mSTOEY OF THE ATOMIC THEOEY. 101 



of matter. This mystic mode of philosophizing had no doubt 

 been the mode adopted by the chemists of the earliest cen- 

 turies, but little or nothing now remains. The following is 

 from Zosimus, the Panopolitan, upon the "Divine water:" — 



" The mystery sought is great and divine, for all is from it, 

 and by it. There are two natures and one substance. The 

 one carries off and subdues the other. This is silver-water 

 (mercury), the male-female principle always escaping, con- 

 stant in its properties, the divine water unknown to the world, 

 the nature of whiclf is inexplicable. For it is not a metal, nor 

 is it water ; it is always in movement, nor a body ; it is all in 

 all ; it has life and spirit, and may be held," * 



This is quite in the mystic style of the neoplatonic philo- 

 sophy, although the tone is evidently lower than that taken 

 by the philosophical mystics themselves. We see in it clearly 

 the style of the alchemists, and the impulse that was given to 

 the study of alchemy seems to have come from this source 

 mainly. The philosophy of Aristotle having for many ages 

 taken the lead, the four elements followed him, and we find 

 them acting an important part in nearly all alchemical treatises, 

 but the mode of reasoning is by no means Aristotelian, and 

 is in every sense mystic. And why mystic? This word is 

 itself of indefinite meaning, but I would say that the reasoning 

 on physical law is mystic, when there is no distinction made 

 between the laws of material nature and those of the mind of 

 man, when there is a confusion between that which is done by 

 natural law and that which is caused by the spirit of man, 

 during his observation of the phenomena ; when, for example, 

 an experimenter must suit his frame of mind to the experi- 

 ment, or find that nature will refuse to act. It may be said 

 that such a theory involves the continual presence of God, 

 supporting constantly his own laws, as in a Hindoo system, f 

 or it is a theism which makes God everywhere acting, not 



* Hoefer. Historie de la Chimie, Vol. i., p. 259. 

 f Blakey's History of Moral Science. 



