THE BIRTH OF CHEMISTRY 
Vis , 
The Alchemists.—Origin of Alchemy.—Hermes Trismegistus.— 
Greek MSS. on Alchemy.—Their probable authorship and age. 
WE speak here of the alchemists almost for the first time, and 
we must now turn our attention to the origin and growth of 
their dogmas, and to their work. We have already seen that the 
word xnela is first found in the Lexicon of Suidas, and that he 
defines it as ‘‘the preparation of gold and silver.” He further 
tells us, under the same heading, that the books on the subject 
were sought for by Dioclesian and burnt, lest the Egyptians 
should become rich through their knowledge of the art, and 
should thus be able to resist the Romans, Now, the people 
who professed a knowledge of the art of making gold were called 
alchemists. The word alchemy, as we have previously shown, 
consists of a Coptic root united with an Arabic prefix, and signi- 
fies the Aidden or obscure art. Alchemists were those who 
practised this mysterious art. We can well understand why 
the professors of such an art should maintain the utmost secrecy ; 
to divulge such magic would be to make all men equally rich ; 
hence it was necessarily a hiddenart. Neither did the books on 
the subject avail much, for they are filled with some of the most 
incomprehensible nonsense that ever was written, Yet the 
literature of the subject is enormous. The volumes on alchemy 
in our large libraries are to be counted by the hundred. In 1602 
Zetzner published, in Strasburg, a ‘‘Theatrum Chemicum,” con- 
taining more than a hundred tracts on alchemy, selected from 
- various notable authors. A century later Mangetus published 
his ‘‘ Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa,” in two large folios, con- 
taining a hundred and twenty-two alchemical treatises. We 
have previously given the titles of a few Greek MSS, on alchemy. 
The list has been extended to eighty-three. Arabic and Persian 
MSS. on the subject are not uncommon. There are treatises 
in Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, and English on alchemy, 
and, more numerous than all, treatises in Latin, in every large 
library. Let us endeavour to get from the tangled mazes of this 
hieroglyphical literature some idea of alchemy, and of its in- 
fluence upon chemistry. 
We are, perhaps, puzzled at the outset to comprehend how 
any one man, much less thousands of men, could have deluded 
themselves with the belief in the possibility of transmuting one 
kind of matter into another :—crude lead, or tin, or mercury, into 
weighty, lustrous gold. But this was not the greatest wonder of 
the age. At the time when alchemy arose, and throughout the 
period during which it most flourished, the belief in theurgy, 
witcheraft, necromancy, and magic of all kinds was rife among 
all classes ; and surely it was less wonderful to change lead or 
tin into gold, than to call up the spirit of one’s ancestor, or to 
confer perpetual youth upon a nonagenarian! It is, for won- 
derment, as compared with the greater magic of the day, 
as the process for the conversion of benzine into aniline 
compared with spirit-rapping ; or as a demonstration of specific 
inductive capacity compared with a manifestation of psychic 
force. Alchemy was considered to be perfectly rational not 
two centuries ago, and was among the lesser forms of magic, 
inasmuch as it did not require the influence of supernatural 
causes. 
The growth of the idea is not difficult to trace. The ancients 
had persistently asserted the change of one element into another. 
Thales, as we have scen, evolved the ten thousand forms of 
nature and kinds of matter, from water, Anaximenes from air, by 
successive transmutation. Aristotle, whose physical views were 
accepted without question by the alchemists, had endeavoured to 
show by clever argument that, if you transfer a quality of water to 
fire, you obtain air ; while if you transfera quality of earth to air, 
you get water; and so for fire and earth, and that from these 
elements all things proceed. This was readily accepted by 
Middle Age thinkers, The alchemists reasoned, plausibly enough; 
—if fire becomes air, air water, and water earth, why may not 
one kind of substance formed from these elements be changed 
into another kind of substance of somewhat the same nature, and 
certainly more similar than air and water, or water and earth ? 
Why may not lead, compounded of these elements in certain 
proportions, be changed into gold, compounded of these elements 
in certain other proportions? There have been falser modes of 
reasoning than this in the history of science. 
Let the ancient Greek theory of the transmutation of the 
elements be once literally accepted, and the alchemical belief in 
transmutation follows naturally ; it is a minor application of the 
major proposition, There is nothing to wonder at in this ; the 
human mind seldom moves by fits and starts ; an essentially new 
mode of thought and new form of belief is rare, and many appa: 
rently new dogmas are united with older dogmas in the closest — 
manner, and are in fact direct emanations from them. Such 
was the alchemical idea of transmutation. Admitting the 
possibility of the process, a man would naturally ask himself 
*€ What do I most desire to make?” What in this world pro- 
cures the greatest amount of happimess, and of power?” For 
what have men slaughtered each other by the thousand in open 
war, or singly and secretly in the dead of night? For what h 
kingdoms been sold, great tracts of land ceded, and people be 
ground into serfdom till they rose and rioted against th 
oppressors? For what have princes and cardinals been creat 
emperors and kings destroyed, and the eternal peace of troub 
souls promised? Ina word, for what will man dare all thin 
sacrifice all things ; for what will he toil during a lifetime ; to w 
will he devote all his intellectual energies ? This is surely the thing - 
for the ready acquirement of which we may devote much time and 
thought, and this thing is go/d. This is the key to the pro- 
digious masses of alchemical literature, and to the mysteries an¢ 
anomalies connected with men who often wasted their whole lives — 
and all they possessed in the endeayour to change baser metals 
into gold, 4 = 
If we consult alchemical MSS., no matter the date or author, — 
or language, we find constant mention of Hermes Trismegistus, — 
who was indeed considered, and sometimes designated, the father 
of alchemy. Ina treatise attributed to Albertus Magnus we are 
told that the tomb of Hermes was discovered by Alexander the 
Great, in acave near Hebron. In this was found a slab of 
emerald which had been taken from the hands of the dead — 
Hermes by Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and which had inscribed — 
upon itin Phoenician characters the precepts of the great master 
concerning the art of making gold. The inscription consisted o 
thirteen sentences, and is to be found in numerous alchemical 
works. It is for the most part quite unintelligible, and in style 
closely resembles the great mass of Middle Age alchemical litera= 
ture. _ 
The following is cited as the inscription of the “ Smaragdine 
Table,” and is to be found in very early MSS. in various lan- 
guages :— 3 
1. I speak not fictitious things, but that which is certain and 
most true, : A 
2. What is below is like that which is above, and what is” 
above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of 
one thing. a 
3. And as all things were produced by the one word of one 
Being, so all things were produced from this one thing by adap-— 
tation. 
4. Its father is the sun, its mother the moon ; the wind carries 
it in its belly, its nurse is the earth. 
5. It is the father of all perfection throughout the world. 
6. The power is vigorous if it be changed into earth. — 
7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the 
gross,‘acting prudently and with judgment. § 
8. Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to 
heaven, and then again descend to the earth, and unite together 
the powers of things superior and thingsinferior. Thus you will — 
obtain the glory of the whole world, and obscurity will fly far 
away from you. E 
9g. This has more fortitude than fortitude itself; because it 
conquers every subtle thing and can penetrate every solid. 
to. ‘Thus was the world formed. ‘ 
11. Hence proceed wonders, which are here established. 4 
12. Therefore I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having three 
parts of the philosophy of the whole world. 4 
13. That which I had to say concerning the operation of the 
sun is completed, E; cine 
The story and the inscription, together with all books attri- 
buted to Hermes, are no doubt the production of monks of the — 
Middle Ages, albeit they are attributed to Hermes, who is 
asserted to have lived about 2000 B.C. In spite of the obvious — 
worthlessness of the inscription of the emerald table, men have 
not been wanting who have laboured long and lovingly to proye — 
its authenticity, to interpret it, and to show that it is in goo 
sooth a marvellous revelation, full of sublime secrets of consider- — 
able import to mankind, as, 
Hermes Trismegistus is generally asserted by the alchemists to 
have been a priest who lived a little after the time of Moses. 
According to Clemens Alexandrinus he was the author of forty~ 
F. 
