OF CHEMISTRY. 9 



the most retired scenes of lifV, observes such a strict uniformitv of 

 conduct, as not to afford pn-judice and partiality sufficient material* 

 for drawing his character in different colours ; but such a great and 

 irregular genius as Paracelsus, couid not fail of becoming alike, the 

 subject of the extremes of panegyric and satire. He has accord, 

 ingly been esteemed by some, a second Esculapius ; others have 

 thought that he was possessed of more impudence than merit, and 

 that his reputation was more owing to the brutal singularity of his 

 conduct, than to the cures he performed. He treated the physi- 

 cians of his time with the most sottish vanity and illiberal insolence, 

 telling them, that the very down of his bald pate, had more know- 

 ledge than all their writers; the buckles of his shoes more learning 

 than Galen or Avicenna, and his beard more experience than all 

 their universities*. He revived the extravagant doctrine of Ray. 

 mund Lully, concerning an universal medicine, and untimely sunk 

 into his grave at the age of forty. seven, whilst he boasted himself 

 to be in possession of secrets able to prolong the present period of 

 human life, to that of the antediluvians. 



But in whatever estimation the merit of Paracelsus as a chemist 

 may be held, certain it is, that his fame excited the envy of some, 

 the emulation of others, and the industry of all. Those who at- 

 tacked, and those who defended his principles, equally promoted 

 the knowledge of chemistry ; which from his time, by attracting 

 the notice of physicians, began every where to be systematically 

 treated, and more generally understood. 



Soon after the death of Paracelsus, which happened in the year 

 1541, the arts of mining and fluxing metals, which had been prac- 

 tised in most countries from the earliest times, but had never been 

 explained by any writers in a scientific manner, received great il- 

 lustration from the works of Georgius Agricola, a German phy- 

 sician. The Greeks and Romans had left no treatises worth men- 

 tioning upon the subject; and though a book or two had appeared 

 in the German language, and one in the Italian, relative to metal- 

 lurgy, before Agricola published his twelve books De Re Metallica, 

 yet he is justly esteemed the first author of reputation in that 

 branch of chemistry. 



Lazarus Erckern (assay.master general of the empire of Ger- 

 many) followed Agricola in the same pursuit. His works were 



Preface to hii book entitled Paiagranum, where there is more in the same 

 style. 



