The science of alchymy / by "Sapere Aude".

  • William Wynn Westcott
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science of alchymy / by "Sapere Aude". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    IO Cold and Dryness = Earth, Cold and Moistness = Water, as is amply demonstrated even by Aristotle, who shows that the one matter, simple, or combined with its de¬ velopments, may exist in each of these states. The Alchymist affirmed the existence of the Primum Ens, or First Being, or First Matter; two opposites or contraries; three principles; and four elementary states of matter. Beyond these came the seven metals, as forms of matter, essentially stable, except in the hands of the skilled operator, to whom might be given the power of Transmutation, or of changing one of them into the other. Gold as the most perfect one, was the effect of the greatest transmutation, which process once known rendered all others of no importance. Hence all the efforts of the greatest Alchymists were directed to this the crowning achievement of the work. For this pro¬ cess one substance was requisite, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Quintessence, Son of the Sun, our laton: this was to be derived from the Philosophical Mercury, Salt and Sulphur, and had to pass in the process through the colours Black and White to the Red. This Stone, all powerful for Transmutation, was expected to be also the basis of the Great Elixir of Life when employed to affect living beings, and so confer the power of indefinite prolongation of earthly existence. Historical proof may be wanting that the Stone of the Philosophers was ever found and used, but no candid observer can doubt that the life-long labours of the Alchymists, and especially their discoveries in Syn¬ thesis, and their modes of chemical manipulation and their utensils, have laid the foundation of our modern chemistry, which having mounted by the alchymic ladder to a proud position, now contemptuously spurns that ladder from beneath its feet. The argument from Analogy is a very powerful one in favour of a Protyle or primordial matter. In the
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