Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir W. Scott / [Sir David Brewster].

  • David Brewster
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir W. Scott / [Sir David Brewster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    familiar, that the most phlegmatic and the least speculative observer must have anticipated from them the creation of new and valuable compounds. It can scarcely, therefore, be a matter of surprise that minds of the Ijighest order, and spirits of the loftiest ambition, should have sought in the trans- mutations of chemistry for those splendid products which were conceived to be most conducive to liuman happiness. The disciple of Mammon grew pale over his crucible in his ardour to convert the baser metals into gold:—The philosopher pined in secret for tlie universal solvent which might develope the elements of the precious stones, and yield to him the means of their production; and the philan- thropist aspired after an universal medicine, which might arrest disease in its course, and prolong in- definitely the life of man. To us who live under the meridian of knowledge, such expectations must a])pear as presumptuous as they were delusive : but when we consider that gold and silver were ac- tually produced by chemical processes from the rude ores of lead and copper;—that some of the most refractory bodies had yielded to the disinte- grating and solvent powers of chemical agents ;— and that the mercurial preparations of the Arabian physicians had operated like charms in the cure of diseases that had resisted the feeble medicines of the times, we may find some apology for the extra- vagant expectations of the alchemists. An object of lofty pursuit, even if it be one of impossible attainment, is not unworthy of philoso- phical ambition. Though we cannot scale the summit of the volcanic cone, we may yet reach its