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ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN. Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists.

  
[frontispiece]
  
[title page]
  
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
  
PREFACE
  
CONTENTS
  
LIST OF PLATES

collapse section1. 
ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN CHAPTER I THE MEANING OF ALCHEMY
 1. 
§ 1. The Aim of Alchemy.
 2. 
§ 2. The Transcendental Theory of Alchemy.
 3. 
§ 3. Failure of the Transcendental Theory.
 4. 
§ 4. The Qualifications of the Adept.
 5. 
§ 5. Alchemistic Language.
 6. 
§ 6. Alchemists of a Mystical Type.
 7. 
§ 7. The Meaning of Alchemy.
 8. 
§ 8. Opinions of other Writers.
 9. 
§ 9. The Basic Idea of Alchemy.
 10. 
§ 10. The Law of Analogy.
 11. 
§ 11. The Dual Nature of Alchemy.
 12. 
§ 12. "Body, Soul and Spirit".
 13. 
§ 13. Alchemy, Mysticism and Modern Science.
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CHAPTER II THE THEORY OF PHYSICAL ALCHEMY
 14. 
§ 14. Supposed Proofs of Transmutation.
 15. 
§ 15. The Alchemistic Elements.
 16. 
§ 16. Aristotle's Views regarding the Elements.
 17. 
§ 17. The Sulphur-Mercury Theory.
 18. 
§ 18. The Sulphur-Mercury-Salt Theory.
 19. 
§ 19. Alchemistic Elements and Principles.
 20. 
§ 20. The Growth of the Metals.
 21. 
§ 21. Alchemy and Astrology.
 22. 
§ 22. Alchemistic View of the Nature of Gold.
 23. 
§ 23. The Philosopher's Stone.
 24. 
§ 24. The Nature of the Philosopher's Stone.
 25. 
§25. The Theory of Development.
 26. 
§ 26. The Powers of the Philosopher's Stone.
 27. 
§ 27. The Elixir of Life.
 28. 
§ 28. The Practical Methods of the Alchemists.
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CHAPTER III THE ALCHEMISTS (A. BEFORE PARACELSUS)
 29. 
§ 29. Hermes Tismegistos.
 30. 
§ 30. The Smaragdine Table.
 31. 
§ 31. Zosimus of Panopolis.
 32. 
§ 32. Geber.
 33. 
§ 33. Other Arabian Alchemists.
 34. 
§ 34. Albertus Magnus.
 35. 
§ 35. Thomas Aquinas.
 36. 
§ 36. Roger Bacon.
 37. 
§ 37. Arnold de Villanova.
 38. 
§ 38. Raymond Lully.
 39. 
§ 39. Peter Bonus.
 40. 
§ 40. Nicolas Flamel.
 41. 
§ 41. "Basil Valentine" and "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony".
 42. 
§ 42. Isaac of Holland.
 43. 
§ 43. Bernard Trévisan.
 44. 
§ 44. Sir George Ripley.
 45. 
§ 45. Thomas Norton.
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CHAPTER IV THE ALCHEMISTS (continued) (B. PARACELSUS AND AFTER)
 46. 
§ 46. Paracelsus.
 47. 
§ 47. Views of Paracelsus.
 48. 
§ 48. Iatro-Chemistry.
 49. 
§ 49. The Rosicrucian Society.
 50. 
§ 50. Thomas Charnock.
 51. 
§ 51. Andreas Libavius.
 52. 
§ 52. Edward Kelley and John Dee.
 53. 
§ 53. Henry Khunrath.
 54. 
§ 54. Alexander Sethon and Michael Sendivogius.
 55. 
§ 55. Michael Maier.
 56. 
§ 56. Jacob Boehme.
 57. 
§ 57. John Baptist van Helmont.
 58. 
§ 58. Johann Rudolf Glauber.
 59. 
§ 59. Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes).
collapse section5. 
CHAPTER V THE OUTCOME OF ALCHEMY
 61. 
§ 61. Did the Alchemists achieve the "Magnum Opus"?.
 62. 
§ 62. The Testimony of van Helmont.
 63. 
§ 63. The Testimony of Helvetius.
 64. 
§ 64. Helvetius obtains the Philosopher's Stone.
 65. 
§ 65. Helvetius performs a Transmutation.
 66. 
§ 66. Helvetius's Gold Assayed.
 67. 
§ 67. Helvetius's Gold Further Tested.
 68. 
§ 68. The Genesis of Chemistry.
 69. 
§ 69. The Degeneracy of Alchemy.
 70. 
§ 70. "Count Cagliostro".
collapse section6. 
CHAPTER VI THE AGE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY
 71. 
§ 71. The Birth of Modern Chemistry.
 72. 
§ 72. The Phlogiston Theory.
 73. 
§ 73. Boyle and the Definition of an Element.
 74. 
§ 74. The Stoichiometric Laws.
 75. 
§ 75. Dalton's Atomic Theory.
 76. 
§ 76. The Determination of the Atomic Weights of the Elements.
 77. 
§ 77. Prout's Hypothesis.
 78. 
§ 78. The "Periodic Law".
 79. 
§ 79. The Corpuscular Theory of Matter.
 80. 
§ 80. Proof that the Electrons are not Matter.
 81. 
§ 81. The Electronic Theory of Matter.
 82. 
§ 82. The Etheric Theory of Matter.
 83. 
§ 83. Further Evidence of the Complexity of the Atoms.
 84. 
§ 84. Views of Wald and Ostwald.
collapse section7. 
CHAPTER VII MODERN ALCHEMY
 85. 
§ 85. "Modern Alchemy".
 86. 
§ 86. X-Ray's and Becquerel rays.
 87. 
§ 87. The Discovery of Radium.
 88. 
§ 88. Chemical Properties of Radium.
 89. 
§ 89. The Radioactivity of Radium.
 90. 
§ 90. The Disintegration of the Radium Atom.
 91. 
§ 91. Induced Radioactivity.
 92. 
§ 92. Properties of Uranium and Thorium.
 93. 
§ 93. The Radium Emanation.
 94. 
§ 94. The Production of Helium from Radium.
 95. 
§ 95. Nature of this Change.
 96. 
§ 96. Is this Change a true Transmutation?
 97. 
§ 97. The Production of Neon from Emanation.
 98. 
§ 98. Ramsay's Experiments on Copper.
 99. 
§ 99. Further Experiments on Radium and Copper.
 100. 
§ 100. Ramsay's Experiments on Thorium and allied Metals.
 101. 
§ 101. The Possibility of Making Gold
 102. 
§ 102. The Significance of "Allotropy."
 103. 
§ 103. Conclusion.

  
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previous sectionCHAPTER III THE ALCHEMISTS1 (A. BEFORE PARACELSUS) ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN. Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists.
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§ 30. The Smaragdine Table.

In a work attributed to Albertus Magnus, but which is probably spurious, we are told that Alexander the Great found the tomb of Hermes in a cave near Hebron. This tomb contained an emerald table—"The Smaragdine Table"—on which were inscribed the following thirteen sentences in Phœnician characters:—

  • 1. I speak not fictitious things, but what is true and most certain.
    • 41

  • 2. What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing.
  • 3. And as all things were produced by the mediation of one Being, so all things were produced from this one thing by adaptation.
  • 4. Its father is the Sun, its mother the Moon; the wind carries it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
  • 5. It is the cause of all perfection throughout the whole world.
  • 6. Its power is perfect if it be changed into earth.
  • 7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting prudently and with judgment.
  • 8. 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 all obscurity will fly far away from you.
  • 9. This thing is the fortitude of all fortitude, because it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates every solid thing.
  • 10. Thus were all things created.
  • 11. Thence proceed wonderful adaptations which are produced in this way.
  • 12. Therefore am I called Hermes Trismegistus, possessing the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
  • 13. That which I had to say concerning the operation of the Sun is completed.
  • These sentences clearly teach the doctrine of the alchemistic essence or "One Thing," which is everywhere present, penetrating even solids (this we should
    42

    note is true of the ether of space), and out of which all things of the physical world are made by adaptation or modification. The terms Sun and Moon in the above passage probably stand for Spirit and Matter respectively, not gold and silver.
previous sectionCHAPTER III THE ALCHEMISTS1 (A. BEFORE PARACELSUS) ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN. Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists.
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