378 ON THE SCOPE AND INFLUENCE OF THE 



There can be no doubt, that Bacon did believe in the possi- 

 bility of discovering the means of converting other substances 

 into gold ; a belief, which was far from being so complete- 

 ly abandoned by all " sober inquirers," as this writer imagines ; 

 for it was entertained by Boyle, and some other experimen- 

 talists, and not greatly discouraged even by Newton, at a 

 period when experimental philosophy was much farther ad- 

 vanced *. There was no man of his day more thoroughly ap- 

 prised than Bacon was, of the follies of the Alchymists, or who 

 has mentioned them in terms of stronger ridicule and reproba- 

 tion j\ He nowhere holds out the making of gold as a prime 

 object of philosophical inquiry ; on the contrary, he point- 

 edly censures the Alchymists, with whom he has been so ab- 

 surdly classed, for directing their main views to such an ob- 

 ject £. The belief which he entertained as to the possibility 

 of making gold, had a very different foundation from that 

 upon which it rested among this fantastical fraternity. With 

 him, the belief in question formed part of his general belief, 

 that the essences of all material substances were capable of be- 

 ing discovered by the inductive process. It was a belief which 

 flowed from his lofty notions of the yet untried resources of 

 experimental science. There was then no sufficient stock of 

 experience to authorise any one to lay it down as an esta- 

 blished principle, that the knowledge of these essences is 



placed 



* There is a curious letter upon this subject from Newton to Mr Olden- 

 bcrg, Secretary of the Royal, Society, printed in the account of Boyle, in the 

 Historical Dictionary. His remarks apply wholly to a particular process of trans- 

 mutation, and not to the impossibility of the thing itself. See General Historical 

 and Critical Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 558. 



-j- See Novum Organum, Lib. i. ,Aph. 85. 87. 



f Ibid. Lib. i. Aph. 70. 



