The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-12


greater magisterium, whether as a medicine
or trRnsmuter of metals, was, then, the pri-
mary aim and end of alchemy throughout
To decompose all metals into their primitive
constituents, so to ascertain the. relative
value of each, and TO learn how to recombine
them in certain specific proportions, was a
necessary part of the process; and hence
resulted the inestimable service rendered by
alchemy to true science-the establishment of
the principles of chemical analysis. As to the
nature and properties of the wonder-w working
stone, nothing can be more vague, contra
dictory, and hyperbolical than the reports
of professed adopts on the subject
Either they sought to. disguise their conscious
ignorance by allegorichl language, or they
pretended to make a mystery of some simple
and inefficacious process; or thinking they
really had, or were in the way of gaining the
secret, they tried to mystify those who might
perchance have followed up their indications
too cleverly. This allegorical jargon may be
ipstanced by quotation from the verses dedi-
catory of George Ripley, canon of Bridling
ton, the English alchemist, addressed to King
Edward ". He sums up his lore as follows:
'Ths natural process by help of craft then consum
Dissoveth the Elinir in its unctuous humiditie,
Then In bdneO of Mary together let them circulate,
Ike new honey or OIL ti they perdecty tnGkea oe;
And turn all metals to Some and Aooae most per-
feCtly;
Then shall ye have both great Eliri and aurun po-
table,
BY the grace and will tf God, to whom be laud eter
nally."
Mark the pious sentiment with which Ripley
concludes. 1t is a notable circumstance that
from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century
the pursuit of alchemy was closely connected
with the religious sentiment, or, at all events,
professed such connection. Its prominent
advocates then, and, indeed, to a later date,
were wont to speak of themselves as devout
investigators of the truths of God discoverable
in the marvels of -discoverable only
by the pure and patient. They claimed for
their pursuit the same religious dignity which
Christians of the broad school in modern
theology are bold to claim for scientific study,
on the ground that the God of Revelation is
also the God of Nature, and speaks to man
by the one mode as well as by the other.
Their expressions are often noble and ele-
waited. Hear Johannes Strangunere, in his
dying injunctions to his son, in 1432:-"Upon
the salvation of thy soul do not forget the
poor; and in any case look well to thyself,
that thou do not disclose the secrets of this
science to any covetous worldly man." In
Faber's 'Propugnaculum Alchymie," pub
lished in 1914, we have the religious theory
of the science thus stated-'The
stone of the philosophers is, by all the
authors who have treated of it, esteemed to
be the greatest gift of God on earth. X
AS therefore it is so great and mighty gift
of God, the most necessary thing in order
that man should attain to a knowledge of its
excellence and worth, is wisdom which is be-
slowed by God ON very few. And Michael
Sandivogius, Polish adept early in the
seventeenth century, reputed author of "a
! New Light of Alchymie taken out of the
| Fountain of Nature and Manual Experience, y
as the English translation has it, writes thus: -
| 4 H. l..
this art in the first place put thy whole
trust in God thy Creator, and urge Him
| by thy prayers, and assuredly believe
that He will not forsal1e thee; for if God
shall know that thy heart is sincere,
and thy whole trust is put in Him, He WILL
by one means or another, show thee way
and assist thee in it, that thou shalt obtain
thy desire. There is piety, too, in the reason
given by this same Sandivogius why the
adopts, who have learnt how to circumvent
death, chose not to perpetuate their existence
on earth:-"Now l do not WONDER he says,
when describing The glorious effects of the
elixir, ''as before 1 did, why philosophers
when they have attained to this medicine,
have not cared to have their days prolonged,
because every philosopher hath the life to
come SO clearly before his eyes as thy face is
seen in glass" Ben Johnson's impostor acted
! the character well:
'He, honest wretch,
! A notable superstitOus good soul,
! Has worn his knees bare and his slippers bald
| With prayer and Ia-;ing Tor it, Here he
| comes
Not profane word afore hint is poison!"
In the early Middle Ages it is notorious
that not only many good and pious men, but
many of the highest intellects, pursued the
delusive science, and had the popular repute
of being ''Spagiric sages, or adopts in its
mysteries. Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus,
! st. Thomas Aquinas, are the heroes of many
fantastic legends; and, indeed, for a long
period it was chiefly by clerics and by monk
ish clerics, that il was cultivated. In the
dreamy solitudes of the cloister, where
mans restless imagination so often revenged
itself for the restrictions laid on active life,
many tonsured inmate bent over crucible
and bellows, nursing his eternal hope, and
praying devoutly for illumination from on
high.
But enthusiasm and imposture are ever
| close at hand; and what is more strange, the
border land between them is perilousy i'll
defined. A liar has been known to lie him
self into belief of his own inventions; a fana-
tic, In his overweening desire for the realiM-
ton OF his dreams, will wilfully forget that
evidence needs fact for its basis The wild
stories that spring up like tangle of weeds
round the fame of every alchemie Il
philosopher of the Middle Ages leave
one in amaze both at the credulity and the
untruthfulness OF our far-off ancestors. al I
yet might not glance nearer home suffice 30
humble those who have lived in the DAYS of
table-rapping and spiritualistic seances /? The
biographies of The earlier alchemists have
been largely recorded by the French writer's
Naude and Leng!et du Fresnoy. We Will
mention few of them, but our chief business
is with later and less haclneyed instanc es.
Among the most famous were Artephius. of
l,o ANtralf r,rlg,