298 LETTERS ON NATUEAL MAGIC. 



pounds. It can scarcely, therefore, be a matter 

 of surprise that minds of the highest order, and 

 spirits of the loftiest ambition, should have sought 

 in the transmutations of chemistry for those 

 splendid products which were conceived to be 

 most conducive to human happiness. 



The disciple of Mammon grew pale over his 

 crucible in his ardour to convert the baser metals 

 into gold ; the philosopher pined in secret for the 

 universal solvent which might develop the ele- 

 ments of the precious stones and yield to him the 

 means of their production ; and the philanthropist 

 aspired after a universal medicine, which might 

 arrest disease in its course, and prolong indefi- 

 nitely the life of man. To us, who live under the 

 meridian of knowledge, such expectations must 

 appear as presumptuous as they were delusive ; 

 but when we consider that gold and silver were 

 actually produced by chemical processes from the 

 rude ores of lead and copper that some of the 

 most refractory bodies had yielded to the disinte- 

 grating and solvent powers of chemical agents, 

 and that the mercurial preparations of the Ara- 

 bian physicians had operated like charms in the 

 cure of diseases that had resisted the feeble 

 medicines of the times, we may find some apology 

 for the extravagant expectations of the alchemists. 



An object of lofty pursuit, even if it be one of 

 impossible attainment, is not unworthy philoso- 

 phical ambition. Though we cannot scale the 

 summit of the volcanic cone, we may yet reach its 

 heaving flanks ; and though we cannot decom- 

 pose its loftiest fires, we may yet study the lava 

 which they have melted and the products which 

 they have sublimed. In like manner, though 



