220 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION 



epoch in that science. Alchemistic and new Platonic fan- 

 cies were, it is true, as nearly allied with their chemistry, as 

 was astrology with their astronomy; hut the demands of 

 pharmacy, and the equally pressing requirements of the 

 technical arts, led to discoveries which were favoured some- 

 times by design, and sometimes, through a happy accident, 

 by metallurgic attempts connected with alchemy. The 

 labours of Geber, or rather Djaber (Abu-Mussah-Dschafar 

 al-Kufi), and the much later ones of Razes (Abu-Bekr 

 Arrasi), have had the most important results. This epoch is 

 marked by the preparation of sulphuric and nitric acids, ( 345 ) 

 aqua regia, preparations of mercury and other metallic 

 oxides, and by the knowledge of alcoholic ( 346 ) processes of 

 fermentation. The first foundation and earliest advances of 

 the science of chemistry are of so much the greater impor- 

 tance in the history of the contemplation of the universe, 

 because thereby the heterogeneity of substances, and the 

 nature of forces or powers not manifested visibly by motion, 

 were first recognised ; and the students of nature, no longer 

 looking exclusively to the Pythagorean Platonic perfection 

 of form, perceived that composition was also deserving of 

 regard. Differences of form and differences of composition 

 are the elements of all our knowledge of matter ; they are 

 the abstractions by which, through measurement and ana- 

 lysis, we believe that we can form a conception of the entire 

 universe. 



It would be difficult to determine at present what portion 

 of knowledge the Arabian chemists may have derived, either 

 from their acquaintance with Indian literature (writings 

 on the Easayana), ( 347 ) from the primitive technical arts of 

 the ancient Egyptians, from the comparatively modern 



