CHAPTER I

THE DAWN OF ALCHEMY

HAT alchemy has appealed to the imagination of man for

1 centuries is evident from the prominent part it plays in the
legends and romances of the past.

To the artist the alchemist at work in his dim, mysterious
laboratory, with its glowing furnaces and fantastic apparatus,
formed an attractive subject for his brush, while the poet found
in his romantic and picturesque life a fascinating theme for his
pen. A great deal of this attraction was doubtless due to the
mystery with which the art of alchemy has ever been sur¬
rounded.

Among the early civilizations, from the beginning, practically
all knowledge was influenced by mysticism. There was a general
belief that everything came from the gods. Everything, from
the stars that spangled the dark heavens in their splendour to
the terrestrial phenomena with all their natural forces, was the
work of the Great Unknown. The goodwill of the mysterious
powers of the unseen had always to be propitiated. Thus we
find that in alchemy, as in the occult sciences, there was a belief
in the teachings of the early mystics which was combined with
the primitive idea of invoking the aid of the unseen world by
magical and other similar practices.

At its dawn alchemy was regarded as a divine and sacred art,
enveloped in mystery, that was only to be approached with
reverence. Its adepts held its secrets inviolate, enshrouded
their operations with symbolism, and gave their materials

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LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

fantastic names so as to conceal their identity from those out¬
side the mystic cult.

The word ‘alchemy’ is said to be derived from the Arabic
definite article al prefixed to the late Greek word kimiay a word
found in the decree of Diocletian against the old writings of the
Egyptians on the kimia , or transmutation of gold and silver.
Suidas, writing in the eleventh century, says that the word
means “the knowledge of Egyptian art, Chemi or Cham or the
Black Land, which was the ancient name for Egypt.”

Some writers suggest that the word chymike , which was first
used by Alexander of Aphrodisias to denote work done in a
laboratory and was later applied to those who practised alchemy,
was the origin of the name given to the art. Such workers
chiefly occupied themselves with the preparation of plants and
herbs for medicinal purposes, and it has been conjectured that
these pursuits developed into the study of metals. On the other
hand, the famous Dutch physician Boerhaave, who made a care¬
ful study of the etymology of the word, believed that it meant
something secret or occult, and that it owed its derivation to the
Hebrew chamaman , or hamamany ‘a mystery,’ as it was con¬
sidered “not fit to be revealed to the populace, but treasured up
as a religious secret.”

In English literature the earlier methods of spelling ‘ alchemy ’
were ‘alcamye,’ according to a manuscript dated 1377, and
‘alcamistre,’ used by Chaucer in 1386, while other variants
employed in the fifteenth century were ‘ alcamystere ’ and
‘alcamystrie.’

Baker, who translated Gesner’s Jewell of Healthy is one
of the first to spell alchemist with ‘y, ’ in the allusion to a
“certain Alchymister in Padua,” after which the ‘y’ and
‘ e ’ were both used throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.

There is a curious tradition regarding the origin of the word
recorded in Hermes and the Holy Writings , where we read that
“a race of giants was the result of a union between certain
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THE DAWN OF ALCHEMY

women and some spirits, who because of this were cast out from
heaven and condemned to eternal exile. The books in which
they taught their arts were called chema , and later this name
became applied to the art itself.”

Tertullian and other early writers mention this legend,
the former observing that “these abominable and useless books
were the teachings of the fallen angels to their wives on the art
of poisons, the secrets of metals, and magical incantations.”

Clement of Alexandria, in alluding to the tradition, says of
this mysterious race: “They laid bare the secrets of metals,
they understood the virtues of plants and the force of magical
incantations, and their learning even extended to the science
of the stars.” Thus they combined a knowledge of alchemy,
magic, and astrology.

Though alchemy may have begun with the study of metals,
it soon became associated with magic, pharmacy, and the in¬
fluence of the stars.

We know from later writers that the Arabian physicians
attached the greatest importance to the influence of alchemy on
the discovery of new drugs.

The fundamental theory underlying the art of alchemy is
more obscure than its history, and its elucidation is rendered
more difficult owing to the symbolism with which all its opera¬
tions and practices were surrounded. The supposition that it
had its origin in the experiments carried on by the ancient
workers in metals is improbable, as there is evidence of its
practice at a much earlier period. It is possible that the quest
for the secret by means of which human life might be prolonged,
afterward called the * Elixir/ was the first phase of its origin,
as among both the Chinese and the Hindus, whose knowledge of
alchemy goes back to a period of great antiquity, the transmuta¬
tion of the baser metals into gold was but a secondary aim.

Among Western nations alchemy developed into a philo¬
sophical as well as an experimental science; therefore in en¬
deavouring to find the principles underlying its origin we must

II

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

consider it from both the mystical and the physical points of
view.

It is contended by some that alchemy originated in the
attempt to demonstrate the applicability of the principles of
mysticism to the things of the physical realm. This idea brings
into harmony the physical and transcendental theories of al¬
chemy and the various conflicting facts advanced in favour of
each. It also affords some explanation of the existence later of
alchemists of both types and the general religious tone of many
of the alchemical writings.

Certain mystics considered that alchemy was concerned with
the soul of man and that its chief principles were allegories
dealing with spiritual truths, and in support of this idea pointed
out that in the early ages the Divine Art was practised only by
the priesthood. Certainly we have no mention of the trans¬
mutation theory among Western nations until about the seventh
century of the Christian era.

From the dawn of science we find a belief that the four great
primal elements produced, by reacting one upon the other,
certain principles which in turn were the causes of the metals.
Thus the elements were supposed to produce what was called
their seed, and the principles matured and perfected them.
Every class had its own seed, and to obtain this was to possess
the power of producing the thing that sprang from it.

Aristotle’s theory of the four elements — water, air, fire, and
earth — held sway for centuries, and influenced the teaching of
science down to the Middle Ages, although the early alchemists
did not regard the metals as elements. Let us consider how
this elemental theory arose.

From the sea came the gods who instructed mankind in the
sciences and learning ; this tradition is embodied in the earliest
Babylonian records. The Hindus had similar legends, which
connected some of their deities with the sea ; and from these it
is probable that water had a place in man’s earliest system of
philosophy. Water was the solvent of all things ; it entered into
12

THE DAWN OF ALCHEMY

the composition of all animal bodies, and was necessary to life
itself.

Rain was considered to be caused by the condensation of
clouds, which in their turn were formed by the condensation of
air ; and there was a general belief, which persisted for centuries,
that water might be converted by fire into air. There was also
a theory that water might be transmuted into air.

After water, air, on which Anaximenes (sixth century B.c.)
was the first to comment, came next in importance. It was
regarded as the universal bond of nature which held in itself the
substantial principles of all natural things. “The elementary
air was believed to be the universal world spirit,” says an early
writer, “for the oracles assert that the impression of characters
and other divine visions appear in the ether.”

The idea of fire as a primal element is thought to have origi¬
nated in the fire- or sun-worship of the early civilizations, and
it was added to the elements by Heraklitus of Ephesus. It was
regarded as the cause of all motion, and consequently of all
change in nature. Its universal centre was believed to be in the
heavens and its locality in the earth. It was the principle of all
generation and the primal source of all forms in itself, boundless
and inscrutable. It was considered to be the highest active and
elastic element, one in essence, though manifested in three forms
— celestial, subterranean, and for culinary and other terrestrial
uses.

Pherekides considered earth also to be a primal element, but
it was regarded as passive, although it was believed to be the
centre in which all the others operated. It was the final re¬
ceiver of all the influences of the heavenly bodies, the common
mother from which all things sprang, whose fruitfulness was
produced by the threefold operation of fire, air, and water.

According to Zoroaster, the Creator made the whole world of
fire, water, and earth, and all-nourishing ether. Thus water,
earth, air, and fire were recognized as the four primary elements
by Aristotle and Plato. At a later period it was conceived that

13

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

each element possessed two qualities, and from this fire came
to be regarded as more hot than dry, air as more wet than
hot, water as more cold than wet, and earth as more dry than
cold.

These ideas eventually came to be applied to the seven metals
— gold, silver, mercury, iron, lead, copper, and tin — which at
first were regarded more as properties than substances. Thus
gold, the most precious and rarest of all metals, was the most
perfect substance of its colour, a property or quality supposed
to be latent in all metals. There was also a belief that all metals
but gold were Nature’s failures, and that by adding something
to the baser metals the golden property hidden in them might
be found and the design of Nature completed.

The idea that matter is composed of small particles or atoms
that are in a state of ceaseless motion is to be met with in Hindu
and Phoenician philosophy, and was taught also by the Greeks.
Anaxagoras considered every atom to be a world in miniature,
and that the living body was composed of atoms derived from
the elements which sustain it. According to other theories,
atoms were variable not only in size, but in weight ; they were
impenetrable, their collision giving them an oscillatory move¬
ment which they communicated to adjacent atoms, and this
movement they in their turn passed on to others more distant.

Man has not yet been able to divide an atom, and the theory
of the philosophers of ancient times as to the oscillatory move¬
ment of the atom was the genesis of our knowledge of the ether
to-day.

As the value of metals became understood and their use in
the arts realized gold came to be regarded as the rarest and most
precious of them all, and those who worked in them began to
seek other methods of obtaining it. They asked themselves
how the necessary change in other metals could be brought
about. Surely, they thought, some medium could be found
whereby the latent property believed to exist in these metals
could be brought out, thus changing them into gold. The

THE DAWN OF ALCHEMY

changes that were wrought with metals by the action of fire, air,
and water soon became obvious to those who worked in them,
and the value of mixing one with another in alloy also became
apparent.

From these things men gleaned their first knowledge of
chemical phenomena, and thus probably the idea of transmuta¬
tion came to form part of the earliest systems of philosophy.

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