initiated that Adam was created on the sixth day, being the fifteenth of March of the first year of the world. Certainly alchemy had a long life, but chemistry did not begin until about the middle of the eighteenth century. No branch of science has had so long a period of incubation as chemistry. There must be some extraordinary difficulty in the way of disentangling the steps of those changes wherein substances of one kind are produced from substances totally unlike them. To inquire how those of acute intellects and much learning regarded such occurrences in the times when man's outlook on the world was very different from what it is now, warts to be interesting, and the results of that inquiry must surely be instructive. If the reader turns to a modern book on chemistry, for instance, the story of the chemical elements in this series, he will find at first superficial descriptions of special instances of those occurrences which are the subject of the chemist's study. He will learn that only certain parts of such events are dealt with in chemistry. More accurate descriptions will then be given of changes which occur in nature or can be produced by altering the ordinary conditions. And the reader will be taught to see certain points of likeness between these changes. He will be shown how to disentangle chemical occurrences to find their similarities and differences, and gradually he will feel his way to general statements which are more or less rigorous and accurate expressions of what holds good in a large number of chemical processes. Finally, he will discover that some generalisations have been made which are exact and completely accurate descriptions applicable to every case of chemical change. But if we turn to the writings of the alchemists, we are in a different world. There is nothing even remotely resembling what one finds in a modern book on chemistry. Here are a few quotations from alchemical writings. Note, most of the quotations from alchemical writings in this book are taken from a series of translations published in 1893 to 94 under the supervision of Mr A. E. Waite. End note. It is necessary to deprive matter of its qualities in order to draw out its soul. Copper is like a man. It has a soul and a body. The soul is the most subtle part, that is to say the tinctorial spirit. The body is the ponderable material, terrestrial thing, endowed with a shadow. After a series of suitable treatments, copper becomes without shadow and better than gold. The elements grow and are transmuted because it is their qualities, not their substances, which are contrary. Stefanus of Alexandria, about 620 A.D. If we would elicit our medicine from the precious metals, we must destroy the particular metallic form without impairing its specific properties. The specific properties of the metal have their abode in its spiritual part, which resides in homogeneous water. Thus we must destroy the particular form of gold and change it into its generic homogeneous water in which the spirit of gold is preserved. This spirit afterwards restores the consistency of its water and brings forth a new form after the necessary putrefaction a thousand times more perfect than the form of gold which it lost by being reincredited. Philolethes, 17th century The bodily nature of things is a concealing outward vesture, Michael Sendivogius, 17th century. Nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance, but in the virtue. The less there is of body, the more in proportion is the virtue. Paracelsus, 16th century. There are four elements and each has at its centre another element which makes it what it is. These are the four pillars of the world. It is their contrary action which keeps up the harmony and equilibrium of the mundane machinery. Michael Sendivogius Nature cannot work till it has been supplied with a material. The first matter is furnished by God, the second matter by the sage, Michael Sendivogius. When corruptible elements are united in a certain substance their strife must sooner or later bring about its decomposition which is of course followed by putrefaction. In putrefaction the impure is separated from the pure and if the pure elements are then once more joined together by the action of natural heat a much nobler and higher form of life is produced. If the hidden central fire which during life was in a state of passivity obtained the mastery it attracts to itself all the pure elements which are thus separated from the impure and form the nucleus of a far purer form of life. Michael Sendivogius Cause that which is above to be below. That which is visible to be invisible. That which is palpable to become impalpable. Again let that which is below become that which is above. Let the invisible become visible and the impalpable become palpable. Here you see the perfection of our art without any defect or diminution. Basil Valentine 15th Century Think most diligently about this. Often bear in mind observe and comprehend that all minerals and metals together in the same time and after the same fashion and of one and the same principle matter are produced and generated. That matter is no other than a mere vapor which is extracted from the elementary earth by the superior stars or by a sidereal distillation of the macrocosm which sidereal hot infusion with an airy sulfurous property descending upon inferiors so acts and operates as that there is implanted spiritually and invisibly a certain power and virtue in those metals and minerals which fume more ever resolves in the earth into a certain water where from all metals are thenceforth generated and ripened to their perfection and thence proceeds this or that metal or mineral according as one of the three principles acquires dominion and they have much or little of sulfur and salt or an unequal mixture of these. Whence some metals are fixed, that is constant or stable and some are volatile and easily changeable as is seen in gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead. Basil Valentine To grasp the invisible elements to attract them by their material correspondences to control, purify and transform them by the living power of the spirit this is true alchemy, Paracelsus. Destruction perfects that which is good for the good cannot appear on account of that which conceals it. Each one of the visible metals is a concealment of the other six metals, Paracelsus. These sayings read like sentences in a forgotten tongue. Humboldt tells of a parrot which had lived with a tribe of American Indians and learnt scraps of their language. The tribe totally disappeared. The parrot alone remained and babbled words in the language which no living human being could understand. Are the words I have quoted unintelligible, like a parrot's prating? Perhaps the language may be reconstructed. Perhaps it may be found to embody something worth a hearing. Success is most likely to come by considering the growth of alchemy by trying to find the ideas which were expressed in the strange tongue by endeavouring to look at our surroundings as the alchemists looked at theirs. Do what we will, we always more or less construct our own universe. The history of science may be described as the history of the attempts and the failures of men to see things as they are. Nothing is harder, said the Latin poet Lucretius, than to separate manifest facts from doubtful, what straight way the mind adds on of itself. Observations of the changes which are constantly happening in the sky and on the earth must have prompted men long ago to ask whether there are any limits to the changes of things around them, and this question must have become more urgent as working in metals, making colours and dyes, preparing new kinds of food and drink, producing substances with smells and tastes unlike those of familiar objects and other pursuits like these, made men acquainted with transformations which seemed to penetrate to the very foundations of things. Can one thing be changed into any other thing, or are there classes of things within each of which changes possible while the passage from one class to another is not possible? Are all the various substances seen, tasted, handled, smelt, composed of a limited number of essentially different things, or is each fundamentally different from every other substance? Such questions as these must have pressed for answers long ago. Some of the Greek philosophers who lived four or five hundred years before Christ formed a theory of the transformation of matter, which is essentially the theory held by naturalists today. These philosophers taught that to understand nature we must get beneath the superficial qualities of things. According to convention, said a Democrat, born 460 BC, there are a sweet and a bitter, a hot and a cold, and according to convention there is colour. In truth there are atoms and a void. Those investigators attempted to connect all the differences which are observed between the quality of things with differences of size, shape, position and movement of atoms. They said that all things are formed by the coalescence of certain unchangeable, indestructible and impenetrable particles which they named atoms. The total number of atoms is constant. Not one of them can be destroyed nor can one be created. When a substance ceases to exist and another is formed the process is not a destruction of matter, it is a rearrangement of atoms. Only fragments of the writings of the founders of the atomic theory have come to us. The views of these philosophers are preserved and doubtless amplified and modified in a Latin poem concerning the nature of things written by Lucretius who was born a century before the beginning of our era. Let us consider the picture given in that poem of the material universe and the method whereby the picture was produced. Note the quotations from Lucretius are taken from Monroe's translation, fourth edition 1886. End note. All knowledge, said Lucretius, is based on the aspect and the law of nature. True knowledge can be obtained only by the use of the senses. There is no other method. From the senses first has preceded the knowledge of the true and the senses cannot be refuted. Shall reason founded on false sense be able to contradict the senses, wholly founded as it is on the senses and if they are not true then all reason as well is rendered false. The first principle in nature is asserted by Lucretius to be that nothing is ever gotten out of nothing. A thing never returns to nothing but all things after disruption go back to the first bodies of matter. If there were not imperishable seeds of things, atoms, first beginnings of solid singleness then Lucretius urges infinite time gone by and laps of days must have eaten up all things that are of mortal body. The first beginnings or atoms of things were thought of by Lucretius as always moving. There is no lowest point in the sum of the universe where they can rest. They meet, clash, rebound or sometimes join together into groups of atoms which move about as holes. Change, growth, decay, formation, disruption these are the marks of all things. The war of first beginnings waged from eternity is carried on with dubious issue. Now here, now there, the life-bringing elements of things get to the mastery and are o'er mastered in turn. With the funeral wail blends the cry which babies raise when they enter the borders of light at no night ever followed day nor morning night that heard not, mingling with the sickly infant's cries the attendance wailings on death and black funeral. Lucretius pictured the atoms of things as like the things perceived by the senses. He said that atoms of different kinds have different shapes but the number of shapes is finite because there is a limit to the number of different things we see, smell, taste and handle. He implies, although I do not think he definitely asserts that all atoms of one kind are identical in every respect. We now know that many compounds exist which are formed by the union of the same quantities by weight of the same elements and nevertheless differ in properties. Modern chemistry explains this fact by saying that the properties of a substance depend not only on the kind of atoms which compose the minute particles of a compound and the number of atoms of each kind but also on the mode of arrangement of the atoms. The same doctrine was taught by Lucretius 2,000 years ago. It often makes a great difference, he said, with what things and in what positions the same first beginnings are held in union and what motions they mutually impart and receive. For instance, certain atoms may be so arranged at one time to produce fire and at another time the arrangement of the same atoms may be such that the result is a fir tree. The differences between the colours of things are said by Lucretius to be due to differences in the arrangements and motions of atoms. As the colour of the sea when wind lashes it into foam is different from the colour when the waters are at rest so do the colours of things change when the atoms whereof the things are composed change from one arrangement to another or from sluggish movements to rapid and tumultuous motions. Lucretius pictured a solid substance as a vast number of atoms squeezed closely together a liquid as composed of not so many atoms less tightly packed and a gas as a comparatively small number of atoms with considerable freedom of motion. Essentially the same picture is presented by the molecular theory of today. To meet the objection that atoms are invisible and therefore cannot exist Lucretius enumerates many things we cannot see although we know they exist No one doubts the existence of winds, heat, cold and smells yet no one has seen the wind or heat or cold or a smell. Clothes become moist when hung near the sea and dry when spread in the sunshine but no one has seen the moisture entering or leaving the clothes. A pavement trodden by many feet is worn away but the minute particles are removed without our eyes being able to see them. Another object urges you say the atoms are always moving yet the things we look at which you assert to be vast numbers of moving atoms are often motionless. Him Lucretius answers by an analogy and herein you need not wonder at this that though the first beginnings of things are all in motion yet the sum is seen to rest in supreme repose unless when a thing exhibits motions with its individual body. For all the nature of first things lies far away from our senses beneath their ken and therefore since they are themselves beyond what you can see they must withdraw from sight their motion as well and the more so that the things which we can see do yet often conceal their motions when a great distance off. Thus often the woolly flocks as they crop the glad pastures on a hill one wither the grass dueled with fresh dew summons or invites each and the lambs fed to the full gamble and playfully but all which objects appear to us from a distance do be blended together and to rest like a white spot on a green hill. Again when mighty legions fill with their movements all parts of the plains waging the mimicry of war the glitter lifts itself up to the sky and the whole earth round gleams with brass and beneath the noises raised by the mighty tramplings of men and the mountains stricken by the shouting echo the voices to the stars of heaven and horsemen fly about and suddenly wheeling scour across the middle of the plains shaking them with the vehemence of their charge and yet there is some spot on the high hills seen from which they appear to stand still and to rest on the plains as a bright spot. The atomic theory of the Greek thinkers was constructed by reasoning on natural phenomena. Lucretius constantly appeals to observed facts for confirmation of his theoretical teachings or refutation of opinions he thought erroneous. Besides giving a general mental presentation of the material universe the theory was applied to many specific transmutations but minute descriptions of what are now called chemical changes could not be given in terms of the theory because no searching examination of so much as one change had been made nor I think one may say could be made under the conditions of Greek life. More than two thousand years passed before investigators began to make accurate measurements of the quantities of the substances which take part in those changes wherein certain things seem to be destroyed and other totally different things to be produced. Until accurate knowledge had been obtained of the quantities of the definite substances which interact in the transformations of matter the atomic theory could not do more than draw the outlines of a picture of material changes. A scientific theory has been described as the likening of our imaginings to what we actually observe so long as we observe only in the rough only in a broad and general way our imaginings must also be rough, broad and general. It was the great glory of the Greek thinkers about natural events that their observations were accurate on the whole and as far as they went and the theory they formed was based on no trivial or accidental features of the facts but on what has proved to be the very essence of the phenomena they sought to bring into one point of view For all the advances made in our own times in clear knowledge of the transformations of matter have been made by using as a guide to experimental inquiries the conception that the differences between the qualities of substances are connected with differences in the weights and movements of minute particles and this was the central idea of the atomic theory of the Greek philosophers. The atomic theory was used by the great physicists of the later Renaissance by Galileo, Gassendi, Newton and others Our own countryman John Dalton while trying in the early years of the 19th century to form a mental presentation of the atmosphere in terms of the theory of atoms rediscovered the possibility of differences between the sizes of atoms applied this idea to the facts concerning the quantitative compositions of compounds which had been established by others developed a method for determining the relative weights of atoms of different kinds and started chemistry on the course which it has followed so successfully Instead of blaming the Greek philosophers for lack of quantitatively accurate experimental inquiry we should rather be full of admiring wonder at the extraordinary acuteness of their mental vision and the soundness of their scientific spirit The ancient atomists distinguished the essential properties of things in their accidental features The former cannot be removed, Lucretius said without utter destruction accompanying the severance The latter may be altered while the nature of the thing remains unharmed As examples of essential properties Lucretius mentions the weight of a stone the heat of fire the fluidity of water such things as liberty, war, slavery riches, poverty and the like were accounted accidents Time also was said to be an accident It exists not by itself but simply from the things which happen The sense apprehends what has been done in time past as well as what is present and what is to follow after As our story proceeds we shall see that the chemists of the Middle Ages the alchemists founded their theory of material changes on the difference between a supposed essential substratum of things and their qualities which could be taken off, they said and put on as clothes are removed and replaced How different from the clear harmonious orderly Greek scheme is any picture we can form from such quotations as I have given from their writings of the alchemist's conception of the world The Greeks likened their imaginings of nature to the natural facts they observed The alchemists created an imaginary world after their own likeness While Christianity was superseding the old religions and the theological system of the Christian church was replacing the cosmogonies of the heathen the contrast between the power of evil and the power of good was more fully realized than in the days of the Greeks A sharper division was drawn between this world and another world and that other world was divided into two irreconcilable and absolutely opposite parts Man came to be regarded as the center of a tremendous and never-ceasing battle urged between the powers of good and the powers of evil The sights and sounds of nature were regarded as the vestments or the voices of the unseen combatants Life was at once very real and the mere shadow of a dream The conditions were favorable to the growth of magic for man was regarded as the measure of the universe the central figure in an awful tragedy Magic is an attempt by thinking and speculating about what we consider must be the order of nature to discover some means of penetrating into the secret life of natural things of realizing the hidden powers and virtues of things grasping the concealed thread of unity which is supposed to run through all phenomena however seemingly diverse entering into sympathy with the supposed inner oneness of life death, the present, past and future Magic grows and gathers strength when men assure their theory of the universe must be the one true theory and they see only through the glasses which their theory supplies He who knows himself thoroughly knows God and all the mysteries of his nature says a modern writer on magic That saying expresses the fundamental hypothesis and the method of all systems of magic and mysticism Of such systems Alchemy was one The system which began to be called Alchemy in the 6th and 7th centuries of our era had no special name before that time but was known as the sacred art the divine science the occult science the art of Hermes A commentator on Aristotle writing in the 4th century AD calls certain instruments used for fusion and calcination quica organa that is instruments for melting and pouring hence probably came the adjective caic or chymic and at a somewhat later time the word chemia as the name of that art which deals with calcinations, fusions, meltings and the like The writer of a treatise on astrology in the 5th century speaking of the influence of the stars on the dispositions of man says if a man is born under Mercury he will give himself to astronomy if Mars he will follow the profession of arms if Saturn he will devote himself to the science of alchemy Sarantia alchemii The word alchemia which appears in this treatise was formed by prefixing the Arabic al meaning the to chemia a word as we have seen of Greek origin it is the growth, development and transformation into chemistry of this alchemia which we have to consider alchemy that is the art of melting, pouring and transforming must necessarily pay much attention to working with crucibles, furnaces, alembics and other vessels wherein things are fused, distilled, calcined and dissolved the old drawings of alchemical operations show us men busy calcining, cohabating, distilling, dissolving, digesting and performing other processes of like character to these the alchemists could not be accused of laziness or aversion to work in their laboratories Paracelsus, 16th century, says of them they are not given to idleness nor go in a proud habit or plush and velvet garments often showing their rings on their fingers or wearing swords with silver hilts by their sides or fine and gay gloves on their hands but diligently follow their labours sweating whole days and nights by their furnaces they do not spend their time abroad for recreation but take delight in their laboratories they put their fingers among coals into clay and filth not into gold rings they are sooty and black like smiths and miners and do not pride themselves upon clean and beautiful faces in these respects the chemist of today faithfully follows the practice of the alchemists who are his predecessors you can nose a chemist in a crowd by the smell of the laboratory which hangs about him you can pick him out by the stains on his hands and clothes he also takes delight in his laboratory he does not always pride himself on a clean and beautiful face he sweats whole days and nights by his furnace why does the chemist toil so eagerly? why did the alchemists so untiringly pursue their quest? I think it is not unfair to say the chemist experiments in order that he may liken his imaginings to the facts which he observes the alchemist toiled that he might liken the facts which he observed to his imaginings the difference may be put in another way by saying the chemist's object is to discover how changes happen in combinations of the unchanging the alchemist's endeavour was to prove the truth of his fundamental assertion that every substance contains undeveloped resources and potentialities and can be brought outward and forward into perfection looking around him and observing the changes of things the alchemist was deeply impressed by the growth and modification of plants and animals he argued that minerals and metals also grow, change, develop he said in effect, nature is one there must be unity in all the diversity I see when a grain of corn falls into the earth it dies but this dying is the first step towards a new life the dead seed is changed into the living plant so it must be with all other things in nature the mineral or the metal seems dead when it is buried in the earth but in reality it is growing, changing and becoming more perfect the perfection of the seed is the plant what is the perfection of the common metals? evidently, the alchemist replied, the perfect metal is gold the common metals are trying to become gold gold is the intention of nature in regard to all metals said an alchemical writer plants are preserved by the preservation of their seed in like manner, the alchemist's argument proceeded there must be a seed in metals which is their essence if I can separate the seed and bring it under the proper conditions I can cause it to grow into the perfect metal animal life and human life also we may suppose the alchemist saying are continued by the same method as that whereby the life of plants is continued all life springs from seed the seed is fructified by the union of the male and the female in metals also, there must be the two characters the union of these is needed for the production of new metals the conjoining of metals must go before the birth of the perfect metal now we may suppose the argument to proceed now the passage from the imperfect to the more perfect is not easy it is harder to practice virtue than to acquiesce in vice virtue comes not naturally to man that he may gain the higher life he must be helped by grace therefore the task of exalting the purer metals into the perfect gold of developing the lower order into the higher is not easy if nature does this she does it slowly and painfully if the exaltation of the common metals to a higher plane is to be affected rapidly it can be done only by the help of man so far as I can judge from their writings the argument of the alchemists may be rendered by some such form as the foregoing a careful examination of the alchemical argument shows that it rests on a supposed intimate knowledge of nature's plan of working and the certainty that simplicity is the essential mark of that plan that the alchemists were satisfied of the great simplicity of nature and their own knowledge of the ways of nature's work is apparent from their writings the author of the new chemical light from the 17th century says, simplicity is the seal of truth nature is wonderfully simple and the characteristic mark of a child-like simplicity is stamped upon all that is true and noble in nature in another place the same author says nature is one, true, simple, self-contained, created of God and informed with a certain universal spirit the same author, Michael Sendevogius, remarks it may be asked how I come to have this knowledge about heavenly things which are far removed beyond human ken my answer is that the sages have been taught by God that this natural world is only an image and material copy of a heavenly and spiritual pattern that the very existence of this world is based upon the reality of its heavenly archetype thus the sage sees heaven reflected in nature as in a mirror and he pursues this art not for the sake of gold or silver but for the love of the knowledge which it reveals the only true way advises all who wish to become true alchemists to leave the circuitous paths of pretended philosophers and to follow nature which is simple the complicated processes described in books are said to be the traps laid by the cunning sophists to catch the unwary in a catechism of alchemy Paracelsus asks what road should the philosopher follow? he answers that exactly which was followed by the great architect of the universe in the creation of the world one might suppose it would be easier and perhaps more profitable to examine, observe and experiment then to turn one's eyes inward with the hope of discovering exactly the road followed by the great architect of the universe in the creation of the world but the alchemical method found it easier to begin by introspection the alchemist spun his universe from his own ideas of order, symmetry and simplicity as the spider spins her web from her own substance a favourite saying of the alchemists was what is above is as what is below in one of its aspects this saying meant processes happen within the earth like those which occur on the earth minerals and metals live as animals and plants live all pass through corruption towards perfection in another aspect the saying meant the human being is the world in miniature as is the microcosm so is the macrocosm to know oneself is to know all the world every man knows he ought to try to rise to better things and many men endeavour to do what they know they ought to do therefore he who feels sure that all nature is fashioned after the image of man projects his own ideas of progress, development, virtue, matter and spirit on to nature, outside himself and as a matter of course this kind of naturalist uses the same language when he is speaking of the changes of material things as he employs to express the changes of his mental states his hopes, fears, aspirations and struggles the language of the alchemists was therefore rich in such expressions as these the elements are to be so conjoined that the nobler and fuller life may be produced our arcanum is gold exalted to the highest degree of perfection to which the combined action of nature and art can develop it such co-mingling of ethical and physical ideas such application of moral conceptions to material phenomena was characteristic of the alchemical method of regarding nature the necessary results were great confusion of thought much mystification of ideas and a superabundance of views about natural events when the author of The Metamorphosis of Metals was seeking for an argument in favour of his view that water is the source and primal element of all things he found what he sought in the Biblical text in the beginning the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters similarly the author of The Sodic Hydrolith clenches his argument in favour of the existence of the philosopher's stone by the quotation therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation he that has it shall not be confounded this author works out in detail an analogy between the functions and virtues of the stone and the story of man's fall and redemption as set forth in the Old and New Testaments the same author speaks of Satan that grim pseudo alchemist that the attribution by the alchemists of moral virtues and vices to natural things was in keeping with some deep seated tendency of human nature is shown by the persistence of some of their methods of stating the properties of substances we still speak of perfect and imperfect gases noble and base metals good and bad conductors of electricity and laws governing natural phenomena convinced of the simplicity of nature certain that all natural events follow one course sure that this course was known to them and was represented by the growth of plants and animals the alchemists set themselves the task firstly of proving by observations and experiments that their view of natural occurrences was correct and secondly of discovering and gaining possession of the instrument whereby nature affects her transmutations and perfects her operations the mastery of this instrument would give them power to change any metal into gold the cure for all diseases and the happiness which must come from the practical knowledge of the supreme secret of nature the central quest of alchemy was the quest of an undefined and undefinable something wherein was supposed to be contained all the powers and potences of life and whatever makes life worth living the names given to this mystical something were as many as the properties which were assigned to it it was called the one thing the essence the philosopher's stone the stone of wisdom the heavenly balm the divine water the virgin water the carbuncle of the sun the old dragon the lion the basilisk the phoenix and many other names were given to it we may come near to expressing the alchemist's view of the essential character of the object of their search by naming it the soul of all things alchemy a modern writer says is the science of the soul of all things the essence was supposed to have a material form an ethereal or middle nature and an immaterial or spiritual life no one might hope to make this essence from any one substance because as one of the alchemists says it is the attribute of God alone to make one out of one you must produce one thing out of two by natural generation the alchemists did not pretend to create gold but only to produce it from other things the author of a brief guide to the celestial ruby says we do not, as is sometimes said, profess to create gold and silver but only to find an agent which is capable of entering into an intimate and maturing union with the mercury of the base metals and again our art only arrogates to itself the power of developing through the removal of all defects and superfluities the golden nature which the baser metals possess bonus in his tract on the new pearl of great price from the 16th century says the art of alchemy does not create metals or even develop them out of the metallic first substance it only takes up the unfinished handicrafted nature and completes it nature has only left a comparatively small thing for the artist to do the completion of that which she has already begun if the essence were ever attained it would be by following the course which nature follows in producing the perfect plant from the imperfect seed by discovering and separating the seed of metals and bringing that seed under the conditions which alone are suitable for its growth metals must have seed, the alchemists said for it would be absurd to suppose they have none what prerogative have vegetables about metals exclaims one of them God should give seed to the one and withhold it from the other are not metals as much in his sight as trees? as metals then possess seed it is evident how this seed is to be made active the seed of a plant is quickened by descending into the earth therefore the seed of metals must be destroyed before it becomes life producing the processes of our art must begin with dissolution of gold they must terminate in a restoration of the essential quality of gold gold does not easily give up its nature and will fight for its life but our agent is strong enough to overcome and kill it and then it also has power to restore it to life and to change the lifeless remains into a new and pure body the application of the doctrine of the existence of seed in metals led to the performance of many experiments and hence to the accumulation of a considerable body of facts established by experimental inquiries the belief of the alchemists that all natural events are connected by a hidden thread that everything has an influence on other things that what is above is as what is below constrained them to place stress on the supposed connection between the planets and the metals and to further their metallic transformations by performing them at times when certain planets were in conjunction the seven principal planets under seven principal metals were called by the same names Sol, Gold, Luna, Silver, Saturn, Lead, Jupiter, Tin, Mars, Iron, Venus, Copper and Mercury, Mercury the author of the new chemical light taught that one metal could be propagated from another only in the order of superiority of the planets he placed the seven planets in the following descending order Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna the virtues of the planets descend, he said but do not ascend it is easy to change Mars, Iron, into Venus, Copper, for instance but Venus cannot be transformed into Mars although the alchemists regarded everything as influencing and influenced by other things they were persuaded that the greatest effects are produced on a substance by substances of like nature with itself hence most of them taught that the seed of metals will be obtained by operations with metals not by the action on metals of things of animal or vegetable origin each class of substance they said as a life or spirit an essential character we might say of its own the life of sulphur, Paracelsus said is a combustible, ill-smelling fatness the life of gems and corals is mere colour the life of water is its flowing the life of fire is air grant an attraction of like to like and the reason becomes apparent for such directions as these nothing heterogeneous must be introduced into our magistery everything should be made to act on that which is like it and then nature will perform her duty although each class of substances was said by the alchemists to have its own particular character or life nevertheless they taught that there is a deep-seated likeness between all things in as much as the power of the essence or the one thing is so great that under its influence different things are produced from the same origin and different things are caused to pass into and become the same thing in the new chemical light it is said while the seed of all things is one it is made to generate a great variety of things it is not easy now it could not have been easy at any time to give clear and exact meanings to the doctrines of the alchemists or the directions they gave for performing the operations necessary for the production of the object of their search and the difficulty is much increased when we are told that the sage jealously conceals his knowledge from the sinner and the scornful lest the mysteries of heaven should be laid bare to the vulgar gaze we almost despair when an alchemical writer assures us that the sages set pen to paper for the express purpose of concealing their meaning the sense of a whole passage is often hopelessly obscured by the addition or omission of one little word for instance the addition of the word not in the wrong place another writer says the sages are in the habit of using words which may convey either a true or a false impression the former to their own disciples and children the latter to the ignorant the foolish and the unworthy sometimes after descriptions of processes couched in strange and mystical language the writer will add if you cannot perceive what you ought to understand herein you should not devote yourself to the study of philosophy Phila Leithes in his brief guide to the celestial ruby seems to feel some pity for his readers after describing what he calls the generic homogeneous water of gold he says if you wish for a more particular description of our water I am impelled by motives of charity to tell you that it is living flexible, clear, knitted, white as snow hot, humid, airy, vaporous and digestive alchemy began by asserting that nature must be simple it assumed that a knowledge of the plan and method of natural occurrences is to be obtained by thinking and it used analogy as the guide in applying this knowledge of nature's design to particular events especially the analogy assumed by alchemy to exist between material phenomena and human emotions End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Story of Alchemy this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir Chapter 3 The Alchemical Conception of the Unity and Simplicity of Nature In the preceding chapter I have referred to the frequent use made by the alchemists of their supposition that nature follows the same plan or at any rate a very similar plan in all her processes If this supposition is accepted the primary business of an investigator of nature is to trace likenesses and analogies between what seem on the surface to be dissimilar and unconnected events As this idea and this practice where the foundations were on the superstructure of alchemy was raised I think it is important to amplify them more fully than I have done already Mention is made in many alchemical writings of a mythical personage named Hermes Trismagistus who is said to have lived a little later than the time of Moses Representations of Hermes Trismagistus are found on ancient Egyptian monuments We are told that Alexander the Great found his tomb near Hebron and that the tomb contained a slab of emerald whereon 13 sentences were written The eighth sentence is rendered in many alchemical books as follows Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven and then again descend to the earth and unite together the powers of things superior and things inferior Thus you will obtain the glory of the whole world and obscurity will fly away from you This sentence evidently teaches the unity of things in heaven and things on earth and asserts the possibility of gaining not merely a theoretical but also a practical knowledge of the essential characters of all things Moreover, the sentence implies that this fruitful knowledge is to be obtained by examining nature using as guide the fundamental similarity supposed to exist between things above and things beneath The alchemical writers constantly harp on this theme Follow Nature provided you never lose the clue which is simplicity and similarity The author of The Only Way 1677 besieges his readers to enlist under the standard of that method which proceeds in strict obedience to the teaching of nature or the method which Nature herself pursues in the bowels of the earth The alchemists tell us not to expect much help from books and written directions When one of them has said all he can say, he adds The question is whether even this book will convey any information to one before whom the writings of the sages and the open book of Nature are exhibited in vain Another tells his readers The only thing for them is to beseech God to give you the real philosophical temper and to open your eyes to the facts of Nature Thus alone will you reach the coveted goal Follow Nature is sound advice but Nature was to be followed with eyes closed saved to one vision and the vision was to be seen before the following began The alchemists' general conception of Nature allows them to assign to every substance a condition or state natural to it and wherein alone it could be said to be as it was designed to be Each substance they taught could be caused to leave its natural state only by violent or non-natural means and any substance which had been driven from its natural condition by violence was ready and even eager to return to the condition consonant with its nature Thus Norton in his Ordinal of Alchemy says Metals are generated in the earth for above ground they are subject to rust hence above ground is the place of corruption of metals and of their gradual destruction The cause which we assign to this fact is that above ground they are not in their proper element and an unnatural position is destructive to natural objects as we see for instance that fishes die when they are taken out of the water and as it is natural for men, beasts and birds to live in the air so stones and metals are naturally generated under the earth In his New Pearl of Great Price from the 16th Century Bonus says the object nature in all things is to introduce into each substance the form which properly belongs to it and this is also the design of our art This view assumed the knowledge of the natural conditions of the substances wherewith experiments were performed it's supposed that man could act as a guide to bring back to its natural condition a substance which had been removed from that condition either by violent processes of nature or by man's device The alchemist regarded himself as an arbiter in questions concerning the natural condition of each substance he dealt with he thought he could say this substance ought to be thus or thus that substance is constrained, thwarted, hindered from becoming what nature meant it to be In Ben Johnson's play called The Alchemist Suttle, who is the alchemist of the play says metals would be gold if they had time The alchemist not only attributed ethical qualities to material things he also became the guardian and guide of the moral practices of these things He thought himself able to recall the earring metal to the path of metaline virtue to lead the extravagant mineral back to the moral home life from which it had been seduced to show the doubting and vacillating salt what it was ignorantly seeking and to help it to find the unrealised object of its search The alchemist acted as a sort of conscience to the metals, minerals, salts and other substances he submitted to the processes of his laboratory He treated them as a wise physician might treat an ignorant and somewhat refractory patient I know what you want better than you do he seems often to be saying to the metals he is calcining, separating, joining and subliming But the ignorant alchemist was not always thanked for his treatment sometimes the patient rebelled for instance Michael Sandivogius in his tract, The New Chemical Light drawn from the fountain of nature and of manual experience from the 17th century recounts a dialogue between Mercury, the alchemist and nature On a certain bright morning a number of alchemists met together in a meadow and consulted as to the best way of preparing the philosopher's stone most of them agreed that Mercury was the first substance others said no it was sulphur or something else just as the dispute began to run high there arose a violent wind which dispersed the alchemists into all the different countries of the world and as they had arrived at no conclusion each one went on seeking the philosopher's stone in his own old way this one expecting to find it in one substance and that in another so that the search has continued without intermission even unto this day one of them however had at least got the idea into his head that Mercury was the substance of the stone and determined to concentrate all his efforts on the chemical preparation of Mercury he took common Mercury and began to work with it he placed it in a glass vessel over the fire it of course evaporated so in his ignorance he struck his wife and said no one but you has entered my laboratory you must have taken my Mercury out of the vessel the woman with tears protested her innocence the alchemist put some more Mercury into the vessel the Mercury rose to the top of the vessel in vaporous steam then the alchemist was full of joy because he remembered that the first substance of the stone is described by the sages as volatile and he thought that now at last he must be on the right track he now began to subject the Mercury to all sorts of chemical processes to sublime it and to calcine it with all manner of things with salts, sulfur, metals, minerals, blood, hair, aqua, fortice, herbs, urine and vinegar everything he could think of was tried but without producing the desired effect the alchemist then disappeared after a dream wherein an old man came and talked with him about the Mercury of the sages the alchemist thought he would charm the Mercury and so he used a form of incantation the Mercury suddenly began to speak and asked the alchemist why he had troubled him so much and so on the alchemist replied and questioned the Mercury the Mercury makes fun of the philosopher then the alchemist again torments the Mercury by heating him with all manner of horrible things at last Mercury calls in the aid of nature who soundly rates the philosopher tells him he is grossly ignorant and ends by saying the best thing you can do is to give yourself up to the king's officers who will quickly put an end to you and your philosophy as long as men were fully persuaded that they knew the plan where on the world was framed that it was possible for them to follow exactly the road which was followed by the great architect of the universe in the creation of the world a real knowledge of natural events was impossible for every attempt to penetrate nature's secrets presupposed a knowledge of the essential characteristics of that which was to be investigated but genuine knowledge begins when the investigator admits that he must learn of nature, not nature of him it might be truly said of one who held the alchemical conception of nature that is foible was omniscience and omniscience negatives the attainment of knowledge the alchemical notion of a natural state as proper to each substance was vigorously combated by the honourable Robert Boyle born 1626 died 1691 a man of singularly clear and penetrative intellect in a paradox of the natural and supernatural states of bodies especially of the air Boyle says, I know that not only in living but even in inanimate bodies of which alone I hear discourse men have universally admitted the famous distinction between the natural and preternatural or violent state of bodies and do daily without the least scruple found upon it hypotheses and ratiosonations as if it were most certain that what they call nature had purposely formed bodies in such a determinate state and were always watchful that they should not by any external violence be put out of it but not withstanding so general a consent of men in this point I confess I cannot yet be satisfied about it in the sense wherein it is wont to be taken it is not that I believe that there is no sense in which or in the account upon which a body may be said to be in its natural state but that I think the common distinction of a natural and violent state of bodies has not been clearly explained and considerably settled and both is not well grounded and is often times ill applied for when I consider that whatever state a body be put into or kept in it obtains or retains that state ascending to the Catholic laws of nature I cannot think it fit to deny that in this sense the body proposed is in a natural state but then upon the same ground it will be hard to deny but that those bodies which are said to be in a violent state may also be in a natural one since the violence they are presumed to suffer from outward agents is likewise exercised no otherwise than according to the established laws of universal nature there must be something very fascinating and comforting in the alchemical view of nature as a harmony constructed on one simple plan which can be grasped as a whole and also in its details by the introspective processes of the human intellect for that conception prevailed today among those who have not investigated natural occurrences for themselves the alchemical view of nature still forms the foundation of systems of ethics the philosophy of art it appeals to the innate desire of man to make himself the measure of all things it is so easy, so authoritative apparently so satisfactory no amount of thinking and reasoning will ever demonstrate its falsity it can be conquered only by a patient unbiased searching examination of some limited portion of natural events End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of the story of alchemy this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley the story of alchemy and the beginnings of chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir Chapter 4 the alchemical elements and principles the alchemists were sure that the intention of nature regarding metals was that they should become gold for gold was considered to be the most perfect metal and nature, they said, evidently strains after perfection the alchemist found that metals were worn away eaten through, broken and finally caused to disappear by many acid and acrid liquids which he prepared from mineral substances but gold resisted the attacks of these liquids it was not changed by heat nor was it affected by sulphur a substance which changed limpid running mercury into an inert black solid hence gold was more perfect in the alchemical scale than any other metal since gold was considered to be the most perfect metal it was self-evident to the alchemical mind that nature must form gold slowly in the earth must transmute gradually the inferior metals into gold the only thing that distinguishes one metal from another writes an alchemist who went under the name of Philolethys is its degree of maturity which is of course greatest in the most precious metals the difference between gold and lead is not one of substance but of digestion in the baser metal the coxswain has not been such as to purge out its metallic impurities if by any means this superfluous impure matter could be organically removed from the baser metals they would become gold and silver so miners tell us that lead has in many cases developed into silver in the bowels of the earth and we contend that the same effect is produced in a much shorter time by means of our art stories were told about the finding of gold in deserted mines which had been worked out long before these stories were supposed to prove that gold was bred in the earth the facts that pieces of silver were found in tin and lead mines and gold was found in silver mines were adduced as proofs that as the author of the new pearl of great price says nature is continually at work changing other metals into gold because though in a certain sense they are complete in themselves they have not yet reached the highest perfection of which they are capable and to which nature has destined them what nature did in the earth man could accomplish in the workshop for is not man the crown of the world the masterpiece of nature the flower of the universe was he not given dominion over all things when the world was created in asserting that the baser metals could be transmuted into gold and in attempting to affect this transmutation the alchemist was not acting on a vague haphazard surmise he was pursuing a policy dictated by his conception of the order of nature he was following the method which he conceived to be that used by nature herself the transmutation of metals was part and parcel of a system of natural philosophy if this transmutation were impossible the alchemical scheme of things would be destroyed the believer in the transmutation would be left without a sense of order in the material universe and moreover the alchemist's conception of an orderly material universe was so intimately connected with his ideas of morality and religion that to disprove the possibility of the great transmutation would be to remove not only the basis of his system of material things but the foundations of his system of ethics also to take away his belief in the possibility of changing other metals into gold would be to convert the alchemist into an atheist how then was the transmutation to be accomplished evidently by the method whereby nature brings to perfection other living things for the alchemist's belief in the simplicity and unity of nature compelled him to regard metals as living things plants are improved by appropriate culture by digging and enriching the soil by judicious selection of seed animals are improved by careful breeding by similar processes metals will be encouraged and helped towards perfection the perfect state of gold will not be reached at a bound it will be gained gradually many partial purifications will be needed as subtle says in the alchemist it were absurd to think that nature in the earth bred gold perfect in the instant something went before there must be remote matter nature doth first beget the imperfect then proceeds she to the perfect at this stage the alchemical argument becomes very ultra physical it may perhaps be rendered somewhat as follows man is the most perfect of animals in man there is a union of three parts these are body soul and spirit metals also may be said to have a body a soul and a spirit there is a specific bodily or material form belonging to each metal there is a metaline soul characteristic of this or that class of metals there is a spirit or inner immaterial potency which is the very essence of all metals the soul and spirit of man are clogged by his body if the spiritual nature is to become the dominating partner the body must be mortified the alchemists of course used this kind of imagery and it was very real to them in like manner the spirit of metals will be laid bare and enabled to exercise its transforming influences only when the material form of the individual metal has been destroyed the first thing to do then is to strip off and cast aside those properties of metals which appeal to the senses it is necessary to deprive matter of its qualities in order to draw out its soul said Stefanus of Alexandria in the 7th century and in the 17th century Paracelsus said nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance but in the virtue the less there is of body the more in proportion is the virtue but the possession of the soul of metals is not the final stage mastery of the soul may mean the power of transmutia metal into another like itself it will not suffice for the great transformation for in that process a metal becomes gold the one and only perfect metal hence the soul also must be removed in order that the spirit the essence the kernel may be obtained and as it is with metals so the alchemists argued it is with all things there are a few principles which may be thought of as conditioning the specific bodily and material forms of things beneath these there are certain elements which are common to many things whose principles are not the same and hidden by the wrappings of elements and principles there is the one essence the spirit the mystic uniting bond the final goal of the philosopher I propose in this chapter to try to analyse the alchemical conceptions of elements and principles and in the next chapter to attempt some kind of description of the essence in his tract concerning the great stone of the ancient sages Basil Valentine speaks of the three principles salt, sulfur and mercury the source of which is the elements there are four elements and each has at its centre another element which makes it what it is these are the four pillars of the earth of the element earth he says in this element the other three especially fire are latent it is gross and porous specifically heavy but naturally light it receives all that the other three project into it conscientiously conceals what it should hide and brings to light that which it should manifest outwardly it is visible and fixed inwardly it is invisible and volatile of the element water Basil Valentine says outwardly it is volatile inwardly it is fixed, cold and humid it is the solvent of the world and exists in three degrees of excellence the pure, the purer and the purest of its purest substance the heavens were created that which is less pure the atmospheric air was formed that which is simply pure remains in its proper sphere where it is guardian of all subtle substances here below concerning the element air he writes the most noble element of air is volatile but may be fixed and when fixed renders all bodies penetrable it is nobler than earth or water it nourishes, impregnates, conserves the other elements finally of the element fire fire is the purest and noblest of all elements full of adhesive, unctuous corrosiveness penetrant, digestive, inwardly fixed, hot and dry outwardly, visible and tempered by the earth this element is the most passive of all and resembles a chariot when it is drawn it moves when it is not drawn it stands still Basil Valentine then tells his readers that Adam was compounded of the four pure elements but after his expulsion from paradise he became subject to the various impurities of the animal creation the pure elements of his creation were gradually mingled and infected with the corruptible elements of the outer world and thus his body became more and more gross and liable through its grossness to natural decay and death the process of degeneration was slow at first but as time went on the seed out of which men were generated became more and more infected with perishable elements the continued use of corruptible food rendered their bodies more and more gross and human life was soon reduced to a very brief span Basil Valentine then deals with the formation of the three principles of things by the mutual action of the four elements fire acting on air produced sulfur air acting on water produced mercury water acting on earth produced salt earth having nothing to act on produced nothing but became the nurse of the three principles the three principles he says are necessary because they are the immediate substance of metals the remota substance of metals is the four elements but no one can produce anything out of them but God and even God makes nothing of them but these three principles to endeavor to obtain the four pure elements is a hopeless task but the sage has the three principles at hand the artist should determine which of the three principles he is seeking and should assist it so that it may overcome its contrary the art consists in an even mingling of the virtues of the elements in the natural equilibrium of the hot, the dry, the cold and the moist the account of the elements given by Phila Leithes differs from that of Basil Valentine Phila Leithes enumerates three elements only air, water and earth things are not formed by the mixture of these elements for dissimilar things can never really unite by analyzing the properties of the three elements Phila Leithes reduced them finally to one, namely water water, he says, is the first principle of all things earth is the fundamental element in which all bodies grow and are preserved air is the medium into which they grow and by means of which the celestial virtues are communicated to them according to Phila Leithes Mercury is the most important of the three principles although gold is formed by the aid of Mercury it is only when Mercury has been matured, developed and perfected that it is able to transmute inferior metals into gold the essential thing to do is, therefore, to find an agent which will bring about the maturing and perfecting of Mercury this agent Phila Leithes calls our Divine Arkhanam although it appears to me impossible to translate the sayings of the alchemists concerning elements and principles into expressions which shall have definite and exact meanings for us today still we may perhaps get an inkling of the meaning of such sentences as those I have quoted from Basil Valentine and Phila Leithes take the terms fire and water in former times all liquid substances were supposed to be liquid because they possessed something in common this hypothetical something was called the element water similarly, the view prevailed until comparatively recent times that burning substances burn because of the presence in them of a hypothetical imponderable fluid called caloric the alchemists prefer to call this indefinable something an element and to name it fire we are accustomed today to use the words fire and water with different meanings according to the idea we wish to express when we say do not touch the fire or put your hand into the water we are regarding fire and water as material things when we say the house is on fire or speak of a diamond of the first water we are thinking of the condition or state of a burning body or of a substance as transparent as water when we say put out the fire or his heart became as water we are referring to the act of burning or are using an image which likens the thing spoken of to a substance in the act of liquefying as we do today so the alchemists did before us they used the words fire and water to express different ideas such terms as hardness, softness, coldness, toughness and the like are employed for the purpose of bringing together into one point of view different things which are alike in at least one respect hard things may differ in size, weight, shape, colour and texture etc a soft thing may weigh the same as a hard thing both may have the same colour or the same shape albeit the same temperature and so on by classing together various things as hard or soft or smooth or rough we eliminate for the time all the properties wherein the things differ and regard them only as having one property in common the words hardness, softness etc are useful class marks similarly the alchemical elements and principles were useful class marks we must not suppose that when the alchemists spoke of certain things as formed from or by the union of the same elements or the same principles they meant that these things contained a common substance their elements and principles were not thought of as substances at least not in the modern meaning of the expression a substance they were qualities only if we think of the alchemical elements earth, air, fire and water as general expressions of what seemed to the alchemists the most important properties of all substances we may be able to attach some kind of meaning to the sayings of Basil Valentine which I have quoted for instance when that alchemist tells us fire is the most passive of all elements and resembles a chariot when it is drawn it moves, when it is not drawn it stands still we may suppose he meant to express the fact that a vast number of substances can be burnt and that combustion does not begin of itself but requires an external agency to start it unfortunately most of the terms which the alchemists used to designate their elements and principles are terms which are now employed to designate specific substances the word fire is still employed rather as a quality of many things under special conditions than as a specific substance but earth, water, air, salt, sulphur and mercury are today the names applied to certain groups of properties each of which is different from all other groups of properties and is therefore called in ordinary speech a definite kind of matter as knowledge became more accurate and more concentrated the words sulphur, salt, mercury etc. began to be applied to distinct substances and as these terms were still employed in their alchemical sense as compendious expressions for certain qualities common to great classes of substances much confusion arose a sorceress who lived between 1630 and 1702 complained of the alchemist's habit of giving different names to the same substance and the same name to different substances the sulphur of one, he says, is not the sulphur of another to the great injury of science to that one replies that everyone is perfectly free to baptise his infant as he pleases granted you may, if you like, call an ass an ox but you will never make anyone believe that your ox is an ass boil is very severe on the vague and loose use of words practised by so many writers of his time in the sceptical chemist published 1678-9 he says, if judicious men skilled in chemical affairs shall once agree to write clearly and plainly of them and thereby keep men from being stunned as they were or imposed upon by dark and empty words it is to be hoped that these other men finding that they can no longer write impertinently and absurdly without being laughed at for doing so will be reduced either to write nothing or books that may teach us something and not rob men as formally of invaluable time and so ceasing to trouble the world with riddles or impertinances by their books receive an advantage or by their silence escape an inconvenience most of the alchemists taught that the elements produced what they called seed by their mutual reactions and the principal matured this seed and brought it to perfection they supposed that each class or kind of things had its own seed and that to obtain the seed was to have the power of producing the things which sprung from that seed some of them however asserted that all things come from a common seed and that the nature of the products of this seed is conditioned by the circumstances under which it is caused to develop thus Michael Sendevogius writes as follows in the new chemical light drawn from the fountain of nature and of manual experience from the 17th century wherever there is seed nature will work through it whether it be good or bad the four elements by their continued action project a constant supply of seed to the centre of the earth where it is digested and whence it proceeds again in generative motions now the centre of the earth is a certain void place where nothing is at rest and upon the margin or circumference of this centre the four elements project their qualities the magnetic force of our earth centre attracts to itself as much as is needed of the cognate seminal substance while that which cannot be used for vital generation is thrust forth in the shape of stones and other rubbish this is the fountain head of all things terrestrial let us illustrate the matter by supposing a glass of water to be set in the middle of a table round the margin of which are placed little heaps of salt and of powders of different colours if the water be poured out it will run all over the table in divergent rivulets and will become salt where it touches the salt, red where it touches the red powder and so on the water does not change the places but the several places differentiate the water in the same way the seed which is the product of the four elements is projected in all directions from the earth centre and produces different things according to the quality of the different places thus while the seed of all things is one it is made to generate a great variety of things so long as nature's seed remains in the centre it can indifferently produce a tree or a metal a herb or a stone and in like manner according to the purity of the place it will produce what is less or more pure note the author I am quoting had said nature is divided into four places in which she brings forth all things that appear and that are in the shade and according to the good or bad quality of the place she brings forth good or bad things it is most important for us to know her places in order that we may join things together according to nature end note end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of the story of alchemy this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley the story of alchemy and the beginnings of chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir chapter 5 the alchemical essence in the last chapter I tried to describe the alchemical view of the interdependence of different substances taking for granted the tripartite nature of man the coexistence in him of body soul and spirit no one of which was defined the alchemists concluded that all things are formed as man is formed that in everything there is a specific bodily form some portion of soul and a dash of spirit I considered the term soul to be the alchemical name for the properties common to a class of substances and the term spirit to mean the property which was thought by the alchemists to be common to all things the alchemists considered it possible to arrange all substances in four general classes the marks were of were expressed by the terms hot, cold, moist and dry they thought of these properties as typified by what they called the four elements fire, air, water and earth everything they taught was produced from the four elements not immediately but through the mediation of the three principles mercury, sulfur and salt these principles were regarded as the tools put into the hands of him who desired to affect the transmutation of one substance into another the principles were not thought of as definite substances nor as properties of this or that specified substance they were considered to be the characteristic properties of large classes of substances the chemist of today places many compounds in the same class because all are acids because they all react similarly under similar conditions it used to be said that every acid possesses more or less of the principle of acidity Lavoisier changed the language whereby certain facts concerning acids were expressed he thought that experiments proved all acids to be compounds of the element oxygen and for many years after Lavoisier the alchemical expression the principle of acidity was superseded by the word oxygen although Lavoisier recognized that not every compound of oxygen is an acid he taught that every acid is a compound of oxygen we know now that many acids are not compounds of oxygen but we have not yet sufficient knowledge to frame a complete definition of the term acid nevertheless it is convenient indeed it is necessary to place together many compounds which react similarly under certain defined conditions and to give a common name to them all the alchemists also classified substances but their classification was necessarily more vague than ours and they necessarily expressed their reasons for putting different substances in the same class in a language which arose out of the general conception of natural phenomena which prevailed in their time the primary classification of substances made by the alchemists was expressed by saying these substances are rich in the principle sulfur those contain much of the principle mercury and this class is marked by the preponderance of the principle salt the secondary classification of the alchemists was expressed by saying this class is characterized by dryness, that by moisture another by coldness, and a fourth by hotness the dry substances contain much of the element earth the moist substances are rich in the element water in the cold substances the element air preponderates and the hot substances contain more of the element fire than of the other elements the alchemists went a step further in their classification of things they asserted that there is one thing present in all things that everything is a vehicle for the more or less perfect exhibition of the properties of the one thing that there is a primal element common to all substances the final aim of alchemy was to obtain the one thing the primal element the soul of all things so purified not only from all specific substances but also from all admixtures of the four elements and the three principles as to make possible the accomplishment of any transmutation by the use of it if a person ignorant of its powers were to obtain the essence he might work vast havoc and cause enormous confusion it was necessary therefore to know the conditions under which the potences of the essence became active hence there was need of prolonged study of the mutual actions of the most seemingly diverse substances and of minute and patient examination of the conditions under which nature performs her marvellous transmutations the quest of the one thing was fraught with peril and was to be attempted only by those who had served a long and laborious apprenticeship in the chemical treatise of Thomas Norton the Englishman called believe me or the ordinal of alchemy from the 15th century the adept is warned not to disclose his secrets to ordinary people you should carefully attest and examine the life, character and mental aptitudes of any person who would be initiated in this art and then you should bind him by a sacred oath not to let our magistory be commonly or vulgarly known only when he begins to grow old and feeble he may reveal it to one person but not to more and that one man must be virtuous if any wicked man should learn to practice the art the event would be fraught with great danger to Christendom for such a man would overstep all bounds of moderation and would remove from their hereditary thrones those legitimate princes who rule over the peoples of Christendom the results of the experimental examination of the compositions and properties of substances made since the time of the alchemists have led to the modern conception of the chemical element and the isolation of about 70 or 80 different elements no substance now called an element has been produced in the laboratory by uniting two or more distinct substances nor has any been separated into two or more unlike portions the only decided change which a chemical element has been caused to undergo is the combination of it with some other element or elements or with a compound or compounds but it is possible that all the chemical elements may be combinations of different quantities of one primal element certain facts make this supposition tenable and some chemists expect that the supposition will be proved to be correct if the hypothetical primal element should be isolated we should have fulfilled the aim of alchemy and gained the one thing but the fulfilment would not be that whereof the alchemists dreamed in as much as the alchemical essence was thought of as the universal spirit to whose presence is due whatever degree of perfection any specific substance exhibits it followed that the more perfect a substance the greater is the quantity of the essence in it but even in the most perfect substance found in nature which substance the alchemists said is gold the essence is hidden by wrappings of specific properties which prevents the ordinary man from recognising it remove these wrappings from some special substance and you have the perfect form of that thing you have some portion of the universal spirit joined to the one general property of the class of things whereof the particular substance is a member then remove the class property often spoken of by the alchemists as the life of the substance and you have the essence itself the alchemists thought that to everything or at any rate to every class of things there corresponds a more perfect form than that which we see and handle they spoke of gold and the gold of the sages mercury and the mercury of the philosophers sulphur and the heavenly sulphur of him whose eyes are opened to remove the outer wrappings of ordinary properties which present themselves to the untrained senses was regarded by the alchemists to be a difficult task to tear away the soul the class property of a substance and yet retain the essence which made that substance its dwelling place was possible only after vast labour and by the use of the proper agent working under the proper conditions an exceedingly powerful, delicate and refined agent was needed and the mastery of the agent was to be acquired by bitter experience and probably after many disappointments gold, an alchemist tells us does not easily give up its nature and will fight for its life but our agent is strong enough to overcome and kill it and then it also has the power to restore it to life and to change the lifeless remains into a new and pure body Thomas Norton, the author of The Orton Oliver Alchemy writing in the 15th century says the worker in transmutations is often tempted to be in a hurry or to despair and he is often deceived his servants will be either stupid and faithful or quick-witted and false he may be robbed of everything when his work is almost finished the only remedies are infinite patience a sense of virtue and sound reason in the pursuit of our art, he says you should take care from time to time to unbend your mind from its sterner employments with some convenient recreation the choice of workmen to aid in the mechanical parts of the quest was a great trouble to the alchemists on this subject Norton says if you would be free from all fear over the gross work follow my counsel and never engage married men for they soon give in and pretend they are tired out hire your workmen for certain stipulated wages and not for longer periods than 24 hours at a time give them higher wages than they would receive elsewhere and be prompt and ready in your payments many accounts are given by alchemical writers of the agent and many names are bestowed on it the author of a brief guide to the celestial ruby speaks us of the agent it is our doorkeeper our balm our honey oil urine made you mother egg secret furnace oven true fire venomous dragon syriac ardent wine green lion bird of hermes goose of homogenies two-edged sword in the hand of the cherub that guards the tree of life it is our true secret vessel and the garden of the sages in which our sun rises and sets it is our royal mineral our triumphant vegetable Saturnia and the magic rod of Hermes by means of which he assumes any shape he likes sometimes we are told that the agent is mercury sometimes that it is gold but not common mercury or common gold supplement your common mercury with the inward fire which it needs and you will soon get rid of all superfluous dross the agent is gold and as highly matured as natural and artificial digestion can make it and a thousand times more perfect than the common metal of that name gold thus exalted radically penetrates, tinges and fixes metals the alchemists generally likened the work to be performed by their agent to the killing of a living thing they constantly use the allegory of death followed by resurrection in describing the steps whereby the essence was to be obtained and the processes whereby the base of metals were to be partially purified they speak of the mortification of metals the dissolution and putrefaction of substances as preliminaries to the appearance of the true life of the things whose outward properties have been destroyed for instance Paracelsus says destruction perfects that which is good for the good cannot appear on account of that which conceals it the same alchemist speaks of rusting as the mortification of metals he says the mortification of metals is the removal of their bodily structure the mortification of woods is there being turned into charcoal or ashes Paracelsus distinguishes natural from artificial mortification whatever nature consumes he says man cannot restore but whatever man destroys man can restore and break again when restored things which had been mortified by man's device were considered by Paracelsus not to be really dead he gives this extraordinary illustration of his meaning you see this is the case with lions which are all born dead and are first vitalised by the horrible noise of their parents just as a sleeping person is awakened by a shout the mortification of metals is represented in alchemical books by various images and allegories figure one is reduced from a cart in a 16th century work the book of lambspring a noble ancient philosopher concerning the philosophical stone readers note figure one has the title hear the father devours the son the soul and spirit flow forth from the body end readers note the image used to set forth the mortification of metals is a king swallowing his son figures two and three are reduced from Basil Valentine's twelve keys both of these figures represent the process of mortification by images connected with death and burial in his explanation of these figures Basil Valentine says neither human nor animal bodies can be multiplied or propagated without decomposition the grain and all vegetable seed when cast into the ground must decay before it can spring up again moreover putrefaction imparts life to many worms and other animalcily if bread is placed in honey and suffered to decay ants are generated maggots are also developed by the decay of nuts, apples and pears the same thing may be observed in regard to vegetable life nettles and other weeds spring up where no such seed has ever been sown this occurs only by putrefaction the reason is that the soil in such places is so disposed and as it were impregnated that it produces these fruits which is a result of the properties of sidereal influences consequently the seed is spiritually produced in the earth and putrefies in the earth and by the operation of the elements generates corporeal matter according to the species of nature thus the stars and the elements may generate new spiritual and ultimately new vegetable seed by means of putrefaction know that in like manner no metallic seed can develop or multiply unless the said seed by itself alone and without the introduction of any foreign substance be reduced to a perfect putrefaction the action of the mineral agent in perfecting substances is often likened by the alchemists to the conjoining of the male and the female followed by the production of offspring they insist on the need of a union of two things in order to produce something more perfect than either the agent they say must work upon something, alone it is nothing the methods whereby the agent is itself perfected and the processes wherein the agent affects the perfecting of the less perfect things were divided into stages by the alchemists they generally spoke of these stages as gates and enumerated ten or sometimes twelve of them as examples of the alchemical descriptions of these gates I give some extracts from a brief guide to the celestial ruby the first gate is calcination which is the drying up of the humours by this process the substance is concocted into a black powder which is yet unctuous and retains its radical humour when gold passes through this gate we observe in it two natures the fixed and the volatile which we liken to two serpents the fixed nature is likened to a serpent without wings the volatile to a serpent with wings calcination unites these two into one the second gate dissolution is likened to death and burial but the true essence will appear glorious and beautiful when this gate is passed the worker is told not to be discouraged by this apparent death the mercury of the sages is spoken of by this author as the queen and gold as the king the king dies for love of the queen but he is revived by his spouse who is made fruitful by him and brings forth a most royal son figures four and five are reduced from the book of lamb spring to express the need of the conjunction of the two to produce one readers note figure four is titled here you behold a great marvel two lions are joined into one the spirit and soul must be united in their body end readers note after dissolution came conjunction where in the separated elements were combined then followed putrefaction necessary for the germination of the seed which had been produced by calcination dissolution and conjunction putrefaction was followed by congliation and citation the passage through the next gate called sublimation caused the body to become spiritual and the spiritual to be made corporal fermentation followed whereby the substance became soft and flowed like wax finally by exaltation the stone was perfected readers note figure five is titled here are two birds great and strong the body and spirit one devours the other let the body be placed in horse dung or a warm bath the spirit having been extracted from it the body has become white by the process the spirit read by our art all that exists tends towards perfection and thus is the philosopher's stone prepared end readers note the author of the open entrance speaks of the various stages in the perfecting of the agent as regiments the beginning of the heating of gold with mercury is likened to the king stripping off his golden garments and descending into the fountain this is the regimen of mercury as the heating is continued all becomes black this is the regimen of satin then is noticed at play of many colours this is the regimen of Jupiter if the heat is not regulated properly the young ones of the crow will go back to the nest about the end of the fourth month you will see the sign of the waxing moon and all becomes white this is the regimen of the moon the white colour gives place to purple and green you are now in the regimen of Venus after that appear all the colours of the rainbow or of a peacock's tail this is the regimen of Mars finally the colour becomes orange and golden this is the regimen of the sun the reader may wish to have some description of the essence the alchemists could describe it only in contraries it had a bodily form but its method of working was spiritual in the sodic hydrolith or waterstone of the wise we are told the stone is conceived below the earth born in the earth quickened in heaven dies in time and obtains eternal glory it is bluish grey and green it flows like water yet it makes no wet it is of great weight and is small Philolethys says in a brief guide to the celestial ruby the philosopher's stone 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 purist it is fixed and incombustible like a stone but its appearance is that of very fine powder impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell impotency a most penetrative spirit apparently dry and yet unctuous and easily capable of tinging 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 the same author says there is a substance of a metaline species which looks so cloudy that the universe will have nothing to do with it its visible form is vile its defiles metaline bodies and no one can readily imagine that the pearly drink of bright febus should spring from thence its components are a most pure and tender mercury a dry incarcerate sulphur which binds it and restrains fluxation know this subject it is the sure basis of all our secrets to deal plainly it is the child of satin of mean price and great venom it is not malleable though metaline its colour is sable with intermixed argent which marks the sable fields with veins of glittering argent in trying to attach definite meanings to the alchemical accounts of principles elements under the one thing and the directions which the alchemists give for changing one substance into others we are very apt to be misled by the use of such expressions as the transmutation of the elements to a chemist that phrase means the change of an element into another element an element being a definite substance which no one has been able to produce by the combination of two or more substances unlike itself or to separate into two or more substances unlike itself but whatever may have been the alchemical meaning of the word element it was certainly not that given to the same word today nor did the word transmutation mean to the alchemist what it means to the chemist the facts which are known at present concerning the elements make unthinkable such a change as that of lead into silver but new facts may be discovered which will make possible the separation of lead into things unlike itself and the production of silver by the combination of some of these constituents of lead the alchemist supposed he knew such facts as enabled him not only to form a mental picture of the change of lead into silver or tin into gold but also to assert that such changes must necessarily happen and to accomplish them although we are quite sure that the alchemist's facts were only imaginings we ought not to blame him for his reasoning on what he took to be facts every metal is now said to be an element in the modern meaning of that word the alchemist regarded the metals as composite substances but he also thought of them as more simple than many other things hence if he was able to transmute one metal into another he would have strong evidence in support of his general conception of the unity of all things and as transmutation meant to the alchemist the bringing of a substance to the condition of greatest perfection possible for that substance his view of the unity of nature might be said to be proved if he succeeded in changing one of the metals one of these comparatively simple substances into the most perfect of all metals that is into gold the transmutation of the baser metals into gold thus came to be the practical test of the justness of the alchemical scheme of things some alchemists assert they had themselves performed the great transmutation others tell of people who had accomplished the work the following story is an example of the accounts given of the making of gold it is taken from John Frederick Helvetius' golden calf which the world worships and adores from the 17th century on the 27th of December 1666 in the forenoon there came to my house a certain man who was a complete stranger to me but of an honest grave countenance and an authoritative mien clothed in a simple garb he was of middle height his face was long and slightly pockmarked his hair was black and straight his chin close to shaven his age about 43 or 44 and his native province as far as I could make out North Holland after we had exchanged salutations he asked me whether he might have some conversation with me he wished to say something to me about the pyrotechnic art as he had read one of my tracks directed against the sympathetic powder of Dr. Digby in which I hinted a suspicion whether the great arcanum of the sages was not after all a gigantic hoax he therefore took that opportunity of asking me whether I could not believe that such a grand mystery might exist in the nature of things by means of which a physician could restore any patient whose vitals were not irreparably destroyed I answered such a medicine would be a most desirable acquisition for any physician nor can any man tell how many secrets there may be hidden in nature yet though I have read much about the truth of this art it has never been my good fortune to meet with a real master of the alchemical science after some further conversation the artist Elias, for it was he, thus addressed me since you have read so much in the works of the alchemists about this stone its substance, its colour, and its wonderful effects may I be allowed the question whether you have not prepared it yourself on my answering his question in the negative he took out of his bag a cunningly worked ivory box in which were three large pieces of substance resembling glass or pale sulphur and informed me that here was enough of the tincture for the production of twenty tons of gold when I had held the precious treasure in my hand for a quarter of an hour during which time I listened to a recital of its wonderful curative properties I was compelled to restore it to its owner which I could not help doing with a certain degree of reluctance my request that he would give me a piece of his stone though it were no larger than a coriander seed he somewhat brusquely refused adding in a milder tone that he could not give it to me for all the wealth I possessed and that not on account of its great preciousness but for some other reason which it was not lawful for him to divulge then he inquired whether I could not show him into a room at the back of the house where we should be less liable to the observation of passers-by on my conducting him into the state parlor which he entered without wiping his dirty boots he demanded of me a gold coin and while I was looking for it he produced from his breast pocket a green silk handkerchief in which were folded up five medals which was infinitely superior to that of my gold piece here follows the inscription on the medals I was filled with admiration and asked my visitor whence he had obtained that wonderful knowledge of the whole world he replied that it was a gift freely bestowed on him by a friend who had stayed a few days at his house here follows a stranger's account of this friend's experiments when my strange visitor had concluded his narrative I besought him to give me a proof of his ascitation by performing the transmutatory operation on some medals in my presence he answered evasively that he could not do so then but that he would return in three weeks and that if he was then at liberty to do so he would show me something that would make me open my eyes he appeared punctually to the promise to-day and invited me to take a walk with him in the course of which we discoursed profoundly on the secrets of nature in fire though I noticed that my companion was very cheery in imparting information about the Grand Arcanum at last I asked him point-blank to show me the transmutation of medals I besought him to come and dine with me and to spend the night at my house I entreated, I expostulated, but in vain he remained firm I reminded him of his promise he retorted that his promise had been conditional upon his being permitted to reveal the secret to me at last however I prevailed upon him to give me a piece of his precious stone a piece no larger than a grain of rapeseed he bid me take half an ounce of lead and melt it in the crucible or the medicine would certainly not detain more of the base metal than it was sufficient for he promised to return at nine o'clock the next morning but at the stated hour on the following day he did not make his appearance in his stead however there came a few hours later a stranger who told me that his friend the artist was unavoidably detained but that he would call at three o'clock in the afternoon came I waited for him till half past seven o'clock he did not appear thereupon my wife came and tempted me to try the transmutation myself I determined however to wait till the morrow on the morrow I asked my wife to put the tincture in wax and I myself prepared six draps of lead I then cast the tincture enveloped as it was in wax on the lead as soon as it was melted there was a hissing sound and a slight effervescence and after a quarter of an hour I found that the whole mass of lead had been turned into the finest gold we immediately took it to the goldsmith who had once declared it the finest gold he had ever seen and offered to pay fifty florins an ounce for it he then described various tests which were made to prove the purity of the gold thus I have unfolded to you the whole story from beginning to end the gold I still retain in my possession but I cannot tell you what has become of the artist Elias End of chapter five