C H E M 
Os THE ANCIENT CHEMICAL CHARACTERS of 
the METALS. 
Concerning the origin of thefe characters, we have the 
following ingenious account from profefl’or Beckmann : 
Thole metals earlieft known, viz. Gopper, iron, gold, fil- 
ver, lead, quickfilver, and tin, having received the fame 
names as thofe heavenly bodies which appear to us largelf, 
are diftinguilhed by the like characters. On this two 
queftions arife : Whether thefe names and characters were 
given firft to the planets, or to the metals ? When, where, 
and on what account, were they made choice of ? and 
why were the metals nanted after the planets, or the pla¬ 
nets after the metals ? The latter of thefe queftions can¬ 
not be anlwered with any degree of certainty ; but lome- 
thing may be laid on the 1'ubjeCt which will not, perhaps, 
be dilagreeable to thole fond of luch refearches, and who 
have not had an'opportunity of examining it. 
That the prefent ufual names were firll; given to the 
heavenly bodies, and at a later period to the metals, is 
beyond all doubt; and it is equally certain that they 
came from the Greeks to the Romans, and from the Ro¬ 
mans to us. It can be proved alfo, that older nations 
gave other names to thefe heavenly bodies, at much ear¬ 
lier periods. The oldeft appellations, if we may judge 
from fome examples ftill prelerved, feem to have origi¬ 
nated from certain emotions which thefe bodies excited 
in the minds of men ; and it is not improbable that the 
planets were, by the ancient Egyptians and Perfians, 
named after their gods, and that the Greeks only adopted 
or tranffated into their own language the names which 
thofe nations had given them. The idea that each pla¬ 
net was the refulence of a god, or that they were gods 
themfelves, has arifen, according to the mod probable 
conjecture, becaufe rude nations worflripped the fun, 
which, on account of his beneficent and neceffary influ¬ 
ence over ail terreftrial bodies, they confidered either as 
the deity himfelf, or his abode ; or, at any rate, as a fym- 
bol of him. In the courfe of time, when heroes, and 
perfons who, by extraordinary circumftances, had ren¬ 
dered their names refpeCted and immortal, received di¬ 
vine honours, particularly heavenly bodies, of which the 
fun, moon, and planets, leemed the fittell, were afligned 
to thefe divinities alfo. By what laws this diitribution 
was made, and why one planet was dedicated to Saturn, 
and not to another, Pluche, who wrote on this fubjeCt, 
did not venture to determine ; and on this point the an¬ 
cients themfelvefe are not agreed. When the planets were 
once dedicated to the gods, folly, which never itops where 
it begins, proceeded ftill farther, and aferibed to them 
the attributes and powers for which the deities, after 
whom they were named, had been celebrated in the fic¬ 
tions of their mythologifts. This, in time, laid the foun¬ 
dation of aftrology ; and lienee the planet Mars, like the 
deity of that name, was laid to caufe and to be fond of 
war; and Venus to prefide over love and its pleafures. 
The next queftion is, why were the metals divided by 
the ancient chemilts among the gods, and named after 
them ? Of all the conjectures that can be formed in an- 
fwer to this queftion, the following appears the molt pro¬ 
bable : The number of the deified planets made the num¬ 
ber feven fo facred to the Egyptians, Perfians, and other 
early nations, that all thole things which amounted to 
the fame number, or which could be divided by it with¬ 
out a remainder, were fuppofed to have an affinity or a 
likenefs to and connection with each other. The feven 
ancient metals, therefore, were confidered as having fome 
relationfhip to the planets, and with them to the gods, 
and were accordingly named after them. To each god 
was afligned a metal, the origin and ufe of which was 
under his particular providence and government; and 
to each metal were aferibed the powers and properties of 
the planet and divinity of the like name; from which 
arofe, in the courfe of time, many of the ridiculous con¬ 
ceits of the alchemifts, 
Vol. IV. No. 206. 
: S T R Y. 401 
The oldeft trace of the divifion of the metals among 
the gods, is to be found in the religious vvorlhip of the 
Perfians. Origen, in his Refutation of Celius, who al- 
ferted that the feven heavens of the Cliriftians, as well as 
the ladder which Jacob law in his dream, had been bor¬ 
rowed from the myfteries of Mithras, fays, “ Among the 
Perfians the revolutions of the heavenly bodies were re- 
prefented by feven ftairs, which conducted to the fame 
number of gates. The firft gate was of lead ; the fecond 
of tin ; the third of copper; the fourth of iron ; the fifth 
of a mixed metal; the fixth of filverj and the feventh of 
gold. The leaden gate had the flow tedious motion of 
Saturn ; the tin-gate the luftre and gentlenefs of Venus; 
the third was dedicated to Jupiter; the fourth to Mer¬ 
cury, on account of his ftrength and fitnefs for trade; 
the fifth to Mars; the fixth to the Moon ; and the lalt 
to the Sun. Here, then, is an evident trace of metailur- 
gic aftronomy, as Borrichius calls it, or of the alchemical 
or mythological nomination of metals, though it differs 
from that ufed at prefent. According to this arrange¬ 
ment, tin belonged to Jupiter, copper to Venus, iron to 
Mars, and the mixed metal to Mercury. The conjec¬ 
ture of Borrichius, that the tranferibers of Origen have, 
either through ignorance or delign, tranfpofed the names 
of the gods, is highly probable : for if we reflect that in 
this nomination men, at firft, differed as much as in the 
nomination of the planets, and that the names given 
them were only confirmed in the courfe of time, it mult 
be allowed that the caufes afligned by Origen for his no¬ 
mination, do not well agree with the prefent reading, and 
that they appear much jufter when the names are dif- 
pofed in the fame manner as that in which we now ufe 
them. This ancient nomination of metals, appears to 
have been conveyed to the Brachmans in India ; for we 
are informed that a Brachman lent to Apollonius feven 
rings, diftinguilhed by the names of the feyen ftars or 
planets, one of which lie was to wear daily on his finger, 
according to the day of the week. This can be no other- 
wife explained than by fuppofing that he was to wear 
the gold ring on’ 1 Sunday; the filver. one on Monday; 
the iron one on Tuefday ; and fo of the reft. Allufion 
to this nomination of the metals after the gods occurs 
here and there in the- ancients. Dydimus, in his Ex¬ 
planation of the Iliad, calls the planet Mars the iron ftar. 
Thofe who dream of having had any thing to do with 
Mars, are, by Artemidorus, threatened with a chirurgi- 
cal operation; for this reafon, he adds, becaufe Mars 
fignifies iron. Heraclides fays alfo in his allegories, that 
Mars was very' properly confidered as iron; and we are 
told by Pindar that gold is dedicated to the fun. Plato 
likewife, who ftudied in Egypt, feems to have admitted 
this nomination aqd meaning of the metals. We are at 
leaft allured fo by Marfilius Ficinus, who lays of the 
ifland Atlantis, that the exterior walls were covered with 
copper, and the interior with tin, and that the walls of 
the citadel were of gold. It is not improbable that Plato 
adopted this Perfian or Egyptian raprefentation, as he 
afligned the planets to the demons; but, perhaps, it was 
firft introduced into his fyftem only by his difeipies. 
They feem, however, to have varied from-the nomina¬ 
tion ufed at prefent; as they dedicated to Venus copper, 
or brafs, the principal component part of which is in¬ 
deed copper; to Mercury tin, and to Jupiter eleCtrum. 
The laft-mentioned metal was a mixture of gold and fil¬ 
ver ; and, on this account, was probably confidered to 
be a diltinCt metal, becaufe, in early periods, mankind 
were unacquainted with the art of fieparating thefe valu¬ 
able metals. 
The characters by which thefe planets and metals are 
vtfually exprefied, afford a ftriking example how readily 
the mind may be induced to fuppole a connection be¬ 
tween things which in reality heave no affinity or rela¬ 
tion to each other. Antiquaries and aftrologers, accord¬ 
ing to whofe opinion the planets were firit diftinguilhed 
by thefe characters, conlider them as the attributes of the 
5 K deities 
