II. They believed in the transmutability of the metals ; it has already

been seen on what kind of grounds. The idea of transmutation, stripped of all particularity of form, is as old as Thales and recent as Davy, to profane this page with no meaner name. In one shape or another, it is ineradicable
I from the instincts of the science. It is hardly necessary to add, that if any one element were satisfactorily converted into any other, this the second problem of alchemy were solved as well as the first. It is enough to observe that such a thing is being prosecuted with ardour and convictioTi in the present day. Festina lente !