270 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



tion; although the time had not yet arrived in which tl.k fact was to 

 oe made one of the bases of the theory. 



It has been said, 3 that in the adoption of the phlogistic theory, that 

 is, in supposing the above-mentioned processes to be addition rather 

 than subtraction, " of two possible roads the wrong was chosen, as if 

 to prove the perversity of the human mind." But we must not forget 

 how natural it was to suppose that some part of a body was destroyed 

 or. removed by combustion ; and we may observe, that the merit of 

 Beccher and Stahl did not consist in the selection of one road or two, 

 but in advancing so far as to reach this point of separation. That, 

 having done this, they went a little further on the wrong line, was an 

 error which detracted little from the merit or value of the progress 

 really made. It would be easy to show, from the writings of phlogistic 

 chemists, what important and extensive truths their theory enabled 

 them to express simply and clearly. 



That an enthusiastic temper is favorable to the production of great 

 discoveries in science, is a rule which suffers no exception in the cha- 

 racter of Beccher. In his preface 4 addressed " to the benevolent reader" 

 of his Physica Subterranea, he speaks of the chemists as a strange 

 class of mortals, impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their 

 pleasure among smoke and vapor, soot and flame, poisons and poverty. 

 " Yet among all these evils," he says, " I seem to myself to live so 

 sweetly, that, may I die if I would change places with the Persian 

 king." He is, indeed, well worthy of admiration, as one of the first 

 who pursued the labors of the furnace and the laboratory, without the 

 bribe of golden hopes. " My kingdom," he says, " is not of this 

 world. I trust that I have got hold of my pitcher by the right handle, 

 the true method of treating this study. For the Pseudochy mists seek 

 gold ; but the true philosophers^ science, which is more precious than 

 any gold." 



The Physica Subterranea made no converts. Stahl, in his indig- 

 nant manner, says, 6 " No one will wonder that it never yet obtained a 

 physician or a chemist as a disciple, still less as an advocate." And 

 again, " This work obtained very little reputation or estimation, or, 

 to speak ingenuously, as far as I know, none whatever." In 1671, 

 Beccher published a supplement to his work, in which he showed how 

 metal might be extracted from mud and sand. He offered to execute 



Herschel's Introd. to Nat. Ph'l. p. 300. 



4 Frankfort 1681. 6 Prsef. Phys. Sub. 1703. 



