C. J. S. THOMPSON

THE LURE AND ROMANCE
OF ALCHEMY

By CJ. S. THOMPSON.

This age, an age of exact science and
progressive scientific research, can afford
to indulge its weakness tor the half¬
sciences of earlier times. Having witnessed
the discovery of radium, it can listen
without contempt to the joyous jargon of
the old fellows who pursued the Elixir of
Life and the Philosopher’s Stone. Mr
Thompson has much to tell us about all
these things, about the mystery of the
Emerald Tablet, the speculations of
Hermes Trismegistus, the discoveries of
Zosimus the “learned Theban,” the
strange, startling, and fantastic gospel
according to Gebir ; he takes us into
the smoky laboratories of the medieval
gold-seekers, among alembics and cru¬
cibles and stuffed crocodiles ; he relates
the wild and sometimes ludicrous
adventures which overtook sincere zealots
and impudent charlatans; of the al¬
chemist’s technical terminology and his
extensive range of chemical and animal
raw materials we learn just enough to give
colour to the narrative, never enough to
clog its course. Chapters are devoted to
the often shady dealings of needy
royalties with enterprising £ men of
science,’ to alchemists in literature, to the
Rosicrucians, and to those who in our
own times have tried to make gold out of
baser metals. The record is not one of
unrelieved folly and failure, and before
it ends Mr Thompson is able to demon¬
strate how great a debt modern scientists
owe to these groping and dreaming
forerunners of theirs in other days.

For a list of the Simple Guide
series see back flap of jacket

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THE LURE AND ROMANCE
OF ALCHEMY

THE SIMPLE GUIDES

THE HUMAN BODY

By Trevor Heaton, M.D., Student
and Tutor of Christ Church, Oxford,
and Dr Lee’s Reader in Anatomy.

PREHISTORIC MAN

Written and Illustrated by Keith
Henderson.

ARCHITECTURE

By A. L. N. Russell, A.R.I.B.A.

PICTURES AND PAINTING

By Margaret H. Bulley.

ENGLISH LITERATURE

By Margharita Widdows.

MUSIC

By Ursula Creighton.

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE ENGLISH TOWN
By Wray Hunt.

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE ENGLISH PARISH
By Wray Hunt.

BOOKS AND READERS

By F. H. Pritchard.

THE THEATRE

By J. W. Marriott.

PLANT LIFE

By F. H. Shoosmith, D.Sc.

MEN AND WOMEN OF PLAN-
TAGENET ENGLAND

By Dorothy Margaret Stuart.

THE ART AND CRAFT OF
WRITING
By J. W. Marriott.

Each volume is adequately illustrated

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
Wellcome Library

https://archive.org/details/b3032015x

Fr.

THE ALCHEMIST

From a mezzotint by William Pether after Joseph Wright

THE LURE AND ROMANCE

OF ALCHEMY

BY