CHEMISTRY. 251 



have been written ; and it is melancholy to reflect upon the misdi- 

 rected talentj the unsubdued industry, the life-consuming energy, 

 with which every object under heaven was tortured to reveal the 

 grand secret. So completely were these deluded men absorbed in 

 their golden visions, that friends, fortune, reputation, health, were 

 sacrificed, and life itself was forfeited without a murmur. To their 

 heated imaginations, not only the celestial bodies seemed to influence 

 their pursuits, but angels and demons were engaged in forwarding or 

 jn frustrating their views. Heaven was to be propitiated by fasting, 

 by watching, and by prayer, and the powers of darkness were to be 

 compelled by magic, which, ridiculous as it seems to us, was to them 

 fraught with all the terrors of a real combat with satanic agents. 

 Never, surely, was the fable of the Treasure in the Vineyard more 

 literally fulfilled ; for while they dug in vain for hidden wealth, 

 which nowhere existed, they prepared the ground for a rich vin- 

 tage ; they discovered many valuable agents, and laid the foimdation 

 of the most important branch of natural philosophy. Then came 

 the times of Stahl and the phlogistic hypothesis, succeeded by that 

 of Priestly, Lavoisier, and Cavendish ; periods rich in discovery, 

 and in which successive theories were proposed, gradually approxi- 

 mating to the truth. At length, in our own days, the atomic theory, 

 or doctrine of definite proportions, was distinctly propounded. The 

 chemist was enabled to reduce the approximations of analysis to ma- 

 thematical precision, and Chemistry was at once elevated to the 

 rank of an exact science. Galvanism was applied as a chemical 

 agent, and revealed the metallic bases of the alkalies and earths. 

 Discoveries, still incomplete, have shewn that all chemical changes 

 are dependant upon this subtle agent, and that they are effected by 

 it with a power surpassing the bounds of the wildest imagination ; 

 for it is highly probable that, during the decomposition of a drop 

 of water by a grain of zinc, more electricity is evolved than is elicited 

 in a thunder-storm. It has been proved that the particles of the 

 most solid substances are in constant motion, and that, so far from 

 matter being endowed with a vis inertiap, there is nothing in nature 

 that is at rest ; and it has been demonstrated that bodies exist, such, 

 for instance, as succinic and acetic acids, differing widely in external 

 appearance, and in their properties, yet consisting of the same ele- 



