The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-12
THE ALCHEMISTS.
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PART i.
Who odd, lingering, half-alive vitality of
- A.,,,orqtitions was curiously instanced some
sa.entv wears ago, when an advertisement APP
,,oaTed in the German RetchSdnzetger, pur-
pnortinp TO be issued by the ''Hermetic So
eiety, and calling for communications from
the votaries of alchemy scattered among the
,o,,IIic This was in 1896, the period when
tbe DIRECTORY governed in France, and Gene
raj Bonaparte was conquering North Italy;
fime when old beliefs on many important
subjects had recently met with sufficiently
rough handling
Answers to the advertisement came in from
all quarters. Persons in every grade of pro-
fessional and commercial life, tailors and
shoemakers, physicians, privy councillors,
Echoolmasters, watchmakers, apothecaries,
organists, professed themselves practical stu
dents of the occult science, and desirous of
further enlightenment in their as yet unsuc-
cessful quest after the great elixir. The idea
that an influential "Hermetic Society" was in
existence, infused new hope into these iso-
lated searchers But on how baseless q fabric
their hope was built eventually appeared,
when the archives of the society were sub
rnitted to inspection, and it was found TO have
consisted of two members only, two West
phalian doctors of obscure fame On the let
ters they had received in consequence of their
advertisement were found indorsed the words
answered evasively."
These facts are told us in a lecture recently
delivered at Leipsic by Professor Erdmann,
and published in the GdrtenJGUbe. From his
statements, and from other sources, we pro-
pose to put together a few notes relative to
the exploded science-the eccentric torch
bearer to chemical discovery-wh annals
contribute such notable pages to the moral
romance Of the Middle Ages.
We do not profess to give its history in
1.Nxs. Il 4 -
dltions of its origin among the sages of Egypt,
nor ponder over the ambiguous inscription on
the Emerald Table of Hermes Trismegistus-
the 'Apocalypse of Alchemy" as Dr.
Erdmann calls it. That Moses was
giving proof of his skill as an 'adept'
when he dissolved the golden calf and
made the rebellious Israelites imbibe it
in liquid state, that the long-lived an
tediluvian patriarchs had in fact got hold
of the Eyirir Pit9, that Noah was commanded
to hang up the true and genuine philosophers
stone in the Ark, to give light to all living
creatures therein, are opinions we will merely
glance at, as some of the most ambitious
among the many fctions by which alchemy
sought to ennoble its pedigree, when from
an obscure and ill-accredited pursuit, it had
come to be admitted into the front
ranks of notoriety, to be professed
by sages of eminence and patronized
by powerful monarchs. 1t was in the
thirteenth century that it stepped into this
position, brought to it mainly through the
intercourse of the Arabs with Europe, The
heydey of its dignity may be said to have con-
tinued from the thirteenth to the sixteenth
century. After the Revival of Learning it
declined in estimation but it still maintained
q very considerable sway over those portions
of society where mental activity had not been
impelled into the new channels OF it's preva-
lence in Germany, especially during the seven
teenth century, Professor Erdmann relates
many curious instances. To these we shall
presently recur The absolute death of
Alchemy or the ''Spagiric Art, as it used
sometimes to be called, cannot be assigned to
an earlier date than the publication of Lavoi-
sier's ''Modern System of Chemistry, eighty
years ago. And here again, when we speak
of it's ''absolute death, it must be observed
that, even in our own times chemists
of hrst-rate rank have accorded GER
tain degree of recognition to its fun.
damental hypothesis Sir Humphrey Davy
is not alone in avowing his opinion that the
transmutations of metals need not be consi-
dered an impossibility. Metals, it is argued,
are composite bodies brought into their
actual condition by the hidden operations of
nature. Why may not man, who has wrested
so many secrets from her already, find out
this art of matchmaking also, and by some
Initiative process form similar combinations
under the same relative conditions? But to
what purpose? If the art resulted in a mo-
nopoly by some deXterous patentee, gold
making would before long come to be made
penal; if every one might without hindrance
carry his own California in his own crucible,
gold would soon cease to be the standard of
value.
But las the transmutation ever been
effected2 Here the testimony of enlightened
modern inquiry is emphatically No, in spite
of the half -affrmations we meet with here
and there; as, for instance, in History of
Alchymy" alluded to by Professor Erdmann,
published as late as 1892 wherein the author
expresses his belief that at least five ''Adepts'
or masters of the art of transmutation have.
an the course Of ages, made good their claims
to the title
Before we proceed further, let us note
what were the definite objects which the al
chemists proposed to themselves in their re.
searches, and which these adopts professed to
have accomplished. The doctrines on which
their science rested were three
l. That gold could be produced from
metals which themselves contained no gold
by the application to them of an artihcia
preparation. This preparation went by tn,
name of the Philosophers Stone, the Grea
Elixir the Great Magisterium, and the Rec
Tincture. 1t was applied to metals whe1
they had been fused into a liquid state anC
the act of application was called projection.
O. That silver could be similarly produced
out of metals containing no silver, by the ap
plication of another preparation called tn
Stone of the Second Order, the Little Elixir
the Little Magisterium, and the White Tine
tre. This, naturally, was in much less re
quest than the other, and is much less talket
about in the records of alchemy.
3. The same preparation which thus en-
mobiles metals and produces gold is, at tn
same time when in q notable state or ever