78 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



of this treatise is indeed an alchemical one ; for 

 the sun and inoon of which it speaks are not these 

 heavenly bodies themselves, but, by an allegorical 

 use common in the Middle Ages, and derived from 

 the Eastern theories of sympathy already mentioned, 

 stand for the nobler metals of gold and silver. 

 A brief examination, however, shows that Scot 

 could not have been the author. Tlie very style 

 suggests this conclusion ; for it is distinctly schol- 

 astic, and proper therefore to a later age than 

 that which aimed at the direct and simple repro- 

 duction of Eastern texts. It is satisfactory to find 

 that this criticism, hardly convincing per se, is 

 fully borne out by what occurs in the substance 

 of the work itself. The author quotes from the 

 De Mineralihus of Albertus. Now Albertus Magnus, 

 by common testimony, produced this treatise after 

 the year 1240, and we may anticipate what is 

 afterwards to be told of Michael Scot's death 

 so far as to say here that he had then been 

 long in his grave. The De Natura Soils et 

 LuncB then must be ascribed to some other and 

 later alchemist, who lived in the end of the 

 thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth 

 century. A more careful examination of the 

 treatise than has been necessary for our purpose 

 might succeed in fixing its date with greater pre- 

 cision, and might possibly throw some light upon 

 the person of its true author. 



Another work ascribed to the pen of Michael 

 Scot, and one which seems likely to be authentic, 

 is that contained in the Speciale Manuscript. This 

 volume is one of those collections of alchemical 

 tracts made in the fourteenth century to which 



