V. Lippmann, Entstehung und Aus-

breitung der Alchemie, 1919, is still based largely on Berthelot's publications. In English see C. A. Browne, "The Poem of the Philosopher Theophrastos upon the Sacred Art : A Metrical
Translation with Comments upon the History of Alchemy," in The Scientific Monthly, September, 1920, pp. 193-214.
^ The earliest of them is John of Antioch of the reign of Herac- lius, about 620 A.D., although they seem to use Panodorus, an Egyptian monk of the reign of Arcadius. Even he would be a century removed from the event.
'Berthelot (1885), pp. 26, 72, etc., took this story about Diocle- tian far too seriously.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 195
show and to impress the reader with the idea that they really have something to hide. Sometimes the alchemists them- selves realize that this adoption of an air of secrecy has been overdone. Thus Olympiodorus wrote in the early fifth cen- tury, "The ancients were accustomed to hide the truth, to veil or obscure by allegories what is clear and evident to everybody." ^ Nor can we accept the story of Diocletian's burning the books of alchemy as the reason why none have reached us which can be certainly dated as earlier than the third century.
The alchemists themselves, of course, claimed for their Akhem- art the highest antiquity. Zosimus of Panopolis, who seems account" to have written in the third century, says that the fallen an- of the gels instructed men in alchemy as well as in the other arts, their art. and that it was the divine and sacred art of the priests and kings of Egypt, who kept it secret. We also have an address of Isis to her son Horus repeating the revelation made by Amnael, the first of the angels and prophets. To Moses are ascribed treatises on domestic chemistry and doubling the weight of gold.^ The manuscripts of the Byzantine period discuss what "the ancients" meant by this or that, or purport to repeat what someone else said of some other person. Zosimus seems fond of citing himself in the texts repro- duced by Berthelot, so that it may be questioned how much of his original works has been preserved. Hermes is often cited by the alchemists, although no work of alchemy as- cribed to him has reached us from this early period. To Agathodaemon is ascribed a commentary on the oracle of Orpheus addressed to Osiris, dealing with the whitening and
^Berthelot (1885), 192-3. third century, later when he had * But the Labyrinth of Solomon, secured the collaboration of Avhich Berthelot (1885), p. 16, had Ruelle (1888), I, 156-7, and III, cited as an example of the sort of 41, he had to admit was not even ancient magic figures which had as old as the eleventh century MS been largely obliterated by Chris- in which it occurred but was an tians, and of the antiquity of addition in writing of the four- alchemy among the Jews {ihid., p. teenth century and "a cabalistic 54), although he granted {ibid., work of the middle ages which p. 171) that it might not be as old does not belong to the old tradi- as the Papyrus of Leyden of the tion of the Greek alchemists."
196 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
yellowing of metals and other alchemical recipes. Other favorite authorities are Ostanes, whom we have elsewhere heard represented as the introducer of magic into the Greek world, and the philosopher Democritus, whom the alchem- ists represent as the pupil of Ostanes and whom we have already heard Pliny charge with devotion to magic. Seneca says in one of his letters that Democritus discovered a proc- ess to soften ivory, that he prepared artificial emerald, and colored vitrified substances. Diogenes Laertius ascribes to him a work on the juices of plants, on stones, minerals, metals, colors, and coloring glass. This was possibly the same as the four books on coloring gold, silver, stones, and purple ascribed to Democritus by Synesius in the fifth, and Syncellus in the eighth, century. More recent presumably than Ostanes and Democritus are the female alchemists, Cleo- patra and Mary the Jewess, although one text represents Ostanes and his companions as conversing with Cleopatra. A few of the spurious works ascribed to these authors may have come into existence as early as the Hellenistic period, but those which have reached us, at least in their present form, seem to bear the marks of the Christian era and later centuries of the Roman Empire, if not of the early medieval and Byzantine periods. And those authors whose names seem genuine : Zosimus, Synesius, Olympiodorus, Stephanus, are of the third, fourth and fifth centuries, at the earliest. Close The associations of the names above cited and the fact
association ^j^^^ pseudo-literature forms so large a part of the early lit- alchemy erature of alchemy suggest its close connection at that time with magic. Whereas Vitruvius, although not personally in- hospitable to occult theory, showed us the art of architecture free from magic, and Hero told how to perform apparent magic by means of mechanical devices and deceits, the Greek alchemists display entire faith in magic procedure with which their art is indissolubly intermingled. Indeed the papyri in which works of alchemy occur are primarily magic papyri, so that alchemy may be said to spring from the brow of magic. The same is only somewhat less true of the manuscripts. In
with magic
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 197
the earliest one of the eleventh century the alchemy is in the company of a treatise on the interpretation of dreams, a sphere of divination of life or death, and magic alphabets. The treatises of alchemy themselves are equally impregnated with magic detail. Cleopatra's art of making gold employs concentric circles, a serpent, an eight-rayed star, and other magic figures. Physica et mystica, ascribed to Democritus, after a purely technical fragment on purple dye, invokes his master Ostanes from Hades, and then plunges into alchem- ical recipes. There are also frequent bits of astrology and suggestions of Gnostic influence. Often the encircling ser- pent Ouroboros, who bites or swallows his tail, is referred to.^ Sometimes the alchemist puts a little gold into his mix- ture to act as a sort of nest tgg, or mother of gold, and en- courage the remaining substance to become gold too.^ Or we read in a work ascribed to Ostanes of "a divine water" which "revives the dead and kills the living, enlightens ob- scurity and obscures what is clear, calms the sea and quenches fire. A few drops of it give lead the appearance of gold with the aid of God, the invisible and all-power- ful. . . ."3
These early alchemists are also greatly given to mystery Mystery and allegory. "Touch not the philosopher's stone with your ^{j^ hands," warns Mary the Jewess, "you are not of our race, you are not of the race of Abraham." ^ In a tract concern- ing the serpent Ouroboros we read, "A serpent is stretched out guarding the temple. Let his conqueror begin by sac- rifice, then skin him, and after having removed his flesh to the very bones, make a stepping-stone of it to enter the temple. Mount upon it and you will find the object sought. For the priest, at first a man of copper, has changed his color and nature and become a man of silver; a few days later, if you wish, you will find him changed into a man of gold." ^ Or in the preparation of the aforesaid divine
'Berthelot (1885), p. 59. * Berthelot (1885), p. 56.
* Ibid., p. 53. » Berthelot ( 1888) , III, 23.
•Berthelot (1888), III, 2SI.
198
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Experi- mentation in al- chemy : relation to science and philos- ophy.
water Ostanes tells us to take the eggs of the serpent of oak who dwells in the month of August in the mountains of Olympus, Libya, and the Taurus.^ Synesius tells that Democritus was initiated in Egypt at the temple of Memphis by Ostanes, and Zosimus cites the instruction of Ostanes, "Go towards the stream of the Nile ; you'll find there a stone ; cut it in two, put in your hand, and take out its heart, for its soul is in its heart." ^ Zosimus himself often resorts to symbolic jargon to obscure his meaning, as in the descrip- tion of the vision of a priest who was torn to pieces and who mutilated himself.^ He, too, personifies the metals and talks of a man of gold, a tin man, and so on.* A brief example of his style will have to suffice, as these allegories of the alchemists are insufferably tedious reading. "Finally I had the longing to mount the seven steps and see the seven chastisements, and one day, as it chanced, I hit upon the path up. After several attempts I traversed the path, but on my return I lost my way and, profoundly discouraged, seeing no way out, I fell asleep. In my dream I saw a lit- tle man, a barber, clothed in purple robe and royal raiment, standing outside the place of punishment, and he said to me. . . ." ^ When Zosimus was not dreaming dreams and seeing visions, he was usually citing ancient authorities.
At the same time even these early alchemists cannot be denied a certain scientific character, or at least a connection with natural science. Behind alchemy existed a constant experimental progress. "Alchemy," said Berthelot, "rested upon a certain mass of practical facts that were known in antiquity and that had to do with the preparation of metals, their alloys, and that of artificial precious stones; it had there an experimental side which did not cease to progress during the entire medieval period until positive modern chemistry emerged from it." ^ The various treatises of the Greek al- chemists describe apparatus and experiments which are real 'Berthelot (1888), III, 251. *Ibid., p. 60.
'Berthelot (1885), p. 164. HI^'Is^''"' ^'^^' "' "^"^'
'Ibid., pp. 179-80. 'Berthelot (1885), pp. 21 1-2.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 199
but with which they associated resuhs which were impos- sible and visionary. Their theories of matter seem indebted to the earher Greek philosophers, while in the description of nature Berthelot noted a "direct and intimate" relation between them and the works of Dioscorides, Vitruvius, and Pliny.i
* Berthelot (1889), p. vi.