NATURAL SCIENCE IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 261 



markable little book Boyle by means of a dialogue discusses and 

 sharply criticises the chemistry of the "hermetick" (i.e. Aris- 

 totelian) natural philosophers, and also "the vulgar Spagyrists" 

 (i.e. the medico-chemists of the Paracelsus type) and questions 

 the value of terms then hazy in their meaning, such as "element" 

 and "principle," as used in alchemy. He does not himself pro- 

 pound any new theories of consequence, but he does insist on 

 more knowledge, more experimentation, and less groundless specu- 

 lation. We quote from Professor Pattison Muir's valuable intro- 

 ductory essay to the "Everyman" edition : 



The Sceptical Chymist embodies the reasoned conceptions which 

 Boyle had gained from the experimental investigations of many physi- 

 cal phenomena. . . . The book is more than an elegant and suggestive 

 discourse on chemico-physical matters ; it is an elucidation of the true 

 method of scientific inquiry. ... At that time the alchemical scheme 

 of things dominated most of those who were inquiring into the trans- 

 mutations of material substances. That scheme was based on a magi- 

 cal conception of the world. . . . When a magical theory of nature 

 prevails, the impressions which external events produce on the senses of 

 observers are corrected, not by careful reasoning and accurate experi- 

 mentation, but by inquiring whether they fit into the scheme of things 

 which has already been elaborated and accepted as the truth. Natural 

 events become as clay in the hands of the intellectual potter for whom 

 * there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so/ . . . An al- 

 chemical writer of the seventh century said : ' Copper is like a man ; 

 it has a soul and a body/ . . . It is not possible to attach any definite, 

 clear, meanings to alchemical writings about the four elements. Their 

 indefiniteness was their strength. ... As the plain man to-day is 

 soothed and made comfortable by the assurance that certain phrases 

 to which he attaches no definite meanings are really scientific, so, 

 when Boyle lived, the plain man rested happily in the belief that the 

 four elements were the last word of science regarding the structure of 

 the materials of the world. . . . 



group of scientific inquirers in London known as the ' Invisible College ' . . . Boyle, 

 too, we must observe, was above all things unprejudiced. He had leanings towards 

 alchemy and never quite repudiated a belief in the possibility of transmuting metals. 

 In medical matters, which greatly interested him, he showed perfect tolerance 

 towards those whom the profession called quacks. J. F. Payne. 



