Volume 1

A system of chemistry / by Thomas Thomson.

  • Thomas Thomson
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of chemistry / by Thomas Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    26/532 page 8
    The writings of the greater number of alchymists are remarkable for nothing but obscurity and absurdi- ty. They all boast that they are in possession of the philosophers stone; they all profess to communicate the method of making it; but their language is enigmatical, that it may be understood by those adepts only who are favoured with illumination from heaven. Their wri- tings, in those benighted ages of ignorance, gained im- plicit credit; and the covetous were filled with the ridi- culous desire of enriching themselves by means of their discoveries. This laid the unwary open to the tricks of a set of impostors, who went about the world pre- tending that they were in possession of the secret of the philosophers stone, and offering to communicate it to others- for a suitable reward. Thus they contrived to get possession of a sum of money ; and afterwards they either made off with their booty, or tired out the patience of their pupils by intolerably tedious, expen- sive, and ruinous processes. It was against these nnen that Erasmus directed his well-known sRtire, entitled, jChc Alchymist. The tricks of these impostors grar dually exasperated mankind against the whole fraternir ty of alchymists. Books appeared against them in all Arnoldus de Villa Nova is believed to have been born in Provence, about the year 1240. His reputation was very high; but all of his writings that 1 have examined are exceedingly obscure, and often not in- telligible. Raymond Lully was born at Barcelona in 1235. His writings arc still more obscure than those of Arnold. The most celebrated of-them is his Last Will and Testament., which has been translated into English. It is not known at what period the Isaacs of Holland lived, though it is supposed to have been in the 13th century.
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