The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Charles Thompson
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/296 (page 17)
    According to a work of Basil Valentine, said to have been written at about that period, All herbs, trees, and roots, and all metals and minerals, receive their growth and nutriment from the spirit of the earth, which is the spirit of life. This spirit is itself fed by the stars, and is there¬ by rendered capable of imparting nutriment to all things that grow and of nursing them as a mother does her child while it is yet in her womb. The minerals are hidden in the womb of the earth and nourished by her with the spirit which she receives from above. From this supposed close association between the planets and the metals probably came the spiritual connexion that existed between alchemy and astrology in the early ages. To each of the seven metals was assigned the symbol of the planet which was believed to influence it. Thus, the sign used for the sun became the alchemist’s symbol for gold, while that used for the moon became the symbol for silver, and similarly with the other planets. Without pursuing these old doctrines further, let us consider some of the traditions connected with the history of the seven metals. Gold, the most precious of all, has ever had an attraction for man. It is probable that it was one of the earliest metals of which he made use, and may, indeed, have been the first he dis¬ covered, as it was to be found free in nature, in rocks as well as in the sands of rivers. In Ethiopia and Nubia it must have been known at a period of great antiquity, and there is evidence that quartz-crushing and gold-washing were known in Egypt before 2500 B.c. From the Middle Ages it was believed to possess great medi¬ cinal virtues. As Chaucer observes of his Doctour of Phisik in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Gold in phisik is a cordial, Therefore he loved gold in special. In the sixteenth century Paracelsus recommended gold to purify the blood, and states that if put into the mouth of a newly