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moisture, or fire, would take for granted it had parted with something, 

 that is to say, its " Phlogiston " without at least testing it by experi- 

 ment, when they would discover that it had gained rather than lost 

 by the change. 



This error as to the result of oxidization of metals is the more 

 remarkable, as in the same work it is notified that in calcining chalk 

 into lime, a loss of weight of about one-half was sustained by the 

 process, which they properly accounted for, in parting with the water 

 and gas — or, as they called it, fixed air — it contained. 



But it may be that the vision of Alchemy was not such a baseless 

 fabric after all,for as the chemist in the past believed in four elements 

 — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — which were soon proved to be com- 

 pounds, so the forty or fifty by which we have replaced them 

 may in their turn meet with the same fate, and one now so-called 

 element resolved would shake faith in all the rest, and the Unity 

 of Matter may be the theory of the future. Be this as it may, what 

 beneficial results could be expected from the reaHsation of the hopes of 

 alchemists compared with what modern chemistry has done for the 

 good of mankind. Our alchemists have compelled the Flora of the 

 primaeval world to live again in colour and perfume. In advanced 

 medicalknowledge,improved sanitary arrangements, and the detection 

 of adulteration they have found the true " Elixer of life ; " and as to 

 the " Philosopher's Stone,*' what would the transmutation of lead into 

 gold be in comparison to the conversion of iron into steel by the 

 Bessemer process ! 



From what we have seen of the past, what may we not expect of 

 the future, but that the men of our time may find worthy successors 

 in those who are to come, and that the advancing tide of knowledge 

 may still press forward till the limits of human research be reached, 

 and Science say to her votaries : "Thus far shall you go and no further," 

 but not for ever, for we may well hope that the progressive intellect of 

 man, so widely distinct from the mere instinct of the animal, shall not 

 die with him, and that as the soul is immortal so shall be the mind, 

 and that a future state be one of increased and increasing know- 

 ledge, with higher capacities and unlimited range of observation, 



