TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 449 
over Asia, and found its way into Europe. It is best known to us in the writings 
of the Greeks. Among these people, however, the elements were reduced to four— 
fire, air, earth, and water—though Aristotle endeavoured to restore the ‘blue 
ether’ to its position as the most subtle and divine of them all. It is true that the 
fifth element, or ‘ quinta essentia,’ was frequently spoken of by the early chemists, 
though the idea attaching to it was somewhat changed, and the four elements con- 
tinued to retain their place in popular apprehension, and still retain it even among 
many of the scholars who take degrees at our universities. The claim of wood to be 
considered an element seems never to have been recognised in the West, unless, 
indeed, we are to seek this origin for the choice of the word tAy to signify that 
original chaotic material out of which, according to Plato and his school, all things 
were created.1 The idea also of a primal element, from which the others, and 
everything else, were originated, was common in Greece, the difficulty being to decide 
which of the four had the greatest claim to thishonour. Thales, as is well known, 
in the sixth century B.c. affirmed that water was the first principle of things; but 
Anaximenes afterwards looked upon air, and Herakleitos upon fire as the primal 
element, while Pherekydes regarded the earth as the great ancestor. This notion 
of elements, however, was essentially distinct from our own. It was always 
associated with the idea of the genesis of matter rather than with its ultimate 
analysis, and the idea of szmple as contrasted with compound hodies probably never 
entered into the thoughts of the contending philosophers. 
The modern idea appears to have had a totally different origin, and we must 
again travel back to China. ‘There, also in the sixth century B.c., the great 
philosopher Lao-tse was meditating on the mysteries of the world and the soul, 
and his disciples founded the religion of Taou. They were materialists ; neverthe- 
less they believed. in a ‘finer essence,’ or spirit, that rises from matter, and may 
become a star; thus they held that the souls of the five elements, water, metal, 
fire, wood, and earth, arose and became the five planets. These speculations 
naturally led to a search after the sublimated essences of things, and the means by 
which this immortality might be secured. It seems that at the time of Tsin-she- 
hwang, the builder of the Great Wall, about two centuries before Christ, many 
romantic stories were current of immortal men inhabiting islands in the Pacific 
Ocean. It was supposed that in these magical islands was found the ‘herb of 
immortality’ growing, and that it gave them exemption from the lot of common 
mortals. The emperor determined to go in search of these islands, but some unto- 
ward event always prevented him.” 
Some two or three centuries after this a Taouist, named Weipahyang, wrote a 
remarkable book called ‘The Uniting Bond.’ It contains a great deal about the 
changes of the heavenly bodies, and the mutual relation of Heaven and men; and 
then the author proceeds to explain some transformations of silver and water. 
About elixir he tells us, ‘ What is white when first obtained becomes red after 
manipulation on being formed into the elixir’ (‘tan,’ meaning red or elixir), 
“That substance, an inch in diameter, consists of the black and the white, that is, 
water and metal combined. It is older than heaven and earth. It is most 
honourable and excellent. Around it, like a wall, are the sides of the cauldron, 
It is closed up and sealed on every side, and carefully watched. The thoughts 
must be undisturbed, and the temper calm, and the hour of its perfection anxiously 
waited for. The false chemist passes through various operations in vain. He who 
is enlightened expels his evil passions, is delighted morning and night, forgets fame 
1 Students of the Apocrypha will remember the expression in the Book of Wis- 
dom, xi. 17,‘% mavrodivayds cov xelp kal Ktloaca Toy Kdomoy e& audppov YAns’ (‘ Thy 
Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form’). The same book con- 
tains two allusions to the ordinary elements, vii. 17 and xix. 18 to 20. The word 
oroxetoy is used in the New Testament only in a general sense (2 Pet. iii. 10), or in 
its more popular meaning of the first steps in knowledge. 
2 Nearly all my information in regard to this Taouist alchemy is derived from the 
writings of the Rev. Joseph Edkins, of Pekin, and the matter is treated in greater 
detail in an article on the ‘ Birth of Alchemy,’ in the Argonaut, vol. iii. p. 1. 
1883. GG 
