VI 



TWO PSEUDO-SCIENCES ALCHEMY AND 

 ASTROLOGY 



IN recent chapters we have seen science come for- 

 ward with tremendous strides. A new era is ob- 

 viously at hand. But we shall misconceive the spirit 

 of the times if we fail to understand that in the midst 

 of all this progress there was still room for mediaeval 

 superstition and for the pursuit of fallacious ideals. 

 Two forms of pseudo-science were peculiarly prevalent 

 alchemy and astrology. Neither of these can with 

 full propriety be called a science, yet both were pur- 

 sued by many of the greatest scientific workers of the 

 period. Moreover, the studies of the alchemist may 

 with some propriety be said to have laid the foun- 

 dation for the latter-day science of chemistry; while 

 astrology was closely allied to astronomy, though its 

 relations to that science are not as intimate as has 

 sometimes been supposed. 



Just when the study of alchemy began is undeter- 

 mined. It was certainly of very ancient origin, per- 

 haps Egyptian, but its most flourishing time was from 

 about the eighth century A.D. to the eighteenth century. 

 The stories of the Old Testament formed a basis for some 

 of the strange beliefs regarding the properties of the 

 magic "elixir," or " philosopher's stone." Alchemists 

 believed that most of the antediluvians, perhaps all of 



124 



