CHAPTER XX

ALCHEMISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH

CENTURY

CONSIDERABLE mystery surrounds the life of Alexander
Seton, a reputed Scottish alchemist, and many of the stories
told concerning his alchemical exploits are doubtless fictional.
He is first heard of in 1601, when, it is said, he was living at
Seton Hall, near Edinburgh, on the east coast of Scotland.

One stormy night a Dutch vessel was wrecked on the beach
not far from the hall, and the captain and some of the crew were
saved by the help of Seton, who took them to his house near the
seashore and treated them with great kindness. After they had
recovered he supplied them with means to return to Holland.
One of the men, named James Haussen, who is said to have been
the pilot of the ship, in gratitude begged Seton to come and see
him at Enkhuysen, where he lived. The following year Seton
sailed to the Netherlands and found Haussen’s abode, where he
was received with great joy and entertained for several weeks.
The bond between the two men appears to have been the study
of alchemy, as it is related that during the visit Haussen was
the astonished witness of several transmutations which were per¬
formed by his guest, who confessed that he was an adept in
alchemy.

Before the end of the visit Seton revealed to his host the
secret of transmutation, and in his presence converted a piece of
lead into gold of the same weight. After he had left Haussen
confided his experience to a certain physician in Enkhuysen, and
gave him a piece of the gold which Seton had produced in his
presence on March 13, 1602. This gold eventually passed into
the hands of the doctor’s grandson.

188

ALCHEMISTS OF THE XVIIth CENTURY

On leaving Enkhuysen Seton went to Amsterdam and Rotter¬
dam and thence embarked for Italy. He afterward journeyed
through Switzerland, where he met Dr Wolfgang Dienheim, a
professor of the University of Fribourg, and Dr Jacob Zwinger.

Dienheim describes Seton as “a short man of very spiritual
appearance, very stout, his face of a high colour” and as “wear¬
ing a beard in the French style.” Although Dienheim had at
first no belief in the doctrine of transmutation, Seton is said to
have convinced him of its truth by ocular demonstration.

This demonstration, which took place in the workshop of a
goldsmith at Basle, was carried out in the presence of several
of his friends. The professor, in his description of the opera¬
tion, says :

They took with them some sheets of lead, which were bought
by Jacob Zwinger, together with some sulphur, on his way from
his house, and a crucible was purchased from the goldsmith. In
the workshop Seton handled nothing, but made a fire in the fur¬
nace and melted the lead and sulphur together in the crucible and
stirred them with an iron rod.

In a short time Seton asked the professor to throw on the
molten metal in the crucible a heavy yellow powder which he
had in a piece of paper. Dienheim says:

Though unbelieving as St Thomas we did as directed, and in
fifteen minutes the crucible was removed from the fire ; on cool¬
ing, the lead had disappeared and a button of gold remained which
the goldsmith pronounced to be superior to that of Hungary or
Arabia.

It weighed as much as the lead, and the two doctors were
amazed but convinced, as Seton had done nothing himself
beyond supplying the small packet which contained the yellow
powder of projection. Seton had a piece of the gold cut off
weighing four ducats and gave it to Zwinger to keep.

On leaving Basle Seton travelled under the assumed name of
Hirschborgen to Strasburg, where he found lodgings with a
merchant called Koch and performed a transmutation in his

189

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

presence. He soon left for Cologne, where he stayed with
Anton Bordemann, a German alchemist of that city. Here he
carried out further successful operations and then went on to
Munich, where he met and fell in love with a Bavarian girl of
great beauty, whom he married.

The stories of his success in making gold attracted the atten¬
tion of Christian II, the Elector of Saxony, who summoned
Seton to his Court. For some reason the alchemist did not
answer the invitation in person, but sent his assistant, Hamilton,
in his place. The latter is said to have performed a successful
projection in the presence of the whole Court, the gold he made
standing every test.

The Elector was now eager to see Seton in person and sent
him an urgent command to appear at the Court. Assuming the
name of “the Cosmopolitan,” he set out for Dresden, where he
was received with honour and distinction. He presented the
Elector with a small quantity of his red tincture, but refused to
divulge the secret of his method of transmutation. Attempts
to persuade him to reveal his process proved fruitless, and at
length the Elector, incensed by his obstinacy, threatened him
with torture. This again was in vain, so he was arrested and
imprisoned in a tower near the city. Here he was guarded by
forty soldiers, and after being submitted to the torture was
thrown into a dark cell and left in solitary confinement.

It so happened that at this time Michael Sendivogius, a
Polish alchemist, was paying a visit to Dresden, and, hearing of
Seton’s plight and suffering, he obtained permission to see him.
Later, by bribing his guards and after obtaining the promise of
Seton to help him in his work, he contrived his escape. They
fled together to Cracow, where Sendivogius had some property,
but on their safe arrival there Seton refused to part with his
secret, as his rescuer had hoped he would do, giving the reason
that “the revelation of such an awful mystery would be a
heinous sin.”

He died some two years later, but all he left to his preserver
190

ALCHEMISTS OF THE XVIIth CENTURY

were the remains of his coveted red tincture, and his secret
was never revealed. Sendivogius married Seton’s widow, who
possessed two manuscripts said to have been written by her first
husband, one being a treatise entitled A New Light on Alchemy ,
which Sendivogius afterward published as his own work, and
the other being the Twelve Treatises of the Cosmopolitan.

Sendivogius then set out on his travels with the small amount
of Seton’s ‘tincture,’ or ‘powder,’ of projection which he pos¬
sessed, and is said to have made several successful transmu¬
tations in public in different cities. He soon became famous,
and all the rulers of the countries of Central Europe sought a
visit from the celebrated alchemist. Among them was the
Emperor Rudolph, before whom, we are told, Sendivogius
made a successful transmutation. The alchemist gave him a
small quantity of the tincture, and the Emperor is said to
have carried out a successful experiment with his own hands.
To commemorate this achievement he had placed on the wall
of the room a marble tablet, which was thus inscribed :

Who’er could do under the rolling Sun

What Sendivogius the Pole hath done ?

Sendivogius was made a Counsellor of State, and a gold medal
was struck in his honour. When at length he obtained per¬
mission to leave Prague he set out for Cracow, but, according to
one account, he was seized on the road by a Moravian noble,
who made a prisoner of him with the object of robbing him of
his precious tincture. With the aid of a file, however, he cut the
bars of his prison window, and, by tearing up some of his cloth¬
ing, made a rope, by means of which he escaped. He appealed
to the Emperor, who confiscated the nobleman’s estate and gave
it to Sendivogius, who lived on it for some years.

Bodowski states that Sendivogius kept his wonderful tincture
in “ a little box of gold, and when on a journey hung it round his
neck, but the greater part was kept secreted in a hole cut in the
step of his carriage.”

191

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Sendivogius at length returned to Warsaw and remained
there until he received an invitation to visit the Court of Wur-
temberg. On arriving at Stuttgart, however, he met with a rival
in Johann Heinrich Muller, who had also figured at Rudolph’s
Court at Prague, but had since entered the service of the Duke
of Wiirtemberg. Fearing that he might be displaced by the
Pole, Muller gathered a band of armed horsemen, and they way¬
laid Sendivogius on the road, arresting him in the name of the
Duke. They stripped him of his clothing, bound him naked to
a tree, and made off with his gold box containing the tincture, as
well as a diamond-studded cup and his gold medal. The un¬
fortunate alchemist, who was released by some passing travellers,
made a complaint to the Emperor, who demanded of the Duke
the person of Muller and the restoration of the stolen property.
The Duke, becoming alarmed, had Muller hanged in the court¬
yard of the palace in 1607 and restored the cup and medal to
their owner; but the gold box was never found.

According to another historian, Sendivogius had kept a very
small quantity of the tincture carefully concealed, and on re¬
turning to Cracow dissolved all that was left of it in some recti¬
fied spirit of wine. With this solution he astonished the
physicians of the city by making some amazing cures — among
them of Sigismund III, King of Poland, who was suffering from
the effects of a serious accident. All his media now being ex¬
hausted, Sendivogius is said to have become a wandering charla¬
tan, eventually dying in 1646 at the age of eighty-four.

Among other mysterious adventurers of this period was a
person named Lascaris, who represented himself as archi¬
mandrite of a convent in the island of Mitylene. At the age
of about forty he is described as “of attractive mien, with
agreeable manners and fluent in conversation.” He is first
heard of in Berlin, where he was taken ill and sent for an apothe¬
cary. The latter was unable to visit him, but sent his appren¬
tice, a young man named Johann Friedrich Botticher. Lascaris
took a great liking to the young apothecary, and, in gratitude, on
192

SYMBOLIC FIGURE REPRESENTING AN ALCHEMIST AND HIS
WIFE ENGAGED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE PHILOSOPHER’S

STONE

Mutus Liber (1677)

192

AN ALCHEMIST AND HIS WIFE ENGAGED IN
VARIOUS OPERATIONS

Mutus Liber (1677)

193

ALCHEMISTS OF THE XVIIth CENTURY

his recovery gave him a small quantity of the powder of projec¬
tion, telling him that he was not to mention from whom it had
been derived, and on no account to use it until after his departure.

With this valuable possession, Botticher resolved to give up
medicine and devote himself to alchemy. He convinced his
friends of his wisdom by transmuting some silver into gold in
their presence, and he soon became famous in Berlin. Frede¬
rick I, on hearing of his operations, summoned him to his pre¬
sence, but Botticher, knowing how badly many alchemists had
been treated by their royal patrons, fled the city and took refuge
with an uncle at Wittenburg.

The Elector of Saxony was the next who desired to see him,
and Botticher decided to proceed to his Court. He was re¬
ceived with great favour, and was successful in convincing the
Elector that he could convert base metals into gold. The title
of Baron was conferred upon him, and he took a fine house in
Dresden and lived in great style. All went well for a time until
his supply of the powder of projection, the source of his wealth
and fame, was running low, and, what was worse, he did not
know how to replenish it. By the time his last grain was ex¬
pended he was heavily in debt, and was planning to leave the
city when the Elector, hearing of it, had his house surrounded
by soldiers and held him a prisoner.

The mysterious Lascaris now emerged from his seclusion,
and, hearing that his protege Botticher was in trouble, he
employed a young physician named Pasch to try to liberate
him. Pasch, in the course of his negotiations for the release of
Botticher, was also made a prisoner, and was confined in the
fortress of Sonnenstein, while Botticher was imprisoned in the
castle of Koenigstein.

Pasch managed to escape after two and a half years, but died
shortly afterward, while Botticher, who was allowed to carry on
his experiments in the castle in the hope that he would be able
to make a further supply of the powder, discovered a process
for making a white porcelain superior to any then known. He
N 193

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

thus became the inventor of the china for which Dresden has
since become so famous. The Elector, on hearing this, gave
him his freedom, hoping to profit by his inventions, but as a
result of his long imprisonment Botticher was taken ill and died
in 1719 at the age of thirty-seven.

Meanwhile the mysterious Lascaris appears to have been
travelling about Europe performing wonderful feats in trans¬
mutation in various cities. He is said to have enriched the
Baron de Creux and replenished the coffers of the Landgrave
of Hesse-Darmstadt with gold, while in Leipzig he showed a
goldsmith of that city an ingot of solid gold which he declared
he had made.

Stories of similar mysterious persons who wandered from
country to country were common at this time, such as that of
the fugitive who was given refuge by the Countess d’Erbach
at the castle of Odenworld and who changed all her silver into
gold as a parting gift. There is also the legend of the travelling
alchemist who made gold in the presence of J. G. Joch at Dort¬
mund in 1720, and the story of the nameless adept who, at the
palace in Vienna, in July 1716 transmuted copper coins into
silver by first making them red-hot, then sprinkling them with a
powder and immersing them in an unknown liquid.

Of these tales, many of which are doubtless due to the imagi¬
nation of their narrators, one of the most interesting is that re¬
lated by Johann Friedrich Helvetius, the Dutch chemist. He
relates his experience in his work entitled The Brief of the Golden
Calf; discovering the Rarest Miracle in Nature , how hy the
smallest portion of the Philosopher's Stone a great piece of
common lead was totally transmuted into the purest transplendent
gold at the Hague in 1666.

Helvetius was a man of eminence in his time, holding the post
of physician to the Prince of Orange. Writing on December 27,
1666, he says:

In the afternoon came a stranger to my house at The Hague of

honest gravity and serious authority, of a mean stature, a little
194

ALCHEMISTS OF THE XVIIth CENTURY

long face, black hair, not all curled, a beardless chin and about
forty-four years (as I guess) of age, born in North Holland. After
salutation he beseeched me on the first reverence to pardon his
rude accesses, for he was a lover of the Pyrotechnian art. He
asked me if I was a disbeliever as to the existence of a universal
medicine which would cure all diseases unless the principal parts
were perished or the predestined time of death had come ?

I replied, “I never met with an adept or saw such a medicine,
though I have frequently prayed for it.”

“Surely, you are a learned physician?” I asked.

“ No,” said he, “ I am a brass-founder and a lover of chemistry.”

He then took from his bosom-pouch a neat ivory box and out
of it three ponderous lumps of stone, each about the bigness of a
walnut.

I greedily saw and handled for a quarter of an hour this noble
substance, and having drawn from the owner many rare secrets of
its admirable effects, I returned him this treasure of treasures, be¬
seeching him to bestow a fragment of it upon me, though but the
size of a coriander seed, but he refused.

He then asked me if I had a private chamber whose prospect
was from the publick street, so I presently conducted him to my
best furnished room, which he entered without wiping his shoes,
which were full of snow and dirt.

He then asked for a piece of gold, and opening his doublet
showed me five pieces of that precious metal which he wore upon
a green riband.

I now earnestly craved a crumb of the stone, and at last he gave
me a morsel as large as a rape seed.

“But,” I said, “this scant portion will scarcely transmute four
grains of lead !”

“Then,” he said, “deliver it back,” which I did in hopes of
getting more, but he cutting off half with his nail said, “Even this
is sufficient for thee. Even that will transmute half an ounce of
lead.”

So I gave him thanks and said I would try and reveal it to no
one.

He then took his leave and said he would call again next morning
at nine. I then confessed that while the mass of his medicine was
in my hand I had secretly scraped off a bit with my nail which I
projected on lead, but the whole flew away in fumes.

“Friend,” said he, “thou art more dexterous in committing a
theft than in applying medicine. Hadst thou wrapped up thy

195

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

stolen prey in yellow wax it would have penetrated and transmuted
the lead into gold.”

The little man left, after promising to show Helvetius the
manner of projection when he returned on the morrow. “ But,”
says Helvetius,

Elias never came again ; so my wife, who was curious in the art
whereof the worthy man had discoursed, teased me to make the
experiment with the little spark of bounty he had left me. So I
melted half an ounce of lead upon which my wife put in the said
medicine. It hissed and bubbled, and in a quarter of an hour the
mass of lead was transmuted into fine gold, at which we were ex¬
ceedingly amazed. I took it to the goldsmith who judged it most
excellent and willingly offered fifty florins for each ounce.

Such is the story recorded by Helvetius, who at least was con¬
vinced that he had carried out a real transmutation, but nothing
more is known of the mysterious stranger whom he believed to
be the possessor of the much-sought-for Stone.

196