346 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



LETTER XII. 



Wonders of chemistry Origin, progress, and objects of alchemy Art 

 of breathing fire Employed by Barchochebas, Eunus, &c. 

 Modern method Art of walking upon burning coals and red-hot 

 iron, and of plunging the hands in melted lead and boiling water 

 Singular property of boiling tar Workmen plunge their hands 

 in melted copper Trial of ordeal by fire Aldini's incombustible 

 dresses Examples of their ivonderful power in resisting flame 

 Power of breathing and enduring air of high temperatures 

 Experiments made by Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Blagden, 

 and Mr. Chantry. 



THE science of chemistry has from its infancy been pre- 

 eminently the science of wonders. In her laboratory the 

 alchemist and the magician have revelled uncontrolled, 

 and from her treasures was forged the sceptre which was 

 so long and so fatally wielded over human reason. The 

 changes which take place in the bodies immediately 

 around us are too few in number and too remote from ob- 

 servation to excite much of our notice ; but when the sub- 

 stances procured directly from nature, or formed casually 

 by art, become objects of investigation, they exhibit in 

 their simple or combined actions the most extraordinary 

 effects. The phenomena which they display, and the 

 products which they form, so little resemble those with 

 which we are familiar, that the most phlegmatic and the 

 least speculative observer must have anticipated from them 

 the creation of new and valuable compounds. It can 

 scarcely, therefore, be a matter of surprise that minds of 

 the highest order, and spirits of the loftiest ambition, 



