88 



ALCKSTE ALCIBIADES. 



one of the most unequal and pernicious taxes tliat 

 could possibly be levied, since its amount is not go- 

 \erncd by the amount of property which tin- party 

 paying it is worth, nor by the amount that he con- 

 sumes. It is, to all intents and purposes, an arbi- 

 trary tax, and UltariU attributes to it the ruin of the 

 Spanish manufactures. Tin- alcavala was introduc- 

 ed under Alphonso XI., and was borrowed from the 

 Arabians. It was imposed at first in 1342, only for 

 a specified period. In 131!), it was made perpetual, 

 ana fixed at ten per cent 



AITINTK; the daughter of Pelias, and wife of 

 Admetus, king of Thessaly. Her husband was 

 sick, and, according to an oracle, would die, miles-. 

 some one else made a vow to meet death in his 

 ! . This was secretly done by A. She became 

 sick, and Admetus recovered. After her decease, 

 Hercules visited Admetus, with whom he was con- 

 nected by the ties of hospitality, and promised his 

 friend to bring back his wife from the infernal re- 

 gions. He made good his word, compelling Pluto 

 to restore A. to her husband. Euripides has made 

 tliU story the subject of a tragedy. 



ALCHYMY ; the art of changing, by means of a se- 

 cret chemical process, base metals into precious. 

 Probably the ancient nations, in their first at- 

 tempts to melt metals, observing that the com- 

 position of different metals produced masses of a 

 colour unlike either, for instance, that a mix- 

 ture like gold resulted from the melting together of 

 copper and zinc, arrived at the conclusion, that one 

 metal could be changed into another. At an early 

 period, the desire of gold and silver grew strong, as 

 luxury increased, and men indulged the hope o? ob- 

 taining these rarer metals from the more common. 

 At the same time, the love of life led to the idea of 

 finding a remedy against all diseases, a means of les- 

 sening the infirmities of age, of renewing youth, and 

 repelling death. The hope of realizing these ideas 

 prompted the efforts of several men, who taught their 

 doctrines through mystical images and symbols. To 

 transmute metals, they thought it necessary to find a 

 substance, which, containing the original principle of 

 all matter, should possess the power of dissolving all 

 into its elements. This general solvent, or men- 

 ttrttum universale, which, at the same time, was to 

 possess the power of removing all the seeds of disease 

 out of the human body, and renewing life, was called 

 the philosopher's stone, lapis philosophorum, and its 

 pretended possessors adepts. The more obscure the 

 ideas which the alchymists themselves had of the 

 appearances occurring in their experiments, the more 

 they endeavoured to express themselves in symbolical 

 language. Afterwards, they retained this phraseo- 

 logy, to conceal their secrets from the uninitiated. 

 In Egypt, in the earliest times, Hermes, the son of 

 Annnis, was ranked among the heroes, and many 

 books of chemical, magical, and alchymical learning 

 are said to have been left by him. These, however, 

 are of a later date. (See Hermes Trismegistus.} 

 For this reason, chemistry and alchymy received the 

 name of the Hermetic art. It is certain that the 

 ancient Egyptians possessed particular chemical 

 and metallurgical knowledge, although the origin of 

 alchymy cannot, with certainty, be attributed to 

 them. Several Grecians became acquainted with 

 the writings of the Egyptians, and initiated in their 

 chemical knowledge. The fondness for magic, and 

 for alchymy more particularly, spread afterwards 

 among the Romans also. When true science was 

 persecuted under the Roman tyrants, superstition 

 and false philosophy flourished the more. The pro- 

 digality of the Romans excited the desire for gold, 

 and led them to pursue the art which promised it 

 instantaneously and abundantly. Caligula made 



experiments with a view of obtaining gold from orpi- 

 meiit. On the other hand, Diocletian ordered all 

 books to be burned that taught to manufacture gold 

 and silver by alchymy. At that time, many books 

 on alchymy were written, and falsely inscribed with 

 the names of renowned men of antiquity. Thus a 

 number of writings were ascribed to Democritus, 

 and more to Hermes, which were written by Egyp- 

 tian monks and hermits, and which, as tlie Fttlmlu 

 iHrtiedina, taught, in allegories, with mystical and 

 symbolical figures, the way to discover the philoso- 

 pher's stone. At a later period, chemistry and 

 alchymy were cultivated among the Arabians. In 

 the eighth century, the first chemist, commonly 

 called Geber, flourished among them, in \\ho-e works 

 rules are given for preparing quicksilver and other 

 metals. In the middle ages, the monks devoted 

 themselves to alchymy, although they wen- after- 

 wards prohibited from studying it by the popes. 

 But there was one, even among these, John XXII., 

 who was fond of alchymy. Raymond Lully, or 

 Lullius, was one of the most famous alchymists in 

 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. A story is 

 told of him, that, during his stay in London, he 

 changed for king Edward I. a mass of 50,000 pounds 

 of quicksilver into gold, of which the first rose -no- 

 bles were coined. The study of alchymy was pro- 

 hibited at Venice in 1488. Paracelsus, who was 

 highly celebrated about 1525, belongs to the re- 

 nowned alchymists, as do Roger Bacon, Basilius 

 Valentinus, and many others. When, however, 

 more rational principles of chemistry and philosophy 

 began to be diffused, and to shed light on chemical 

 phenomena, the rage for alchymy gradually de- 

 creased, though many persons, including some no- 

 bles, still remained devoted to it. AJchymy has, 

 however, afforded some service to chemistry, and 

 even medicine. Chemistry was first carefully stu- 

 died by the alchymists, to whose labour and patience 

 we are indebted for several useful discoveries ; e. g. 

 various preparations of quicksilver, mineral kennes, 

 of porcelain, &c. Nothing can be asserted with cer- 

 tainty about the transmutation of metals. Moderu 

 chemistry, indeed, places metals in the class of ele- 

 ments, and denies the possibility of changing an in- 

 terior metal into gold. Most of the accounts of such 

 transmutation rests on fraud or delusion, although 

 some ot them are accompanied with circumstances 

 and testimony which render them probable. By 

 means of the galvanic battery, even the alkalies have 

 been discovered to have a metallic base. The pos 

 sibility of obtaining metal from other substances 

 which contain the ingredients composing it, and of 

 clianging one metal into another, or rather of refin- 

 ing it, must, therefore, be left undecided. Nor are 

 all alchymists to be considered impostors. Many 

 have laboured, under the conviction of the possi- 

 bility of obtaining their object, with indefatigable 

 patience and purity of heart (which is earnestly re- 

 commended by sound alchymists as the principal re- 

 quisite for the success of their labours). Designing 

 men have often used alchymy as a mask for their 

 covetousness, and as a means of defrauding silly 

 people of their money. Many persons, even in our 

 days, destitute of sound chemical knowledge, have 

 been led by old books on alchymy, which they did 

 not understand, into long, expensive, and fruitless 

 labours. Hitherto chemistry has not succeeded in 

 unfolding the principles by which metals are formed, 

 the laws of their production, their growth and re- 

 finement, and in aiding or imitating this process of 

 nature ; consequently the labour of the alchymists, 

 in search of the philosopher's stone, is but a groping 

 in the dark. 



ALCIBUDES. This famous Greek, son of Clinias 



