12 WILLIAM M. HAMLET. 



Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run 

 Potable gold, when with one virtuous touch, 

 Th* arch-cheinic Sun, so far from us remote, 

 Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed, 

 Here in the dark so many precious things 

 Of colour glorious and effect so rare ? " 



Arising from the fruitless search for the magic stone 1 and the 

 elixir vitse, there appear many useful things, but above all a work- 

 ing theory regarding the nature of things; I refer to the four- 

 element theory of fire, air, earth, and water, of Empedocles, which 

 by no means could appear absurd or worthless to the ancients, for 

 only a century ago the term ' earth ' meant, and included, many 

 solid substances ; three amongst them being known, and even known 

 to this day as 'alkaline earths.' Moreover 'water' both meant and 

 included all liquids, and embodied the idea of liquidity generally, 

 while 'air' embraced all gases and vapours; and 'fire' was nothing 

 less than the all-prevailing energy acting upon and changing all 

 the visible forms of matter. Have we so very much advanced in 

 our notions of general classification, when we remember that our 

 three-fold division of matter stands as solid, liquid, and gaseous? 



Historical chemistry, then, leads us back to the alchemists, the 

 general trend of whose labours were, unconsciously, towards the 

 foundations of our present science ; but let us never forget that 

 the changes we speak of as chemical, were in full operation away 

 back in ages more remote than any historical period. Primaeval 

 is but a relative term, leading us back in imagination to periods 

 when terrestrial atmospheres were irrespirable gases enfolding the 

 reeking planet. To Egypt and the East — the theatre of many lost 

 civilisations — the chemist turns with never-failing interest. Egypt 

 he looks upon as the birthplace of the great science ; where tombs, 

 temples, papyri and cylinders of baked clay are now unfolding their 

 interesting records and linking the present with the past. 2 



1 That gold was the chief object of search by the alchemist, by the aid 

 of his " magic stone/' is shown by the name which the science of chemistry 

 originally bore, namely, \pvcro7Tota. 



2 For many of these interesting details, I am indebted to the researches 

 of Maspero, Mahaffy, Professor Petrie, and the Wiedemann Geschichte. 



