1 10 MEMOIK OF DR. DALTON, AND 



in all things elemented. We see in him great acuteness of 

 thought and much valuable observation, and need not wonder 

 that he was a great master among succeeding alchemists. 

 We see in him the Greek mode of reasoning on the abstract 

 principle of matter, but the word which was intended only for 

 a general name, comprehending all substances, is taken for 

 an existence by itself. I know that there are other means of 

 getting into the same difficulty, but we find the alchemists 

 haunted by the ghost of the fine abstractions of Plato's divine 

 ideas of things existing on earth, and the belief in abstract 

 matter, and not seeing the intellectual origin they seek to 

 find them out in substance, and so we have a search for 

 the prima materia^ which orginally had no power of being 

 handled, and scarcely of being conceived. 



They tried in vain to hunt the ghost down, and to handle 

 it in their fingers. Whilst the intellect was unable to grasp 

 the idea, they actually sought to catch it in a bottle. This 

 misconception, so singularly ludicrous, makes me suppose 

 that the class of minds generally engaged in chemistry were 

 inferior, but it may be enough to suppose that the mistake 

 once made was not easily rectified. It seems to me to be 

 without doubt that this is the origin of the singular alchemistic 

 chase. If " immaterial substance " was a " philosophical im- 

 posture in philosophy," as Coward called it last century, how 

 much more has it been to alchemy. Yet, I know a living 

 and intelligent man who searches for the prima materia. It 

 may truly be said that the world is governed by ideas. 



This matter having become on one side a mere substance, 

 it is not to be wondered at that on the other side it became 

 entirely the opposite, and was a representative of abstract 

 force, as we may see in expressions of Plotinus, and others of 

 the time, which it would take too much time to quote. 



Again, we have a search for the fifth essence, which con- 

 tained all things and was made up of all things. Here is 

 an evident proof of a decrease both of intellectual power and 



