320 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



these were removed. Thus Campanella 20 , whom 

 we shall have to speak of as one of the first op- 

 ponents of Aristotle, wrote an " Astrology purified 

 from all the Superstitions of the Jews and Ara- 

 bians, and treated physiologically." 



4. Alchemy. Like other kinds of Mysticism, 

 Alchemy seems to have grown out of the notions of 

 moral, personal, and mythological qualities, which 

 men associated with terms, of which the primary 

 application was to physical properties. This is 

 the form in which the subject is presented to us 

 in the earliest writings which we possess on the 

 subject of chemistry ; those of Geber 21 of Seville, 

 who is supposed to have lived in the eighth or 

 ninth century. The very titles of Geber's works 

 show the notions on which this pretended science 

 proceeds. They are, "Of the Search of Perfec- 

 tion ;" " Of the Sum of Perfection, or of the Perfect 

 Magistery ;" " Of the Invention of Verity, or Per- 

 fection." The basis of this phraseology is the dis- 

 tinction of metals into more or less perfect ; gold 

 being the most perfect, as being the most valuable, 

 most beautiful, most pure, most durable; silver 

 the next ; and so on. The " Search of Perfection," 

 was, therefore, the attempt to convert other metals 

 into gold ; and doctrines were adopted which re- 

 presented the metals as all compounded of the 

 same elements, so that this was theoretically pos- 



20 Bacon, De Aug. iii. 4. 



21 Thomson's Hist. ofCkem. i. 117. 



