LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS.




  LIVES

  OF

  ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS

  _BASED ON MATERIALS COLLECTED IN 1815_

  _AND_

  _SUPPLEMENTED BY RECENT RESEARCHES_

  WITH A PHILOSOPHICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUE
  PRINCIPLES OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, OR GREAT WORK
  OF ALCHEMICAL RE-CONSTRUCTION, AND SOME
  ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY

  BY

  ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

  AUTHOR OF

  “THE REAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS;” “THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC:
  A DIGEST OF THE WRITINGS OF ÉLIPHAS LÉVI,” ETC.

  TO WHICH IS ADDED

  _A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALCHEMY AND
  HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY_

  LONDON
  GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
  1888




PREFACE.


The foundation of this work will be found in “The Lives of
Alchemystical Philosophers; with a Critical Catalogue of Books in
Occult Chemistry, and a Selection of the most celebrated Treatises on
the Theory and Practice of the Hermetic Art,” which was published in
the year 1815 by Lackington, Allen, & Company, of Finsbury Square,
London. This anonymous book has been attributed by certain collectors
to Francis Barrett, author of the notorious treatise entitled “The
Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer;” but it may be safely affirmed
that, alike in matter and treatment, it far transcends the extremely
meagre capacities of that credulous amateur in occultism. It is indeed
a work of much sense and unpretentious discrimination, and is now a
bibliographical rarity which is highly prized by its possessors.

The independent researches which have supplemented the biographical
materials of the original compilation have produced in the present
volume what is practically a new work under an old title; those lives
which have been left substantially untouched as to facts have been more
or less rewritten with a view to the compression of prolixities and the
elimination of archaic forms, which would be incongruous in a work so
extensively modified by the addition of new details. The “Alphabetical
Catalogue of Works on Hermetic Philosophy” has been considerably
enlarged from such sources as Langlet du Fresnoy’s _Histoire de la
Philosophie Hermétique_. The preliminary account of the “Physical
Theory and Practice of the Magnum Opus” is a slight original sketch
which, to readers unacquainted with alchemy, will afford some notion
of the processes of accredited adepts. The introductory essay on the
object of alchemical philosophy advocates new and important views
concerning the great question of psychal chemistry, and appreciates
at their true worth the conflicting theories advanced by the various
schools of Hermetic interpretation.


IMPORTANT NOTE.

 I am forced to append to this Preface a correction of one or two
 errors of absolutely vital importance, which were unfortunately
 overlooked in the text. On page 188, line 18, the date was intended
 to read 1643; on page 189, line 5, read _anno trigesimo tertio_ for
 _trigesimo anno_; and on line 6, _anno vigesimo tertio_ instead of
 _vigesimo anno_. But if these emendations restore the passage to its
 original integrity, a discovery which I have made while this work was
 passing through the press has entirely cancelled its value. I have
 been gratified with a sight of the original edition of Philalethes’
 _Introitus Apertus_--a small octavo pamphlet in the original paper
 cover as it was published at Amsterdam in the year 1667. It definitely
 establishes that its mysterious author was born in or about the
 year 1623, or two years later than the Welsh adept, Thomas Vaughan,
 with whom he has so long been identified. This original edition
 is excessively scarce; I believe I am the only English mystic who
 has seen it during the present generation. The reader must please
 understand that the calculation in the pages referred to was based on
 the date 1643; this date, in the light of the original edition, has
 proved erroneous, and by a curious chance, that which was accidentally
 printed, turns out to be correct at the expense of the calculation.




ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.


                                                  PAGE

  PREFACE                                            5

  INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE TRUE PRINCIPLES AND
  NATURE OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, AND ON ITS RELATION
  TO SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY                             9

  ON THE PHYSICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE MAGNUM
  OPUS                                              38


  LIVES OF THE ALCHEMISTS.

  GEBER                                             44

  RHASIS                                            46

  ALFARABI                                          48

  AVICENNA                                          51

  MORIEN                                            53

  ALBERTUS MAGNUS                                   57

  THOMAS AQUINAS                                    61

  ROGER BACON                                       63

  ALAIN OF LISLE                                    67

  RAYMOND LULLY                                     68

  ARNOLD DE VILLANOVA                               88

  JEAN DE MEUNG                                     90

  THE MONK FERARIUS                                 92

  POPE JOHN XXII.                                   93

  NICHOLAS FLAMEL                                   95

  PETER BONO                                       118

  JOHANNES DE RUPECISSA                            119

  BASIL VALENTINE                                  120

  ISAAC OF HOLLAND                                 123

  BERNARD TRÉVISAN                                 124

  JOHN FONTAINE                                    129

  THOMAS NORTON                                    130

  THOMAS DALTON                                    133

  SIR GEORGE RIPLEY                                134

  PICUS DE MIRANDOLA                               136

  PARACELSUS                                       137

  DENIS ZACHAIRE                                   140

  BERIGARD OF PISA                                 148

  THOMAS CHARNOCK                                  148

  GIOVANNI BRACCESCO                               151

  LEONARDI FIORAVANTI                              153

  JOHN DEE                                         153

  HENRY KHUNRATH                                   159

  MICHAEL MAIER                                    160

  JACOB BÖHME                                      161

  J. B. VAN HELMONT                                166

  BUTLER                                           168

  JEAN D’ESPAGNET                                  170

  ALEXANDER SETHON                                 171

  MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS                              175

  GUSTENHOVER                                      181

  BUSARDIER                                        182

  ANONYMOUS ADEPT                                  184

  ALBERT BELIN                                     186

  EIRENÆUS PHILALETHES                             187

  PIERRE JEAN FABRE                                200

  JOHN FREDERICK HELVETIUS                         201

  GUISEPPE FRANCESCO BORRI                         208

  JOHN HEYDON                                      210

  LASCARIS                                         211

  DELISLE                                          216

  JOHN HERMANN OBEREIT                             219

  TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND IMPRISONMENTS OF JOSEPH
  BALSAMO                                          220


  AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE OF WORKS ON HERMETIC
  PHILOSOPHY AND ALCHEMY                           274

  APPENDIX                                         307

  INDEX                                            313




INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

ON THE TRUE PRINCIPLES AND NATURE OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, AND ON ITS
RELATION TO SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY.


Those unfamiliar with modern alchemical criticism, even if they
have some acquaintance with the mystical labyrinth of the _turba
philosophorum_, will probably learn with astonishment that the opinions
of competent judges are divided not only upon the methods of the
mysterious Hermetic science, but upon the object of alchemy itself.
That it is concerned with transmutation is granted, but with the
transmutation of metals, or of any physical substance, into material
gold, is strenuously denied by a select section of reputable students
of occultism. The transcendental theory of alchemy which they expound
is steadily gaining favour, though the two text-books which at present
represent it are both out of print and both exceedingly scarce.

In the year 1850 “A Suggestive Inquiry concerning the Hermetic Mystery
and Alchemy, being an attempt to recover the Ancient Experiment
of Nature,” was published anonymously in London by a lady of high
intellectual gifts, but was almost immediately withdrawn for reasons
unknown, and which have given occasion, in consequence, to several idle
speculations. This curious and meritorious volume, quaintly written
in the manner of the last century, originated the views which are in
question and opened the controversy.

Fifteen years after the appearance of the “Suggestive Inquiry,”
an American writer, named Hitchcock, after apparently independent
researches arriving at parallel conclusions, made public, also
anonymously, in the year 1865, some “Remarks on Alchemy and the
Alchemists,” in a small octavo volume of very considerable interest.
A psychic interpretation was placed by the previous author on the
arcana of Hermetic typology, and Mr Hitchcock, by adopting a moral
one, brought the general subject within the reach of the most ordinary
readers, and attracted considerable attention in consequence.

The views thus enunciated have filtered slowly through, and, combined
with the Paracelsian theory of the psychic manufacture of material
gold by the instrumentality of the interior magnes, have considerably
influenced the revived occultism of the present day. The question in
itself, taken at its lowest standpoint, is one of the most curious
to be found within the whole circle of esoteric archæology; and
for students whose interest in the great alchemical mystery is of
another than antiquarian kind, it is truly of palmary interest,
and of supreme importance. In an account of the lives and labours
of the Hermetic adepts, it calls for adequate consideration; and,
after careful researches, I believe myself to have discovered a true
alchemical theory which will be equally acceptable to all schools of
interpretation.

The supreme and avowed object of every hierophant, as well as of every
postulant and pretender, in the _ars magna_ discovered by Hermes
Trismegistus, has been commonly supposed to be the chemical manufacture
of material gold from commercially inferior substances. On the other
hand, Hitchcock, marshalling an impressive series of verbatim
citations from writers of all ages and all nationalities, undertakes
to demonstrate that the concealed subject of every veritable adept is
one only--namely, MAN, the triune, and that “the object also is one,
to wit, his improvement, while the method itself is no less one, to
wit, nature directed by art in the school of nature, and acting in
conformity therewith; for the art is nothing but ‘nature acting through
man.’” Again, “the genuine alchemists were not in pursuit of worldly
wealth or honours. Their real object was the perfection, or, at least,
the improvement of man. According to this theory, such perfection lies
in a certain unity, a living sense of the unity of the human with the
divine nature, the attainment of which I can liken to nothing so well
as to the experience known in religion as the NEW BIRTH. The desired
perfection, or unity, is a state of the soul, _a condition of Being_,
and not a mere condition of KNOWING. This condition of Being is a
development of the nature of man from within, the result of a process
by which whatever is evil in our nature is cast out or suppressed,
under the name of superfluities, and the good thereby allowed
opportunities for free activity. As this result is scarcely accessible
to the unassisted natural man, and requires the concurrence of divine
power, it is called _Donum Dei_.”

When the individual man, by a natural and appropriate process, devoid
of haste or violence, is brought into unity with himself by the
harmonious action of intelligence and will, he is on the threshold of
comprehending that transcendent Unity which is the perfection of the
totality of Nature, “for what is called the ‘absolute,’ the ‘absolute
perfection,’ and the perfection of Nature, are one and the same.”

In the symbolism of the alchemists this writer tells us that _sulphur_
signifies Nature, and _mercury_ the supernatural. The inseparable
connection of the two in man is called _Sol_, but “as these three are
seen to be indissolubly one, the terms may be used interchangeably.”
According to Hitchcock, the mystical and mysterious instrument of
preparation in the work of alchemy is the conscience, which is called
by a thousand misleading and confessedly incongruous names. By means
of this instrument, quickened into vital activity under a sense of the
presence of God, the matter of the stone, namely, Man, is, in the first
place, purged and purified, to make possible the internal realisation
of Truth. “By a metonymy, the conscience itself is said to be purified,
though, in fact, the conscience needs no purification, but only the
man, to the end that the conscience may operate freely.”[A]

One of the names given by the alchemists to the conscience, on this
theory, is that of a middle substance which partakes of an azurine
sulphur--that is, of a celestial spirit--the Spirit of God. “The still
small voice is in alchemy, as in Scripture, compared to a _fire_, which
prepares the way for what many of the writers speak of as a _Light_.”

Hitchcock elsewhere more emphatically asserts that there is but one
subject within the wide circle of human interests that can furnish an
interpretation of the citations which he gives, and it is that which
is known under the theological name of spiritual Regeneration. This
gift of God the alchemists investigated as a work of Nature within
Nature. “The repentance which in religion is said to begin conversion,
is the ‘philosophical contrition’ of Hermetic allegory. It is the
first step of man towards the discovery of his whole being. They also
called it the black state of the matter, in which was carried on the
work of dissolution, calcination, separation, &c., after which results
purification, the white state, which contains the red, as the black
contained the white.” The evolution of the glorious and radiant red
state resulted in the fixation or perfection of the matter, and then
the soul was supposed to have entered into its true rest in God.

As this interpretation is concerned chiefly with the conscience, I
have called it the moral theory of alchemy; but Hitchcock, as a man
of spiritual insight, could not fail to perceive that his explanatory
method treated of the way only, and the formless light of an “End,”
which he could not or would not treat of, is, upon his own admission,
continually glimmering before him.

For the rest, when the alchemists speak of a long life as one of the
endowments of the Stone, he considers that they mean immortality; when
they attribute to it the miraculous properties of a universal medicine,
it is their intention to deny any positive qualities to evil, and, by
inference, any perpetuity. When they assert that the possession of the
Stone is the annihilation of covetousness and of every illicit desire,
they mean that all evil affections disappear before the light of the
unveiled Truth. By the transmutation of metals they signified the
conversion of man from a lower to a higher order of existence, from
life natural to life spiritual, albeit these expressions are inadequate
to convey the real meaning of the adepts. The powers of an ever active
nature must be understood by such expressions as “fires,” “menstruums,”
&c., which work in unison because they work in Nature, the alchemists
unanimously denying the existence of any disorder in the creation of
God.

In conclusion, Hitchcock states once more that his object is to
point out the _subject_ of alchemy. He does not attempt to make its
practical treatment plain to the _end_ of the sublime operation. It
is, therefore, evident that he, at any rate, suspected the existence of
more transcendent secrets which he distrusted his ability to discuss,
and declined to speak of inadequately.

The author of the “Suggestive Inquiry” had already taken the higher
standpoint of psychic interpretation, and developed her remarkable
principles, which I must endeavour to reproduce as briefly as possible.

According to this work, the modern art of chemistry has no connection
with alchemy except in its terminology, which was made use of by
the adepts to veil their divine mysteries. The process of the whole
Hermetic work is described with at least comparative plainness in
the writings of the philosophers, with the exception of the _vessel_
which is a holy arcanum, but without the knowledge of it no one can
attain to the magistery. Now, the publication of the writings of Jacob
Böhme caused the alchemists who were his contemporaries to fear that
their art could not much longer remain a secret, and that the mystic
vase in particular would be shortly revealed to all. This vase is the
_vas insigne electionis_, namely, MAN, who is the only all-containing
subject, and who alone has need to be investigated for the eventual
discovery of all. The modern adepts describe the life of man as a pure,
naked, and unmingled fire of illimitable capability. Man, therefore, is
the true laboratory of the Hermetic art; his life is the subject, the
grand distillery, the thing distilling, and the thing distilled; and
self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition.

“Modern discoveries are now tending to the identification of light,
the common vital sustenant, as in motive accord throughout the
human circulatory system with the planetary spheres, and harmonious
dispositions of the occult medium in space; and as human physiology
advances with the other sciences, the notion of our natural
correspondency enlarges, till at length the conscious relationship
would seem to be only wanting to confirm the ancient tradition.”

In addition to the faculties which he commonly exerts to communicate
with the material universe, man possesses within him the germ of a
higher faculty, the revelation and evolution of which give intuitive
knowledge of the hidden springs of nature. This Wisdom-faculty operates
in a magical manner, and constitutes an alliance with the Omniscient
Nature, so that the illuminated understanding of its possessor
perceives the structure of the universe, and enjoys free perspicacity
of thought in universal consciousness.

In support of this statement it is argued that the evidence of natural
reason, even in the affairs of common life, is intuition, that
intuitive faith has a certainty above and independent of reason, that
the subsistence of universals in the human mind includes a promise far
beyond itself, and is stable proof of another subsistence, however
consciously unknown.

The true methods and conditions of self-knowledge are to be learned
from the ancient writers. The discovery of the veritable Light of
alchemy is the reward of an adequate scrutiny of true psychical
experience. Alchemy proposes “such a reducation of nature as shall
discover this latex without destroying her vehicle, but only the modal
life; and professes that this has not alone been proved possible, but
that man by rationally conditionating has succeeded in developing into
action the Recreative Force.”

The One Thing needful, the sole act which must be perfectly
accomplished that man may know himself, is the exaltation, by the
adequately purified spirit, of the cognising faculty into intellectual
reminiscence. The transcendental philosophy of the mysteries entirely
hinges on the purification of the whole understanding, without which
they promise nothing.

The end in view is identical with Hermetists, Theurgists, and with
the ancient Greek mysteries alike. It is the conscious and hypostatic
union of the intellectual soul with Deity, and its participation in the
life of God; but the conception included in this divine name is one
infinitely transcendental, and in Hermetic operations, above all, it
must ever be remembered that God is within us. “The initiated person
sees the Divine Light itself, without any form or figure--that light
which is the true _astrum solis_, the mineral spiritual sun, which
is the Perpetual Motion of the Wise, and that Saturnian Salt, which
developed to intellect and made erect, subdues all nature to His will.
It is the Midnight Sun of Apuleius, the Ignited Stone of Anaxagoras,
the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, the Armed Magnet of Helvetius, the
Fiery Chariot of Mercaba, and the Stone with the new name written on it
which is promised to him that overcometh, by the initiating Saviour of
mankind.”

This method of interpreting the Hermetic allegories is calculated to
exalt the alchemists indefinitely in the estimation of all thinking
minds. From possibly avaricious investigators of a by-way of physical
science, they are transfigured into dreamers of the sublimest
imaginable dream, while if that which they conceived was accomplished,
they are divine and illuminated monarchs who are throned on the
pinnacles of eternity, having dominion over their infinite souls.

A theory so attractive, devised in the interests of men whom romance
has already magnified in the auriferous cloud of mystery which
envelopes both their claims and their persons, is eminently liable
to be accepted on insufficient grounds, because of its poetical
splendour, so it will be well to ascertain the facts and arguments on
which it is actually based.

Both Hitchcock and the unparalleled woman to whom we are indebted for
the “Suggestive Inquiry” appeal to alchemical writings in support of
their statements. A few of their quotations and commentaries must
therefore be submitted to the reader.

The first point which strikes the alchemical student is the unanimous
conviction of all the philosophers that certain initiatory exercises
of a moral and spiritual kind are an indispensable preliminary to
operations which are commonly supposed to be physical. Here the
incongruity is evident, and it is therefore urged that the process
itself is spiritual, and that it was materialised in the writings of
the adepts to confuse and mislead the profane, as well as for the
protection of esoteric psychologists in the days of the Inquisition and
the stake.

The following preparation for the study of Antimony is recommended by
Basil Valentin. “First, Invocation to God, with a certain heavenly
intention, drawn from the bottom of a sincere heart and conscience,
pure from all ambition, hypocrisy, and all other vices which have any
affinity with these; as arrogance, boldness, pride, luxury, petulancy,
oppression of the poor, and other similar evils, all of which are to
be eradicated from the heart; that when a man desires to prostrate
himself before the throne of grace, for obtaining health, he may do
so with a conscience free from unprofitable weeds, that his body
may be transmuted into a holy temple of God, and be purged from all
uncleanness. For God will not be mocked (of which I would earnestly
admonish all), as worldly men, pleasing and flattering themselves
with their own wisdom, think. God, I say, will not be mocked, but the
Creator of all things will be invoked with reverential fear, and
acknowledged with due obedience.... Which is so very true that I am
certainly assured no impious man shall ever be partaker of the true
medicine, much less of the eternal, heavenly bread. Therefore place
your whole intention and trust in God; call upon him, and pray that he
may impart his blessing to you. Let this be the beginning of your work,
that by the same you may obtain your desired end, and at length effect
what you intended. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

The second qualification is contemplation, by which, says Basil, “I
understand an accurate attention to the business itself, under which
will fall these considerations first to be noted. As, what are the
circumstances of anything; what the matter; what the form; whence its
operations proceed; whence it is infused and implanted; how generated
... also how the body of everything may be ... resolved into its
first matter or essence. This contemplation is celestial, and to be
understood with spiritual reason; for the circumstances and depths
of things cannot be conceived in any other way than by the spiritual
cogitation of man: and this contemplation is two-fold. One is called
possible, the other impossible. The latter consists in copious
cogitations which never proceed to effects, nor exhibit any form of
matter which falls under the touch, as if any should endeavour to
comprehend the Eternity of the Most High, which is vain and impossible;
yea, it is a sin against the Holy Ghost, so arrogantly to pry into
the Divinity itself, which is immense, infinite, and eternal; and to
subject the incomprehensible counsel of the secrets of God to human
inquisition. The other part of contemplation which is possible is
called theory. This contemplates that which is perceived by touch and
sight, and hath a nature formed in time; this considers how that
nature may be helped and perfected by resolution of itself; how every
body may give forth from itself the good or evil, venom or medicine,
latent in it; how destruction and confection are to be handled,
whereby, under a right proceeding, without sophistical deceits, the
pure may be severed and separated from the impure. This separation is
made and instituted by divers manual operations ... some of which are
vulgarly known by experience, others remote from vulgar experience.
These are calcination, sublimation, reverberation, circulation,
putrefaction, digestion, distillation, cohobation, fixation, and
the like of these; all the degrees of which are found in operating,
learned, and perceived, and manifested by the same. Whence will clearly
appear what is movable, what is fixed, what is white, what red, black,
blue, green, namely, when the operation is rightly instituted by the
artificer; for possibly the operation may err, and turn aside from
the right way; but that Nature should err, when rightly handled,
is not possible. Therefore if you shall err, so that nature cannot
be altogether free, and released from the body in which it is held
captive, return again unto your way; learn the theory more perfectly,
and inquire more practically into the method of your operating, that
you may discover the foundation and certainty in the separation of all
things; which is a matter of great concern. And this is the second
foundation of philosophy which follows prayer; for in that the sum
of the matter lies, and is contained in these words:--Seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness by prayer, and all other things
shall be added unto you.”

Perhaps it will be thought, even at this preliminary stage of citation,
that there is much to be said for the physical theory of alchemy.
A particular appeal is, however, made to the celebrated “Canons of
Espagnet,” and to the following passage:--“The light of this knowledge
is the gift of God, which by his freeness he bestoweth upon whom he
pleaseth. Let none, therefore, set himself to the study hereof, until,
having cleared and purified his heart, he devote himself wholly unto
God, and be emptied of all affection to things impure. Those that
are in public honours and offices, or be always busied with private
and necessary occupations, let them not strive to attain to the top
of this philosophy; for it requireth the whole man; and being found,
possesseth him, and being possessed, challengeth him from all long and
serious employments, esteeming all other things as strange unto him,
and of no value. Let him that is desirous of this knowledge clear his
mind from all evil motions, especially pride, which is abomination
to heaven, and the gate of hell. Let him be frequent at prayers and
charitable; have little to do with the world; abstain from too much
company-keeping, and enjoy constant tranquillity, that the mind may be
able to reason more freely in private, and be more highly lifted up;
for unless it be kindled with a beam of divine light, it will hardly
be able to penetrate the hidden mysteries of truth.... A studious Tyro
of a quick wit, constant mind, inflamed with the love of philosophy,
very quick in natural philosophy, of a pure heart, perfect in manner,
mightily devoted to God, even though ignorant of chemistry, may enter
with confidence the highway of Nature, and peruse the books of the best
philosophers. Let him seek out an ingenious companion for himself, and
not despair of accomplishing his desire.”

Here Hitchcock points out that the operation is obviously not chemical,
for the chief instrument is determined and concentrated thinking on
the loftiest intellectual planes. The inference that skill in natural
philosophy is indispensable, is contradicted by the counter-statement
that ignorance of chemistry is not necessarily a source of failure.
In this connection, it must be remembered that the distinction between
alchemy and chemistry can scarcely be said to have existed at the
period of Espagnet, and the statement would at first sight seem almost
equivalent to asserting that it was unnecessary to be versed in the
properties of metals to accomplish the _magnum opus_.

“Let a lover of truth,” continues the author of the Canons, “make use
of but a few philosophers, but of best note and experienced truth; let
him suspect things that are quickly understood, especially in mystical
names and secret operations, for truth lies hid in obscurity; nor do
philosophers ever write more deceitfully than when plainly, nor ever
more truly than when obscurely.”

In the same manner, “The New Light of Alchemy,” falsely ascribed to
Sendivogius, and which is in high appreciation among Hermetic students,
declares that “the most commendable art of alchemy is the gift of God,
and truly it is not to be attained but by the alone favour of God
enlightening the understanding, together with a patient and devout
humility, or by an ocular demonstration from some experienced master.”

In _Anima Magica Abscondita_, Eugenius Philalethes gives the following
advice to the student, whether of magic or alchemy:--“Attempt not
anything rashly. Prepare thyself till thou art conformable to Him whom
thou wouldst entertain. Thou hast Three that are to receive, and there
are three that give. Fit thy house to thy God in what thou canst, and
in what thou canst not, He will help thee. When thou hast set thy house
in order, do not think thy guest will come without invitation. Thou
must tyre Him out with pious importunities. This is the way in which
thou must walk, in which thou shalt perceive a sudden illustration,
_eritque in te cum Lumine Ignis, cum Igne Ventus, cum Vento Potestas,
cum Potestate Scientia, cum Scientiâ sanæ mentis integritas_. This
is the chain that qualifies a magician. This is the place (viz., the
abode of the Archetype) where if thou canst but once ascend, and then
descend--

  “_Tunc ire ad Mundum Archetypum sæpe atque redire,
  Cunctarumque Patrem rerum spectare licebit_’--

thou hast got that spirit _Qui quicquid portentosi Mathematici,
quicquid prodigiosi Magi, quicquid invidentes Naturæ persecutores
Alchymistæ, quicquid Dæmonibus deteriores malefici Necromantes
promittere audent. Ipse novit discernere et efficere idque sine omni
crimine, sine Dei offensâ, sine Religionis injuria._ Such is the power
he shall receive, who from the clamorous tumults of this world ascends
to the supernaturall still voice, from this base earth and mind whereto
his body is allyed, to the spirituall, invisible elements of his Soul.”

After the same fashion, the still greater Eirenæus Philalethes
declares that God alone communicates the whole secret of the _aqua
philosophorum_, that all untaught by Him must wander in mists and
error, but that it is revealed to those who labour in study and prayer.

Quotation might be continued indefinitely. The _Centrum Naturæ
Concentratum_, ascribed to Alipili, and a treatise of some reputation,
declares that “The highest wisdom consists in this, for man to know
himself, because in him God has placed his eternal word, by which all
things were made and upheld, to be his Light and Life, by which he is
capable of knowing all things in time and eternity.... Therefore let
the high inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of nature,
learn first what they have in themselves, before they seek in foreign
matters without them; and by the divine power within them, let them
first heal themselves and transmute their own souls; then they may go
on prosperously and seek with good success the mysteries and wonders of
God in all natural things.”

       *       *       *       *       *

These quotations, some of which are unknown to, or, at any rate,
uncited by Hitchcock, do not by any means establish the points which
are debated in his book. If the philosophers from whom they are
selected were in possession of the whole secret of wealth, they saw fit
to conceal it from the profane, and their works, full of practically
insoluble enigmas, are proclamations of the fact of their success,
rather than lights for those who sought to follow in their steps. Under
these circumstances, they saw that in the blind guess-work which their
symbols created of necessity, no student would ever attain to the true
light of alchemy except by pure chance--in other words, by the favour
of Heaven, which, accordingly, they counselled him to supplicate. None
of the passages in question are inconsistent with the physical object
of alchemy, and in the citation from Alipili, it is evident that the
mysteries and wonders referred to include metallic transmutation in the
mind of the writer. The investigator of natural secrets was advised to
take counsel with the Author of natural secrets after the only possible
manner.

“Whoever attempteth the search of our glorious stone, he ought,
in the first place, to implore the assistance of the all-powerful
Jehova, at the throne of his mercy, who is the true and sole author
of all mysteries of nature; the monarch of heaven and earth, the King
of kings, omnipotent, most true and most wise; who not only maketh
manifest in the microcosm, the truth of every science to worthy
philosophers, and liberally bestoweth both natural and divine knowledge
on the deserving and faithful; but also layeth open his treasures
of wealth and riches which are locked up in the abyss of nature to
those who devoutly worship him. And forasmuch as none are permitted to
touch the mysteries of nature with foul fingers, therefore it behoveth
all who attempt such matters, to lay aside their natural blindness
from which, by the light of the holy Scripture and a stedfast faith,
they may be freed, that being the means by which the Holy Spirit doth
clearly make manifest the most profoundly hidden light of nature, which
light alone lays open the way to the wisdom of nature, and to unlock
the most abstruse mysteries thereof.”

Even the subdued imagination which is claimed by the author of
“Remarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists,” is likely to go astray in the
labyrinth of alchemical symbolism, and some of the interpretations
of Hitchcock are exceedingly forced and unnatural. His citations
are indiscriminately gathered from the most transcendental writers,
and from those who, like George Starkey, have exhausted language in
emphatic declarations that their subject and their object are actual
metallic gold.

“Zoroaster’s Cave, or the philosopher’s intellectual echo to one
another from their caves,” is the title of a small work quoted by
Hitchcock. It opens thus:--“Dry water from the Philosophers’ Clouds!
Look for it and be sure to have it, for it is the key to inaccessibles
and to those locks that would otherwise keep thee out. It is a middle
nature between fixed and not fixed, and partakes of a sulphureous
azurine. It is a raw, cool, feminine fire, and expects its impregnation
from a masculine solar sulphur.” Hitchcock’s interpretation is this:--a
pure conscience! Look for it and be sure that you have it, &c. It is
of a middle nature between soul and body, and partakes of a heavenly
spirit. It expects its life from God.

It is needless to say that with this method any meaning could be
extracted from any allegorical writings. The author of the “Suggestive
Inquiry” is far more profound and evinces a far keener insight. It
is evident, however, that the truth (or the fallacy) of both methods
of interpretation depends on the connection of the alchemists with
practical chemistry. On this vital question, the uniocular condition of
both writers is utterly astounding.

“No modern art or chemistry has anything to do with alchemy, beyond the
borrowed terms which were made use of in continuance chiefly to veil
the latter.” That is to say, the alchemists did not lay the foundations
of the science, the beginnings of which are attributed to them, and
in this matter we are not by any means indebted to them. This extreme
statement is qualified by the later commentator, who gives a more
detailed expression to his views.

“That chemistry is indebted for its introduction among the sciences
indirectly to the alchemists is certainly true; at least I have
no disposition to question it; but not to the immediate labours
of the alchemists themselves, whose peculiar work was one of
contemplation and not of the hands. Their alembic, furnace, cucurbit,
retort, philosophical egg, &c., in which the work of fermentation,
distillation, extraction of essence and spirits, and the preparation of
salts is said to have taken place, was man--yourself, friendly reader;
and if you will take yourself into your own study, and be candid and
honest, acknowledging no other guide or authority but Truth, you
may easily discover something of Hermetic philosophy; and if at the
beginning there should be ‘fear and trembling,’ the end may be a more
than compensating peace.

“It is a plain case, that, for the most part, the experiments which
led the way to chemistry were made by men who were misled by the
alchemists, and sought gold instead of truth; but this class of men
wrote no books upon alchemy. Many of them no doubt died over their
furnaces, ‘_uttering no voice_,’ and none of them wrote books upon the
philosopher’s stone, for the simple reason that they never discovered
anything to write about. I know that some impostors purposely wrote of
mysteries to play upon the credulity of the ignorant, but their works
have nothing alchemical about them. It is true also that many books
were written by men who really imagined that they had discovered the
secret, and were nevertheless mistaken. But this imaginary success
could never have had place when gold was the object, because in the
_bald fact_ no man was ever deceived: no man ever believed that he had
discovered a method of making gold out of inferior metals. The thing
speaks for itself. It is impossible that any man can ever be deluded
upon this bare fact; but it is quite otherwise with the real object
of alchemy, in which men have been deceived in all ages ... for the
_subject_ is always in the world, and hence the antiquity claimed for
the art by the alchemists.”

       *       *       *       *       *

This passage is a long series of simply incredible misstatements. The
history of chemistry and the lives of the adepts alike bear witness
against it. My object in publishing this book is to establish the true
nature of the Hermetic experiment by an account of those men who have
undertaken it, and who are shewn by the plain facts of their histories
to have been in search of the transmutation of metals. There is no need
for argument; the facts speak sufficiently. It is not to the blind
followers of the alchemists that we owe the foundation of chemistry; it
is to the adepts themselves, to the illustrious Geber, to that grand
master Basilius Valentinus, to Raymond Lully, the supreme hierophant.
What they discovered will be found in the following pages; here it
will be sufficient for my purpose to quote the views of a French
scientist who has made a speciality of alchemy, and who is also a high
authority on the subject of modern chemistry.

“It is impossible to disown that alchemy has most directly contributed
to the creation and the progress of modern physical sciences. The
alchemists were the first to put the experimental method in practice,
that is, the faculty of observation and induction in its application to
scientific researches; moreover, by uniting a considerable number of
facts and discoveries in the order of the molecular actions of bodies,
they have introduced the creation of chemistry. This fact ... is beyond
every doubt. Before the eighth century, Geber put in practice the rules
of that experimental school, the practical code and general principles
of which were merely developed later on by Galileo and Francis Bacon.
The works of Geber, the ‘Sum of all Perfection,’ and the ‘Treatise
on Furnaces,’ contain an account of processes and operations wholly
conformed to the methods made use of to-day in chemical investigations;
while Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, applying the same order
of ideas to the study of physics, was led to discoveries which, for his
time, were astounding. It is impossible, therefore, to contest that
the alchemists were the first to inaugurate the art of experience.
They prepared the arrival of the positive sciences by basing the
interpretation of phenomena on the observation of facts, and openly
breaking with the barren metaphysical traditions which had so long
checked the progress of the human mind.”[B]

With all their mystery, their subterfuges, and their symbolism, the
testimony of the alchemists themselves to the physical nature of their
object is quite unequivocal and conclusive. One of the most celebrated
experimental treatises in the English language is that entitled
“The Marrow of Alchemy.” It professes to discover the secrets and
most hidden mystery of the philosopher’s elixir, both in theory and
practice. It was published by Eirenæus Philoponos Philalethes, that
is George Starkey, and is generally supposed to be the work of the
true Philalethes; at any rate it develops his principles, and derives
its inspiration from the author of the _Introitus Apertus._ Now,
this little book testifies over and over again, and that in the most
emphatic manner, to the physical object of the alchemists, and to the
fact that they operated on common gold.

“The first matter which we take for our work is gold, and with it
mercury, which we decoct till neither will forsake the other, in which
work both die, rot by putrefaction, and after that are regenerate in
glory. _It is actual gold and nothing else._ What does not equal a
metal in weight will never enter it in flux. Nothing but the metalline
will dwell with metals.” A severe criticism is passed on the blind
folly of those who endeavour to reap the secret stone from strange
material subjects. “Gold is the subject of our art alone, since by it
we seek gold.” Those who, like the noble son of art, Morien, advise
students to descend into themselves to find the true matter, only
intended to point out how kind begets kind:--

  “As then himself his likeness did beget,
  So gold must gold, this law’s to Nature set.”

Morien adds that the secret stone must be sought in the dunghill, which
signifies, says the “Marrow of Alchemy,” that the metal must be brought
to putrefaction. “Those who assert that common gold is not the matter
are in error. Gold is one. No other substance under Heaven can compare
with it. Gold is the noble seed of our art. Yet it is dead. It needs
to be unloosed, and must go to water. It must be tempered with its
own humidity; it must be blent with our true water, disposed in a due
vessel, closed with all caution, settled in a due nest, and with due
fire inclined to motion.” It becomes the true gold of the philosophers
when by a retrograde motion it tends to resolution. “Then it is our
Sun, our Marchasite, and, joined with our Moon, it becomes our bright
crystal Fountain.”

       *       *       *       *       *

But if the lives and the writings of the alchemists so clearly
establish the physical nature of the Hermetic aim and _opus_, it may
well be demanded how a psychical or moral interpretation could be
reasonably set upon the symbols and the ambition of all the adepts.
Such interpretations can never be wholly exonerated from the charge
of extravagance, and of a purblind indifference to the most plain
and notorious facts, but they may be to some extent justified by a
consideration of the allegorical methods of the alchemists and by the
nature of the Hermetic theory.

The profound subtleties of thought seldom find adequate expression
even when the whole strength of a truly intellectual nature is brought
to bear upon the resources of language, and where the force of direct
appeal is unwillingly acknowledged to be insufficient, the vague
generalities of allegory can scarcely be expected to succeed. It is
the province of symbolism to suggest thought, and the interpretation
of any sequence of typology inevitably varies in direct proportion
with the various types of mind. Each individual symbol embodies a
definite conception existing in the mind of its inventor, and in
that symbol more or less perfectly expressed, but every student of
allegory out of every individual symbol extracts his own meaning, so
that the significance of typology is as infinite as the varieties of
interpreting intelligence. For this reason, the best and truest adepts
have always insisted on the necessity of an initiated teacher, or of
a special intellectual illumination which they term the grace of God,
for the discovery of the actual secret of the Hermetic art. Without
this light or guidance the unelected student is likely to be adrift for
ever on a chaotic sea of symbols, and the _prima materia_, concealed
by innumerable names and contradictory or illusory descriptions, will
for ever escape him. It is in this way that a thousand unassisted
investigators have operated upon ten thousand material substances,
and have never remotely approached the manufacture of the Grand
Magisterium, and, after the same manner, outwearied by perpetual
failures in the physical process, that others have rejected the common
opinion concerning the object of alchemy, and with imaginations at
work upon the loftier aspirations expressed by Hermetic adepts, have
accredited them with an exclusively spiritual aim, and with the
possession of exclusively spiritual secrets.

If the authors of the “Suggestive Inquiry” and of “Remarks on Alchemy
and the Alchemists” had considered the lives of the symbolists,
as well as the nature of the symbols, their views would have been
very much modified; they would have found that the true method of
Hermetic interpretation lies in a middle course; but the errors which
originated with merely typological investigations were intensified
by a consideration of the great alchemical theorem, which, _par
excellence_, is one of universal development, which acknowledges that
every substance contains undeveloped resources and potentialities, and
can be brought outward and forward into perfection. They applied their
theory only to the development of metallic substances from a lower to a
higher order, but we see by their writings that the grand hierophants
of Oriental and Western alchemy alike were continually haunted by
brief and imperfect glimpses of glorious possibilities for man, if
the evolution of his nature were accomplished along the lines of their
theory.

Eugenius Philalethes enlarges on the infinite capacity of our spiritual
nature and on the power of our soul’s imagination. “She has an
absolute power in miraculous and more than natural transmutations,”
and he clothes his doctrine of human evolution in the terminology of
alchemical adepts.

In one of the twelve treatises attributed to Sendivogius, there are the
following remarkable passages:--“We know the composition of man in all
respects, yet we cannot infuse the soul, which is out of the course
of nature. Nature does not work before there be material given unto
her....” The problem that all composites are subject to dissolution,
and that man is composed of the four elements, and how, therefore, he
could have been immortal in Paradise, is considered thus. “Paradise
was and is a place created of the most pure elements, and of these
man also was formed, and thus was consecrated to perpetuity of life.
After his fall, he was driven into the corruptible elementated world,
and nourished by corruptible elementated elements, which infected his
past nature and generated disease and death. To the original creation
of man in state immortal the ancient philosophers have likened their
stone, and this immortality caused them to seek the stone, desiring
to find the incorruptible elements which entered into the Adamic
constitution. To them the Most High God revealed that a composition of
such elements was in gold, for in animals it could not be had, seeing
they must preserve their lives by corrupt elements; in vegetables also
it is not, because in them is an inequality of the elements. And seeing
all created things are inclined to multiplication, the philosophers
propounded to themselves that they would make tryal of the possibility
of nature in this mineral kingdom, which being discovered, they saw
that THERE WERE INNUMERABLE OTHER SECRETS IN NATURE, OF WHICH, AS OF
DIVINE SECRETS, THEY WROTE SPARINGLY.”

Here the reference probably intended is to the possibilities which
their theory revealed for other than the mineral kingdoms, a theory
the truth of which they believed themselves to have demonstrated by
accomplishing metallic transmutation. In this connection, it should
be noticed that the philosophical stone was generally considered a
universal medicine--a medicine for metals and man, the latter, of
course, by inference.

The occasional presence of these possibilities in the minds of adepts,
and the comprehensive nature of the Hermetic theory, fully explain
the aberrations of mystical commentators, who have mistaken the side
issues for the end in view, not altogether inexcusably, because the
end in view sinks into complete unimportance when compared with the
side issues, and all that is of value in alchemy for the modern
student of occultism is comprised in these same possibilities, in the
application of the Hermetic theory to the supreme subject, Man. It is
impossible within the limits of a brief introduction to do justice
to an illimitable subject, to the art of psychic transmutation, to
the spiritual alchemistry, the principles of which are contained in
the arcane theory of the adepts, and which principles are by no means
dependent for their truth on the actuality of metallic transmutation,
so I must confine myself to a few general observations.

The admirable lesson which we may learn of the alchemists is the
exaltation of things in virtue beyond the unassisted ability of Nature.
Such exaltation is possible, according to the adepts, both within and
without the metallic kingdom. Man and the animals are alike included
by this comprehensive theory of development, and it is therefore
conceivable that a few of the Hermetic symbolists taught in their
secret and allegorical fashion the method of alchemical procedure when
man was the subject, and revealed the miraculous results of this labour
in the typewritten books which they bequeathed to posterity. That Henry
Khunrath was in search of the transmutation of metals up to a certain
point and period is, I think, very clearly indicated by his visit to
Dr Dee. That the _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ_, which was published
in 1609, treats of a spiritual alchemy, is, however, evidenced by
the nature of its symbols and by the general tenor of the strange
esoteric commentary on some of the Hebrew psalms. Those who worked
in metals may, or may not, have failed; it is by no means a point of
importance to the discriminating student of occultism; but they have
left behind them a theory which is wholly true in its application to
that one substance in Nature which we know to be capable of indefinite
perfectibility, and the splendour and glory of the accomplished _Magnum
Opus_, when the young King issues from the Everlasting East, from the
land of the Morning and of Paradise,

  “Bearing the crescent moon upon his crest,”

though it be a dream--say even, which no one can actually
affirm--though it be an impossibility for the metal, is true for the
man; and all that is beautiful and sublime in alchemical symbolism may
be rigorously applied to the divine flower of the future, the young
King of Humanity, the perfect youth to come, when he issues from the
Spiritual East, in the dawn of the genuine truth, bearing the Crescent
Moon, the woman of the future, upon his bright and imperial crest.

I am of opinion, from the evidence in hand, that metallic
transmutations did occur in the past. They were phenomena as rare as a
genuine “materialisation” of so-called spirits is generally considered
at the present day among those believers in physical mediumship who
have not been besotted by credulity and the glamour of a world of
wonders. Like modern spiritualism, the isolated facts of veritable
alchemy are enveloped in a crowd of discreditable trickery, and the
trade of an adept in the past was as profitable, and as patronised by
princes, as that of modern dealers with familiar spirits.

But the fact of an occasional transmutation gives little reason to
suppose that the _praxis alchemiæ_ in metallic subjects is ever
likely to succeed with modern students of the _turba philosophorum_.
The enigmas of the alchemists admit, as I have said, of manifold
interpretations. Their recipes are too vague and confused to be
followed. They insist themselves that their art can only be learned
by a direct revelation from God, or by the tuition of a master.
Their fundamental secrets have not only been never revealed in their
multitudinous treatises, but they scarcely pretend to reveal them,
despite the magnificent assurances which are sometimes contained in
their titles. The practical side of alchemy must be surrendered to
specialists in chemistry, working quite independently of the books
or the methods of the philosophers. Only the theory is of value to
neophytes, or initiates, or to any student of the higher occultism; and
it is of value, as I have said, because it can be applied outside the
kingdom of metals, as the alchemists themselves acknowledge, and as
some of them seem to have attempted.

The psychic method of interpretation as propounded in the “Suggestive
Inquiry” exalted the seekers for the philosophical stone into
hierophants of the mystery of God; it endowed them with the _altitudo
divitiarum sapientiæ et scientiæ Dei_. They had crossed the threshold
of eternity; they had solved the absolute; they had seen Diana
unveiled; they had raised the cincture of Isis, and had devoured
her supernatural beauties--that is, they had accomplished the
manifestation of the incarnate spirit of man, and had invested it with
deific glory. They did not grope after physical secrets; they did
not investigate, with Paracelsus, the properties of ordure and other
matter in putrefaction; they did not work with mercury and sulphur;
they did not distil wine; they did not decoct egg-shells. They were
soul seekers, and they had found the soul; they were artificers, and
they had adorned the soul; they were alchemists, and had transmuted
it. Sublime and romantic hypothesis! But we know that they worked in
metals; we know that they manipulated minerals; we know that they
ransacked every kingdom of nature for substances which, by a bare
possibility, through some happy guess, might really transform the baser
metals into gold. They were often extravagant in their views, they were
generally absurd in their methods; they seldom found their end, but,
judged as they actually were, stripped of all glamour and romance,
self-educated seekers into Nature at the dawn of a physical science,
they are eminently entitled to our respect, because, in the first
place, unenlightened and unequipped, with their bare hands, they laid
the foundations of a providential and life-saving knowledge, and in the
second, because their furnaces were erected, intellectually, “on a peak
in Darien”--that is, they worked in accordance with a theory which had
an unknown field of application, and through the smoke of their coals
and their chemicals they beheld illimitable vistas where the groaning
totality of Nature developed its internal resources, and advanced
by degrees to perfection, upon lines which were quite in accordance
with their vision of mineral culture. “A depth beyond the depth, and
a height beyond the height,” were thus revealed to them, and their
glimpses of these glorious possibilities transfigured their strange
terminology, and illuminated their barbarous symbolism.

Eliminating obviously worthless works, the speculations of needy
impostors and disreputable publishers, it is from those who have
least contributed to the advancement of chemical science that we must
seek information concerning the spiritual chemistry--those who have
elaborated the theory rather than those who exclusively expound the
practice. In all cases, we shall do well to reflect that the object
in view was metals, except in such rare instances as are presented by
Henry Khunrath and the anonymous author of the treatise concerning Mary
of Alexandria, with a few Rosicrucian philosophers. We must read them
for what they suggest, and not for what they had in view.

The dream of the psycho-chemistry is a grand and sublime scheme
of absolute reconstruction by means of the Paracelsian _Orizon
Æternitatis_, or supercelestial virtue of things, the divinisation, or
deification, in the narrower sense, of man the triune by an influx from
above. It supposes that the transmutation or transfiguration of man
can be accomplished while he is on this earth and in this body, which
then would be magically draped _in splendoribus sanctorum_. The Morning
Star is the inheritance of every man, and the woman of the future will
be clothed with the sun, and Luna shall be set beneath her feet. The
blue mantle typifies the mystical sea, her heritage of illimitable
vastness. These marvels may be really accomplished by the cleansing
of the two-fold human tabernacle, the holy house of life, and by the
progressive evolution into outward and visible manifestation of the
infinite potencies within it.

In the facts and possibilities of mesmerism and in the phenomena of
ecstatic clairvoyance, in ancient magic and modern spiritualism, in
the doctrines and experiences of religious regeneration, we must seek
the _raison d’être_ of the sublime dream of psycho-chemistry--that,
namely, there is a change, a transmutation, or a new birth, possible
to embodied man which shall manifestly develop the esotoric potencies
of his spiritual being, so that the flesh itself shall be purged,
clarified, glorified, and clothed upon by the essential light of the
divine pneuma. Those of my readers who are interested in this absorbing
subject I must refer to a work entitled, “AZOTH, OR THE STAR IN THE
EAST,” which, I trust, will be ready for publication early in 1889,
and which will treat of the First Matter of the _Magnum Opus_, of the
evolution of Aphrodite Urania, of the supernatural generation of the
Son of the Sun, and of the alchemical transfiguration of humanity.


FOOTNOTES:

[A] There is no need to suppose a metonymy. The conscience is a guide
which education easily perverts. Therefore, supposing it to be really
the _instrument_ of the alchemists, it may eminently stand in need of
purification, and, except in the most general matters, is at best an
uncertain guide.

[B] “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” p. 93.




ON THE PHYSICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE MAGNUM OPUS.


The physical theory of transmutation is based on the composite
character of metals, on their generation in the bowels of the earth,
and on the existence in nature of a pure and penetrating matter which
applied to any substance exalts and perfects it after its own kind.
This matter is called THE LIGHT by Eugenius Philalethes and by numerous
other writers. In its application to animals, it exalts animals; in
its application to vegetables, it exalts vegetables, while metals and
minerals, after the same manner, are refined and translated from the
worst to the best condition.

All the elements which enter into the composition of metals are
identical, but they differ in proportion and in purity. In the metallic
kingdom, the object of nature is invariably to create gold. The
production of the baser metals is an accident of the process, or the
result of an unfavourable environment.

The generation of metals in the earth is a point of great importance,
and must be well studied by the amateur, for without this, and
the faithful imitation of Nature, he will never achieve anything
successful. It is by means of the seed of metals that their
generation takes place. Their composite character indicates their
transmutable quality. Such transmutation is accomplished by means of
the philosophical stone, and this stone is, in fact, the combination
of the male and female seeds which beget gold and silver. Now the
matters or elements of this stone, and the _prima materia_ above
all, are concealed by a multitude of symbols, false and allegorical
descriptions, and evasive or deceptive names.

According to Baron Tschoudy, all who have written on the art have
concealed the true name of the _prima materia_ because it is the chief
key of chemistry. Its discovery is generally declared to be impossible
without a special illumination from God, but the sages who receive
this divine favour and distinction have occasionally perpetuated its
knowledge by the instruction of suitable pupils under the pledge of
inviolable secresy. The author of _L’Étoile Flamboyante_ supplies an
immense list of the names which have been applied to this mysterious
substance under one or other of its phases. “As those that sail between
Scylla and Charybdis are in danger on both sides,” says D’Espagnet,
“unto no less hazard are they subject, who, pursuing the prey of
the golden fleece, are carried between the uncertain rocks of the
philosophers’ sulphur and mercury. The more acute, by their constant
reading of grave and credible authors, and by the irradiant sun, have
attained unto the knowledge of sulphur, but are at a stand in the
entrance of the philosophers’ mercury, for writers have twisted it with
so many windings and meanders, and involved it with so many equivocal
names, that it may be sooner met with by the force of the seeker’s
intellect than be found by reason or toil.”

The _prima materia_ has been defined as a fifth element, or
quintessence, the material alpha and omega, the soul of the elements,
living mercury, regenerated mercury, a metallic soul, &c. It is
designated by such allegorical names as the Bird of Hermes, the
Virgin’s Son, the Son of the Sun and Moon, the Virgin’s Head, Azoth, &c.

Where it appears to be seriously described the adepts are in continual
contradiction, but it is generally allowed to be a substance found
everywhere and continually seen and possessed by those who are ignorant
of its virtues. “Although some persons,” says Urbiger, “possessed with
foolish notions, dream that the first matter is to be found only in
some particular places, at such and such times of the year, and by the
virtue of a magical magnet, yet we are most certain, according to our
divine master, Hermes, that all these suppositions being false, it is
to be found everywhere, at all times, and only by our science.”[C]

In similar terms, we are told by the “Commentary on the Ancient War of
the Knights,” that the matter of the art, so precious by the excellent
gifts wherewith Nature has enriched it, is truly mean with regard to
the substances from which it derives its original. “Its price is not
above the ability of the poor. Tenpence is more than sufficient to
purchase the Matter of the Stone.... The matter is mean, considering
the foundation of the art, because it costs very little; it is no
less mean if one considers exteriorly that which gives it perfection,
since in that regard it costs nothing at all, in as much as _all the
world has it in its power_, says Cosmopolite, so that it is a constant
truth that the stone is a thing mean in one sense but most precious in
another, and that there are none but fools that despise it, by a just
judgment of God.”

The same authority assures us, with regard to the actual nature of the
_prima materia_, that it is one only and self-same thing, although it
is a natural compound of certain substances from one root and of one
kind, forming together one whole complete homogeneity. The substances
that make up the philosophical compound differ less among themselves
than sorrel water differs from lettuce water. Urbiger asserts that the
true and real matter is only “a vapour impregnated with the metallic
seed, yet undetermined, created by God Almighty, generated by the
concurrence and influence of the astrums, contained in the bowels of
the earth, as the matrix of all created things.” In conformity with
this, one earlier writer, Sir George Ripley, describes the stone as
the potential vapour of metals. It is normally invisible, but may be
made to manifest as a clear water. So also Philalethes cries in his
inspired way:--“Hear me, and I shall disclose the secret, which like
a rose has been guarded by thorns, so that few in past times could
pull the flower. There is a substance of a metalline species, which
looks so cloudy that the universe will have nothing to do with it.
Its visible form is vile; it defiles metalline bodies, and no one can
readily imagine that the pearly drink of bright Phœbus should spring
from thence. Its components are a most pure and tender mercury, a dry
incarcerate sulphur, which binds it and restrains fluxation.... Know
this subject, it is the sure basis of all our secrets.... To deal
plainly, it is the child of Saturn, of mean price and great venom....
It is not malleable, though metalline. Its colour is sable with, with
intermixed argent, which mark the sable field with veins of glittering
argent.”[D]

The poisonous nature of the stone is much insisted on by numerous
philosophers. “Its substance and its vapour are indeed a poison
which the philosophers should know how to change into an antidote by
preparation and direction.”[E]

No descriptions, supplied _ad infinitum_ by the numberless adepts who
were moved by unselfish generosity to expound the arcana of alchemy,
for the spiritual, intellectual, and physical enrichment of those who
deserved initiation, expose the true nature of the _prima materia_,
while the _vas philosophorum_ in which it is contained and digested is
described in contradictory terms, and is by some writers declared a
divine secret.

Given the matter of the stone and also the necessary vessel, the
processes which must be then undertaken to accomplish the _magnum opus_
are described with moderate perspicuity. There is the Calcination or
purgation of the stone, in which kind is worked with kind for the space
of a philosophical year. There is Dissolution which prepares the way
for congelation, and which is performed during the black state of the
mysterious matter. It is accomplished by water which does not wet the
hand. There is the Separation of the subtle and the gross, which is to
be performed by means of heat. In the Conjunction which follows, the
elements are duly and scrupulously combined. Putrefaction afterwards
takes place,

  “Without which pole no seed may multiply.”

Then in the subsequent Congelation the white colour appears, which is
one of the signs of success. It becomes more pronounced in Cibation. In
Sublimation the body is spiritualised, the spirit made corporeal, and
again a more glittering whiteness is apparent. Fermentation afterwards
fixes together the alchemical earth and water, and causes the mystic
medicine to flow like wax. The matter is then augmented with the
alchemical spirit of life, and the Exaltation of the philosophic earth
is accomplished by the natural rectification of its elements. When
these processes have been successfully completed, the mystic stone
will have passed through three chief stages characterised by different
colours, black, white, and red, after which it is capable of infinite
multiplication, and when projected on mercury, it will absolutely
transmute it, the resulting gold bearing every test. The base metals
made use of must be purified to insure the success of the operation.
The process for the manufacture of silver is essentially similar, but
the resources of the matter are not carried to so high a degree.

According to the “Commentary on the Ancient War of the Knights,” the
transmutations performed by the perfect stone are so absolute that no
trace remains of the original metal. It cannot, however, destroy gold,
nor exalt it into a more perfect metallic substance; it, therefore,
transmutes it into a medicine a thousand times superior to any virtues
which can be extracted from it in its vulgar state. This medicine
becomes a most potent agent in the exaltation of base metals.

Among the incidental properties of the perfect mineral agent is
the conversion of flints into precious stones, but the manufacture
of gold and of jewels is generally declared to be the least of the
philosophical secrets, for the spirit which informs the mysterious
_prima materia_ of the great and sublime work can be variously used and
adapted to the attainment of absolute perfection in all the “liberal
sciences,” the possession of the “whole wisdom of nature, and of things
more secret and extraordinary than is the gift of prophecy which Rhasis
and Bono assert to be contained in the red stone.”


FOOTNOTES:

[C] Baro Urbigerus--“One Hundred Aphorisms demonstrating the
preparation of the Grand Elixir.”

[D] Aphorismi Urbigerani.

[E] Commentary on the “Ancient War of the Knights.”




LIVES OF THE ALCHEMISTS.




GEBER.


The first, and, according to the general concensus of Hermetic
authorities, the prince of those alchemical adepts who have appeared
during the Christian era, was the famous Geber, Giaber, or Yeber, whose
true name was Abou Moussah Djafar al Sofi, and who was a native of
Haman, in Mesopotamia, according to the more probable opinion. He is
also said to have been a Greek, a Spanish Arabian born at Seville, and
a Persian of Thus. Romance represents him as an illuminated monarch
of India. According to Aboulfeda, he flourished during the eighth
century, but later and earlier periods have been also suggested. His
life is involved in hopeless obscurity; but his experiments upon
metals, undertaken with a view to the discovery of their constituent
elements and the degrees of their fusibility, led him to numerous
discoveries both in chemistry and in medicine, including suroxydised
muriate of mercury, red oxyde of mercury, and nitric acid. “It is
thus that Hermetic philosophy gave rise to chemistry,” says a writer
in the _Biographie Universelle_, “and that the reputation of Geber is
permanently established, not upon his search for an impossible chimera,
but for his discovery of truths founded on actual experience.”

With the characteristic prodigality of the Middle Ages, no less
than five hundred treatises have been attributed to the Arabian
adept. They are supposed to have embraced the whole circle of the
physical sciences, including astronomy and medicine. A few fragments,
comparatively, alone remain of all these colossal achievements. Cardan
included their author among the twelve most penetrating minds of the
whole world, and Boerhave spoke of him with consideration and respect
in his celebrated _Institutiones Chemicæ_. According to M. Hoefer,
he deserves to be ranked first among the chemists and alchemists
who flourished prior to Van Helmont. “He is the oracle of mediæval
chemists, who frequently did nothing in their writings but literally
reproduce their master. Geber for the history of chemistry is what
Hippocrates is for the history of medicine.”

The name of Geber has been borne or assumed by several writers
subsequent to the Hermetic adept; in this way the few extant facts
concerning his life have been variously distorted, and books of later
date and less value falsely ascribed to him. An astronomical commentary
on the _Syntaxis Magna_ of Ptolemy, in nine books, must be included in
this number. It is a work of the twelfth century, as may be proved by
internal evidence.

The extant works of Geber are, for the most part, in Latin, and are all
open to more or less legitimate suspicion. In the library at Leyden
there are said to be several Arabic manuscripts which have never been
translated, and there is one in the Imperial Library at Paris, together
with a _Fragmentum de Triangulis Sphæricis_ which is still unprinted.
The most complete edition of Geber is that of Dantzich, published
in 1682, and reproduced in the Collection of Mangetus.[F] First in
importance among the works of the Arabian adept must be ranked his “Sum
of Perfection”--_Summæ Perfectionis magisterii in suâ naturâ Libri
IV._ The next in value is the treatise entitled _De Investigatione
perfectionis Metallorum_, with his Testament, and a tract on the
construction of furnaces.

       *       *       *       *       *

The “Sum of Perfection, or the Perfect Magistery,” claims to be a
compilation from the works of the ancients, but with the doubtful
exception of pseudo-Hermes, we are acquainted with no alchemical
authors previous to the supposed period of Geber. A knowledge of
natural principles is declared to be necessary to success in the art.
The natural principles in the work of nature are a potent spirit, and
a living or dry water. The disposition of the philosophical furnace
and of the _vas philosophorum_ is clearly described; the latter is a
round glass vessel with a flat round bottom, and has several elaborate
arrangements. A marginal note, however, declares that the account of it
is hard to be understood. Among all the obscurities of the treatise,
it is absolutely plain that it is concerned with metals and minerals.
The properties of sulphur, mercury, arsenick, gold, silver, lead, tin,
copper, iron, magnesia, lut, marchasite, are discussed in such a manner
that it is impossible to establish an allegory, or to interpret the
words of the writer in other than a physical sense.


FOOTNOTES:

[F] J. J. Mangeti, “Bib. Chem. Curiosa,” 2 v. fol. 1702.




RHASIS.


Rhazes, or Rasi, whose true name was Mohammed-Ebn-Secharjah Aboubekr
Arrasi, was a celebrated Arabian physician and chemist, who was born
about the year 850 at Ray in Irâk, upon the frontiers of Khorassan.
In his youth he was passionately devoted to music and to frivolous
amusements; he did not begin the study of medicine till he was thirty
years of age, but he soon surpassed, both in skill and in knowledge,
all the physicians of his time. He devoted himself with equal zeal
to philosophy, is said to have journeyed into Syria, Egypt, and
even into Spain, and successively took charge of the famous hospital
at Bagdad, and of another in his native town. He was naturally good
and generous, and he devoted himself to the service of the poor. His
oriental panegyrists call him the Imam among the scholars of his time,
and western writers describe him as the Galen of the Arabians. By
his assiduous attention to the multitudinous varieties of disease he
obtained the appellation of the experimenter, or the experienced. No
less than two hundred and twenty-six treatises are said to have been
composed by him. To some of these Avicenna was largely indebted, and
even in Europe he exercised considerable influence, for his writings on
medicine were the basis of university teaching up to the seventeenth
century.

Of the twelve books of chemistry which have been attributed to Rhasis
several are probably spurious, and few have been printed. He was an
avowed believer in the transmutation of metals, and, having composed a
treatise on the subject, he presented it in person to Emir Almansour,
Prince of Khorassan, who was highly delighted, and ordered one thousand
pieces of gold to be paid to the author as a recompense. However,
he desired to witness the marvellous experiments and the prolific
auriferous results with which the work abounded. Rhasis replied that he
might certainly be gratified in his sublime curiosity if he provided
the necessary instruments and materials for the accomplishment of the
_magnum opus_. The Emir consented; neither pains nor expenses were
spared over the preliminary preparations, but when the time came the
adept failed miserably in his performance, and was severely belaboured
about the head by the enraged potentate with the unprofitable
alchemical treatise. Rhasis was old at the time, and this violence is
by some declared to have been the cause of his subsequent blindness.
He died in poverty and obscurity, a point which is not supposed to
disprove his possession of the powerful metallic medicine. The date of
his death is uncertain, but it was probably in the year 932.

       *       *       *       *       *

The writings of Rhasis, like those of Geber, enlarge on the planetary
correspondences, or on the influence exerted by the stars in the
formation of metallic substances beneath the surface of the earth. The
explicit nature of the recipes which he gives may be judged by such
directions as _Recipe aliquid ignotum, quantum volueris_. It is to
him, nevertheless, that we owe the preparation of brandy and several
pharmaceutic applications of alcohol. He was the first to mention
orpiment, realgar, borax, certain combinations of sulphur, iron,
and copper, certain salts of mercury indirectly obtained, and some
compounds of arsenic.[G] He was also a zealous promoter of experimental
methods.


FOOTNOTES:

[G] Figuier, _L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes_, pp. 95, 96.




ALFARABI.


The middle of the tenth century was made illustrious by one of those
celebrated men who do honour to the sciences in which they engage.
This was Abou-Nasr-Mohammed-Ibn-Tarkan, commonly called Farabi and
Alfarabi--a man of universal genius, who penetrated all subjects with
equal facility, fathoming the most useful and interesting sciences, and
passing for the greatest philosopher of his time.

He was born at Farab, now known as Othrar, in Asia Minor. He was of
Turkish origin, but repaired to Bagdad to acquire a more perfect
knowledge of Arabic; there he devoted himself with zeal and enthusiasm
to the study of the Greek philosophers under Abou Bachar Maltey, an
expounder of Aristotle. From Bagdad he proceeded to Harran, where John,
a Christian physician, was teaching logic. In a short time Alfarabi
surpassed all his other scholars, but he left Harran and visited Damas,
thence penetrating into Egypt. Early attracted towards the secrets of
nature, he spent a great portion of his life in incessant wanderings,
collecting the opinions of all the philosophers he could meet with
on these and on kindred subjects. He despised the world, and took no
pains to acquire wealth, though he wrote upon alchemy, that is, if the
Hermetic works which are attributed to him be genuine. His erudition
and indefatigable activity are attested by his other writings,
which variously treat of philosophy, logic, physics, astronomy, and
mathematics. His chief reputation is based on a sort of encyclopædia,
where he gives a description, with an exact definition, of all the
arts and sciences; and on a celebrated musical treatise, wherein he
ridicules the pythagorean speculations upon the music of the spheres,
and proves the connection of sound with atmospheric vibrations.

According to several authorities, he was protected and supported in
his later years by the cultured and enlightened Seïf Eddoula, who is
represented as Prince of Damas, but who seems to have been Sultan
of Syria, and to have made the acquaintance of the scholar in the
following curious manner.

Alfarabi was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, when, passing
through Syria, he stopped at the Court of the Sultan, and entered his
presence while he was surrounded by numerous sage persons, who were
discoursing with the monarch on the sciences.

Alfarabi, ignorant of, or else wholly ignoring, the usages of society,
presented himself in his travelling attire; and when the Sultan desired
that he should be seated, with astonishing philosophical freedom, he
planted himself at the end of the royal sofa. The prince, aghast at his
boldness, called one of his officers, and in a tongue generally unknown
commanded him to eject the intruder. The philosopher, however, promptly
made answer in the same tongue: “Oh, Lord, he who acts hastily is
liable to hasty repentance!” The prince was equally astounded to find
himself understood by the stranger as by the manner in which the reply
was given. Anxious to know more of his guest, he began to question him,
and soon discovered that he was acquainted with seventy languages.
Problems for discussion were then propounded to the philosophers who
had witnessed the discourteous intrusion with considerable indignation
and disgust, but Alfarabi disputed with so much eloquence and vivacity
that he reduced all the doctors to silence, and they began writing
down his discourse. The Sultan then ordered his musicians to perform
for the diversion of the company. When they struck up, the philosopher
accompanied them on a lute with such infinite grace and tenderness,
that he elicited the unmeasured admiration of the whole distinguished
assembly. At the request of the Sultan he produced a piece of his own
composing, sung it, and accompanied it with great force and spirit to
the delight of all his hearers. The air was so sprightly that even the
gravest philosopher could not resist dancing, but by another tune he as
easily melted them to tears, and then by a soft unobtrusive melody he
lulled the whole company to sleep.

Great was the anxiety of the Sultan to retain so accomplished a person
about him, and some say that he succeeded, others that the philosopher
declined the most brilliant offers, declaring that he should never
rest till he had discovered the whole secret of the philosopher’s
stone of which he had been in search for years, and to which, from
his discourse, he appeared to be on the point of attaining. According
to these biographers, he set out, but it was to perish miserably. He
was attacked by robbers in the woods of Syria, and, in spite of his
courage, was overpowered by numbers and killed. This occurred in the
year 954. Others say that he died at Damas, enjoying the munificence of
the Sultan to the last.




AVICENNA.


Khorassan produced another celebrated adept at the end of the tenth,
or, according to an alternative opinion, about the middle of the
eleventh century. This was the illustrious Ebn Sina, commonly called
Avicenna, who was born at Bacara, the principal city of that province
of Persia. The exact date of his birth has been fixed, but in the
absence of sufficient authority, at the year 980. He is equally
celebrated for the multiplicity of his literary works and for his
adventurous life. At an early age he had made unusual progress in
mathematics, and his gifted mind soon penetrated the mysteries of
transcendental philosophy. He was only sixteen when he passed from
the preparatory sciences to that of medicine, in which he succeeded
with the same celerity; and great is the sagacity attributed to
him in the knowledge of diseases. He is praised in particular for
having discovered that the illness of the King of Gordia’s nephew was
occasioned by an amorous passion which he had carefully concealed, and
for the stratagem by which he discovered the object of the young man’s
affections.

His credit as a physician and philosopher became so great that the
Sultan Magdal Doulet determined to place him at the head of his
affairs, and appointed him to the distinguished position of Grand
Vizier; but, notwithstanding the religion of Mohammed, which Avicenna
professed, he drank so freely, and his intemperance led to so much
immorality and disorder, that he was deprived of his dignities in the
State, and died in comparative obscurity at the age of fifty-six. He
was buried at Hamadan, a city of Persia, which was the ancient Ecbatana.

Though his history gave rise to the saying that he was a philosopher
devoid of wisdom, and a physician without health, the Arabs long
believed that he commanded spirits, and was served by the Jinn. As he
sought the philosophic stone, several oriental peoples affirm him to
be still alive, dwelling in splendid state, invested with spiritual
powers, and enjoying in an unknown retreat the sublime nectar of
perpetual life and the rejuvenating qualities of the _aurum potabile_.

Six or seven treatises on Hermetic philosophy are ascribed to Avicenna;
some of them are undoubtedly spurious. There is a treatise on the
“Congelation of the Stone” and a _Tractatulus de Alchimia_, which may
be found in the first volumes of the _Ars Aurifera_, Basle, 1610.
In 1572 the _Ars Chimica_ was printed at Berne. Two Hermetic tracts
are also attributed to Avicenna by the compilers of the _Theatrum
Chimicum_, and an octavo volume _Porta Elementorum_, appeared under his
name at Basle during the third quarter of the sixteenth century.

The grimoires and magical rituals frequently appeal to Avicenna as the
authority for their supernatural secrets.

The _Tractatulus Alchimiæ_ treats of the nature of the sophic mercury,
which contains the sophic sulphur, and wherefrom every mineral
substance was originally created by God. This mercury is the universal
vivific spirit; there is nothing in the world to compare with it; it
penetrates, exalts, and develops everything; it is a ferment to every
body with which it is united chemically; it is the grand metallic
elixir, both to the white, or silver, and red, or gold producing,
degrees. Its potencies develop under the action of fire. Though found
in all minerals, it is a thing of the earth. It possesses lucidity,
fluidity, and a silverine colour. The perfection and the praise of gold
are elaborately celebrated in succeeding pages. The _prima materia_
is declared to be of a duplex nature, and the duplex elixir, which
is the result of successful operation, has powers that are beyond
nature, because it is eminently spiritual. The strength of the perfect
magisterium is one upon a thousand.

The chemical knowledge of Avicenna is derived from Geber, as his
medical erudition was borrowed from Galen, Aristotle, and other
anterior writers. He describes several varieties of saltpetre, and
treats of the properties of common salt, vitriol, sulphur, orpiment,
sal ammoniac, &c.




MORIEN,


or Morienus, was a recluse born at Rome in the twelfth century, and who
took up his habitation in Egypt, where he became profoundly versed in
the chemistry and physics of the period. While his education was still
progressing in his native city, and under the eyes of a father and
mother who tenderly cherished him, he heard of the reputation of Adfar,
the Arabian philosopher of Alexandria, and contrived to get a sight of
his writings, when he was immediately seized with a desperate desire to
understand their meaning. The first impressions of youth carried him
away; he abandoned his home, and set out for Alexandria, where, after
some difficulty, he discovered the abode of the philosopher. He made
known to him his name, his country, and his religion, and both appeared
well contented with each other--Adfar at having found a young man
whose docility he could depend on, and Morien that he was under the
discipline of a master who promised to unveil to him the source of all
treasures.

They studied together; the amiability of the pupil encouraged his
instructor to make known to him all his secrets, after which, according
to one account, Morien went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then
turned hermit. It seems more probable that he tarried with Adfar till
his death, which in spite of his immense treasures, his illumination,
and his acquirements in arcane philosophy, eventually occurred,
and that then Morien, having paid the last duties to his deceased
initiator, quitted Alexandria, and proceeded on his pilgrimage. He
purchased a retreat near the city of Jerusalem, where he settled in the
company of a pupil, whom he doubtless intended to form for science.

In the meantime, the papers of the adept Adfar appear to have fallen
into the hands of Kalid, the Soldan of Egypt, a wise and curious
prince. On the title-page of these manuscripts it was stated that
they contained the priceless secret of the philosophical stone. The
Soldan studied them with avidity, but made no progress towards their
comprehension, and not being able to accomplish the _magnum opus_ in
his own person, he instituted a careful search for some one who was
qualified to interpret the unintelligible mysteries of the manuscripts.
He convened all the philosophers to Cairo, promised to maintain them,
and to provide them with all the materials and machinery required for
the success of alchemical processes, and guaranteed a magnificent
reward to any person who succeeded. As it might happen even at this
day, many persons presented themselves who had their minds fixed upon
the profits to be derived from such transactions.

Morien, hearing with pain how much Kalid was deceived by worthless
pretenders, quitted his retreat and repaired in all haste to Egypt,
with the ultimate conversion of the Soldan quite as much at heart
as the communication of the mysteries of Adfar. The labours of the
pretended alchemists had produced nothing, as the initiated hermit
had expected, but something in the manner of Morien impressed the
prince, who appointed him a house in which he might remain until he
had finished the process. The work in due course was brought to its
absolute perfection; the philosopher inscribed these words on the vase
in which he placed the elixir:--“He who possesses all has no need of
others,” and, immediately quitting Alexandria, he returned to his
hermitage.

Possessed though he now was of the great and supreme elixir, Kalid
had no notion how to make use of it for the transmutations he desired
to accomplish. He was equally penetrated with regret at the loss of a
veritable artist, and filled with indignation at the false alchemists
who had promised him all things, but had accomplished nothing, he
ordained by an edict the capital punishment of every exposed pretender.
Some years passed away, during which the Soldan vainly sought the
possessor of the potent secret. At length one day, being at the chase,
and accompanied by a favourite slave, an incident occurred which led
to the eventual fulfilment of his ambition. The slave, whose name was
Galip, riding a little apart, discovered an aged man at prayer in
a solitary place. He questioned him, and learned that he came from
Jerusalem, where he had been abiding in the hermitage of a holy man. He
had heard of the anxiety of Kalid to accomplish the mystery of Hermes,
and knowing that the hermit in question was a man of unparalleled skill
in the sacred, supernal science, he had quitted Palestine to inform the
prince thereof.

“Oh! my brother, what do you say?” exclaimed Galip. “No more! I do not
wish you to die like those impostors who have vaunted themselves to my
master.”

“I fear nothing,” returned the hermit. “If you be able to present me to
the prince, I will at once go before him with confidence.”

Galip accordingly presented him, and the old man informed Kalid that
he could enable him to accomplish the Hermetic work, that he was
acquainted with an adept hermit of the solitudes of Jerusalem, who, by
illumination from the Deity, had received supernatural wisdom, and by
his own admission was in possession of the precious gift. The quantity
of gold and silver which he brought each year to Jerusalem was a
conclusive proof of the fact.

The Soldan represented the danger of false promises to the venerable
man, and warned him how many deceptive and boasting adventurers
had already met their death. The hermit, however, persisted in his
confident assertions, and Kalid, hearing the description of Morien,
commanded Galip, his slave, to accompany the old man with a sufficient
escort to Jerusalem, where they eventually arrived after many
labours, and were rejoiced by the discovery of Morien, who beneath
his hair-cloth shirt is declared to have preserved a perpetually
youthful frame. Galip recognised him at once, saluted him on the
part of his master, and persuaded him to return to the prince, who
received him with unbounded satisfaction, and would have engaged him
in a worldly situation at his court. Morien, however, was intent
only on the conversion of Kalid; he made known to him the mysteries
of Christianity, but in spite of his wisdom was unable to effect the
desired end. He appears, notwithstanding, to have discovered to him the
secret of the transcendent science, and the conversation of Morien and
Kalid has been written in Arabic, and translated into Latin and French.

The subsequent history of Morien is not recorded. In the collections of
Hermetic philosophy there are some small tracts attributed to Kalid,
and also to Galip, who appears to have participated in the secret.
Morien himself is cited as the author of three works, said to have
been translated from the Arabic, but their authenticity is, of course,
very doubtful. The first is entitled _Liber de Distinctione Mecurii
Aquarum_, of which a manuscript copy existed in the library of Robert
Boyle. The second is the _Liber de Compositione Alchemiæ_, printed
in the first volume of the _Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa_. Finally,
several editions have appeared of a treatise entitled _De Re Metallica,
metallorum Transmutatione, et occulta summaque antiquorum medicina
libellus_. It was first printed at Paris in the year 1559.

Bacon and Arnold, who appeared one at the beginning, and the other at
the end of the thirteenth century, have cited Morien as an authority
among the Hermetic philosophers, and Robertus Castrensis assures us
that he translated Morien’s book from the Arabic language in the year
1182.

The _Liber de Compositione Alchemiæ_ contains a Hermetic conversation
between Morien, Kalid, and Galip. It appeals to the authority of
Hermes, whom it states to have been the first who discovered the grand
magisterium, the secret of which he transmitted to his disciples. It
declares the _prima materia_ to be one, quoting the testimony of the
wise king and philosopher Hercules and the adept Arsicanus, with other
pseudo authorities, which discredit the date of the dialogue far more
than they support the alchemical theory in question.




ALBERTUS MAGNUS.


The universal genius of Albert, joined to a laudable curiosity in
so great a philosopher, say the original “Lives of Alchemysticall
Philosophers,” did not allow him to pass by the Hermetic science
without giving it due attention.

Counter authorities, while admitting that in things scientific he
must be counted the most curious and investigating of the children
of men, emphatically assert that he has been erroneously included
by demonographers among the number of magicians, and that in the
twenty-one goodly folio volumes which comprise his _opera omnia_,
there is no trace of sorcery. In one place he declares formally that
“all those stories of demons prowling in the regions of the air, and
from whom the secrets of futurity may be ascertained, are absurdities
which can never be admitted by sober reason.” The works on incredible
secrets, so numerously attributed to him, are, therefore, condemned
as spurious, Albertus Magnus having no more hand in their production
than in the invention of the cannon and the pistol, which has been
attributed to him by Matthias de Luna.

So early, however, as the year 1480 the Great Chronicle of Belgium
records him _magnus in magia, major in philosophia, maximus in
theologia_. It is futile for the historians of his order to argue that
Albert never applied himself to the Hermetic art, says an anonymous
writer. His books alone--those which are his incontestably--bear
witness to his alchemical erudition, and as a physician he carefully
examined what regards Natural History, and above all the minerals
and metals. His singular experiments are recorded in the _Secretum
Secretorum_, which first appeared at Venice in 1508.

Michael Maier declares that he received from the disciples of St
Dominic the secret of the philosophical stone, and that he communicated
it in turn to St Thomas Aquinas; that he was in possession of a stone
naturally marked with a serpent, and endowed with so admirable a virtue
that on being set down in a place infested with such reptiles, it would
attract them from their hiding places; that for the space of thirty
years he employed all his knowledge as a magician and astrologer to
construct, out of metals carefully chosen under appropriate planetary
influences, an automaton endowed with the power of speech, and
which served him as an infallible oracle, replying plainly to every
kind of question which could possibly be proposed to it. This was
the celebrated Androïd, which was destroyed by St Thomas under the
impression that it was a diabolical contrivance.

The most marvellous story of his magical abilities is extant in the
history of the University of Paris. He invited William II., Count of
Holland and King of the Romans, to a supper in his monastic house at
Cologne. Although it was midwinter Albertus had tables prepared in
the garden of the convent; the earth was covered with snow, and the
courtiers who accompanied William murmured at the imprudence and folly
of the philosopher in exposing the prince to the severity of such
weather. As they sat down, however, the snow suddenly disappeared, and
they felt not only the softness of spring, but the garden was filled
with odoriferous flowers; the birds flew about as in summer, singing
their most delightful notes, and the trees appeared in blossom. Their
surprise at this metamorphosis of nature was considerably heightened
when, at the end of the repast, these wonders disappeared in a moment,
and the cold wind began to blow with its accustomed rigour.

The life of Albertus belongs to the history of theology. He was born
in Suabia, at Larvigen, on the Danube, in 1205. He is accredited with
excessive stupidity in his youth, but his devotion to the Virgin
was rewarded by a vision, which was accompanied by an intellectual
illumination, and he became one of the greatest doctors of his time.
He was made provincial of the Dominicans, and was appointed to the
bishopric of Ratisbon, which he subsequently resigned to pursue his
scientific and philosophic studies in a delightful conventual retreat
at Cologne. In his old age he relapsed into the mediocrity of his
earlier years, which gave rise to the saying that from an ass he was
transformed into a philosopher, and from a philosopher he returned into
an ass.

The term Magnus, which has been applied to him, is not the consequence
of his reputation. It is the Latin equivalent of his family name,
Albert de Groot.

Among the spurious works attributed to him is that entitled _Les
Admirables Secrets d’Albert le Grand_, which is concerned with the
virtues of herbs, precious stones, and animals, with an abridgment of
physiognomy, methods for preservation against the plague, malignant
fevers, poisons, &c. The first book treats of the planetary influences
in their relation to nativities, of the magical properties possessed by
the hair of women, of the infallible means of ascertaining whether a
child still in the womb is male or female, &c. In the others there is a
curious chaos of remarkable superstitions concerning urine, vermin, old
shoes, putrefaction, the manipulation of metals, &c.

A magical grimoire entitled _Alberti Parvi Lucii Liber de Mirabilibus
Naturæ Arcanis_, adorned with figures and talismans, appeared at Lyons,
bearing the Kabbalistic date 6516. The composition of philtres, the
interpretation of dreams, the discovery of treasures, the composition
of the hand of glory, the ring of invisibility, the sympathetic
powder, the sophistication of gold, and other marvels, are familiarly
explained; but this work is another forgery, and an insult to the
memory of a really illustrious man.

In the treatise which he wrote upon minerals, Albert informs us that he
personally tested some gold and silver which had been manufactured by
an alchemist, and which resisted six or seven exceptionally searching
fusions, but the pretended metal was reduced into actual scoriæ by
an eighth. He recognises, however, the possibility of transmutation
when performed upon the principles of Nature. He considers that all
metals are composed of an unctuous and subtle humidity, intimately
incorporated with a subtle and perfect matter.

If the purely alchemical works which are ascribed to Albertus have
any claim to authenticity, he must be ranked as a skilful practical
chemist for the period in which he flourished. He employed alembics for
distillation, and aludels for sublimation; he also made use of various
lutes, the composition of which he describes. He mentions alum and
caustic alkali, and seems to have been aware of the alkaline basis of
cream of tartar. He knew the method of purifying the precious metals
by means of lead and of gold, by cementation, likewise the method of
testing the purity of gold. He mentions red lead, metallic arsenic,
and liver of sulphur. He was acquainted with green vitriol and iron
pyrites. He knew that arsenic renders copper white, and that sulphur
attacks all the metals except gold.[H]


FOOTNOTES:

[H] Thomson, “Hist. of Chemistry,” vol. i., pp. 32, 33.




THOMAS AQUINAS.


If Albertus Magnus must be considered an adept in possession of the
philosophic stone, there is little doubt that he discovered it to
his favourite pupil, St Thomas, the most illustrious of the kings
of intelligence who glorified the scholastic period of Christian
philosophy. There are some alchemical treatises ascribed to the angel
of the schools which he certainly did not write. “That of the ‘Nature
of Minerals’ is unworthy of so great a philosopher,” says a certain
anonymous authority, “and so is the ‘Comment on the _Turba_.’ But his
_Thesaurus Alchemiæ_, addressed to Brother Regnauld, his companion
and friend, is genuine. He cites Albert in this as his master in all
things, especially in Hermetic philosophy. He addressed other books
to Regnauld on the curious sciences, amongst which is a treatise on
Judicial Astrology.”

This opinion deserves due consideration, yet in all his theological
works St Thomas carefully avoided every suspicion of alchemy,
persuaded, says the same writer, that it would bring dishonour to his
name as the height of human folly. Moreover, in one of his treatises
he distinctly states that “it is not lawful to sell as good gold that
which is made by Alchemy,” proof positive that he considered the
transmutatory art to be simply the sophistication of the precious metal.

On the other hand, the _Thesaurus Alchemiæ_, generally attributed
to him by adepts, testifies that “the aim of the alchemist is to
change imperfect metal into that which is perfect,” and asserts
the possibility of the thing. These contradictions scarcely afford
convincing proof of a common authorship; but spurious or otherwise,
the works on the Hermetic science which are attributed to the angelic
doctor are of importance in the history of alchemy. Their leading
character is secrecy, and they insist on the preservation of the
sublime operation from unworthy men, only the children of light, who
live as in the presence of God, being fit for the knowledge or custody
of so supernal a mystery.

The _Thesaurus Alchemiæ_ has the brevity which characterised St Thomas,
for it is comprised in a very few leaves. The other works attributed
to him are _Secreta Alchymiæ Magnalia_ and _De Esse et Essentia
Mineralium_, together with the comment on the _Turba_. Some of the
terms still employed by modern chemists occur for the first time in
these supposititious writings of Thomas Aquinas--_e.g._, the word
amalgam, which is used to denote a compound of mercury and some other
metal.

In the tractates addressed to Brother Regnauld, we learn that the
students of alchemy are in search of a single substance which
absolutely resists the fierce action of fire, which itself penetrates
everything, and tinges mercury. The work is a work of the hands, and
great patience is required in it. Instruments are necessary, but in the
true Hermetic operation there is but one vase, one substance, one way,
and one only operation.




ROGER BACON.


Roger Bacon was the first Englishman who is known to have cultivated
alchemical philosophy. This learned man was born in 1214, near
Ilcester, in Somerset. He made extraordinary progress in the
preliminary studies of boyhood; when his age permitted he entered the
order of St Francis, and passed from Oxford to Paris, where he learned
mathematics and medicine. On his return he applied himself to languages
and philosophy, and made such progress that he wrote grammars of the
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues.

Pronouncing the panegyric of Bacon, Figuier calls him the greatest
intellect which has arisen in England, a student of nature who was more
physician than chemist, and a scientist to whom the world owes many
extraordinary discoveries. He was almost the only astronomer of his
time, and to him we are indebted for the rectification of the Julian
Calendar, in regard to the solar year, which in 1267 he submitted to
Clement IV., but which was not put in practice till the pontificate
of Gregory. The physical analysis of the properties of lenses and
convex glasses, the invention of spectacles and achromatic lenses, the
theory, and possibly the first construction, of the telescope, are all
due to the superior and penetrating genius of Bacon.

An adequate notion of his schemes in mechanical science may be gathered
from one of his own letters--_Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de
Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturæ et de nullitate Magiæ_, Hambourg,
1618. Having undertaken to demonstrate that by the help of natural
science it is possible to actually perform the pretended prodigies
of magic, he further assures us that machines may be constructed for
navigation without the aid of rowers, in such a manner that vessels
will be borne through the water with extraordinary velocity, under the
direction of a single man. “It is equally possible to construct cars
which may be set in motion with marvellous rapidity, independently of
horses or other animals. Flying machines may also be made, the man
seated in the centre, and by means of certain contrivances beating
the air with artificial wings.” In the same way Bacon anticipated the
invention of the crane, diving apparatus, suspension bridges, &c. These
things, he declares, were known to the ancients, and may still be
recovered.

“Should we be surprised,” demands one of his biographers, “if all
these prodigies obtained for him the name of magician in an age of
superstition and ignorance? the friars of his own order refused to
let his works into their library, as if he were a man who ought to be
proscribed by society. His persecution increased till, in 1278, he
was imprisoned and forced to confess his repentance of his pains in
the arts and sciences. He was constrained to abandon the house of his
order, and to form a retreat where he might work in quiet.”

The reputation of Bacon as a magician spread over Western Europe. He
was supposed to be indebted for his wisdom to incessant communication
with demons. Wierus accuses him of goëtic magic, and erudite persons
affirm that Antichrist will make use of his enchanted mirrors for
the performance of lying miracles. He really believed in judicial
astrology and in the philosophical stone. “By neglecting the lights of
experience,” he says, “alchemy can seldom produce gold of twenty-four
carats. Few persons have carried the science to so high a point. But
with the help of Aristotle’s ‘Secret of Secrets,’ experimental science
has manufactured not only gold of twenty-four degrees, but of thirty,
forty, and onward according to pleasure.”

The application of alchemy to the extension of life was another subject
of study with Roger Bacon. The grand secret, he assures us, does not
only ensure the welfare of the commonwealth and of the individual, but
it may be used to prolong life, for that operation by which the most
inferior metals is purged from the corrupt elements which they contain
till they are exalted into the purest gold and silver, is considered by
every adept to be eminently calculated to eliminate so completely the
corrupt particles of the human body, that the life of mortality may be
extended to several centuries.

A citation by Franciscus Picus from Bacon’s “Book of the Six Sciences”
recounts how a man may become a prophet and predict the future by means
of a mirror which Bacon calls _Almuchefi_, composed in accordance with
the laws of perspective under the influence of a benign constellation,
_and after the body of the individual has been modified by alchemy_.

On the word of a man who enjoyed his full confidence, he tells us how
a celebrated Parisian savant, after cutting a serpent into fragments,
taking care to preserve intact the skin of its belly, subsequently let
loose the animal, which began immediately to roll upon certain herbs,
and their virtues speedily healed him. The experimenter examined these
herbs, and found them of a remarkably green colour. On the authority
of Artephius, he relates how a certain magician, named Tantalus, and
who was attached to the person of the King of India, had discovered
by his proficiency in planetary lore, a method of preserving life
over several centuries. He enlarges on the potency of theriac in the
excessive prolongation of life. He lauds the flesh of winged serpents
as a specific against senility in mankind. By the hygiene of Artephius
he informs us that that adept lived over a thousand years. If Plato and
Aristotle failed to prolong their existence it is not surprising, for
they were ignorant even of the quadrature of the circle, which Bacon
declares to have been well known at his time, and which is indefinitely
inferior to the grand medical doctrine of Artephius.[I]

The chemical investigations of the great English Franciscan have
proved valuable to the science which he loved. He studied carefully
the properties of saltpetre, and if he did not discover gunpowder, he
contributed to its perfection by teaching the purification of saltpetre
by its dissolution in water and by crystallisation. He also called
attention to the chemical rôle played by the air in combustion.[J]

Many of Bacon’s works still remain in manuscript, but his _Speculum
Alchimiæ_ was done into French by Girard de Tourmes, and published at
Lyons in duodecimo and octavo in 1557. _De Potestate Mirabili Artis et
Naturæ_, which is merely a chapter of the Epistle already cited, was
translated by the same hand.

In another work, entitled _Radix Mundi_, the supreme secret of Hermetic
philosophy is said to be hidden in the four elements. This treatise,
which quotes Paracelsus, is, however, an impudent forgery.

The “Mirror of Alchemy,” like other works of the philosophers, appeals
to Hermes as to a master-initiate, whose authority is not only
sufficient but final. The natural principles of all metals are argent
vive, that is, sophic mercury, and sulphur. The various proportions in
which these principles are combined, together with their degrees of
purity, constitute the sole difference between the best and the basest
metal.


FOOTNOTES:

[I] Nam quadraturam circuli se ignorasse confitetur, quod his diebus
scitur veraciter.

[J] Figuier, _L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes_, p. 97.




ALAIN OF LISLE.


An alchemical treatise, entitled _Dicta de Lapide Philosophico_,
appeared in octavo at Leyden during the year 1600. It was attributed
to Alanus Insulensis, and was reprinted in the _Theatrum Chimicum_,
Argentorati, 1662. It is denied that this work is the production of
that Alain de Lisle who was called the universal doctor, and who,
after a brilliant period passed in the University of Paris, retired to
a cloister as a lay brother, in order to be master of his time, and
to devote himself entirely to philosophy. Migne’s _Dictionnaire des
Sciences Occultes_ asserts that another Alanus flourished at the same
period, but the existence of the alchemical volume is the sole ground
for this statement. It cannot be shown, on the other hand, that Alain
practised the Hermetic Science, but he was the author of a “Commentary
on the Prophecies of Merlin.” He was made bishop of Auxerre, and died
in 1278. The publishers of alchemical treatises were accustomed to
trade upon brilliant reputations of the past by attributing worthless
works to great authorities. The name of Alanus Insulensis appearing on
the title-page of the _Dicta de Lapide Philosophico_ may perhaps be
accounted for in this manner.

The treatise itself is short and not of abnormal value. It represents
the Hermetic art as the gift of God, and counsels the neophyte to
love Him with all his heart and soul. It describes the mysteries of
sublimation, and follows preceding authorities on the problem of the
_prima materia_. Its generally indefinite and unprofitable character
from any practical standpoint should make it an exceptional field for
every species of fanciful interpretation.




RAYMOND LULLY.


The comparison of a brilliant but ephemeral reputation to “the comet
of a season” has been transferred from the region of poetry into that
of proverb, and is certainly applicable to no figure in the history
of literature or science more completely than to the subject of this
memoir. The name of Raymond Lully has indeed passed so completely
into oblivion that it awakes no recollections whatever except in
the minds of certain specialists in history and philosophy. Yet he
exercised no small influence on his generation, while for a century
after his death all intellectual Europe was acquainted with his method
for the acquisition of the sciences and his voluminous literary and
evangelistic labours. Raymond Lully united the saint and the man
of science, the philosopher and the preacher, the apostle and the
itinerant lecturer, the dialectician and the martyr; in his youth he
was a courtier and a man of pleasure; in mature age he was an ascetic
who had discovered the universal science through a special revelation
from God; after his death he was denounced as a heretic, and then
narrowly escaped beatification as a saint. While his relics worked
miracles in Majorca, colleges were founded in various parts of Europe
for teaching the _Ars Lulliana_, which was to replace the scholastic
method; but the miracles ceased, the universal science fell into
neglect, and, as the last scene in this eventful history, Raymond Lully
appears in popular legends as an adept in alchemy, whose age was
prolonged through centuries by the discovery of the elixir of life.

Having succeeded in rescuing from oblivion and misrepresentation this
singular man, whose sanctity was as eminent as his attainments were
unique, I shall here present the first true history of his life and
works to the reading public of England; the romantic narrative will be
as interesting to the general student as to the occultist and the man
of letters.

The father of Raymond Lully was a gentleman of Barcelona, who, having
served under the banner of John I., King of Arragon, at the conquest
of the Balearic Isles from the Mohammedans, was gifted with lands in
Majorca, and there settled. He was of an old and noble Catalonian
family, and was wedded to a lady whose name is not known. Though
possessed of considerable wealth, his happiness was marred by the
sterility of his wife; but, addressing themselves to the goodness of
God, the lady was eventually delivered of a son, who was named, like
his father, Raymond Lully. He was born, according to Ségui, in 1229,
but according to Jean Marie de Vernon, and other authorities, in 1235,
which, on the whole, is the more probable date. When the young Raymond
had attained the use of reason, his parents endeavoured to imbue
him with love for the liberal arts, but his mercurial and impetuous
disposition was unsuited to serious study, and he was permitted to
follow his father’s profession of arms. He was made page to the King,
with whom he acquired such high favour that he was installed as Grand
Prevôt, or Master of the Palace, and subsequently as Seneschal of the
Isles; but he employed the advantages of these distinguished positions
in the dissipations of a youth without curb or restraint. The flower of
his manhood was wasted in the gaieties of court life, in winning the
favours of ladies, and in composing amorous verses in their honour. He
spared no pains to make himself pleasing to those who were beautiful,
and his excesses were so glaring that his parents, and King James II.
himself, were forced to make great complaints to him. As a remedy for
the irregularities of his life, it was proposed that he should marry,
and a wife at once beautiful, virtuous, and wealthy was selected by
his advisers and friends. She was named Catherine de Sabots. Though he
became much attached to this lady, the bond of marriage did not prove
strong enough to confine his errant inclinations, and there was one
person in particular for whom he conceived a great passion, though he
was already the father of two male children and of one girl. This was
the Signora Ambrosia Eleonora de Castello de Gênes, whose virtue was
superior to her personal attractions, though she eclipsed in loveliness
all the beauties of the Court. She was married to a man whom she loved,
but such was the infatuation of Raymond Lully that he paid her the
most marked attentions, and on one occasion, lost to all around him
except the object of his admiration, he is said to have followed her on
horseback into the church of Palma, a town in Majorca, where she had
gone one morning to mass. So outrageous an act could not fail to cause
great scandal, more particularly on account of the high rank of both
parties concerned. The lady, thus suddenly raised to such undesirable
notoriety, took counsel with her husband as to the course which she
should pursue to put an end to the persecutions of her admirer. In the
meantime, Raymond Lully, conscious no doubt that he had exceeded all
bounds of moderation, wrote an incoherent apology, accompanied with
a sonnet, in which he particularly described the beauty of her neck.
To this the lady replied by a letter, written in the presence of her
husband, and which is here copied _verbatim_ from the old French writer
who relates this portion of the story.

  LETTER from the SIGNORA DI CASTELLO DE GÊNES to
  RAYMOND LULLY, which is a civil reply to a lover to
  dissuade him from profaning love.

 “SIR,--The sonnet which you have sent me is evidence of the
 superiority of your genius and the imperfection, or, rather, the
 perversity of your judgment. With what vivacity would you depict true
 beauty since by your verses you even embellish ugliness! But how can
 you employ such exalted talents in the laudation of a little clay
 briefly tinged with vermilion? Your industry should be employed in
 eradicating and not in publishing your passion.

 “’Tis not that you are unworthy of the affection of the noblest woman
 in the world, but you become unworthy of it by devoting yourself to
 the service of one who is the least of all. Is it possible that an
 intelligence created for God alone, and illuminated as it is, can be
 so blind on this point?

 “Abandon then a passion which deprives you of your native nobility. Do
 not tarnish your reputation by the pursuit of an object which you can
 never possess. I could terribly disillusion you by showing you that
 what you so much admire should rather be held in aversion. Yet rest
 well assured that I love you all the more truly because I appear to
 have no regard for you.”

This letter served only to feed the flame in the breast of Raymond
Lully, till, other means having failed, the lady, still acting under
the advice of her husband, called her lover into her presence, and
exposed to him her breast which was almost eaten away by a cancer,
whence an offensive odour issued.

“Look on what thou lovest, Raymond Lully,” she cried, with tears in her
eyes, “Consider the condition of this wretched body in which thy spirit
centres all its hopes and pleasures, and then repent of thy useless
attempts; mourn for the time which thou hast wasted in persecuting a
being whom thou didst fondly deem perfect, but who has so dreadful
a blemish! Change this useless and criminal passion into holy love,
direct thine affections to the Creator, not to the creature, and in the
acquisition of eternal bliss take now the same pains which thou hast
hitherto vainly spent to engage me in thy foolish passion!”

The sight had already melted the heart of Raymond Lully and restored
him to reason. After expressing to the noble-hearted lady how deeply
he felt for her misfortune, he withdrew from the house, ashamed of
the passion he had conceived, and reaching home, overwhelmed with
confusion, he cast himself at the feet of a crucifix, and vowed to
consecrate himself henceforth to the service of God alone. He passed
a more than usually tranquil night, being filled with this zealous
resolution, and the vision of Christ is said to have appeared to him,
saying, “Raymond Lully, from henceforth do thou follow me!” This vision
was repeated several times, and he judged it to be an indication
of the Divine Will. Raymond was at this period about thirty years
old; he filled one of the most noble situations at court, and might
have aspired to any honour for himself or his family. He resolved,
nevertheless, to renounce the world, and soon arranged his affairs,
dividing so much of his estate among his family as would enable
them to live honourably, retaining a small portion for his personal
necessities, and distributing the rest among the poor. His plans in the
matter were so punctually fulfilled, that he was accused of plunging
from one folly to another.

At this period he is said to have made a pilgrimage to St John in
Galicia, and a retreat thereat. He returned in due course to Majorca,
and took the habit of religion, but did not, however, embrace the
religious life. He retired to a small dwelling on the mountain of
Randa, a possession which had not been included in the general sale of
his estate. Here he fell ill, and was consoled by two visions of the
Saviour.

After his change of life, the first boon which he asked of God was
so to illuminate his mind that he might compose a book capable of
completely annihilating the errors of Mahomet, and of forcing the
infidels, by good and solid reasoning, to embrace the faith of Jesus
Christ. In answer to this prayer, he was conscious, it is asserted, of
a perfect spiritual illumination, and became instantaneously capable
of reasoning powerfully on all subjects, so that he passed henceforth
for a great and subtle doctor both in human and divine sciences. A
more sober account informs us that “he prepared himself to labour
for the conversion of the Mahometans, by studying their books in the
Arabic language,” and that his preparation continued for the space
of six years. According to another authority, this missionary zeal
did not date from an earlier period than 1268--three years after his
reformation--when in another of his visions he beheld upon the leaves
of a myrtle or a mastic tree, certain marks which resembled Turkish
or Arabic characters. On awaking, he regarded himself as called to a
mission among the heathen.

Convinced, says one of his biographers, that the Spirit of God had not
inspired him with the Celestial Science to let it rest idle, and that
he would be betraying his vocation if his light were hidden under a
bushel, he resolved to journey to Paris and there publish the eternal
truths which had been revealed to him. Others have supposed that in
undertaking this journey he was simply seeking instruction in the Latin
tongue at one of the centres of learning. Several of his treatises on
Philosophy, Theology, Medicine, and Astronomy are, however, referred
to this period, as well as some works on alchemy, but this point will
receive adequate consideration hereafter.

Still imbued with his evangelistic and missionary zeal, he engaged a
young Arab as his valet, that he might perfect himself in colloquial
Arabic; but he, discovering that his master intended to demolish the
divine principles of the Koran, and preach against the holy law of
Mahomet, piously resolved to assassinate him, and one day plunged a
dagger into his breast. He sought to repeat the blow, but Raymond
Lully, wounded and bleeding as he was, contrived to disarm him, perhaps
with the assistance of a holy and opportune anchorite, who is advanced
at this critical moment by one of the biographers. The young Arab was
imprisoned with the reluctant consent of his over magnanimous master,
who does not appear to have proceeded further against him; but the
unhappy Mohammedan enthusiast was so overwhelmed with vexation at the
failure of his heroic design to destroy, at all costs, the implacable
foe of the prophet, that he strangled himself in his dungeon in a
paroxysm of impotent fury.

It was after this episode, and after the recovery of Raymond Lully
from the violence of his valet, that, according to another historian,
he retired to Mount Randa, and that then, and then only, he received
from the Father of Lights that new illumination with which others have
accredited him at a much earlier period. This was probably a second
visit paid to his Balearic solitude; he tarried there seven months,
“always absorbed in prayer, and conversing, as it seemed to him,
continually with angels, whose consolations he received--consolations,”
says the pious writer, “which the soul can indeed realise, but which
the lips cannot worthily describe.”

Having left his retreat, he determined to travel to Rome, to exhort
his Holiness to establish in Europe several monasteries, where monks
should be occupied in acquiring and teaching languages, in order to
spread everywhere the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to labour for the
conversion of the infidels. But Honorius IV., from whose piety he
had everything to hope, died as soon as Lully reached Rome, and he
therefore returned to Paris, where he explained publicly his General
or Universal Art for the acquisition of all sciences. From Paris he
went to Mont Pelin, where he also taught and wrote; thence to Genoa,
where he translated his _Art Inventif_ into Arabic. From Genoa he
again proceeded to Rome, but seeing that it was impossible to attain
his ends on account of the obstacles which presented themselves in the
Sacred Court, he returned to Genoa, intending to start for Africa, and
personally labour in the conversion of the infidels. He made terms
with the owner of a vessel, shipped his books on board, with the other
necessities of his journey, but, when he was himself on the point
of embarking, a vision of all the dangers he was about to encounter
so worked upon his mind, that he was deprived even of the power of
walking, and was obliged to renounce his intention. His effects were
consequently returned to him, and with these he re-entered Genoa in
the midst of a crowd of vagabonds, who derided his weakness. Whether
consequent on this raillery, or through shame at his cowardice, he
became dangerously ill.[K] On the Vigil of Pentecost, 1291, he was
carried to the Convent of Friars Preachers, and received the care which
his condition required. He received the last sacraments, and dictated
his last will and testament; nevertheless, he was destined to recover,
and had scarcely regained his strength when, to repair his previous
fault, he embarked upon the first vessel bound for Tunis. During the
voyage he composed his “General Tabulation of the Sciences.”

Immediately on his arrival at Tunis, he held conferences with those who
were most erudite in the law of Mahomet. He proved, at least to his own
satisfaction, that they were in error and darkness, and that truth was
on the side of Jesus Christ. He was accused before the King of Tunis
of seducing the people, was arrested, cast into prison, and ultimately
condemned to death. But a learned Arabian priest, overcome by his
arguments, obtained his pardon on condition of his instant departure.
He left the town amidst the insults and opprobrium of the populace,
prohibited to return, on pain of certain death.

In 1293 he arrived at Genoa from this disastrous mission, and he
appears to have proceeded immediately to Naples, where he remained till
the pontificate of Celestin V., teaching publicly his _Ars Magna_ and
_Arbor Scientiarum_. In December 1294, he repaired to Rome to persuade
the Pope to send missionaries to the infidels, and he appears to
have obtained the establishment of several colleges for the study of
oriental languages. Moreover, the University of Paris, by an authentic
act, adopted and recommended the use of his short method of acquiring
knowledge, and some of his more important philosophical doctrines.
Still, his missionary efforts were not generally successful, and he
again wandered from place to place, confuting heretics. He travelled
to Montpellier, where he was received with distinction by Raymond
Gauffredy, General of the Order of St Francis. He obtained letters of
association, as a benefactor to the order, the superiors of which were
put under his direction, and he taught his method in their houses. He
preached in Cyprus against the Nestorians and Georgians, striving to
bring them back to the bosom of the Church. He addressed himself for
assistance in his manifold enterprises to the Kings of France, Sicily,
Majorca, and Cyprus, but generally in vain.

In 1308 he returned to Paris, where he conversed with the celebrated
Johannes Scotus, who is known as the subtle doctor. He had the
satisfaction to find that King Philip le Bel had directed the oriental
languages to be taught in the University of Paris. This induced Raymond
to proceed in the following year to Ferdinand IV., King of Castile,
to engage him to unite with the King of France for the recovery of
the Holy Land, but this oft-repeated and invariably disastrous and
futile enterprise was fortunately not undertaken. He ventured again to
Africa, landed at Bona, that ancient Hippo which was the diocese of St
Augustine, and despite the opposition of its Mohammedan inhabitants he
succeeded in converting seventy followers of the philosopher Averroës.
Thence he travelled to Algiers and converted many, which brought down
on him the persecution of the authorities. A bridle was put into his
mouth, as if he were a horse, and he was deprived by this means of the
free use of speech for the space of forty days; he was then publicly
beaten, and expelled from the kingdom. He had no other road open to
him but to return to Tunis, where sentence of death awaited him, but
he remained concealed, and shortly after proceeded to Bugia. There
he confounded the doctrines of the Mohammedan priests, successfully
avoiding innumerable deadly snares prepared by the people against him
at the suggestion of their religious teachers. He was at length cast
into a miserable dungeon, where he might well have perished, but the
solicitations of certain Genoese merchants obtained him a better
prison, in which he was confined for six months. Here the Mohammedan
doctors came to him in troops, to persuade him to embrace their law,
promising him the most alluring recompences--slaves, palaces, wealth,
beautiful women, and the King’s friendship. “The result,” says one of
Lully’s biographers, “was that they were almost persuaded to embrace
_His_ law, Who alone could promise them eternal beatitude.”

The gates of Raymond’s prison were at length thrown open, and, as a
disturber of the public peace, he was enjoined to quit those parts at
once. The illustrious wanderer embarked in a Genoese vessel with his
books and papers, but he was wrecked ten miles from the town of Pisa,
escaping hardly with the loss of all his effects. At Pisa he fell
sick, and was carefully attended by the Dominicans. On his recovery
he resumed his public teaching. The conversion of the Mohammedans and
the conquest of the Holy Land were still his chief ends, and he so
eloquently solicited the inhabitants of Pisa to institute an order of
Christian Knights for the deliverance of Judea, that they sent him with
letters to the Holy Father; he was entrusted by the inhabitants of
Genoa with similar documents, and bore also the voluntary offer of the
ladies in that town to contribute towards such a pious and praiseworthy
purpose a considerable sum of money. With these assurances he sought
the Pope at Avignon, presented his letters, and added the most powerful
reasons of his own to persuade him to proclaim another crusade.
Naturally, he obtained nothing from the Papal Court, and he retired to
Paris, sorrowful at his failure and at the coldness of the prelates of
the Church. He continued writing and teaching, and in October 1311,
hearing that a general council would be held at Vienna, he considered
this a favourable opportunity and presented himself before it to demand
three things:--1. The establishment of several monasteries composed
of learned and courageous men, who, willing to expose their lives in
the quarrel of Christ, would take pleasure in acquiring languages in
order to publish the Gospel more effectually. 2. The reduction of all
the Military Orders in the Christian world into a single order, so that
living under one religious rule, and inspired with the same desires,
they might all do battle with the Saracens, and, suppressing all seeds
of jealousy, all selfish interests, by a laudable emulation, with
true Christian piety, seek to deliver the Holy Place from the hands
of the miscreants. 3. The condemnation, by authority of the Pope and
the Council, of all the works of Averroës used in Christian colleges
and schools, because they were distinctly and directly opposed to
the doctrines of true religion. In order to throw more light on this
last point he composed a treatise entitled _De Natale Pueri_. He was
again unsuccessful, and returned to Paris without having accomplished
anything. With unconquerable perseverance he again set himself more
diligently than ever to the composition of books in Latin, Spanish, and
Arabic, for the edification of the Faithful and the instruction of the
Saracens. He became indeed one of the most voluminous authors in the
world, and when weary of the repose of letters he returned to Majorca,
far advanced in years, he embarked, despite the peril, for Tunis,
hoping to work secretly in the conversion of its inhabitants.

According to another account, he publicly proclaimed his return,
crying, “Do you not remember that I am the man whom your princes
formerly hunted from this country and from Tunis in dread that I
should illuminate your souls with the truths of our holy religion,
towards which you already had some disposition? The single hope of your
salvation, and the resolution I have taken to suffer all the torments
of the world for the love of my God, lead me back among you, to do with
me as you please.”

In either case his return was discovered; as one man the people rose
in tumult against him, and having covered him with opprobrium and
atrocious injuries, they chased him with stones from the town to the
port, where he fell miserably overwhelmed.

According to numerous biographers, certain merchants, either of
Majorca or Genoa, passing Tunis, saw a great light, in the shape of
a pyramid, near to the port, on the night of this catastrophe. This
light seemed to issue from a heap of stones, and, curious to discover
its cause, they put ashore in a boat, and thus came upon the precious
body of Raymond Lully, whom, in spite of his disfigured condition, they
immediately recognised.

But M. E. J. Delécleuze, writing in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, gives
us the same narrative unadorned by the veneer of the miraculous. “The
night fell, and the body of Raymond Lully remained on the sea-shore.
During the whole of this terrible scene none of the converts, and still
less the European Christians then sojourning in the town, had dared
to defend the missionary, or even to intercede in his favour. Certain
Genoese merchants, however, desiring to pay the last honours to his
corpse, came in a boat, under cover of the darkness, to bear it away.
In the accomplishment of this pious duty they perceived that Raymond
Lully was still breathing. They carried him in haste to their ship, and
immediately set sail for Majorca, in sight of which island that holy
and learned man expired on the 29th of June 1315, at the age of eighty
years.”[L]

It has already been stated that Raymond Lully was one of the most
prolific writers of his own or of any age. The following list of his
works is given by Alfonso de Proaza in 1515, and is reproduced by A.
Perroquet:--

  Names of Subjects.                            No. of Treatises.
  On the _Ars Veritatis Demonstrativus_,        60
  Grammar and Rhetoric,                          7
  Logic,                                        22
  On the Understanding,                          7
  On Memory,                                     4
  On Will,                                       8
  On Moral and Political Philosophy,            12
  On Law,                                        8
  Philosophy and Physics,                       32
  Metaphysics,                                  26
  Mathematics,                                  19
  Medicine and Anatomy,                         20
  Chemistry,                                    49
  Theology,                                    212
                                               ---
        Total number of treatises,             486

This list is accepted without suspicion or criticism by M. Delécleuze,
but as Raymond Lully did not begin writing till 1270, and as he died
in 1318 at latest, this calculation requires us to suppose that he
produced ten treatise every year without intermission for the space
of eight and forty years, which would have been perfectly impossible
for the most cloistered, book-devoted student, and Raymond Lully was a
man of indefatigable activity, as the facts of his itinerant existence
abundantly reveal. A writer in the _Biographie Universelle_, Paris,
1820, has the following pertinent remarks on this subject:--“Some of
his biographers have extended the number of his treatises to several
thousand.[M] The more moderate have reduced them from five hundred to
three hundred, which lie scattered among the libraries of Majorca,
Rome, Barcelona, the Sorbonne, St Victor, and the Chatreux at Paris;
but scarcely two hundred can be found distinguished by their titles
and the first words of the work; and this number must be still further
diminished as the difference between some of them is very slight, as
chapters have been given for the titles of separate works, and as the
explanations of professors or disciples have often been mistaken by
uncritical writers for the lessons of the master.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Now, the great problem in the chequered life of the illuminated
theosophist and possessor of the universal science who died thus
violently at Tunis, or Bugia, in the cause of his Master, is
this--whether or not he is to be identified with that Raymond Lully
whom Éliphas Lévi terms “a grand and sublime adept of Hermetic
science,” who is said to have made gold and Rose nobles for one
Edward, King of England, and who left behind him, as monuments of his
unparalleled alchemical proficiency, those world-famous treatises,
testaments, and codicils which, rightly or wrongly, are attributed,
under the title “chemistry, 49 treatises,” to the heroic martyr of
Majorca. On this important point, the writer, already quoted, in the
_Bibliothèque Universelle_, testifies that “the works on alchemy must
be referred to another Raymond, of Ferrago, a Jewish neophyte, who
lived after 1315, and with whom Abraham Bzovius confounded the first
in attributing to him some propositions condemned by Gregory XI.” And
again:--“The works on alchemy attributed to him are too opposed to
the evangelical poverty of a man who had renounced everything in his
zeal for the religion of Jesus Christ, and who protests in many places
against the chimera of the philosopher’s stone, sought in his time
by Arnaud de Villeneuve, whose disciple he was supposed to be. The
circumstances and the dates even in several of these books--of which
that on natural wisdom is addressed to Edward III.--prove, moreover,
that they must be referred to a later epoch.”

The problem is eminently difficult of solution, and must be considered
at some length.

Raymond Lully repaired to Vienna to be present at a general council of
the Church in the year 1311. While in this city it is alleged that he
received letters from Edward, King of England, who had ascended the
throne in 1307, and from Robert, King of Scotland, who both invited
him with much persuasion to visit their realms. Hoping to encourage
these princes to assist him in his plans against the infidels, he soon
arrived in London in the company of John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster.

This ecclesiastic is said to have been one of the most celebrated
Hermetic artists of his age. He worked thirty years to attain the end
of alchemy, but the obscurities of the Hermetic writers, which he
could not clear up, cast him into a labyrinth of errors. The more he
read, the more he wondered; at last, tired of the loss of his money,
and much more of his precious time, he set out to travel, and had the
good fortune to meet with Raymond Lully in Italy. With him he formed
a strict friendship, remaining some time in his company, edified by
his penitent life, and illuminated by his philosophical conversations.
The adept, though he spoke upon alchemy, would not, however, entirely
discover the essential points of the operation. Cremer was insinuating
and affectionate; he perceived that Lully’s zeal for the conversion
of the infidels extended to the false enthusiasm of exciting open war
against the Mohammedans, and easily persuaded him to visit England, in
the hope of King Edward’s assistance. The adept lodged with his friend
in the Abbey of Westminster, where he worked, and perfected the stone
which Cremer had so long unsuccessfully sought. He was duly presented
to the King, who, previously informed of the talents of the illustrious
stranger, received him with regard and attention.

When he “communicated his treasures,” the single condition which he
made was that they should not be expended in the luxuries of a court or
in war with a Christian prince, but that the King should go in person
with an army against the infidels.

Edward, under pretence of doing honour to Raymond, gave him an
apartment in the Tower of London, where the adept repeated his process.
He transmuted base metal into gold, which was coined at the mint into
six millions of nobles, each worth three pounds sterling at the present
day. These coins are well known to antiquarians by the name of Rose
Nobles. They prove in the assay of the test to be a purer gold than the
Jacobus, or any other gold coin made in those times. Lully in his last
testament declares that in a short time, while in London, he converted
twenty-two tons weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into the precious
metal.

His lodging in the Tower proved only an honourable prison, and when
Raymond had satisfied the desires of the King, the latter disregarded
the object which the adept was so eager to see executed, and to regain
his own liberty Lully was obliged to escape surreptitiously, when he
quickly departed from England.

Cremer, whose intentions were sincere, was not less grieved than
Raymond at this issue of the event, but he was subject to his
sovereign, and could only groan in silence. He declares his extreme
affliction in his testament, and his monastery daily offered up prayers
to God for the success of Raymond’s cause. The Abbot lived long after
this, and saw part of the reign of King Edward III. The course of
operations which he proposes in his testament, with apparent sincerity,
is not less veiled than are those in the most obscure authors.[N]

Now, in the first place, this story is not in harmony with itself. If
Raymond Lully were at Vienna in 1311, how did John Cremer contrive
to meet him in Italy at or about the same time? In the second place,
the whole story concerning the manufacture of Rose Nobles is a series
of blunders. The King who ascended the throne of England in 1307
was Edward II., and the Rose Nobles first appear in the history of
numismatics during the reign of Edward IV., and in the year 1465.

“In the King’s fifth year, by another indenture with Lord Hastings,
the gold coins were again altered, and it was ordered that forty-five
nobles only, instead of fifty, as in the last two reigns, should be
made of a pound of gold. This brought back the weight of the noble to
one hundred and fifty grains, as it had been from 1351 to 1412, but its
value was raised to 10s. At the same time, new coins impressed with
angels were ordered to be made, sixty-seven and a half to be struck
from one pound of gold, and each to be of the value of 6s. 8d.--that is
to say, the new angel which weighed eighty grains was to be of the same
value as the noble had been which weighed one hundred and eight grains.
_The new nobles to distinguish them from the old ones were called Rose
Nobles_, from the rose which is stamped on both sides of them, or
ryals, or royals, a name borrowed from the French, who had given it to
a coin which bore the figure of the King in his royal robes, which the
English ryals did not. Notwithstanding its inappropriateness, however,
the name of royal was given to these 10s. pieces, not only by the
people, but also in several statutes of the realm.”[O]

In the third place, the testament ascribed to John Cremer, Abbot of
Westminster, and to which we are indebted for the chief account of
Lully’s visit to England, is altogether spurious. No person bearing
that name ever filled the position of Abbot at any period of the
history of the Abbey.

The only coinage of nobles which has been attributed to alchemy was
that made by Edward III. in 1344. The gold used in this coinage is
supposed to have been manufactured in the Tower; the adept in question
was not Raymond Lully, but the English Ripley.

Whether the saint of Majorca was proficient in the Hermetic art or not,
it is quite certain that he did not visit the British Isles. It is also
certain that in the _Ars Magna Sciendi_, part 9, chapter on Elements,
he states that one species of metal cannot be changed into another, and
that the gold of alchemy has only the semblance of that metal; that is,
it is simply a sophistication.

As all the treatises ascribed to Raymond Lully cannot possibly be his,
and as his errant and turbulent life could have afforded him few
opportunities for the long course of experiments which are generally
involved in the search for the _magnum opus_, it is reasonable to
suppose that his alchemical writings are spurious, or that two authors,
bearing the same name, have been ignorantly confused. With regard to
“the Jewish neophyte,” referred to by the _Biographie Universelle_,
no particulars of his life are forthcoming. The whole question is
necessarily involved in uncertainty, but it is a point of no small
importance to have established for the first time the fabulous nature
of the Cremer Testament. This production was first published by Michael
Maier, in his _Tripus Aureus_, about the year 1614. The two treatises
which accompany it appear to be genuine relics of Hermetic antiquity.

       *       *       *       *       *

The “Clavicula, or Little Key” of Raymond Lully is generally considered
to contain the arch secrets of alchemical adeptship; it elucidates the
other treatises of its author, and undertakes to declare the whole art
without any fiction. The transmutation of metals depends upon their
previous reduction into volatile sophic argent vive, and the only
metals worth reducing, for the attainment of this _prima materia_, are
silver and gold. This argent vive is said to be dryer, hotter, and more
digested than the common substance, but its extraction is enveloped in
mystery and symbolism, and the recipes are impossible to follow for
want of the materials so evasively and deceptively described. At the
same time, it is clear that the operations are physical, and that the
materials and objects are also physical, which points are sufficient
for our purpose, and may be easily verified by research.

Moreover, the alchemist who calls himself Raymond Lully was acquainted
with nitric acid and with its uses as a dissolvent of metals. He could
form _aqua regia_ by adding sal ammoniac, or common salt, to nitric
acid, and he was aware of its property of dissolving gold. Spirit of
wine was well known to him, says Gruelin; he strengthened it with dry
carbonate of potash, and prepared vegetable tinctures by its means.
He mentions alum from Rocca, marcasite, white and red mercurial
precipitate. He knew the volatile alkali and its coagulations by
means of alcohol. He was acquainted with cupellated silver, and first
obtained rosemary oil by distilling the plant with water.[P]


FOOTNOTES:

[K] This illness is referred to by another writer, with details of a
miraculous kind. “About 1275 (the chronology of all the biographers is
a chaos of confusion) he fell ill a second time, and was reduced to
such an extremity that he could take neither rest nor nourishment. On
the feast of the Conversion of St Paul, the crucified Saviour again
appeared to him, glorified, and surrounded by a most exquisite odour,
which surpassed musk, amber, and all other scents. In remembrance of
this miracle, on the same day, in the same bed and place where he lived
and slept, the same supernal odour is diffused.”

[L] The following variation is also related:--“Finding him still alive
when they bore him to the ship, the merchants put back towards Genoa
to get help, but they were carried miraculously to Majorca, where the
martyr expired in sight of his native island. The merchants resolved to
say nothing of their precious burden, which they embalmed and preserved
religiously, being determined to transport it to Genoa. Three times
they put to sea with a wind that seemed favourable, but as often they
were forced to return into port, which proved plainly the will of God,
and obliged them to make known the martyrdom of the man whom they
revered, who was stoned for the glory of God in the town of Bugia (?)
in the year of grace 1318.” From this account it will be seen that
the place of Lully’s violent death, as well as the date on which it
occurred, are both involved in doubt. He was born under the pontificate
of Honorius IV., and died, according to Genebrand, about 1304; but
the author of the preface to the meditations of the Hermit Blaquerne
positively fixes his decease on the feast of the martyrdom of SS. Peter
and Paul, June 29, 1315, and declares that he was eighty-six years old.

[M] _E.g._, Jean-Marie de Vernon, who extends the lists to about three
thousand, and, following the Père Pacifique de Provence, prolongs his
life by the discovery of the universal medicine.

[N] “Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers,” ed. 1815.

[O] Kenyon, “Gold Coins of England,” pp. 57, 58.

[P] Gruelin, _Geschichte der Chemie_, i. 74.




ARNOLD DE VILLANOVA.


The date and the birthplace of this celebrated adept are alike
uncertain. Catalonia, Milan, and Montpellier have been severally named
for the locality, and 1245 is, on the whole, the probable period.

Arnold studied medicine at Paris for twenty years, after which for ten
more he perambulated Italy, visiting the different universities. He
subsequently penetrated into Spain, but hearing that Peter d’Apono, his
friend, was in the hands of the Inquisition, he prudently withdrew,
and abode under the patronage of Frederick, King of Naples and Sicily,
writing his tracts on medicine and his “Comment on the School of
Salerno.” He is said to have perished in a storm during the year 1314,
but a circular letter written by Pope Clement V. in 1311 conjures
those living under his authority to discover, if possible, and send to
him, the “Treatise on Medicine,” written by Arnold, his physician, who
promised it to the Holy Father, but died before he could present it. In
this case the date of his decease may be more accurately fixed at 1310.

Arnold was, according to the custom of the period, charged with
magical practices. François Pegna declares that all his erudition in
alchemy was derived from the demon. Mariana accuses him of attempting
to create a man by means of certain drugs deposited in a pumpkin. But
he is justified by Delrio from these imputations, and the orthodox
_Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes_ considers that Clement V. would
not have chosen an initiate of magical arts as his physician. In 1317
the Inquisition of Tarragona condemned his books to be burned, but
this was for the heretical sentiments which they contained. He wrote
strictures on the monastic state and the service of religion, and
maintained that works of divine faith and charity were more agreeable
to God than the Sacrifice of the Mass.

His skill in Hermetic philosophy has been generally recognised.
His contemporary, the celebrated Jurisconsult, John Andre, says of
him:--“In this time appeared Arnold de Villeneuve, a great theologian,
a skilful physician, and wise alchymist, who made gold, which he
submitted to all proofs.” Arnold has also the character of writing with
more light and clearness than the other philosophers. His alchemical
works were published in 1509, in one folio volume. His _Libellus de
Somniorum Interpretatione et Somnia Danielis_ is excessively rare in
its original quarto edition. Several alchemical and magical works
are gratuitously ascribed to him. Among these must be classed the
book called _De Physicis Ligaturis_, supposed to be translated from
the Arabic--_De Sigillis duodecim Signorum_, which is concerned with
the zodiacal signs--and the book of the “Three Impostors,” which the
_Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes_ denominates “stupid and infamous.”

The _Thesaurus Thesaurorum_ and the _Rosarium Philosophorum_, the
_Speculum Alchemiæ_ and the _Perfectum Magisterium_, are the most
notable of all his alchemical treatises. To these the student should
add his _Scientia Scientiæ_ and brief _Testamentum_. The editions
are various, but the tracts will be found in collected form in the
_Bibliotheca Chemicæ Curiosa_ of J. J. Mangetus.

Arnold asserts that argent vive is the medicine of all the metals, that
vulgar sulphur is the cause of all their imperfections, that the stone
of the philosophers is one, and that it is to be extracted from that in
which it exists. It exists in all bodies, including common argent vive.
The first physical work is the dissolution of the stone in its own
mercury to reduce it to its _prima materia_. All the operations of the
_magnum opus_ are successively described, including the composition of
the white and the red elixirs, and the multiplication of the metallic
medicine.

The marcasite frequently mentioned by Arnold is thought to be identical
with bismuth. He was acquainted with the preparation of oil of
turpentine, oil of rosemary, and performed distillations in a glazed
earthen vessel with a glass top and helm.




JEAN DE MEUNG.


Poet, alchemist, and astrologer, a man of some fortune, and issued
from an ancient family, Jean de Meung was one of the chief figures
at the Court of King Philippe le Bel. He was born, according to the
latest authorities, about the middle of the thirteenth century, and
his continuation of the _Roman de la Rose_, which Guillaume de Lorris
had begun some time before the year 1260, was undertaken not in his
nineteenth year, as generally stated, but about or a little before the
age of thirty, and at the instance of the French King.

The Romance of the Rose, “that epic of ancient France,” as Éliphas
Lévi calls it, has been generally considered by alchemists a poetic
and allegorical presentation of the secrets of the _magnum opus_.
It professes, at any rate, the principles of Hermetic Philosophy,
and Jean de Meung was also the author of “Nature’s Remonstrances
to the Alchemist” and “The Alchemist’s Answer to Nature.” Hermetic
commentaries have been written upon the romance-poem, and tradition
has ascribed to the author the accomplishment of great transmutations.
The sermon of Genius, chaplain and confessor to Dame Nature, in the
Romance, is an exhibition of the principles of chemistry, as well as
a satire on the bombastic and unintelligible preaching which was in
vogue at that period. From verse 16,914 to verse 16,997 there is much
chemical information.

The year 1216 is the probable period of the poet’s death. The story
told of his testament has only a foundation in legend, but it is
worth repeating as evidence of the general belief in his skill as an
alchemist.

He chose by his will, says the story, to be buried in the Church of the
Jacobins, and, as an acknowledgment, left them a coffer that appeared,
at least by its weight, to be filled with things precious, probably
with the best gold which could be manufactured by the skill of the
Hermetists. He ordered, however, that this coffer should not be opened
till after his funeral, when, touched with the piety of the deceased,
the monks assembled in great numbers to be present at its opening, and
to offer up thanks to God. They found to their great disappointment
that the coffer was filled with large pieces of slates beautifully
engraved with figures of geometry and arithmetic. The indignation of
the fathers was excited by the posthumous imposture, and they proposed
to eject the body of Jean de Meung from their consecrated precincts;
but the Parliament being informed of this inhumanity, obliged the
Jacobins, by a decree, to leave the deceased undisturbed in the
honourable sepulchre of their conventual cloisters.

In “Nature’s Remonstrance to the Alchemist,” who is described as a
foolish and sophistical souffleur, making use of nothing but mechanical
arts, the complainant bitterly abuses the fanatical student who
diffuses over her beautiful domain the rank odours of sulphur, which
he tortures in vain over his furnaces, for by such a method he will
assuredly attain nothing. The alchemist in his “Reply” figures as a
repentant being, convinced of his errors, which he ascribes to the
barbarous allegories, parabolic sentences, and delusive precepts
contained in the writings of the adepts.




THE MONK FERARIUS.


About the beginning of the fourteenth century, this Italian artist gave
to the world two treatises--_De Lapide Philosophorum_ and _Thesaurus
Philosophiæ_, which are printed in the _Theatrum Chimicum_.

The “admirable spectacle” of the palingenesis of plants is described by
this Jesuit. “Immediately consequent on exposing to the rays of the sun
the phial, filled with quintessence of the rose, there is discovered
within the narrow compass of the vase a perfect world of miracles. The
plant which lay buried in its ashes awakes, uprises, and unfolds. In
the space of half-an-hour the vegetable phœnix is resuscitated from
its own dust. The rose issues from its sepulchre and assumes a new
life. It is the floral symbol of that resurrection by which mortals
lying in darkness and in the shadow of death will pass into beautiful
immortality.”

The treatise on the philosophical stone very pertinently remarks
that in alchemy the first thing to be ascertained is what is really
signified by the myrionimous _argentum vivum sapientum_, a point
on which the author gracefully declines information. Both works
are exceedingly obscure and vexatious. The _Thesaurus Philosophiæ_
testifies that the plain speaking of the philosophers is completely
illusory, and that it is only in their incomprehensible profundities
that we must seek the light of Hermes.

Alchemy is the science of the four elements, which are to be found
in all created substances, but are not of the vulgar kind. The whole
practice of the art is simply the conversion of these elements into
one another. The seed and matter of every metal is mercury, as it
is decocted and otherwise prepared in the bowels of the earth, and
each of them can be reduced into this _prima materia_, by the help
of which they are also, one and all, susceptible of augmentation and
multiplication, even to infinity.




POPE JOHN XXII.


This pontiff is claimed as an adept by the alchemists, a fact which
is denied, but not disproved, by his orthodox biographers. That he
believed in the power of magic is shown by the accusation which he
directed against Géraud, Bishop of Cahors, whom he accredited with
the design of poisoning him, together with the entire college of
cardinals, and with having in particular contrived sorceries and
diabolical enchantments against all of them. He was the contemporary
of Raymond Lully and Arnold de Villanova, and is said to have been the
pupil and friend of the latter. Nevertheless, the mischief occasioned
at that period by the impostures of pretended alchemists led him to
issue a bull condemning the traders in this science as charlatans who
promised what they were unable to perform. Hermetic writers assert
that this bull was not directed against veritable adepts, and his
devotion to his laboratory at Avignon seems a fairly established fact.
Franciscus Pagi, in his _Breviarum de Gestis Romanorum Pontificum_,
has the following passage:--_Joannes scripsit quoque latino sermone
artem metallorum transmutorium; quod opus prodiit Gallici incerto
translatore Lugduni, anno 1557 in 8vo_. It is allowed that he was a
writer on medicine. His _Thesaurus Pauperum_, a collection of recipes,
was printed at Lyons in 1525, and he was the author of a treatise on
diseases of the eye, and of another on the formation of the fœtus.
He was born at Cahors, according to the general opinion, of poor but
reputable parents; he showed at an early period his skill in law and
in the sciences. The circumstances of his life are exceedingly obscure
until his consecration as Bishop of Fréjus in 1300. Subsequently
he was promoted to the see of Avignon, and Clement V. created him
cardinal-bishop of Porto. He was raised to the pontificate at Lyons,
and reigned at Avignon till his death in 1334. He left behind him in
his coffers the sum of eighteen million florins in gold and seven
millions in jewels, besides valuable consecrated vessels. Alchemists
attribute these vast treasures to his skill in their science, and
assert in addition that he manufactured two hundred ingots, apparently
on a single occasion. By a calculation of one of his biographers, this
quantity of the precious metal was equivalent to £660,000, British
sterling. A treatise entitled “The Elixir of the Philosophers, or the
Transmutatory Art of Metals,” is attributed to him. It was translated
from the Latin into French, and published in duodecimo at Lyons in
1557. It is written _ad clerum_, and for this reason is probably the
more misleading. It represents the constituents of the perfect medicine
to be vinegar, salt, urine, and sal ammoniac, with the addition of an
undescribed substance called sulphur vive.




NICHOLAS FLAMEL.


The name of this alchemical adept has been profoundly venerated not
only in the memory of the Hermetists but in the hearts of the French
people, among whom he is the central figure of many marvellous legends
and traditions. “Whilst in all ages and nations the majority of
hierophants have derived little but deception, ruination, and despair
as the result of their devotion to alchemy, Nicholas Flamel enjoyed
permanent good fortune and serenity. Far from expending his resources
in the practice of the _magnum opus_, he added with singular suddenness
a vast treasure to a moderate fortune. These he employed in charitable
endowments and in pious foundations that long survived him and long
sanctified his memory. He built churches and chapels which were adorned
with statues of himself, accompanied by symbolical characters and
mysterious crosses, which subsequent adepts long strove to decipher,
that they might discover his secret history, and the kabbalistic
description of the process by which he was conducted to the realisation
of the Grand Magisterium.”

Whether Flamel was born at Paris or Pontoise is not more uncertain
than the precise date of his nativity. This occurred some time during
the reign of Philippe le Bel, the spoliator of the grand order of
the Temple, and, on the whole, the most probable year is 1330. His
parents were poor, and left him little more than the humble house
in Paris which he continued to possess till his death, and which he
eventually bequeathed to the Church. It stood in Notary Street, at the
corner of Marivaux Street, opposite the Marivaux door of the Church of
Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie.

Authorities disagree as to the amount of education that Flamel
obtained in his youth, but it was sufficient to qualify him for
the business of a scrivener, which, in spite of his wealth and his
accredited wisdom, he continued to follow through life. He was
proficient in painting and poetry, and had a taste for architecture and
the mathematical sciences; yet he applied himself steadily to business,
and contracted a prudent marriage, his choice falling on a widow, named
Pernelle, who, though handsome, was over forty years, but who brought a
considerable dowry to her second husband.

In his capacity as a copyist before the age of printing, books of all
classes fell into the hands of Flamel, and among them were many of
those illuminated alchemical treatises which are reckoned among the
rarest treasures of mediæval manuscripts. Acquainted with the Latin
language, he insensibly accumulated an exoteric knowledge of the aims
and theories of the adepts. His interest and curiosity were awakened,
and he began studying them in his leisure moments. Now tradition
informs us that, whether his application was great, his desire intense,
or whether he was super-eminently fitted to be included by divine
election among the illuminated Sons of the Doctrine, or for whatever
other reason, the mystical Bath-Kôl appeared to him under the figure
of an angel, bearing a remarkable book bound in well-wrought copper,
the leaves of thin bark, graven right carefully with a pen of iron. An
inscription in characters of gold contained a dedication addressed to
the Jewish nation by Abraham the Jew, prince, priest, astrologer, and
philosopher.

“Flamel,” cried the radiant apparition, “behold this book of which thou
understandest nothing; to many others but thyself it would remain for
ever unintelligible, but one day thou shalt discern in its pages what
none but thyself will see!”

At these words Flamel eagerly stretched out his hands to take
possession of the priceless gift, but book and angel disappeared in an
auriferous tide of light. The scrivener awoke to be ravished henceforth
by the divine dream of alchemy; but so long a time passed without any
fulfilment of the angelic promise, that the ardour of his imagination
cooled, the great hope dwindled gradually away, and he was settling
once more into the commonplace existence of a plodding scribe, when,
on a certain day of election in the year 1357, an event occurred which
bore evidence of the veracity of his visionary promise-maker, and
exalted his ambition and aspirations to a furnace heat. This event,
with the consequences it entailed, are narrated in the last testament
of Nicholas Flamel, which begins in the following impressive manner,
but omits all reference to the legendary vision:--

“The Lord God of my life, who exalts the humble in spirit out of the
most abject dust, and makes the hearts of such as hope in Him to
rejoice, be eternally praised.

“Who, of His own grace, reveals to the believing souls the springs of
His bounty, and subjugates beneath their feet the crowns of all earthly
felicities and glories.

“In Him let us always put our confidence, in His fear let us place our
happiness, and in His mercy the hope and glory of restoration from our
fallen state.

“And in our supplications to Him let us demonstrate or show forth a
faith unfeigned and stable, an assurance that shall not for ever be
shaken.

“And Thou, O Lord God Almighty, as Thou, out of Thy infinite and most
desirable goodness, hast condescended to open the earth and unlock Thy
treasures unto me, Thy poor and unworthy servant, and hast given into
my possession the fountains and well-springs of all the treasures and
riches of this world.

“So, O Lord God, out of Thine abundant kindness, extend Thy mercies
unto me, that when I shall cease to be any longer in the land of the
living, Thou mayst open unto me the celestial riches, the divine
treasures, and give me a part or portion in the heavenly inheritance
for ever.

“Where I may behold Thy divine glory and the fulness of Thy Heavenly
Majesty, a pleasure, so ineffable, and a joy, so ravishing, which no
mortal can express or conceive.

“This I entreat of Thee, O Lord, for our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy
well-beloved Son’s sake, who in the unity of the Holy Spirit liveth
with Thee, world without end. Amen.

“I, _Nicholas Flamel_, Scrivener, living at _Paris_, anno 1399, in the
_Notary Street_, near _St James_, of the _Bouchery_, though I learned
not much Latin, because of the poorness and meanness of my parents, who
were notwithstanding (by them that envy me most) accounted honest and
good people.

“Yet, by the blessing of God, I have not wanted an understanding of the
books of the philosophers, but learned them and attained to a certain
kind of knowledge, even of their hidden secrets.

“For which cause sake there shall not any moment of my life pass,
wherein remembering this so vast a good, I will not on my bare knees,
if the place will permit of it, or otherwise in my heart, with all the
entireness of my affections, render thanks to this my most good and
precious God.

“Who never forsakes the righteous generation, or suffers the children
of the just to beg their bread, nor deceives their expectations, but
supports them with blessings who put their trust in Him.

“After the death of my parents, I, _Nicholas Flamel_, got my living by
the art of writing, engrossing inventories, making up accounts, keeping
of books, and the like.

“In this course of living there fell by chance into my hands a gilded
book, very old and large, which cost me only two _florins_.

“It was not made of paper or parchment, as other books are, but of
admirable rinds (as it seemed to me) of young trees. The cover of it
was of _brass_; it was well bound, and graven all over with a strange
kind of letters, which I take to be Greek characters, or some such like.

“This I know that I could not read them, nor were they either Latin or
French letters, of which I understand something.

“But as to the matter which was written within, it was engraven (as
I suppose) with an iron pencil or graver upon the said bark leaves,
done admirably well, and in fair and neat Latin letters, and curiously
coloured.

“It contained thrice seven leaves, for so they were numbered in the top
of each folio, and every seventh leaf was without any writing, but in
place thereof there were several images or figures painted.

“Upon the first seventh leaf was depicted--1. A Virgin. 2. Serpents
swallowing her up. On the second seventh, a serpent crucified; and on
the last seventh, a desert or wilderness, in midst whereof were seen
many fair fountains, whence issued out a number of serpents here and
there.

“Upon the first of the leaves was written in capital letters of gold,
Abraham the Jew, Priest, Prince, Levite, Astrologer, and Philosopher,
to the nation of the Jews dispersed by the wrath of God in France,
wisheth health.

“After which words, it was filled with many execrations and curses,
with this word MARANATHA, which was oft repeated against any one that
should look in to unfold it, except he were either Priest or Scribe.

“The person that sold me this book was ignorant of its worth as well
as I who bought it. I judge it might have been stolen from some of the
Jewish nation, or else found in some place where they anciently abode.

“In the second leaf of the book he consoled his nation, and gave them
pious counsel to turn from their wickedness and evil ways, but above
all to flee from idolatry, and to wait in patience for the coming of
the Messiah, who, conquering all the kings and potentates of the earth,
should reign in glory with his people to eternity. Without doubt, this
was a very pious, wise, and understanding man.

“In the third leaf, and in all the writings that followed, he taught
them, in plain words, the transmutation of metals, to the end that he
might help and assist his dispersed people to pay their tribute to the
Roman Emperors, and some other things not needful here to be repeated.

“He painted the vessels by the side or margin of the leaves, and
discovered all the colours as they should arise or appear, with all the
rest of the work.

“But of the _prima materia_ or first matter, or agent, he spake not
so much as one word; but only he told them that in the fourth and
fifth leaves he had entirely painted or decyphered it, and depicted or
figured it, with a desirable dexterity and workmanship.

“Now though it was singularly well and materially or intelligibly
figured and painted, yet by that could no man ever have been able to
understand it without having been well skilled in their Cabala, which
is a series of old traditions, and also to have been well studied in
their books.

“The fourth and fifth leaf thereof was without any writing, but full of
fair figures, bright and shining, or, as it were, enlightened, and very
exquisitely depicted.

“First, there was a young man painted, with wings at his ankles, having
in his hand a caducean rod, writhen about with two serpents, wherewith
he stroke upon an helmet covering his head.

“This seemed in my mean apprehension to be one of the heathen gods,
namely, Mercury. Against him there came running and flying with open
wings, a great old man with an hour-glass fixed upon his head, and a
scythe in his hands, like Death, with which he would (as it were in
indignation) have cut off the feet of Mercury.

“On the other side of the fourth leaf he painted a fair flower, on the
top of a very high mountain, which was very much shaken by the north
wind. Its footstalk was blue, its flowers white and red, and its leaves
shining like fine gold, and round about it the dragons and griffins of
the north made their nests and habitations.

“On the fifth leaf was a fair rose-tree, flowered, in the midst of a
garden, growing up against a hollow oak, at the foot whereof bubbled
forth a fountain of pure white water, which ran headlong down into the
depths below.

“Yet it passed through the hands of a great number of people who digged
in the earth, seeking after it, but, by reason of their blindness, none
of them knew it, except a very few, who considered its weight.

“On the last side of the leaf was depicted a king, with a faulchion,
who caused his soldiers to slay before him many infants, the mothers
standing by, and weeping at the feet of their murderers.

“These infants’ blood being gathered up by other soldiers, was put into
a great vessel wherein Sol and Luna came to bathe themselves.

“And because this history seemed to represent the destruction of the
Innocents by Herod, and that I learned the chiefest part of the art in
this book, therefore I placed in their churchyard these hieroglyphic
figures of this learning. Thus have you that which was contained in the
first five leaves.

“As for what was in all the rest of the written leaves, which was wrote
in good and intelligible Latin, I must conceal, lest God being offended
with me should send His plague and judgments upon me. It would be a
wickedness much greater than he who wished that all men in the world
had but one head, that he might cut it off at a blow.

“Having thus obtained this delicate and precious book, I did nothing
else day and night but study it; conceiving very well all the
operations it pointed forth, but wholly ignorant of the _prima materia_
with which I should begin, which made me very sad and discontented.

“My wife, whose name was Perrenelle, whom I loved equally with myself,
and whom I had but lately married, was mightily concerned for me, and,
with many comforting words, earnestly desired to know how she might
deliver me from this trouble.

“I could no longer keep counsel, but told her all, shewing her the
very book, which, when she saw, she became as well pleased with it
as myself, and with great delight beheld the admirable cover, the
engraving, the images, and exquisite figures thereof, but understood
them as little as I.

“Yet it was matter of consolation to me to discourse and entertain
myself with her, and to think what we should do to find out the
interpretation and meaning thereof.

“At length I caused to be painted within my chamber, as much to the
life or original as I could, all the images and figures of the said
fourth and fifth leaves.

“These I showed to the greatest scholars and most learned men in Paris,
who understood thereof no more than myself: I told them they were found
in a book which taught the philosophers’ stone.

“But the greatest part of them made a mock both of me and that most
excellent secret, except one whose name was Anselm, a practiser of
physic and a deep student in this art.

“He much desired to see my book, which he valued more than anything
else in the world, but I always refused him, only making him a large
demonstration of the method.

“He told me that the first figure represented Time, which devours all
things, and that, according to the number of the six written leaves,
there was required a space of six years to perfect the stone; and then,
said he, we must turn the glass and see it no more.

“I told him this was not painted, but only to show the teacher the
_prima materia_, or first agent, as was written in the book. He
answered me that this digestion for six years was, as it were, a second
agent, and that certainly the first agent was there painted, which was
a white and heavy water.

“This, without doubt, was _argent vive_, which they could not fix; that
is, cut off his feet, or take away his volubility, save by that long
digestion in the pure blood of young infants.

“For in that this _argent vive_ being joined with Sol and Luna was
first turned with them into a plant, like that there painted, and
afterwards by corruption into serpents, which serpents, being perfectly
dried and digested, were made a fine powder of gold, which is the stone.

“This strange or foreign discourse to the matter was the cause of my
erring, and that made me wander for the space of one and twenty years
in a perfect meander from the verity; in which space of time I went
through a thousand labyrinths or processes, but all in vain; yet never
with the blood of infants, for that I accounted wicked and villainous.

“For I found in my book that the philosophers called blood the mineral
spirit which is in the metals, chiefly in Sol, Luna, and Mercury,
to which sense I always, in my own judgment, assented. Yet these
interpretations were, for the most part, not more subtle than true.

“Not finding, therefore, in my operation or course of the process, the
signs, at the time written in my book, I was ever to begin again.

“In the end, having lost all hope of ever understanding those symbols
or figures, I made a vow to God to demand their interpretation of some
Jewish priest belonging to some synagogue in Spain.

“Whereupon, with the consent of my wife Perrenelle, carrying with me
the extract or copy of the figures or pictures, I took up a pilgrim’s
habit and staff, in the same manner as you see me figured without the
said arch, in the said churchyard in which I put these Hieroglyphic
Figures.

“Whereupon also I have set on the wall, on both hands, the process,
representing in order all the colours of the stone, as they rise and go
away again.

“This is, as it were, the very beginning of Hercules his book, entitled
‘Iris, or the Rainbow,’ which treats of the stone in these words:--_The
process of the work is very pleasing unto nature_.

“And these words I also put there expressly, for the sake of great
scholars and learned men, who may understand to what they allude.

“In this same manner, I say, I put myself upon my journey to Spain,
and so much I did that I, in a short time, arrived at Mountjoy, and, a
while after, at St James, where, with much devotion, I accomplished my
vow.

“This done, in Leon, I, at my return, met with a merchant of Boulogne,
who brought me acquainted with a physician, M. Canches, a Jew by
nation, but now a Christian, dwelling at Leon aforesaid.

“I showed him the extract or copy of my figures, by which he was, as it
were, ravished with great astonishment and joy. He desired immediately
if I could tell him any news of the book whence they were drawn.

“I answered him in Latin (in which language he asked me the question)
that I doubted not of obtaining the sight of the book, if I could meet
with any one who could unfold the enigmas. Hearing this, and being
transported with great earnestness and joy, he began to decypher unto
me the beginning. To be short, he was much pleased that he was in hopes
to hear tidings of the book, and I as much pleased to hear him speak
and interpret it. And, doubtless, he had heard much talk of the book,
but it was, as he said, of a thing which was believed to be utterly
lost. Upon this, we resolved for our voyage, and from Leon we passed to
Oviedo, and thence to Sareson, where we took shipping, and went to sea
in order to go into France.

“Our voyage was prosperous and happy, and, being arrived in the kingdom
of France, he most truly interpreted unto me the greatest part of my
figures, in which, even to the points and pricks, he could decypher
great mysteries, which were admirable to me. Having attained Orleans,
this learned man fell sick, even to death, being afflicted with extreme
vomitings, which still continued with him, as being first caused by
sea-sickness. Notwithstanding which, he was in continual fear lest I
should leave or forsake him, which was a great trouble to him. And
although I was continually by his side, yet he would be almost always
calling for me. At the end of the seventh day of his sickness he
died, which was no small grief to me, and I buried him, as well as my
condition would permit me, in a church at Orleans.

“He that would see the manner of my arrival and the joy of Perrenelle,
let him look upon us two in the city of Paris, upon the door of the
chapel of James of the Boucherie, close by the one side of my house,
where we are both painted, kneeling and giving thanks to God. For
through the grace of God it was that I attained the perfect knowledge
of all I desired.

“Well, I had now the _prima materia_, the first principles, yet not
their first preparation, which is a thing most difficult above all
other things in the world; but in the end I had that also, after a
long aberration, and wandering in a labyrinth of errors for the space
of three years, or thereabouts, during which time I did nothing but
study and search and labour, so as you see me depicted without this
arch where I have placed my process; praying also continually unto
God, and reading attentively in my book, pondering the words of the
philosophers, and then trying and proving the various operations, which
I thought to myself they might mean by their words. At length I found
that which I desired, which I also soon knew by the scent and odour
thereof. Having this, I easily accomplished the magistery. For knowing
the preparations of the prime agents, and then literally following the
directions in my book, I could not then miss the work if I would.

“Having attained this, I come now to projection; the first time I
made projection was upon mercury, a pound and a half whereof, or
thereabouts, I turned into pure silver, better than that of the mine,
as I proved by assaying of it myself, and also causing others to assay
it for me several times. This was done in the year of our Lord 1382,
January 17, about noon, being Monday, in my own house, Perrenelle only
present.

“Again, following exactly the directions in my book, literally and word
by word, I made projection of the red stone, on the like quantity,
Perrenelle only being present, and in the same house, which was done
in the same year of our Lord, namely, 1382, April 25, at five in the
afternoon. This mercury I truly transmuted into almost as much gold,
much better, indeed, than common gold, more soft also, and more pliable.

“I speak it in all truth: I have made it three times, with the help
of Perrenelle, who understood it as well as myself, because she
assisted me in my operations. And without doubt, if she would have
done it alone, she would have brought it to the same, or full as
great, perfection as I had done. I had truly enough when I had once
done it; but I found exceeding great pleasure and delight in seeing
and contemplating _the admirable works of Nature within the vessels_,
and to show to you that I had thus done it three times, I caused to be
depicted under the same arch, three furnaces, like to those which serve
for the operations of this work.

“I was much concerned for a long time lest Perrenelle, by reason of
extreme joy, should not hide her felicity, which I measured by my own,
and lest she should let fall some words among her relations concerning
the great treasure we possessed. For an extremity of joy takes away
the understanding as well as an extremity of grief and sorrow. But the
goodness of the most great God had not only given and filled me with
this blessing, to give me a chaste and sober wife, but she was also
a wise and prudent woman, not only capable of reason but also to do
what was reasonable, and was more discreet and secret than ordinarily
other women are. Above all, she was exceedingly religious and devout:
and therefore seeing herself without hope of children, and now well
stricken in years, she made it her business, as I did, to think of God,
and to give ourselves to the works of charity and mercy.

“Before the time wherein I wrote this discourse, which was at the
latter end of the year of our Lord 1413, after the death of my faithful
companion, whose loss I cannot but lament all the days of my life,
she and I had already founded, and endowed with revenues, fourteen
hospitals, three chapels, and seven churches, in the city of Paris, all
which we had new built from the ground, and enriched with great gifts
and revenues, with many reparations in their churchyards. We also have
done at Boulogne about as much as we have done at Paris, not to speak
of the charitable acts which we both did to particular poor people,
principally to widows and orphans, whose names should I divulge, with
the largeness of the charity, and the way and manner of doing it, as
my reward would then be only in this world, so neither could it be
pleasing to the persons to whom we did it.

“Building, therefore, these hospitals, chapels, churches, and
churchyards in the city, I caused to be depicted under the said
fourth arch the most true and essential marks or signs of this art,
yet under veils, types, and hieroglyphic covertures, in imitation of
those things which are contained in the gilded book of Abraham the
Jew; demonstrating to the wise, and men of understanding, the direct
and perfect way of operation, and lineary work of the philosophers’
stone. Which being perfected by any one, takes away from him the
root of all sin and evil, which is covetousness, changing his evil
into good, and making him liberal, courteous, religious, devout, and
fearing God, however wicked he was before. For from thenceforward he
is continually ravished with the goodness of God, and with His grace
and mercy, which he has obtained from the fountain of Eternal Goodness,
with the profoundness of His divine and adorable power, and with the
consideration of His admirable works.”

According to Langlet du Fresnoy, the evidence of these things remained
in the year 1742. In the cemetery of the Holy Innocents stood the
arch built by Flamel with the hieroglpyhic figures upon it. In two
niches, without the arch and on the cemetery side, were statues of
St James and St John. Below that of St John was the figure of Flamel
himself, reading in a book, with a Gothic N. F. to mark his name. The
progression of the colours in the order of the process, originally
represented on the wall, was, however, effaced.

In the same cemetery was a charnel house, or receptacle for the
skulls and bones disinterred in the digging of new graves. Upon one
of the pillars of this charnel there was a Gothic N. F., with this
inscription:--

  _Ce charnier fut fait & donné à l’Eglise,
  Pour l’amour de Dieu, l’an 1399._

The second of these evidences was upon the Marivaux door of the Church
of Saint Jacques-la-Boucherie, where on the left side at entering was
the figure of Flamel, kneeling at the feet of St James, with a Gothic
N. upon the pedestal. The figure of Perrenelle was represented on the
opposite side, kneeling at the feet of St John, the pedestal bearing a
Gothic P.

The third evidence was in the street of Notre Dame, at the portal of
Genevieve of Arden. There Flamel’s statue was to be seen in a niche,
kneeling with a desk at his side, looking towards St James. There was a
Gothic N. F. below and the inscription, “This portal was built in 1402,
by the alms of many.” Flamel is supposed to have concealed in this
manner that he was the principal donor, but the figure may have been
erected to his memory.

The fourth and final evidence was in the street of the cemetery of
St Nicholas of the Fields, where there was the wall of an unfinished
hospital with figures engraven on the stone and the initials of Flamel.

After the death of Perrenelle the bereaved adept is supposed to have
prepared for posterity several works on the supreme science which had
enriched him:--_Le Livre des Figures Hieroglyphiques_; _Le Sommaire
Philosophique_, written in verse after the manner of the _Roman de
la Rose_; _Trois Traités de la Transformation Metallique_, also in
rhymed verse; _Le Desir Désiré, ou Trésor de Philosophie_; _Le Grand
Eclaircissement de la Pierre Philosophale pour la Transmutation de tous
Métaux_; _La Musique Chimique_; _Annotationes in D. Zacharmin_, &c.

Approaching near the end of his life, and having no children, he chose
his burial place in the parish church of St Jacques-la-Boucherie,
before the crucifix. To this end he made a contract with the wardens of
the church, which is mentioned in his testament. He then disposed of
his property and goods to the church and to the poor, as may be seen in
his will, which is lodged in the archives of St Jacques. It is dated
the 22nd November 1416, and begins thus:--“To all those to whom these
present letters shall come, I, Annegny du Castel, chevalier, counsellor
chambellan of the King, our Sire, Keeper of the Prevot of Paris,
greeting: Know ye, that before Hugues de la Barre and Jean de la Noe,
notary clerks of the King, at the Chatelet, was established personally,
Nicholas Flamel, scrivener, sound in body and mind, speaking clearly,
with good and true understanding,” &c. It fills four sheets of
parchment, which are sewed one to the end of the other, like the rolls
of ancient writing. It contains thirty-four articles; in the twentieth
he bequeaths to his relations the sum of forty livres. He lived three
years after making this will, dying about 1419.

       *       *       *       *       *

Hostile criticism has endeavoured to destroy the testimony which
the history of Flamel affords to the reality of transmutation, and
has adopted various means. It has attempted to disprove his wealth
by reducing his munificence, representing him simply as an honest
bourgeois, who, thanks to his economy and his assiduity, acquired a
comfortable competence, which a childless condition enabled him to
devote to works of benevolence, and to the erection of public buildings
on a moderate scale. The alchemical testaments and treatises attributed
to him are condemned one and all as absolutely spurious. The chief
expositor of this view is the Abbé L. Vilain in his _Essai sur une
Histoire de Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie_, published in duodecimo at
Paris, in 1758, and again in a _Histoire Critique de Nicolas Flamel et
de Pernel sa Femme_, Paris, 1782, &c.

It must be granted out of hand that all the alchemical compositions
which have passed under the name of Flamel are open to more or less
suspicion, and some are undoubtedly forgeries. The work on metallic
transmutation, which is the earliest traceable treatise, was unheard of
till a hundred and forty-three years after the death of its accredited
author. It was published in the year 1561 by Jacques Goharry. _Le Grand
Eclaircissement_ first saw the light in 1628, when the editor, who
apparently abounded in Flamel manuscripts, promised the publication in
addition of _La Joie Parfaite de Moi, Nicolas Flamel, et de Pernelle,
ma Femme_, which has not, however, appeared.

On the other hand, there are strong arguments for the genuineness of
the _Trésor de Philosophie_. “There exists in the _Bibliothèque du
Roi_” says M. Auguste Vallet, “a small manuscript book, _grossement
relié_, according to all appearance belonging to the end of the
fourteenth century, and which treats of alchemical operations. It
commences with these words:--

“‘Excipit the True Practice of the Noble Science of Alchemy, the
desired desire, and the prize unappraisable, compiled from all the
philosophers, and drawn out of ancient works.’

“It teaches the manner of accomplishing the _Magnum Opus_ by the
aid of successive operations, which are termed _Lavures_ in this
treatise. On the last leaf of the manuscript is the following
inscription written by the same hand as the rest of the text:--‘The
present book is of and belonging to Nicolas Flamel, of the Parish
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, who has written and illuminated it with
his own hand.’”

With regard to the extent of the scrivener’s resources, the genuine
testament of Pernelle, dated 1399, and the endowments of hospitals and
churches which undoubtedly took place on a scale of great munificence,
are a sufficient evidence that he was an exceedingly wealthy man.

Other critics, including Louis Figuier, admit the fact of his riches,
but enlarge upon the remunerative nature of a scrivener’s occupation
previous to the invention of printing, and upon the careful frugality
of the supposed alchemist; but in the teeth of their own theory they
are obliged to admit that Flamel did become a student of alchemy,
that the hieroglyphics, figures, and emblems in the Cemetery of the
Holy Innocents are evidence of this fact; that, unlike most followers
of Hermes, he was not impoverished by his experiments; and that he
fostered the report that his wealth was in the main a result of his
possession of the mysterious book of Abraham, by which he had been able
to compose the philosophical stone.

Gabriel Naudé, who detested magic, and seems to have despised alchemy,
vilifying the possessors of both of these sciences alike, accounts
for the riches of Flamel by asserting that he managed affairs for the
Jews, and upon their banishment from the kingdom of France, and the
confiscation of their property for the king, “he, knowing the sums due
by several individuals, compromised, by receiving a part, which they
paid him to prevent his giving information which would oblige them to
surrender it entirely.”

This explanation of the source of Flamel’s riches is a purely unfounded
assertion. If we carefully examine history, there were three expulsions
of the Jews from France between 1300 and 1420. They were banished in
1308, were soon after allowed to return, and were again banished in
1320. These persecutions occurred before the birth of Flamel. The Jews
were re-established by Charles V. in 1364, and they remained in quiet
until the riots which occurred in Paris in 1380, at the beginning of
the reign of Charles VI., when the people rose up against the Jews,
committing great outrages and demanding their expulsion. The sedition,
however, was quelled, and the Jews protected until 1393, when, upon
several charges preferred against them, they were enjoined to quit
France, or else become Christians. The historian Mezeray says that
some of them chose rather to quit their religion than the kingdom,
but others sold their goods and retired. Thus it appears that the
only expulsion of the Jews which could agree with Naudé’s surmise was
without the confiscation of their property, and, therefore, could not
give Flamel the opportunity alleged, if, indeed, it were reasonable to
suppose that all the Parisian Israelites entrusted their affairs to a
single person, when it does not appear that necessity required such
an agency. There is, therefore, no reason to suppose that Flamel was
enriched by the property of the Jews, or that those who owed them money
compounded with Flamel, lest he should denounce them to the king.[Q]

Thus the theories of hostile criticism break down before impartial
examination, and to whatever source we may choose to ascribe the wealth
of Nicholas Flamel, we have no reason to question his integrity, nor
to deny the explanation of the alchemists, except upon the _à priori_
ground of the impossibility of transmutation.

The divine gift which was so fortunate a possession to Flamel is
supposed to have been a curse to his descendants. He is reported to
have given some of the transmuting powder to M. Perrier, a nephew of
Perrenelle. From him it descended to Dr Perrier, and was found among
his effects at his death by his grandson, Dubois. The prudence and
moderation that accompanied the gift to the Perriers was not found in
Dubois. He exhibited the sacred miracle to improper persons, says an
anonymous writer on alchemy, and was brought before Louis XIII., in
whose presence he made gold of base metal, and this gold augmented its
weight in the cupel. The consequence of this generosity was an infamous
death. The vanity of Dubois was in proportion to his imprudence. He
fancied that he could make or augment the powder, and promised to do
so, but without success. It seems that he was, consequently, suspected
of withholding the art from the king, a circumstance sufficient in
politics to justify strong measures, lest the possessor of the sinews
of war should go over to the enemy.

Whatever were the charges against Dubois, he was hanged, and his fate
should be a proof, says the writer already quoted, that a science
producing unbounded riches is the greatest misfortune to those who are
unfitted and unprepared to manage the dangerous trust with discretion.

After the death of Flamel, many persons supposed that there must be
doubtless some buried treasures in the house which he had inhabited
during so many years, and in which all his Hermetical triumphs had
been performed. This opinion existed in all its strength, at least in
the mind of one individual, so late as the year 1576, when a stranger
applied to the Prévôt of Paris, and stated that he had been entrusted
by a deceased friend with certain sums for the restoration of Flamel’s
house. As the building was exceedingly dilapidated, the magistrates
availed themselves of the opportunity, and repairs were begun under the
direction of delegates of the works of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.
The true object of the stranger soon became evident by the
determination with which he sought to lay bare the whole foundations
of the house, which was ransacked from top to bottom in search of the
treasures it was supposed to conceal. No discoveries rewarded the zeal
of the investigation, which ended in the sudden disappearance of the
stranger, without paying for the operations which he had caused to be
set on foot.

As a completion to the history of Flamel, it may be entertaining to
quote an extraordinary account which is seriously narrated by Paul
Lucas in his “Journey through Asia Minor.”

“I was at Bronosa, in Natolia, and going to take the air with a person
of distinction, came to a little mosque, which was adorned with
gardens and fountains for a public walk; we were quickly introduced
into a cloister, where we found four dervishes, who received us with
all imaginable civility, and desired us to partake of what they were
eating. We were told, what we soon found to be true, that they were
all persons of the greatest worth and learning; one of them, who said
he was of Usbec Tartary, appeared to be more accomplished than the
rest, and I believe verily he spoke all the principal languages of the
world. After we had conversed in Turkish, he asked me if I could speak
Latin, Spanish, or Italian. I told him, if he pleased, to speak to
me in Italian; but he soon discovered by my accent that it was not my
mother-tongue, and asked me frankly what country I came from? As soon
as he knew that I was a native of France, he spoke to me in as good
French as if he had been brought up at Paris. ‘How long, sir,’ said I,
‘did you stay in France?’ He replied he had never been there, but that
he had a great inclination to undertake the journey.

“I did all in my power to strengthen that resolution, and to convince
him that France was the nursery of the learned, and its king a patron
of the sciences, who defrayed the expense of my travels for collecting
notices of antiquities, drawings of monuments, correcting maps, and
making a collection of ancient coins, manuscripts, &c., all of which he
seemed to approve civilly. Our conversation being ended, the dervishes
brought us to their house, at the foot of the mountain, where, having
drank coffee, I took my leave, but with a promise, however, that I
would shortly come and see them again.

“On the 10th, the dervish whom I took for an Usbec came to pay me a
visit. I shewed him all the manuscripts I had bought, and he assured
me they were very valuable, and written by great authors. He was a
man every way extraordinary in learning; and in external appearance
he seemed to be about thirty years old, but from his discourse I was
persuaded he had lived a century.

“He told me he was one of seven friends, who travelled to perfect their
studies, and, every twenty years, met in a place previously appointed.
I perceived that Bronosa was the place of their present meeting, and
that four of them had arrived. Religion and natural philosophy took up
our thoughts by turns; and at last we fell upon chemistry, alchemy,
and the Cabala. I told him all these, and especially the philosophers’
stone, were regarded by most men of sense as mere fictions.

“‘That,’ replied he, ‘should not surprise you; the sage hears the
ignorant without being shocked, but does not for that reason sink his
understanding to the same level. When I speak of a sage, I mean one
who sees all things die and revive without concern: he has more riches
in his power than the greatest king, but lives temperately, above the
power of events.’

“Here I stopped him:--‘With all these fine maxims, the sage dies
as well as other people.’ ‘Alas!’ said he, ‘I perceive you are
unacquainted with sublime science. Such a one as I describe dies
indeed, for death is inevitable, but he does not die before the utmost
limits of his mortal existence. Hereditary disease and weakness reduce
the life of man, but the sage, by the use of the true medicine, can
ward off whatever may hinder or impair the animal functions for a
thousand years.’

“Surprised at all I heard, ‘And would you persuade me,’ said I, ‘that
all who possessed the philosophers’ stone have lived a thousand years?’
He replied gravely:--‘Without doubt every one might; it depends
entirely on themselves.’ At last I took the liberty of naming the
celebrated Flamel, who, it was said, possessed the philosophers’ stone,
yet was certainly dead. He smiled at my simplicity, and asked with an
air of mirth:--‘Do you really believe this? No, no, my friend, Flamel
is still living; neither he nor his wife are dead. It is not above
three years since I left both the one and the other in the Indies; he
is one of my best friends.’ Whereupon he told me the history of Flamel,
as he heard it from himself, the same as I had read in his book,
until at last when Charles VI., who was then upon the throne, sent M.
Cramoisi, a magistrate, and his master of requests, to enquire from
Flamel the origin of his riches, when the latter at once saw the danger
he was in. Having sent her into Switzerland to await his coming, he
spread a report of his wife’s death, had her funeral celebrated, and in
a few years ordered his own coffin to be interred. Since that time they
have both lived a philosophic life, sometimes in one country, sometimes
in another. This is the true history, and not that which is believed at
Paris, where there are very few who ever had the least glimpse of true
wisdom.’”

       *       *       *       *       *

According to the “Treasure of Philosophy,” alchemy as a science
consists in the knowledge of the four elements of philosophers, which
are not to be identified with the vulgar so-called elements, and which
are convertible one into another. The true _prima materia_ is mercury,
prepared and congealed in the bowels of the earth by the mediation of
the heat of sulphur. This is the sperm and semen of all metals, which,
like other created things, are capable of a growth and multiplication
that may be continued even to infinity. The first step in transmutation
is the reduction of the metals worked upon into their first mercurial
matter, and this reduction is the subject of the whole treatise.

It does not appear that the alchemical works attributed to Nicholas
Flamel have added anything to our knowledge of chemistry. On the other
hand, it is perfectly clear from his history that the physical object
of Alchemy was the end which he kept in view, and that also which he is
supposed to have attained.


FOOTNOTES:

[Q] According to Louis Figuier, there were two minor persecutions of
the Jews, one in 1346, when Flamel was merely a boy, and the other in
1354, when he was scarcely established in business.




PETER BONO.


This adept, born in Lombardy, was an inhabitant of Pola, a seaport of
Istria, where he affirms that he made the much desired transmuting
metal of the sages, in the year 1330. He wrote and published a
complete treatise on the art under the title _Margarita Pretiosa_.
Lacinius, a monk of Calabria, has printed a faithful abridgment of it,
which appeared at Venice in 1546. An _Introductio in Artem Divinam
Alchimiæ_, 1602, and _De Secreto Omnium Secretorum_, Venet. 1546, are
ascribed to this adept.

The first of these works is an exceedingly comprehensive, conscientious
treatise on the history, the theory, and the practice of alchemy,
written after the manner of the scholastics, and naturally containing
much irrelevant matter, but for all this very useful and even
interesting. The difficulties of the art are manfully faced, the
sophistications, deceptions, and contradictions of its professors are
reproved, and the author attempts to show that alchemy is in reality a
short art and a slight practice, though full of truth and nobility. His
other opinions are also of a revolutionary character.




JOHANNES DE RUPECISSA.


This writer is considered one of the most remarkable of the Hermetic
philosophers. He abounds with prophetic passages, and denounces
the fate of nations, but in his alchemical explanation of things
physical is obscure even for an adept. Nothing is known of his
life,[R] beyond the nobility of his origin and his imprisonment in
1357, by Pope Innocent VI., whom he had reprehended. The illustrious
Montfauçon was one of his descendants, and he poses as an initiate of
the secret chemistry in the following works:--“The Book of Light,”
“The Five Essences,” _Cœlum Philosophorum_, and his most celebrated
treatise _De Confectione Lapidis_. There he declares that the matter
of the philosophical stone is a viscous water which is to be found
everywhere, but if the stone itself should be openly named, the whole
world would be revolutionised. The divine science possessed by the wise
is somewhat poetically celebrated as an incomparable treasure. Its
initiates are enriched with an infinite wealth beyond all the kings of
the earth; they are just before God and men, and in enjoyment of the
special favour of Heaven.


FOOTNOTES:

[R] He is said to have been a French monk of the order of St Francis.




BASIL VALENTINE.


One of the most illustrious of the adept philosophers is unquestionably
Basilius Valentinus, born at Mayence, and made prior of St Peter’s at
Erfurt in 1414. His name was supposed to be fictitious and adopted for
the purpose of concealing some accomplished artist, but the history
of the city of Erfurt, published by J. M. Gudemus assures us of the
existence and name of the philosopher, on the authority of the public
records, and shows us that in 1413 he was an inmate of the monastic
house already mentioned, and that he distinguished himself by a
profound knowledge of nature.[S] As the work of Gudemus was printed
in 1675, the veracity of the _Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes_,
written in the interests of religion and for the blackening of the
secret sciences, may be judged by the following passage:--“His life is
so mixed up with fables that some have disbelieved in his existence. He
is represented flourishing in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries; it is even added, _without the smallest proof_,
that he was a benedictine at Erfurt.”

According to Olaus Borrichius, he enclosed his writings in one of
the pillars of the abbey church; they remained for many years in
this hiding-place, but were at length discovered by the fortunate
violence of a thunderbolt. He was the first who introduced antimony
into medicine, and it is said that he originally tried the effects of
antimonial medicines upon the monks of his convent, upon whom they
acted with such undue violence “that he was induced to distinguish the
mineral from which these medicines had been extracted by the name of
_antimoine_--hostile to monks.” But Thomson, who relates this anecdote
in his “History of Chemistry,” shows the improbability of it, for the
works of Basil Valentine, and in particular his _Currus Triumphalis
Antimonii_, were written in the German language. Now the German name
for antimony is _speissglas_ and not antimoine, which is French.

Basil Valentine denounces the physicians of his time with the fury
of Paracelsus. The most ancient systems of chemical philosophy are
preserved in his experiments. He exalts antimony as an excellent
medicine for those who are acquainted with alchemical secrets. To
others it is a poison of the most powerful nature.

No further particulars of the life of Basil Valentine have descended
to posterity. Numerous works have been printed in his name, and the
authenticity of several is questionable. He wrote in high Dutch,
and comparatively few of his treatises have been translated into
other languages. The best are as follows:--1. _De Microcosmo deque
Magno Mundi Mysterio et Medecina Hominis_, Marpurg, 1609, 8vo;
2. _Azoth, sive Aurelia Philosophorum_, Francfurt, 1613, 4to; 3.
_Practica, unà cum duodecim Clavibus et Appendice_, Francfurt, 1611,
4to; 4. _Apocalypsis Chymica_, Erfurt, 1624, 8vo; 5. _Manifestatio
Artificiorum_, Erfurt, 1624, 8vo; 6. _Currus Triumphalis Antimonii_,
Lipsiæ, 1624, 8vo; 7. _Tractatus Chimico-Philosophicus de Rebus
Naturalibus et Prœternaturalibus metallorum et mineralium_, Francfurt,
1676, 8vo; 8. _Haliographia, de præparatione, usu, ac virtutibus
omnium Salium Mineralium, Animalium, ac Vegetabilium, ex manuscriptis
Basilii Valentini collecta ab Ant. Salmincio_, Bologna, 1644, 8vo.

Every letter and syllable of the “Triumphal Chariot of Antimony”
is declared to have its special significance. “Even to the pointes
and prickes” it bristles with divine meanings and mysteries. The
metrical treatise on the first matter of the philosophers declares
that this stone is composed of white and red, that it is a stone,
and yet scarcely a stone; one nature operates therein. Those who
desire to attain it, Basil elsewhere informs us, must labour in
much prayer, confess their sins, and do good. Many are called, but
few chosen to this supreme knowledge. The study of the works of the
philosophers and practical experiment are both recommended. There
is much in the writings of Basil, in his suggestive if impenetrable
allegories, in his curious Kabbalistical symbols, and in his earnest
spirituality, to suggest a psychic interpretation of his aims and his
principles. This is particularly noticeable in the “Triumphal Chariot
of Antimony,” and yet it is clear from this remarkable work, which is
the masterpiece of its author, that Basil Valentine was one of the
most illustrious physical chemists of his age. He was the first to
describe the extraction of antimony from the sulphuret, though it does
not appear that he was the inventor of this process. Previous to his
investigations the properties of antimony were almost unknown. He was
also acquainted with the method of obtaining chlorohydric acid from
sea-salt and sulphuric acid, with the method of obtaining brandy by the
distillation of beer and wine, and the rectification of the result by
means of carbonate of potassium, and with many other operations which
eminently assisted the progress of chemistry.


FOOTNOTES:

[S] Eadem ætate (scilicet anno 1413) Basilius Valentinus in divi Patri
monasteris vixit arte medica _et naturale indagatione admirabilis_.




ISAAC OF HOLLAND.


Contemporary with Basilius Valentinus were Isaac the Hollander and his
son, who are supposed to have worked with success. They were the first
alchemists of Holland, and their operations were highly esteemed by
Paracelsus, Boyle, and Kunckel. In practical chemistry they followed
the traditions of Geber, and their alchemical experiments are the most
plain and explicit in the whole range of Hermetic literature. They
worked principally in metals, describing minutely the particulars of
every process. Their lives are almost unknown. “Buried in the obscurity
necessary to adepts, they were occupied in the practice of the Hermetic
science, and their study or laboratory was the daily scene of their
industrious existence.”[T]

They are placed in the fifteenth century by conjecture, from the fact
that they do not cite any philosophers subsequent to that period. They
speak of Geber, Dastin, Morien, and Arnold, but not of more modern
authorities, while, on the other hand, their references to aquafortis
and aqua-regiæ, which were discovered in the fourteenth century,
prevent us from assigning their labours to an anterior epoch.

The two Isaacs were particularly skilful in the manufacture of enamels
and of artificial gem-stones. They taught that the Grand Magisterium
could convert a million times its own weight into gold, and declared
that any person taking weekly a small portion of the philosophical
stone will be ever preserved in perfect health, and his life will be
prolonged to the very last hour which God has assigned to him.

The _Opera Mineralia Joannis Isaaci Hollandi, sive de Lapide
Philosophico_ is a long and elaborate treatise on the one method of
exalting the dead and impure metals into true _Sol_ and _Luna_. The
first matter is said to be Saturn, or lead, and the vessels in which it
is to be calcined and otherwise adapted to the purposes of aurific art,
are plainly figured in illustrations introduced into the text.


FOOTNOTES:

[T] “Lives of Alchemysticall Philosophers.” Ed. of 1815.




BERNARD TRÉVISAN.


Bernard Compte de la Marche Trévisane is accredited by the popular
legends of France with the powers of a sorcerer in possession of a
devil’s bird or familiar spirit; nevertheless, he is called “the good,”
and enjoyed a particular reputation for benevolence.

Descendant of a distinguished Paduan family, Bernard Trévisan began to
study the time-honoured science of alchemy about the time that Basil in
Germany, and the two Isaacs in Holland were prosecuting their labours
with supposed success. His father was a physician of Padua, where he
himself was born in the year 1406. The account of his alchemical errors
must rank among the most curious anecdotes in the annals of occult
chemistry.

At the age of fourteen years, under the auspices of a grandfather,
and with the full consent of his family, he devoted his attention to
alchemy, which henceforth was the absorbing occupation of his life.
Seeking initiation into the first principles of the art, he began by
the study of Geber and Rhasis, believing they would supply him with a
method of multiplying his patrimony a hundred fold. The experiments
which he undertook during his costly tuition by these oracular masters
resulted in the futile dissipation of eight hundred, or, according
to another account, of three thousand crowns. He was surrounded by
pretended philosophers, who, finding him wealthy and eager in the
penetration of tantalising mysteries, proffered the secrets which they
neither possessed nor understood, obtaining a fraudulent subsistence at
the expense of the boy alchemist.

Disappointed, but not discouraged, he dismissed these impostors
at length, and devoted his concentrated attention to the works of
Rupecissa and Archelaus Sacrobosco, whom he literally followed for a
time in all his practical operations. Hoping to profit by the help of
a prudent companion, he associated himself with a good monk with whom
he experimented in concert for the space of three years. They rectified
spirits of wine more than thirty times “till they could not find
glasses strong enough to hold it.” These operations cost nearly three
hundred crowns.

For fifteen years he continued his preliminary experiences, and at
the end of that time he had purchased a perfect knowledge of all
the highways and byways of alchemical rogueries, and was intimately
acquainted with an enormous variety of substances, mineral, metallic,
and otherwise, which did not apparently enter into the composition of
the stone philosophical. He calculates the cost of these experiences
to have been roughly six thousand crowns. He had laboured in vain
to congeal, dissolve, and sublime common salt, sal ammoniac, every
variety of alum, and copperas. He even proceeded upon ordure, both of
man and beasts, by distillation, circulation, and sublimation. These
experiments, based on the literal interpretation of the allegories
of the _turba philosophorum_, again resulted in failure, and at last
discouraged beyond words at the loss of his time and his fortune, he
betook himself to prayer, hoping to discover the aim of the alchemists
by the grace and favour of God. In conjunction with a magistrate of his
country, he subsequently endeavoured to compose the philosophical stone
with sea salt as the chief ingredient. He rectified it fifteen times
during the space of a year and a half without finding any alteration
in its nature, whereupon he abandoned the process for another proposed
by the magistrate, namely, the dissolution of silver and mercury by
means of aquafortis. These dissolutions, undertaken separately, were
left to themselves for a year, and then combined and concentrated over
hot ashes to reduce their original volume to two-thirds. The residuum
of this operation, placed in a narrow crucible, was exposed to the
action of the solar rays, and afterwards to the air, in the hopes that
it would crystallize. Twenty-two phials were filled with the mixture,
and five years were devoted to the whole operation, but at the end
of that period no crystallization had taken place, and thus was this
operation abandoned, like the rest, as a failure.

Bernard Trévisan was now forty-six years old, and at the end of his
experimental resources he determined to travel in search of true
alchemists. In this manner he met with a monk of Citeaux, Maître
Geofroi de Lemorier, who was in possession of a hitherto unheard of
process. They purchased two thousand hens’ eggs, hardened them in
boiling water, and removed the shells, which they calcined in a fire.
They separated the whites from the yolks, which they putrified in
horse manure. The result was distilled thirty several times for the
extraction of a white and red water. These operations were continually
repeated with many variations, and vainly occupied eight years more of
the toil-worn seeker’s life.

Disappointed, disheartened, but still pertinaciously adhering to
his search after the Grand Secret, Trévisan now set to work with a
protonotary of Bruges, whom he describes as a great theologian, and
who pretended to extract the stone from sulphate of iron (copperas) by
distillation with vinegar. They began by calcining the sulphate for
three months, when it was soaked in the vinegar, which had been eight
times distilled. The mixture was placed in an alembic, and distilled
fifteen times daily for a year, at the end of which the seeker was
rewarded by a quartan fever which consumed him for fourteen months, and
which almost cost him his life.

He was scarcely restored to health when he heard from a clerk that
Maître Henry, the confessor of the German Emperor, Frederick III.,
was in possession of the philosophical stone. He immediately set out
for Germany, accompanied by some baffled sons of Hermes like himself.
They contrived, _par grands moyens et grands amis_, to be introduced
to the confessor, and began to work in conjunction with him. Bernard
contributed ten marks of silver, and the others thirty-two, for
the indispensable expenses of the process, which consisted in the
combination of mercury, silver, oil of olives, and sulphur. The whole
was dissolved over a moderate fire, and continually stirred. In two
months it was placed in a glass phial, which they covered with clay,
and afterwards with hot ashes. Lead, dissolved in a crucible, was
added after three weeks, and the product of this fusion was subjected
to refinement. At the end of these operations the imperial confessor
expected that the silver which had entered into the combination would
be augmented at least by a third, but, on the contrary, it was reduced
to a fourth.

Bernard Trévisan in utter despair determined to abandon all further
experiments. The resolution was applauded by his family, but in two
months the Circean power of the secret chemistry had asserted its
former dominion over the whole being of its martyr, who, in a fever of
eagerness, recommenced his travels, and visited Spain, Italy, England,
Scotland, Holland, Germany, and France. Then, anxious to drink at
the oriental fountains of alchemy, he spent several years in Egypt,
Persia, and Palestine, after which he passed into southern Greece,
visiting remote convents and experimenting in conjunction with monks
of reputation in the science. In every country he found there were
alchemists at work, but of those who were successful he could hear
no account. The true philosophers declined to make themselves known,
while impostors, in search of the credulous, presented themselves on
all sides. Bernard expended in these travels, and in false operations
connected with them, about thirteen thousand crowns, and was forced
to sell an estate which yielded eight thousand German florins per
annum. He was now sixty-two years of age, and as he had been deaf to
the remonstrances of his family, he saw himself despised and on the
threshold of want and misery. He endeavoured to conceal his poverty,
and fixed on the Isle of Rhodes, wherein to live entirely unknown. Now,
at Rhodes he became acquainted with _un grand clerc et religieux_,
who was addicted to philosophy, and commonly reported to be enjoying
the philosophical stone. He managed to borrow eight thousand florins,
and laboured with this monk in the dissolution of gold, silver, and
corrosive sublimate; he accomplished so much in the space of three
years that he expended the funds he had raised, and was again at the
end of his resources. Thus, effectually prevented from continuing the
practice, he returned to the study of the philosophers, and after eight
years, at the age of seventy-three, he professes to have discovered
their secret. By comparing the adepts and examining in what things they
agree, and in what they differ, he judged that the truth must lie in
those maxims wherein they were practically unanimous. He informs us
that it was two years before he put his discovery to the test; it was
crowned with success, and notwithstanding the infirmities of old age,
he lived for some time in the enjoyment of his tardy reward.

The chief work of Trévisan is _La Philosophie Naturelle des Métaux_.
He insists on the necessity of strong and discreet meditation in all
students of Hermetic philosophy. Their operations must wait on nature,
and not nature on their arbitrary processes. Mercury is said to be
the water of metals, “in which, by a mutual alteration, it assumes
in a convertible manner their mutations.” Gold is simply quicksilver
coagulated by the power of sulphur. The secret of dissolution is the
whole mystery of the art, and it is to be accomplished not by means
of fire, as some have supposed, but, with the help of mercury, in
an abstruse manner, which is not really indicated by the adept. The
work of nature is assisted by alchemy, which mingles ripe gold with
quicksilver, the gold comprising in itself a well-digested sulphur,
by which it matures the mercury to the “anatide proportion” of gold,
subtilising the elements and wonderfully abbreviating the natural
process for producing the precious metal of the mines.




JOHN FONTAINE.


The life of this artist is buried in the obscurity of his closet or
laboratory, where he divided his time between attention to his furnaces
and the composition of curious verses. He was alive at Valenciennes
in the year 1413. His Hermetic poem, _Aux Amoureux de Science_, has
been printed several times. The author announces that he is an adept,
and describes in an allegorical manner, after the fashion of the
“Romance of the Rose,” and in the same quaint and beautiful tongue,
the different processes which enter into the art of transmutation. His
little work may be profitably studied by the neophytes of practical
alchemy, though its benefits are of a negative kind, but its paradise
of dainty devices and its old world nature pictures are better suited
to the poet and the poetic interpretation of symbols.




THOMAS NORTON.


The scientific methods of Ripley were followed by this alchemist, who
was born in the city of Bristol. He wrote anonymously, but the initial
syllables in the six first lines, and the first line in the seventh
chapter of his “Ordinall of Alchemy,” compose the following couplet:--

  “Thomas Norton of Briseto,
  A parfet master you may him trow.”

At the age of twenty-eight, and in the brief space of forty days, he
is recorded to have mastered “the perfection of chymistry,” obtaining
his knowledge from a contemporary adept, who appears to have been
Ripley himself. He describes his initiator as a person of noble mind,
worthy of all praise, loving justice, detesting fraud, reserved when
surrounded by a talkative company, quite unassuming, and if ever the
conversation turned upon the Great Art, preserving complete silence.
For a long time Norton sought him in vain; the adept proved him by
various trials, but when he was satisfied of his disposition, manners,
and habits, as well as of his strength of mind, his love yielded to the
fidelity and perseverance of his postulant, and in answer to one of his
letters he addressed him as follows:--

“MY TRUSTY AND WELL-BELOVED BROTHER,--I shall not any longer delay;
the time is come; you shall receive this grace. Your honest desire and
approved virtue, your love of truth, wisdom, and long perseverance,
shall accomplish your sorrowful desires.

“It is necessary that, as soon as convenient, we speak together face
to face, lest I should by writing betray my trust. I will make you my
heir and brother in this art, as I am setting out to travel in foreign
countries. Give thanks to God, Who, next to His spiritual servants,
honours the sons of this sacred science.”

Norton lost no time in undertaking a journey to his instructor, and
rode upwards of a hundred miles on horseback to reach the abode of the
adept. During the forty days already mentioned he received the advice
and directions of his friend. He was already to a great extent prepared
for initiation by a long course of natural philosophy, as well as by
the study of the occult and curious sciences. The “disclosure of the
bonds of nature” took place, and he became convinced of the truth
and certainty of the art by the rationality of its theorems. He felt
confident of success in the practice, but the adept, on account of his
youth, refused to instruct him in the process from the white to the red
powder, lest the divine gift should be misused in a moment of passion.
In due time, and after further proofs of his capacity and integrity, he
would communicate the work of the medicinal stone. This, the supreme
desire of the neophyte, was afterwards accomplished.

The chemical operations of Norton were destined, however, to meet with
two signal disappointments. He had almost perfected the tincture, when
his own servant, who was employed in the care of the furnace, believing
that the prize was complete, carried it away. He again undertook the
process and succeeded in making the elixir, but he complains that it
was stolen by the wife of a merchant, said to be William Canning, Mayor
of Bristol, who suddenly started into great wealth, and who built the
splendid and lofty steeple of St Mary’s, Radcliffe, besides enlarging
Westbury College.

It is doubtful whether Thomas Norton ever enjoyed the fruits of his
supposed knowledge. He does not speak of his own transmutations, and
if he is called by one of his contemporaries _alchemista suo tempore
peritissimus_, by others he is termed _Nugarum opifex in frivola
scientia_. The latter declare that he undid himself by his labours,
and that all his friends who trusted him with their money were as much
ruined as himself. According to Fuller, he lived and died very poor;
nevertheless his family appears to have been held in high repute under
King Henry VIII. There were nine brothers of the name of Norton. One
anonymous writer asserts that they were all of them knights. The tomb
of Sampson Norton, master of the king’s ordnance, and buried in Fulham
Church, was adorned with Hermetic paintings, according to one account,
but Faulkner, in his historical account of Fulham, describes it as
a rich Gothic monument, ornamented with foliage and oak-leaves, and
bearing an obliterated inscription.

Thomas Norton died in 1477. His grandson Samuel followed in his steps
as an alchemist, and was the author of several Hermetic treatises,
which are not very highly esteemed.

       *       *       *       *       *

“The Ordinal of Alchemy” testifies that the stone is one. In appearance
it is a subtle earth, brown, and opaque; it stands the fire, and is
considered to be of no value. There is also another and glorious stone,
which is termed the philosophical magnesia. Alchemy is a wonderful
science, a secret philosophy, a singular grace and free gift of the
Almighty, which was never discovered by independent human labour, but
only by revelation or the instruction of one of the adepts.

  “It helpeth a man when he hath neede,
  It voideth vaine Glory, Hope, and also Dreade:
  It voideth Ambitiousnesse, Extorcion, and Excesse,
  It fenceth Adversity that shee doe not oppresse.
  He that thereof hath his full intent,
  Forsaketh Extremities, with Measure is content.”

A certain mineral virtue is said to be the efficient cause in
the production of metals in the bowels of the earth; it is in
correspondence with the virtues of the celestial spheres. The red stone
lengthens life, but it is vain to seek it till after the confection of
the white.




THOMAS DALTON.


The only account of this English adept is preserved by Thomas Norton.
He was alive in the year 1450, and is described as a religious man, who
enjoyed a good reputation till, upon suspicion that he had a large mass
of transmuting powder, he was taken from his abbey in Gloucestershire
by Thomas Herbert, one of the squires of King Edward, and being brought
into the royal presence he was confronted by Debois, another of the
king’s squires, to whom Dalton was formerly a chaplain. Debois alleged
that Dalton, in less than twelve hours, made him a thousand pounds of
good gold, and he attested the fact upon oath. Then Dalton, looking
at Debois, said, “Sir, you are forsworn.” Debois acknowledged that
he had vowed never to reveal the benefit which he had received, but
for the king’s sake and the good of the commonwealth he ought not to
keep his oath. Dalton now addressed the king, and informed him that he
had received the powder of projection from a canon of Lichfield, on
condition that he forbore to make use of it till after the death of the
donor. Since that event he had been in so much danger and disquietude
on account of its possession that he had destroyed it in secret.
The king dismissed Dalton, giving him four marks for his travelling
expenses; but Herbert lay in wait for him brought him from Stepney,
and thence conveyed him to the castle of Gloucester, where every means
were vainly tried to induce him to make the philosophers’ tincture.

After four years’ imprisonment, Dalton was brought out to be beheaded
in the presence of Herbert. He obeyed with resignation and joy, saying:
“Blessed art thou, Lord Jesus! I have been too long from you; the
science you gave me I have kept without abusing it; I have found no one
apt to be my heir, wherefore, sweet Lord, I will render Thy gift to
Thee again.”

Then, after some devout prayer, with a smiling countenance he desired
the executioner to proceed. Tears gushed from the eyes of Herbert when
he beheld him so willing to die, and saw that no ingenuity could wrest
his secret from him. He gave orders for his release. His imprisonment
and threatened execution were contrived without the king’s knowledge to
intimidate him into compliance. The iniquitous devices having failed,
Herbert did not dare to take away his life. Dalton rose from the block
with a heavy countenance and returned to his abbey, much grieved at
the further prolongation of his earthly sojourn. Herbert died shortly
after this atrocious act of tyranny, and Debois also came to an
untimely end. His father, Sir John Debois, was slain at the battle
of Tewksbury, May 4, 1471, and two days after, as recorded in Stow’s
_Annales_, he himself, James Debois, was taken, with several others of
the Lancastrian party, from a church where they had fled for sanctuary,
and was beheaded on the spot.[U]


FOOTNOTES:

[U] Stow, “Annales of England,” p. 424, ed. 1615.




SIR GEORGE RIPLEY.


This illustrious alchemical philosopher, whose works paved the royal
road to the initiation, in after times, of his still more illustrious
pupil, the sublime and mysterious Philalethes, entered, at an early
age, among the regular canons of Bridlington, in the diocese of York.
The tranquillity of monastic life afforded him a favourable opportunity
for the study of the great masters in transcendental chemistry, but he
found himself notwithstanding incompetent for their full comprehension,
and in considerable consequent disappointment he determined to travel,
persuading himself that he should discover in the conversations of
philosophers what he could not glean from books.

In Italy, Germany, and France he became acquainted with various men of
learning, and was present at a transmutation which was performed in
Rome. He proceeded afterwards to the island of Rhodes, where a document
is supposed to exist testifying that he gave £100,000 to the Knights
of St John of Jerusalem. He was dignified by the Pope, which fact, on
his return to Bridlington, excited the jealousy of his brethren, and
in consequence of their hostility he entered the Carmelite order at
Butolph, in Lincolnshire, and, by an indulgence from Innocent VIII.,
had permission to live in solitude, exempt from cloistral observances,
and in his now uninterrupted leisure he wrote twenty-four books,
some scientific, and others on devout subjects. The “Twelve Gates
of Alchemy” he composed in 1471, and he declares that any of his
experiments recorded from 1450 to 1470 should be entirely discredited,
as he wrote them from theory, and found afterwards by practice that
they were untrue. Hence it may be concluded that he employed twenty
years in mastering the secrets of the science. He died at Butolph in
1490.

       *       *       *       *       *

“The Twelve Gates of Alchemy” describe the stone as a triune microcosm,
whence Ripley has been cited as an adept of the spiritual chemistry.
He insists upon the necessity of proportion in its composition,
and declares that the principle, or _prima materia_, may be found
everywhere. It flies with fowls in the air, swims with fishes in the
sea, it may be discerned by the reason of angels, and it governs man
and woman. An astronomical year is required for the manufacture of the
stone.




PICUS DE MIRANDOLA.


John Picus, Earl of Mirandola, was born on the 24th February 1463. He
is equally celebrated for his precocity, the extent of his learning,
his prodigious memory, and his penetrating intellect. As the pupil
of Jochanum, a Jew, he became early initiated in the Kabbalistic
interpretation of Scripture, and at the age of twenty-four years he
published nine hundred propositions in logic, mathematics, physics,
divinity, and Kabbalism, collected from Greek, Latin, Jewish, and
Arabian writers. In his treatise _De Auro_, he records his conviction
of the success of Hermetic operations, and gives us the following
narrations:--

“I come now to declare that which I have beheld of this prodigy,
without veil or obscurity. One of my friends, who is still living, has
made gold and silver over sixty times in my presence. I have seen it
performed in divers manners, but the expense of making the silver with
a metallic water exceeded the produce.”

In another place he tells us that “a good man who had not a sufficiency
to support his family, was reduced to the last extremity of distress;
with an agitated mind he went one night to sleep, and in a dream he
beheld a blessed angel, who, by means of enigmas, instructed him in
the method of making gold, and indicated to him, at the same time, the
water he should use to ensure success. At his awaking he proceeded to
work with this water, and made gold, truly in small quantity, yet
sufficient to support his family. Twice he made gold of iron and four
times of orpiment. He convinced me by the evidence of my own eyes that
the art of transmutation is no fiction.”




PARACELSUS.


Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim was born in
the year 1493, at Maria Einsiedeln, in the canton of Zurich, in
Switzerland. He was descended from the ancient and honourable family
of Bombast, which had abode during many generations at the castle of
Hohenheim near Stuttgart, Würtemberg. His father was a physician of
repute, and in possession of a large collection of curious books. His
mother had been the matron of a hospital, and Theophrastus, their only
child, was born one year after their marriage. He is said to have been
emasculated in his infancy, a tradition which may have been invented to
account for his beardless and feminine appearance, and for his hatred
of women.

Paracelsus received the first rudiments of education from his father,
and, as he advanced in his studies and capacity, he was instructed in
alchemy, surgery, and medicine. One of the works of Isaac Holland fell
into his hands, and from that moment he was inflamed with the ambition
of curing diseases by medicine superior to the _materia_ at that time
in use. He performed several chemical operations, according to the
books of the celebrated Hollander, and adopted from his writings the
ancient principles that a salt, mercury, and sulphur form a trinity
in every substance. This system he enlarged and explained by his own
intellectual illumination. He imbibed much of his father’s extensive
learning, and then continued his studies under the guidance of monks
in the convent of St Andrew of Savon, afterwards at the University
of Basel, and finally devoted himself to the occult sciences with the
illustrious Johann Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim, for his teacher and
director. In this way he acquired “the Kabbalah of the spiritual,
astral, and material worlds.” He was afterwards placed under the care
of Sigismond Hagger or Fagger, to be improved in medicine, surgery, and
chemistry. At twenty years of age he started on his travels through
Germany, Hungary, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden,
and Russia. In Muscovy he is said to have been taken prisoner by
the Tartars, who brought him before “the great Cham.” His knowledge
of medicine and chemistry made him a favourite at the court of this
potentate, who sent him in company with his son on an embassy to
Constantinople. It was here, according to Helmont, that he was taught
the supreme secret of alchemistry by a generous Arabian, who gave him
the universal dissolvent, the Azoth of western adepts, the alcahest or
sophic fire. Thus initiated, he is said to have proceeded to India. On
his return to Europe he passed along the Danube into Italy, where he
served as an army surgeon, performing many wonderful cures.

At the age of thirty-two he re-entered Germany, and was soon after
invited to take a professorship of physic, medicine, and surgery at the
University of Basel, then illuminated by the presence of Erasmus and
Oporinus. There, in his lectures, he professed “internal medicine,”
denounced the antiquated systems of Galen and other authorities, and
began his instruction by burning the works of these masters in a brass
pan with sulphur and nitre. He created innumerable enemies by his
arrogance and his innovations, but the value of his mineral medicines
was proved by the cures which he performed. These cures only increased
the hatred of his persecutors, and Paracelsus with characteristic
defiance invited the faculty to a lecture, in which he promised to
teach the greatest secret in medicine. He began by uncovering a dish
which contained excrement. The doctors, indignant at the insult,
departed precipitately, Paracelsus shouting after them:--“If you will
not hear the mysteries of putrefactive fermentation, you are unworthy
of the name of physicians.” Subsequently, he came into conflict with
the municipal authorities, and was forced to flee from Basel. He
resumed his strolling life, lodging at public inns, drinking to excess,
but still performing admirable cures. Oporinus testifies that even
during the period of his professorship he never seemed sober.

In 1528, Paracelsus proceeded to Colmar. In 1530 he was staying at
Nuremberg, where the faculty denounced him as an impostor, but he
transfixed his opponents by curing in a few days some desperate cases
of elephantiasis. “Testimonials to this effect,” says Hartmann, his
latest biographer, “may still be found in the archives of the city of
Nuremberg.” He continued his wanderings and his intemperate manner of
life, dying on the 24th of September 1541.

The actual manner of his death has been variously recounted. The
original “Lives of Alchemysticall Philosophers” says that it occurred
on a bench of the kitchen fire of the inn at Strasburg. Dr Hartmann, on
the other hand, tells us that he “went to Maehren, Kaernthen, Krain,
and Hongary, and finally landed in Salzburg, to which place he was
invited by the Prince Palatine, Duke Ernst of Bavaria, who was a great
lover of the secret arts. In that place, Paracelsus obtained at last
the fruits of his long labours and of a wide-spread fame. But he was
not destined to enjoy a long time the rest he so richly deserved....
He died, after a short sickness (at the age of forty-eight years and
three days), in a small room of the ‘White Horse’ Inn, near the quay,
and his body was buried in the graveyard of St Sebastian.” His death is
supposed to have been hastened by a scuffle with assassins in the pay
of the orthodox medical faculty.

The last commentator on Paracelsus, Dr Franz Hartmann, has devoted a
chapter to the alchemical and astrological teachings of the seer of
Hohenheim. The first art, according to Paracelsus, separates the pure
from the impure, and develops species out of primordial matter. It
perfects what Nature has left imperfect, and, therefore, its principles
are of universal application, and are not restricted to the metallic
and mineral kingdoms. Gold can be made by physical chemistry, but the
process is poor and unproductive in comparison with the gold which can
be produced by an exercise of the occult powers which exist in the soul
of man. Actual and material gold can be psycho-chemically manufactured.
By this amazing theory, Paracelsus created a new school of alchemy,
which abandoned experimental research, and sought within themselves the
secret, subject, and end of alchemystical philosophy.




DENIS ZACHAIRE.


It appears that the true name of this persevering and indefatigable
seeker after the end and truth of alchemy has not in reality come down
to us, that which is placed at the head of his _Opusculum Chimicum_
being simply pseudonymous. It is to this little work that we are
indebted for one of the most singular histories in the annals of the
Hermetic art.

Denis Zachaire was born of a noble family, in an unmentioned part of
Guienne, during the year 1510. He was sent, as a youth, to Bordeaux,
under the care of a tutor, to prosecute the study of philosophy and
_belles lettres_. His preceptor, however, had a passion for alchemy,
and inoculated his pupil with the fatal fever of the sages. They
speedily abandoned the common academical courses for the thorny
pathways of the _magnum opus_, and Denis, in particular, devoted
himself to the assiduous compilation of a vast volume of Hermetic
receipts, indicating a thousand processes, with a thousand various
materials, for the successful manufacture of gold. From Bordeaux he
proceeded to Toulouse, still in the society of his tutor, and for the
ostensible study of law, but in reality for the experimental practice
of alchemy. Two hundred crowns with which they were supplied for their
maintenance during the next two years were speedily expended in the
purchase of furnaces, instruments, and drugs, for the literal execution
of the processes contained in the books of the adepts.

“Before the end of the year,” as he himself informs us, “my two hundred
crowns were gone in smoke, and my tutor died of a fever he took in
summer from his close attention to the furnace, which he erected in
his chamber, and stayed there continually in extreme heat. His death
afflicted me much, and still more as my parents refused to supply
me with money, except what was just necessary for my support. I was
therefore unable to proceed in my grand work.

“To overcome these difficulties I went home in 1535, being of age, to
put myself out of guardianship; and I disposed of some of my property
for four hundred crowns. This sum was necessary to execute a process
which was given me in Toulouse, by an Italian, who said he saw it
proved. I kept him living with me, to see the end of his process.

“We dissolved gold and silver in various sorts of strong waters, but
it was all in vain; we did not recover from the solution one half of
the gold and silver which we had put into it. My four hundred crowns
were reduced to two hundred and thirty, of which I gave twenty to the
Italian, to proceed to Milan, where, he said, the author of the process
lived, and whence he would return with his explanations. I remained at
Toulouse all the winter, awaiting him, and I might have tarried there
still, as I never have heard of him since.

“In the ensuing summer the city being visited by the plague, I went
to Cahors, and there continued for six months. I did not lose sight
of my work, and became acquainted with an old man who was called
the philosopher, a name given in the country to any one of superior
information. I communicated to him my practices and asked his advice.
He mentioned ten or twelve processes which he thought better than
others. I returned to Toulouse when the plague ceased, and renewed my
labours accordingly. The only consequence was that my money was all
spent, except one hundred and seventy crowns. To continue my operations
with more certainty, I made acquaintance with an abbé, who dwelt in
the neighbourhood of this city. He was taken with a passion for the
same pursuit as myself, and he informed me that one of his friends, who
lived with Cardinal Armanac, had sent him a process from Rome which
he believed genuine, but it would cost two hundred crowns. I agreed
to furnish one half of this sum, and he gave the rest, so we began to
work together. Our process required a large supply of spirits of wine.
I purchased a cask of excellent wine, from which I drew the spirit and
rectified it many times. We took two pounds weight of it and half a
pound weight of gold, which we had calcined for a month. These were
included in a pelican and placed in a furnace. This work lasted a year,
but, not to remain idle, we made some other experiments to amuse
ourselves, and from which we expected to draw sufficient profit to pay
the cost of our great work.

“The year 1537 passed over without any change appearing in the subject
of our labours. We might have remained through our whole lives in
the same state, for we should have known that the perfect metals are
unaltered by vegetable or animal substances. We took out our powder and
made projection upon hot quicksilver, but it was in vain! Judge then of
our grief, especially as the abbé had notified to all his monks that
they would have to melt the lead cistern of their house in order that
he might convert it into gold as soon as our operations were finished.

“My bad success could not make me desist. I again raised four hundred
crowns on my property; the abbé did the same, and I set out for Paris,
a city containing more alchemists than any other in the world. I
resolved to remain there as long as the eight hundred crowns lasted, or
until I succeeded in my object. This journey drew on me the displeasure
of my relations, and the censure of my friends, who imagined I was a
studious lawyer. However, I made them believe that the design of my
sojourn in Paris was the purchase of a situation in the law courts.

“After travelling for fifteen days I arrived at Paris in January
1539. I remained a month almost unknown, but no sooner had I visited
the furnace makers and conversed with some amateurs than I became
acquainted with more than a hundred artists, who were all at work in
different ways. Some laboured to extract the mercury of metals and
afterwards to fix it. A variety of systems were held by others, and
scarcely a day passed in which some of them did not visit me, even on
Sundays and the most sacred festivals of the Church, to hear what I had
done.

“In these conversations one said:--‘If I had the means to begin again,
I should produce something good.’ Another--‘Would that my vessel
had been strong enough to resist the force of what it contained.’
Another--‘If I had possessed a round copper vessel well closed, I would
have fixed mercury with silver.’ There was not one without a reasonable
excuse for his failure, but I was deaf to all their discourses,
recollecting my experience as the dupe of similar expectations.

“I was tempted, nevertheless, by a Greek who had a process with
cinnabar, which failed. At the same time I became acquainted with a
strange gentleman, newly arrived, who often, in my presence, sold
the fruit of his operations to the goldsmiths. I was a long time
frequenting his company, but he did not consent to inform me of his
secret. At last I prevailed over him, but it was only a refinement
of metals more ingenious than the rest. I failed not to write to the
abbé, at Toulouse, enclosing a copy of the process of the stranger, and
imagining that I had attained some useful knowledge, he advised me to
remain another year at Paris, since I had made so good a beginning.

“After all, as to the philosophers’ stone, I succeeded no better than
before. I had been three years at Paris, and my money was nearly
expended, when I had a letter from the abbé, informing me that he
had something to communicate, and that I should join him as soon as
possible.

“On my arrival at Toulouse, I found that he had a letter from King
Henry of Navarre, who was a lover of philosophy, and who requested
that I should proceed to Pau, in Berne, to teach him the secret I
had received from the stranger at Paris. He would recompense me with
three or four thousand crowns. The mention of this sum exhilarated the
abbé, and he never let me rest till I set out to wait on the prince.
I arrived at Pau in May 1542. I found the prince a very curious
personage. By his command I went to work, and succeeded according
to the process I knew. When it was finished I obtained the expected
recompense, but although the king wished to serve me further, he was
dissuaded by the lords of his court, even by those who had engaged me
to come to him. He dismissed me with great acknowledgments, desiring
me to see if there was anything in his estates which would gratify me,
such as confiscations or the like, and that he would give them to me
with pleasure. These promises, which meant nothing, did not lead me
to entertain the hopes of a courtier, and I returned to the abbé at
Toulouse.

“On my road I heard of a religious man, who was very skilful in natural
philosophy. I went to visit him; he lamented my misfortunes, and said,
with a friendly zeal, that he advised me to amuse myself no longer
with these various particular operations, which were all false and
sophistical, but that I should rather peruse _the best books of the
ancient philosophers_, as well to know _the true matter_ as the _right
order that should be pursued_ in the practice of this science.

“I felt the truth of this safe counsel, but before I put it in
execution, I went to see my friend at Toulouse, to give him an account
of the eight hundred crowns that we had put in common, and to divide
with him the recompense I had received from the King of Navarre. If
he proved not content with all I told him, he was still less so at
the resolution I had taken to discontinue my operations. Of our eight
hundred crowns, we had but eighty-six left. I departed from him, and
returned home, intending to go to Paris, and there remain until I was
fixed in my theory of reading the works of the adepts. I reached Paris
in 1546, and remained there a year, assiduously studying the _Turba
Philosophorum_, the good Trévisan, the “Remonstrance of Nature,” and
some other of the best books. But as I had no _first principles_, I
knew not on what to determine.

“At length I went out of my solitude, not to see my old acquaintances,
the searchers after particular tinctures and minor works, but to
frequent those who proceeded in the great process by the books of
the genuine adepts. I was, nevertheless, disappointed herein, by
the confusion and disagreement of their theories, by the variety of
their works, and of their different operations. Excited by a sort of
inspiration, I gave myself up to the study of Raymond Lully and Arnold
de Villa Nova. My reading and meditation continued another year. I
then _formed my plan_, and only waited to sell the remainder of my
land to enable me to go home, and put my resolution into practice.
I commenced at Christmas, 1549, and after some preparations, having
procured everything that was necessary, I began my process, not without
inquietude and difficulty. A friend said to me:--“What are you going
to do? have you not lost enough by this delusion?” Another assured me
that if I continued to purchase so much coal, I should be suspected of
counterfeiting coin, of which he had already heard a rumour. Another
said I ought to follow my business of a lawyer. But I was chiefly
tormented by my relations, who reproached me bitterly with my conduct,
and threatened to bring the officers of justice into my house to break
my furnaces in pieces.

“I leave you to judge my trouble and grief at this opposition. I
found no consolation but in my work, which prospered from day to day,
and to which I was very attentive. The interruption of all commerce,
which was occasioned by the plague, gave me the opportunity of great
solitude, in which I could examine with undisturbed satisfaction the
success of the three colours which mark the true work. I thus arrived
at the perfection of the tincture, and made an essay of its virtue on
common quicksilver, on Easter Monday, 1550. In less than an hour it
was converted into pure gold. You may guess how joyful I was, but I
took care not to boast. I thanked God for the favour he shewed me, and
prayed that I should be permitted to use it but for His glory.

“The next day I set out to find the abbé, according to the promise we
gave each other, to communicate our discoveries. On my way, I called at
the house of the religious man who had assisted me by his good advice.
I had the grief to find that both he and the abbé had been dead about
six months. I did not go back to my house, but sought another place,
to await the arrival of one of my relations whom I had left at my
dwelling. I sent him a procuration to sell all that I possessed, both
house and furniture, to pay my debts, and to distribute the remainder
among those of my relations who were in want. He soon after rejoined
me, and we set out for Lausanne, in Switzerland, resolved to pass our
days without ostentation in some of the celebrated cities of Germany.”

In his unknown retreat[V] the adept recorded his adventures and
experiences when in search of the philosophical stone, _ut divertarem
bonos piosque vivos, à sophisticationibus, ad viam rectam perfectionis
in hoc opere divino_. His little work is entitled simply _Opusculum
Chemicum_; it opens with the romantic narrative which I have cited
almost _in extenso_. It calls Hermes _magnus propheta noster_, insists
that the art is the gift of God alone on the authority of all the
initiates, and quotes so largely from previous writers that it can
scarcely be considered an original work on the Hermetic philosophy.

The life of Bernard Trévisan has abundantly testified to the physical
nature of his object, which is amply confirmed by this treatise. The
methods of projection upon metals, the composition of precious stones,
and the application of the tincture as a medicine for the human body,
are successively considered. One grain of the _divinum opus_, dissolved
in white wine, transmutes that liquor into a rich citron colour, and
has innumerable hygienic uses.


FOOTNOTES:

[V] See Appendix I.




BERIGARD OF PISA.


The following account of a transmutation performed by himself, is
recorded by the celebrated Italian philosopher, Claude Berigard, and
will be found on the twenty-fifth page of his _Circulus Pisanus_,
published at Florence in 1641.

“I did not think that it was possible to convert quicksilver into gold,
but an acquaintance thought proper to remove my doubt. He gave me about
a drachm of a powder nearly of the colour of the wild poppy, and having
a smell like calcined sea-salt. To avoid all imposition, I purchased a
crucible, charcoal, and quicksilver, in which I was certain that there
was no gold mixed. Ten drachms of quicksilver which I heated on the
fire were on projection transmuted into nearly the same weight of good
gold, which stood all tests. Had I not performed this operation in the
most careful manner, taking every precaution against the possibility of
doubt, I should not have believed it, but I am satisfied of the fact.”




CHARNOCK.


Thomas Charnock was born in the Isle of Thanet, in the year 1524.
He calls himself an unlettered scholar, and student in astronomy
and philosophy. He practised surgery, and, though he knew only the
rudiments of Latin, it appears that he was famous in the neighbourhood
of Salisbury, where he had established himself, for his accomplishments
in the liberal sciences. He had two masters in alchemy, the first
being Sir James S----, a priest, dwelling in the cloisters, near
Salisbury, who informed Charnock that he did not derive his knowledge
from any living adept, but that by meditation upon the words of the
philosophers, he had mastered the principal secrets of alchemy as he
lay in his bed, and had accordingly succeeded in making the silver
powder.

The other master who instructed Charnock was a blind man, led by
a boy, whom the neophyte accidentally discovered at an inn among
other travellers, by a few words of the occult chemistry, which he
perceived in his conversation. As soon as the company had retired,
Charnock questioned the speaker, and requested instruction in natural
philosophy. To this the adept objected that he was unacquainted with
his interrogator, saying he would render up his knowledge to God who
gave it, if he did not meet with a certain Master Charnock, the fame of
whose learning and charity had reached him.

At these words Charnock made himself known, and the old man discoursed
with him for an hour, during which time he found him expert in many
mysteries of the sacred science. He promised Charnock that if he made a
vow not to reveal the secret for gold, preferment, or through affection
for great men, but only at death to one who was truly devoted to the
search into nature, he would make him the heir of his knowledge.
Accordingly, on the following Sunday they received the Eucharist
together, and then, withdrawing into the middle of a large field, the
boy was sent away out of hearing, and, in a few words, the blind man
uttered “the mystery of mineral prudence.” Their conversations were
continued for nine days. The secrets of alchemy were disclosed, and
the adept also related his own private history, acquainting Charnock
that his name was William Bird, that he had been a prior of Bath, and
had defrayed the expense of repairing the abbey church from treasure
which he had acquired by means of the red and white elixirs. At the
suppression of the abbey, he concealed the inestimable powder in the
wall, and returning in ten days it was gone. He found a few rags in the
place where he had left it. This misfortune almost deprived him of his
senses; he wandered about, and lost his sight. He was therefore unable
to repeat his process, and continued to travel over the country, led by
a boy. He had received his Hermetic knowledge from a servant of Ripley.

At the time of this communication, Charnock was twenty-eight years
old, and two years after his first master fell sick while attending
his furnace for the completion of the red stone. He sent for Charnock,
made him the heir of his work, and died after giving him instructions
how to proceed. Charnock began his operations on the materials left by
his leader, and was much perplexed by the difficulty of keeping the
fire equal. He often started out of his sleep to examine the fuel; but
after all his care, which continued during the space of several months,
the frame of wood that covered the furnace took fire during a short
period of his absence, and when, smelling the burning, he ran up to his
laboratory, he discovered that his work was completely destroyed. This
occurred on January 1, 1555. To repair the mischief he was obliged to
recommence at the first part of the process, and he hired a servant to
assist in taking care of the fire. In the course of two months certain
signs filled him with hopes of success, when his dependence on his
servant proved the ruin of his work. He discovered that this unfaithful
assistant would let the fire nearly out, and then, to conceal his
neglect, would rekindle it with grease till it was so hot as to scorch
the matter beyond recovery.

In the third attempt, Charnock resolved to proceed without help. His
fire cost him three pounds a week, and he was obliged to sell some
rings and jewels to maintain it. He made good progress in the course
of eight months, and expected to be rewarded in a little time for all
his labours; but at this critical period he was impressed to serve as
a soldier at the siege of Calais. Furious with disappointment, he took
a hatchet, smashed his glasses, furnace, and apparatus, and threw them
out of the house.

He wrote his “Breviary of Philosophy” in 1557, and the “Enigma of
Alchemy” in 1572, with a memorandum, dated 1574, when he was fifty
years old. Therein he declares his attainment of the gold-producing
powder when his hairs were white. The “Breviary” claims to describe
all the vessels and instruments which are required in the science; a
potter, a joiner, and a glassmaker must lend their several services.
The address of one of these artificers, specially recommended by the
author, is said to be Chiddinfold in Sussex; he could manufacture
egg-shaped glasses which opened and shut “as close as a hair.” The
regulation of the philosophical fire is described in this curious poem,
but the rest of its information is of a purely autobiographical kind.




GIOVANNI BRACCESCO.


This alchemist of Brescia flourished in the sixteenth century. He was
the author of a commentary on Geber, which is not supposed to cast
much light on the obscurities of the Arabian philosopher. The most
curious of his original treatises is _Legno della Vita, vel quale
si dichiara la medecina per la quale i nostri primi padri vivevano
nove cento anni_, Rome, 1542, 8vo.--“The Wood of Life, wherein is
revealed the medicine by means of which our Primeval Ancestors lived
for Nine Hundred Years.” This work, together with _La Esposizione
di Geber Filosophe_, Venice, 1544, 8vo, was translated into Latin,
and may be found in the collections of Gratarole and Mangetus. They
were also published separately under the title _De Alchimia dialogi
duo_, Lugd., 1548, 4to. The Wood of Life is one of the innumerable
names given by the alchemists to the matured and perfected stone, the
composition whereof is the accomplishment of the _magnum opus_. It is
more generally denominated the Universal Balsam or Panacea, which cures
all diseases and insures to its most blessed possessor an unalterable
youth. The name Wood of Life is bestowed by the Jews on the two sticks
which confine the scroll of the Law. They are convinced that a simple
contact with these sacred rods strengthens the eyesight and restores
health. They also hold that there is no better means of facilitating
the _accouchement_ of females than to cause them to behold these
vitalising sticks, which, however, they are in no wise permitted to
touch.[W]

The work of Braccesco is written in the form of a dialogue, and is
explanatory of the Hermetic principles of Raymond Lully, one of the
interlocutors, who instructs an enthusiastic disciple in the arcane
principles of the divine art, the disciple in question being in
search of a safeguard against the numerous infirmities and weaknesses
of the “humid radical.” Such a medicine is declared by the master
to be extracted from a single substance, which is the sophic _aqua
metallorum_. The dialogue is of interest, as it shows the connection in
the mind of the writer between the development of metallic perfection
and the physical regeneration of humanity.


FOOTNOTES:

[W] _Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes_, i. p. 232.




LEONARDI FIORAVANTI.


Doctor, surgeon, and alchemist of the sixteenth century, this Italian
was a voluminous author, who is best known by his “Summary of the
Arcana of Medicine, Surgery, and Alchemy,” published in octavo at
Venice in 1571, and which has been reprinted several times. It contains
an application of Hermetic methods and principles to the science
of medicine, but the author’s account of the _petra philosophorum_
shows the designation to be of a purely arbitrary kind, for it is a
mixture of mercury, nitre, and other substances, intended to act on
the stomach, and has no connection with the transmuting _lapis_ of the
alchemical sages.




JOHN DEE.


The life of this pseudo-adept, and of Edward Kelly, his companion in
alchemy, is involved in a cloud of necromancy and magico-Hermetical
marvels, so that the fabulous and historical elements are not to be
easily separated.

The true name of Edward Kelly is supposed to have been Talbot. He is
said to have been born at Worcester in 1555, and to have followed the
profession of a lawyer in London. His talents in penmanship appear to
have been utilised in the falsification of deeds. He was prosecuted at
Lancaster, according to a narrative of his enemies, for an offence of
this nature, and was condemned to lose his ears. By some he is said to
have suffered this punishment,[X] by others to have evaded it, seeking
safety in Wales, where he lodged at an obscure inn, and concealed his
identity by adopting a new name. During this sojourn an old manuscript
was shown him by the innkeeper, which was indecipherable by himself
or his neighbours. The so-called Edward Kelly, being initiated into
the mysteries of ancient writing, discovered it to be a treatise on
transmutation, and his curiosity was highly excited. He inquired as to
its history, and was told that it had been discovered in the tomb of
a bishop who had been buried in a neighbouring church, and whose tomb
had been sacrilegiously uptorn by some wretched heretical fanatics at
that epoch of furious religiomania and rampant Elizabethan persecution.
The object of this desecration was the discovery of concealed treasures
in the resting-place of the prelate, to whom immense riches were
attributed by popular tradition. The impiety was, however, rewarded by
nothing but the manuscript in question, and two small ivory bottles,
respectively containing a ponderous red and white powder. These pearls
beyond price were rejected by the pigs of apostasy; one of them was
shattered on the spot, and its ruddy, celestine contents for the most
part lost. The remnant, together with the remaining bottle and the
unintelligible manuscript, were speedily disposed of to the innkeeper
in exchange for a skinful of wine. The unbroken bottle was transferred
by the new owner as a plaything to his children, but the providence
which in the main overwatches the accomplishment of the sublime act
preserved its contents intact. When Edward Kelly, with an assumed
antiquarian indifference about objects which were more curious than
valuable, offered a pound sterling for all the articles, a bargain was
promptly effected. The lawyer was by no means an alchemist, but he
believed himself possessed of a Hermetic treasure; he determined, at
all risks, to return to London, and consult with his friend Dr Dee,
who abode in a cottage at Mortlake, and who, in matters of magical
devilment, and in the tortuosities of the occult, was considered a man
of men.

Whether he had been accused of forgery, whether he had lost his ears,
or not, the discovery of Edward Kelly caused the necromantic doctor to
be blind to his faults or his crimes; he at once set to work in his
company, in the year 1579, and in the month of December a stupendous
success was the crown of their labour in common. The richness of
Kelly’s tincture proved to be one upon two hundred and seventy-two
thousand two hundred and thirty; but they lost much gold in experiments
before they knew the extent of its power. In Dr Dee’s “Diary in
Germany” he mentions the book of St Dunstan, which is probably the
manuscript of Kelly, and also the powder “found at the digging in
England,” which indicates some foundation for the narrative just given.
The place where the treasure was obtained is reported to have been the
ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, founded by St Dunstan. The last abbot was
hanged by Henry VIII. for his adherence to the Papal cause.

Kelly appears to have taken up his quarters at Islington. In June
1583 an attachment was issued against him for coining, of which his
companion declares him guiltless. In the following September, Dr Dee,
his wife and children, and Edward Kelly, with his wife, accompanied
by a certain Lord Albert Alasco, of Siradia, in Poland, departed from
London for Cracow. As soon as they had arrived in the north of Germany,
Dr Dee received a letter from one of his friends in England, informing
him that his library at Mortlake had been seized and partially
destroyed, on the vulgar report of his unlawful studies, and that his
rents and property were sequestered. Despite the possession of the
Donum Dei, all parties appear to have been in considerable penury in
consequence.

In 1585 we find them at Prague, then the metropolis of alchemy, and
the headquarters of adepts and adeptship. Edward Kelly and his
companions presently abounded in money, and the owner of the Hermaic
Benediction made no secret of his prize or his powers, indulged
in all kinds of extravagance, performed continual projections for
himself and his friends, as well as for many persons of distinction
who sought his acquaintance. Much of the result was distributed. The
transmutations of Kelly at this period are attested by several writers,
including Gassendus. The most authenticated and remarkable, according
to Figuier, is that which took place in the house of the imperial
physician, Thaddeus de Hazek, when, by the mediation of a single drop
of a red oil, Kelly transmuted a pound of mercury into excellent
gold, the superabundant virtue of the agent leaving in addition at
the bottom of the crucible a small ruby. Dr Nicholas Barnaud, the
assistant of Hazek, and an alchemical writer, whose works are as rare
as they are reputable, was a witness of this wonder, and subsequently
himself manufactured the precious metal, the _désir désiré_, with the
assistance of Edward Kelly.

The report spread, and the adept was invited by the Emperor Maximilian
II. to the Court of Germany, where his transmutations raised him into
highest favour; he was knighted, and created Marshal of Bohemia. Now
perfectly intoxicated, he posed as a veritable adept, who was able to
compose the inestimable projecting powder. This gave a handle to the
enemies whom his exaltation had made him; they persuaded the Emperor to
practically imprison this living philosophical treasure, and to extract
his alchemical secret. His misfortunes now began. Absolute inability to
obey the imperial mandate and compose a considerable quantity of the
stone philosophical, was interpreted as a contumacious refusal; he was
cast into a dungeon, but on engaging to comply with the demand if he
had the liberty to seek assistance, he was speedily set free, whereupon
he rejoined Dr Dee, and they again set to work in concert. The Book
of St Dunstan indicated the use but not the preparation of the powder,
and their experiments, vigilantly overwatched to prevent the escape
of Kelly, proved entirely futile. In the desperation which succeeded
their failure, the outrageous disposition of Kelly broke out, and he
murdered one of his guards. He was again imprisoned, his companion, for
the most part, remaining unmolested, and employing his opportunities,
it is said, to interest Queen Elizabeth in the fate of the Emperor’s
prisoner. She claimed the alchemist as her subject, but his recent
crime had rendered him obnoxious to the laws of the empire, and he was
still detained in his dungeon.

In 1589, Dr Dee set out himself for England. He halted at Bremen, and
was there visited by Henry Khunrath, one of the greatest adepts of
the age. The Landgrave of Hesse sent him a complimentary letter, and
was presented in return with twelve Hungarian horses. Dr Dee arrived
in England after an absence of six years; he was received by the
Queen, who subsequently visited him at his house, presented him with
two hundred angels to keep his Christmas, and gave him a license in
alchemy. Sir Thomas Jones offered him his Castle of Emlin, in Wales,
for a dwelling; he was made Chancellor of St Paul’s, and in 1595,
Warden of Manchester College. He repaired thither with his wife and
children, and was installed in February 1596. He does not appear to
have accomplished any transmutation after his return to England. In
1607 we again find him at Mortlake, living on the revenue which he
derived from Manchester, but subject to much persecution by the Fellows
of that College. He died in 1608, at the age of eighty years.

The Hermetic abilities of Kelly were always believed in by the Emperor;
he continued to detain him, hoping to extract his secret. Some friends
of the unfortunate alchemist endeavoured, in the year 1597, to effect
his escape by means of a rope, but he fell from the window of his
prison, and died of the injuries which he received.

During his confinement he composed a treatise on the philosophical
stone, and the Diary of Dr Dee was published from a genuine Ashmolean
manuscript in 1604. The son of John Dee became physician to the Czar
at Moscow, and in his _Fasciculus Chemicus_, he states that, in early
youth, he witnessed transmutation repeatedly for the space of seven
years.

The metrical account of Sir Edward Kelly’s work in the _Theatrum
Chemicum Britannicum_ informs all who are broiling in the kitchen of
Geber to burn their books “and come and learn of me,” for they can no
more compound the _Elixir Vitæ_ and the precious stone than they can
manufacture apples. The progenitor of magnesia, wife to the gold of
the philosophers, is not a costly thing. The philosophical gold is not
common but Hermetic sulphur, and magnesia is essential mercury.

The _Testamentum Johannis Dee Philosophi Summi ad Johannem Gwynn,
transmissum 1568_, is lucidly worded as follows in its reference to the
_magnum opus_:--

  “Cut that in Three which Nature hath made one,
  Then strengthen yt, even by it self alone;
  Wherewith then cutte the powdered sonne in twayne,
  By length of tyme, and heale the wounde againe.
  The self same sonne troys yet more, ye must wounde,
  Still with new knives, of the same kinde, and grounde;
  Our monas trewe thus use by Nature’s Law,
  Both binde and lewse, only with rype and rawe,
  And aye thank God who only is our Guyde,
  All is ynough, no more then at this tyde.”


FOOTNOTES:

[X] Morhof, _Epistola ad Langlelotum de Metallorun Transmutatione_.




HENRY KHUNRATH.


This German alchemist, who is claimed as a hierophant of the psychic
side of the _magnum opus_, and who was undoubtedly aware of the
larger issues of Hermetic theorems, must be classed as a follower of
Paracelsus. He was a native of Saxony, born about the year 1560. He
perambulated a large portion of Germany, and at the age of twenty-eight
received the degree of medical doctor at the University of Basle. He
practised medicine at Hamburg and afterwards at Dresden, where he died
in obscurity and poverty, on the 9th of September 1601, aged about
forty-five years. The _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ solius veræ,
Christiano Kabbalisticum divino magicum_, &c., published in folio in
1609, is the most curious and remarkable of his works, some of which
still remain in manuscript.[Y] It was left unfinished by its author,
appearing four years after his decease, with a preface and conclusion
by his friend Erasmus Wohlfahrt.

The prologue directs the aspirant to the supreme temple of everlasting
wisdom to know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, to know also
himself, and the mysteries of the macrocosmos. The whole treatise is
purely mystical and magical. The seven steps leading to the portals
of universal knowledge are described in an esoteric commentary on
some portions of the Wisdom of Solomon. The _lapis philosophorum_ is
declared to be identical with the Ruach Elohim who brooded over the
face of the waters during the first period of creation. The Ruach
Elohim is called _vapor virtutis Dei_, and the internal form of all
things. The perfect stone is attained through Christ, and, conversely,
the possession of that treasure gives the knowledge of Christ. The
_Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ_ seems to be the voice of the ancient
chaos, but its curious folding plates are exceedingly suggestive.


FOOTNOTES:

[Y] Chausepié, _Dictionnaire_.




MICHAEL MAIER.


This celebrated German alchemist, one of the central figures of the
Rosicrucian controversy in Germany, and the greatest adept of his age,
was born at Ruidsburg, in Holstein, towards the year 1568. In his youth
he applied himself closely to the study of medicine, and establishing
himself at Rostock, he practised that art with so much success that he
became physician to the Emperor Rudolph II., by whom he was ennobled
for his services. Some adepts, notwithstanding, succeeded in enticing
him from the practical path which he had followed so long into the
thorny tortuosities of alchemical labyrinths. _Il se passionna pour le
grand œuvre_ and scoured all Germany to hold conferences with those
whom he imagined to be in possession of transcendent secrets. The
_Biographie Universelle_ declares that he sacrificed his health, his
fortune, and his time to these “ruinous absurdities.” According to
Buhle,[Z] he travelled extensively; and on one occasion paid a visit to
England, where he made the acquaintance of the Kentish mystic, Robert
Fludd.

He appears as an alchemical writer a little before the publication of
the Rosicrucian manifestoes. In the controversy which followed their
appearance, and which convulsed mystic Germany, he took an early and
enthusiastic share, defending the mysterious society in several books
and pamphlets. He is supposed to have travelled in search of genuine
members of the “College of Teutonic Philosophers R.C.,” and, failing
to meet with them, is said to have established a brotherhood of his
own on the plan of the _Fama Fraternitatis_. These statements rest on
inadequate authority, and there is better ground for believing that
he was initiated, towards the close of his life, into the genuine
order. A posthumous tract of Michael Maier, entitled “Ulysses,” was
published in 1624 by one of his personal friends, who added to the same
volume the substance of two pamphlets which had already appeared in
German, but which, by reason of their importance, were now translated
into Latin for the benefit of the literati of Europe. The first was
entitled _Colloquium Rhodostauroticum trium personarum, per Famam et
Confessionem quodamodo revelatam de Fraternitate Roseæ Crucis_. The
second was an _Echo Colloquii_, by Benedict Hilarion, writing in the
name of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. It appears from these pamphlets
that Maier was admitted into the mystical order, but when or where
is uncertain. He became the most voluminous alchemical writer of his
period, publishing continually till his death in the year 1622.

Many of his works are Hermetic elaborations of classical mythology,
and are adorned with most curious plates. They are all hopelessly
obscure, if his Rosicrucian apologies be excepted; the latter are not
deficient in ingenuity, but they are exceedingly laboured, and, of
course, completely unsatisfactory. He does not appear to have been
included among the adepts, and he is now almost forgotten. His chemical
knowledge is buried in a multitude of symbols and insoluble enigmas,
and believers in spiritual chemistry will not derive much comfort or
profit from his writings.


FOOTNOTES:

[Z] See De Quincey’s “Rosicrucians and Freemasons.”




JACOB BÖHME.


After the publication of the psycho-chemical philosophy of the
illuminated shoemaker of Görlitz, the adepts are believed to have
despaired of any longer retaining their secrets, and in their own
writings they began to speak more freely. In this way the mystery of
the _vas philosophorum_ is said to have become less impenetrable than
previously, when it was considered a divine secret in the keeping of
God and his elect.

Jacob Böhme, who may perhaps be considered as the central figure of
Christian mysticism, was born in the year 1575, at Old Seidenberg,
a village near Görlitz, in what was then called German Prussia. His
parents were poor but honest and sober peasants, and were unable to
procure him more than the usual religious schooling and the most simple
elements of common education. In his spare time he tended cattle with
other boys of the village. “He was a quiet, introspective lad,” says
one of his latest biographers, “whose face bore somewhat of the dreamy
expression which is frequent in poetic natures.” Even at this early age
he was rich in inward visions. On one occasion he retired into a cave,
in the rock called Land’s Crown, and discovered a large wooden vessel
full of money, from which he precipitately retired without touching it,
as though it were something diabolical. He told his companions, but
there was no such cavern to be found at the place in question, though
they often visited the spot in search of the concealed treasure.

On leaving school, Jacob was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and while
he was one day serving in the shop during the absence of his master,
an old man, of remarkable and benevolent mien, entered and asked for
some shoes, for which the lad, fearing to conclude a bargain without
his employer, demanded an extravagant price to deter the stranger from
buying. The latter, however, paid the sum asked, and then calling him
by his name, beckoned him into the street, when taking him by the hand,
with sparkling eyes and earnest, angelical countenance, he said:--

“Jacob, thou art as yet but little; nevertheless, the time will
come when thou shalt be great, and the world shall marvel at thee.
Therefore, be pious, fear God, and reverence the Word. Read the Holy
Scriptures diligently; in these thou shalt have comfort and instruction
through the misery, poverty, and persecution which are in store for
thee. Be courageous and persevere; God loves thee, and is gracious unto
thee.”

The stranger then disappeared, or departed, leaving Jacob more serious
and devotional than ever. The words of instruction and inspired
admonition which he was frequently prompted to give to his fellow
apprentices brought him into disputes with his master, and eventually
led to his dismissal. He became a journeyman shoemaker, but returned to
Görlitz in 1594, where he married the daughter of a tradesman, by whom
he had four children.

In 1598 he imagined himself to be surrounded with the divine light
for several consecutive days; he beheld the virtue and nature of the
vegetable world, gazing into the very heart of creation, and learning
the secrets of the physical cosmos by means of the self-interpreting
“signatures” which seemed to be impressed on all around him. A similar
experience recurred in 1600, when he passed into the hypnotic state
by accidentally fixing his eye on a burnished pewter dish. These
visions did not interfere with his capacity for work, or with his
attention to his domestic affairs. Ten years passed away, and his
psychic perceptions became suddenly clearer. “What he had previously
seen only chaotically, fragmentarily, and in isolated glimpses, he now
beheld as a coherent whole and in more definite outlines.” He wrote
what he experienced under a fervour of inspiration, and in this way
his first book was produced--“Aurora, the Day Spring, or Dawning of
the Day in the East, or Morning Redness in the Rising of the Sun.” It
was not originally intended for publication, but manuscript copies
were circulated by one of his friends, and he suffered much consequent
persecution from the ecclesiastical authorities of Görlitz. He was
forbidden to write any more books, and was commanded to stick to his
trade. For five years he meekly obeyed the tyrannous mandate, and
afterwards contented himself with writing simply for his intimate
friends. From 1619 to 1624 he produced a number of voluminous
treatises, of which the book of the “True Principles,” the “Mysterium
Magnum,” and the “Signatura Rerum” are perhaps the most characteristic
and important. The publication, apparently surreptitious, of his
“Way to Christ” again brought him into conflict with the orthodoxy
of Görlitz, and led to his temporary exile. He was invited to the
electoral court at Dresden, where a conference of eminent theologians
examined him, and was so greatly impressed by the man that they
declared themselves incompetent to judge him.

In 1624 he was attacked by a fever at the house of a friend in Silesia,
was carried at his own request to his native town, and there on the
22nd November he expired in a semi-ecstatic condition.

While serving his apprenticeship at Görlitz, Jacob Böhme acquired
some knowledge of chemistry, and he subsequently made use of Hermetic
terminology in a transfigured and spiritual sense. His example was
followed by his disciples, including the illustrious Saint Martin,
Dionysius Andreas Freher, and William Law. The second-named writer has
treated of the analogy in the process of the philosophic work to the
Redemption of man through Christ Jesus, as unfolded by Jacob Böhme.

A treatise on metallurgy is ascribed to the theosophist himself,
and there are several alchemical references in his numerous private
epistles. The Holy Ghost is stated to be the key to alchemy; there
is no need of hard labour and seeking (presumably among physical
substances). “Seek only Christ, _and you will find all things_.” He
describes the philosophers’ stone as dark, disesteemed, and grey in
colour. It contains the highest tincture. Like Henry Khunrath before
him, he deprecates any expenditure beyond that of the time and cost
of the operator’s maintenance. “It doth not cost any money, but what
is spent upon the time and the maintenance, else it might be prepared
with four shillings. The work is easy, the act simple. A boy of sixteen
years might make it, but the wisdom therein is great, and it is
greatest mystery.”

The seal of God is elsewhere declared to be set on the secret of
alchemy, “to conceal the true ground of the same upon pain of eternal
punishments, unless a man know for certain that it shall not be
misused. There is also no power to attain it, no skill or art availeth;
unless one give the tincture into the hands of another, he cannot
prepare it, except he be certainly in the new birth.”

       *       *       *       *       *

The following lines, copied from a manuscript inserted in a volume
of his works, are included in the original edition of the “Lives of
Alchemysticall Philosophers”:--

  “Whate’er the Eastern Magi sought,
  Or Orpheus sung, or Hermes taught,
  Whate’er Confucius could inspire,
  Or Zoroaster’s mystic fire;
  The symbols that Pythagoras drew,
  The wisdom God-like Plato knew;
  What Socrates debating proved,
  Or Epictetus lived and loved;
  The sacred fire of saint and sage
  Through every clime, in every age,
  In Bohmen’s wondrous page we view
  Discovered and revealed anew.
  ‘Aurora’ dawned the coming day:
  Succeeding books meridian light display.
  Ten thousand depths his works explore,
  Ten thousand truths unknown before.
  Through all his books profound we trace
  The abyss of nature, GOD, and grace;
  The seals are broke, the mystery’s past,
  And all is now revealed at last.
  The trumpet sounds, the Spirit’s given,
  And Bohmen is the voice from Heaven.”




J. B. VAN HELMONT.


In the year 1557, at Bois le Duc, in Brabant, John Baptist van Helmont
was born of a noble family. He studied at Louvain, and became eminent
in mathematics, algebra, the doctrines of Aristotle and Galen, and the
medicine of Vopiscus and Plempius. At seventeen he lectured on physics
as prælector, and took his degree of medical doctor in 1599. He read
Hippocrates and the Greek and Arabian authors before he was twenty-two
years old. He then passed ten years in the unsuccessful practice of
physic, until he met a Paracelsian chemist, who discovered various
chemical medicines to him. He retired thereupon to the castle of
Vilvord, near Brussels, and laboured with unremitting diligence in the
chemico-experimental analysis of bodies of every class. He passed his
life in retirement, and was almost unknown to his neighbours, whom he,
nevertheless, attended in illness, without accepting a fee. He declined
an invitation and flattering offers from the Emperor and the Elector
Palatine, and after writing several tracts, which even at this day are
held in considerable estimation, he died in the sixty-seventh year of
his age.

This author, so illustrious throughout Europe for his scientific
knowledge, and no less celebrated for his noble rank than by the
probity of his character, testifies in three different places that
he has beheld, and himself performed, transmutation. In his treatise,
_De Vita Eterna_, he declares himself as follows:--“I have seen and I
have touched the philosophers’ stone more than once; the colour of it
was like saffron in powder, but heavy and shining like pounded glass.
I had once given me the fourth part of a grain--I call a grain that
which takes six hundred to make an ounce. I made projection therewith,
wrapped in paper, upon eight ounces of quicksilver, heated in a
crucible, and immediately all the quicksilver, having made a little
noise, stopped and congealed into a yellow mass. Having melted it in
a strong fire, I found within eleven grains of eight ounces of most
pure gold, so that a grain of this powder would have transmuted into
very good gold, nineteen thousand one hundred and fifty-six grains of
quicksilver.”

Had Helmont possessed the art of making the transmuting powder, his
testimony might be open to suspicion. He says, on another occasion,
that an adept, after a few days of acquaintance, presented him with
half a grain of the powder of projection, with which he transmuted nine
ounces of quicksilver into pure gold. He tells us further, that he many
times performed a similar operation in the presence of a large company,
and always with success. On these grounds he believed in the certainty
and in the prodigious resources of the art, citing his acquaintance
with an artist who had so much of the red stone as would make gold to
the weight of two hundred thousand pounds.

Though ignorant of the nature of this powder of projection, Helmont
professed the knowledge of the alcahest, and the methods of preparing
medicines of transcendent efficacy by its means.




BUTLER.


In the reign of James the First the attention of the curious was
attracted by a report of several transmutations performed in London
by an artist of the above name. He was an Irish gentleman, who had
recently returned from his travels. It was said that he was not
himself acquainted with the secret of the stone, so far as regards its
manufacture. To account for possessing it, the following story was
related:--The ship in which he took passage during one of his voyages
was captured by an African pirate, and on arriving in port he was sold
as a slave to an Arabian, who was an alchemical philosopher. Butler,
appearing to his master skilful and ingenious, was employed in most
difficult operations in the laboratory. Having a perfect knowledge of
the importance of the process, as soon as it was finished he bargained
with an Irish merchant for his ransom, and made his escape, taking with
him a large portion of the red powder.

The performers of public transmutations generally found it necessary
to conceal their real knowledge by similar inventions. A physician,
who was a countryman of Butler, however formed a plan for discovering
his secret. He presented himself as a servant in search of a place,
and was hired in that capacity by Butler. He found the philosopher so
circumspect that he sought in vain for some circumstance to justify the
public report of his treasures, until at last Butler sent him into the
city to purchase a large quantity of lead and quicksilver.

The disguised doctor now hoped to make a discovery. He executed his
commission with dispatch, and prepared a little hole in the wall of his
master’s room, through which, from the adjoining apartment he could
see what was going on. He soon perceived Butler taking something out
of a box, which he put on the melted lead, and deposited the box in a
concealed place under the floor of his room. At this moment the table
and chair on which the doctor was elevated to the spy-hole, gave way,
and he fell with a loud noise to the ground. Butler rushed out of
his room to learn the cause of this disturbance, and perceiving the
spy-hole, he with difficulty refrained from running his servant through
the body with his sword.

Finding there was no hope of obtaining anything from Butler, the doctor
expected to surprise his treasures by reporting to the officers of
justice that he was a coiner of false money. A vigilant search was made
according to his directions, but nothing was found, for Butler had
already removed whatever could betray him--his furnace, crucibles, and
eighty marks of gold were all he appeared to possess. He was therefore
liberated from the prison in which he had been confined during the
investigation.

Butler was afterwards entombed in the Castle of Vilvord, in Flanders,
where he is said to have performed wonderful cures by means of Hermetic
medicine. A monk of Brittany, who was one of his fellow-prisoners,
having a desperate erysipelas in his arm, was restored to health in
an hour by drinking almond milk in which Butler had merely dipped the
stone. The next day at the rumour of this circumstance, the celebrated
Helmont, who abode in the neighbourhood, went with several noblemen to
the prison, where Butler cured, in their presence, an aged woman of a
megrim by dipping the stone into oil of olives and then anointing her
head. An abbess, whose arm was swelled, and whose fingers had been
stiff for eighteen years, was also cured by a few applications of the
same stone to her tongue.

These cases are attested by the illustrious van Helmont in his works.




JEAN D’ESPAGNET.


This Hermetic philosopher is known to us by two treatises--_Enchiridion
Physicæ Restitutæ_ and _Arcanum Philosophiæ Hermeticæ_, which, however,
has also been claimed as the production of an unknown individual who
called himself the _Chevalier Impérial_.[AA] “The Secret of Hermetical
Philosophy” comprises the practical part of the _magnum opus_ and
the Enchiridion, the physical theory on which the possibility of
transmutation is founded. D’Espagnet is also the author of the preface
to the _Tableau de l’Inconstance des Démons_, by Pierre Delancre.

“The Arcanum of Hermetic Philosophy” is better known under the title of
the “Canons of Espagnet,” and, as I have shown in the Introduction, it
is claimed as a treatise on mystical alchemy. The author, however, very
plainly states that “the science of producing Nature’s grand Secret
is a perfect knowledge of Nature universally and of art, concerning
the realm of metals; the practice whereof is conversant in finding the
principles of metals by analysis.” Moreover, the authors whom Espagnet
recommends as a guide to the student include those who, like Trévisan,
are known to have spent their existence in practical alchemy. The
Sethon-Sendivogius treatises are also respectfully cited. At the same
time, it may be freely granted that much of the matter in the canons,
though treating of a physical object, may be extended to the psychic
side of the Hermetic art.


FOOTNOTES:

[AA] Ce chevalier, très-révérée des alchimistes, est mentionnée souvent
dans la _Trompette Française_, petit volume, contenant une _Prophétic
de Bombast sur la Naissance de Louis XIV._ On a, du Chevalier Impérial,
le _Miroir des Alchimistes_, avec instructions aux dames pour
dorénavant être belles sans plus user de leurs dards venimeux, 1609,
16mo. _Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes._




ALEXANDER SETHON.


None of the adepts suffered from imprudent exposure of their power more
than the subject of this article. He was a native of Scotland, and
is supposed to have inhabited a mansion at a village in the vicinity
of Edinburgh, and close to the sea-shore.[AB] In the summer of 1601
a Dutch vessel was wrecked upon the coast, and some of the crew were
saved through the instrumentality of Sethon, who received them into his
house, treated them with great humanity, and provided them with the
means to return to Holland. One year later he visited James Haussen,
the pilot of the ship, one of the rescued persons, at Erkusen, in that
country. The sailor received him with joy, and detained him for several
weeks in his house, during which period he beheld with astonishment
several transmutations performed by his guest, who confessed that he
was an alchemical adept. He was bound in gratitude and friendship to
the most inviolable secrecy, but he could not refrain from confiding
the wonder which he had witnessed to Venderlinden, the physician of
Enkhuysen, who was a man of integrity and prudence, and to whom he
presented a piece of gold, which had been transmuted in his presence
from lead on the 13th March 1602. This curiosity came into the hands of
the doctor’s grandson, who showed it to the celebrated George Morhoff,
by whom it was mentioned, with its history, to Langlet du Fresnoy, in
an epistle on the transmutation of metals.

From Enkhuysen, Sethon proceeded to Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
subsequently embarking for Italy, where, after a short stay, he
passed into Switzerland, and so entered Germany, accompanied by
Wolfgang Dienheim, an adversary of Hermetic philosophy, whom by ocular
demonstration he convinced of his error, in presence of several
distinguished persons of Basle.

To this adversary we are indebted for a description of Sethon, whom he
declared eminently spiritual in appearance, short in stature, but very
stout, having a high colour, and a beard of the French style. He calls
him Alexander Sethonius, and states that he was a native of Molier, “in
an island of the ocean.”

The lead required for the transmutation was brought by Jacob Zwinger
from his own house, a crucible was borrowed from a goldsmith, and
common sulphur was purchased on the road to the house where the
operation was to be performed. During the whole course of the
experiment, Sethon touched nothing, simply supplying the small packet
which contained the powder of projection, and which transformed the
base metal into gold of the purest quality, equivalent in weight to the
original lead.

The experiment was repeated on another occasion with the same brilliant
success, and, in addition to the testimony of Dienheim, we have also
that of Zwinger, a name highly respected by the Germans in the history
of medicine.[AC]

Alexander Sethon departed from Basle, and went under an assumed name
to Strasbourg, whence he proceeded to Cologne, and abode with an
amateur alchemist named Anton Bordemann, by whom he was brought into
acquaintance with the other souffleurs of that city. He began a kind
of alchemical crusade among them, imprudently exposing his knowledge
to credulous and sceptical alike, and producing on one occasion six
ounces of the precious metal by means of a single grain of his great
philosophical tincture.[AD]

Leaving Cologne altogether petrified by his marvellous operations, the
illustrious hierophant of the art Hermetic betook himself to Hamburg,
where his further amazing projections are described by George Morhoff.
At Munich, the next stage in his alchemical pilgrimage, he performed no
transmutations, suddenly disappearing with the daughter of one of its
citizens, whom he appears to have legally married, and to whom he was
henceforth most devotedly attached.

The renown of Sethon about this time attracted the attention of
Christian II., the young Elector of Saxony. He sent for the alchemist,
but the latter, absorbed by his passion, had merged the Hermetic
propagandist in the lover, and sent William Hamilton, his apparent
domestic, but in reality a confidant and friend, to convince the
Elector of the verity of alchemical operations by ocular evidence.
A projection was performed by Hamilton with perfect success in the
presence of the whole court, and the gold then manufactured resisted
every test.[AE]

The Elector, previously a sceptic, was now more desirous than ever
to behold the adept. Sethon reluctantly consented, and at this
juncture seems to have been deserted by Hamilton. He was received with
distinction and favour, and presented a small quantity of the powder
to Christian II., who soon endeavoured to possess himself of the whole
secret of the philosopher. Sethon refused to gratify him, and was
deaf to persuasions and menaces; but the Elector, convinced that he
was in possession of a living treasure, determined to overcome his
reluctance, whatever the means employed. He imprisoned him in a tower,
which was guarded by forty soldiers, who had strict orders to keep a
constant watch on him. The unfortunate adept was subjected to every
torment which covetousness and cruelty could suggest. He was pierced
with pointed iron, scorched with molten lead, burnt by fire, beaten
with rods, racked from head to foot, yet his constancy never forsook
him. At length he outwearied his torturers, and was left in solitary
confinement.

At this time Michael Sendivogius, a Moravian gentleman, generally
resident at Cracovia, in Poland, chanced to be tarrying at Dresden. He
was a skilful chemist, who, like others of his period, was in search of
the philosophical stone, and who naturally took interest in the case of
Alexander Sethon. Having some influence at the court of the Elector,
he obtained permission to see him; and after several interviews, at
which the adept was exceedingly reserved on all subjects connected with
the divine science, he proposed to contrive his escape. The tortured
alchemist gladly consented to his plans, and promised to assist him
in his Hermetic pursuits. As soon as the resolution was formed,
Sendivogius departed to Cracovia, sold his house in order to raise
money, and returning to Dresden, established himself in the vicinity
of the prison, gaining the favour of its warders by his prodigality
and indirect bribes. At length the day came for the execution of his
plan; he regaled the guards better than usual, and when they were all
drunk, he carried Sethon, who was unable to walk, on his back to a
post-chaise, in which they proceeded without discovery. They called at
the house of Sethon for his wife, who was in possession of a quantity
of the transmuting powder, and then made all haste to reach Cracovia.
There Sendivogius required from the alchemist the fulfilment of his
promise, but was blankly refused by the adept, who referred him to God,
saying that the revelation of so awful a mystery would be a heinous
iniquity.

“You see what I have endured,” he continued, “my nerves are shrunk, my
limbs dislocated; I am emaciated to the last extremity, and my body is
almost corrupted; even to avoid all this I did not disclose the secrets
of philosophy.”

Sendivogius was not, however, destined to be deprived of all recompense
for his pains and self-sacrifice. Alexander Sethon did not long enjoy
the liberty which his friend had obtained for him, and on his death,
which occurred two years after his escape, he presented his preserver
with the remains of his transmuting powder.


FOOTNOTES:

[AB] The names Seton or Seatoun have been given as that of the village
in question, but in Camden’s “Britannia” it appears as the name of
the house itself. The alchemist himself is sufficiently myrionimous,
being variously denominated Sethon, Sidon, Sethonius, Scotus, Sitonius,
Sidonius, Suthoneus, Suethonius, and even Seehthonius.

[AC] _Epistola ad doctorem Schobinger_, printed by Emmanuel Konig in
his _Ephemerides_.

[AD] Théobald de Hoghelande, _Historiæ aliquot Transmutationis
Mettalicæ pro defensione Alchemiæ contra Hostium Rabrein_. Cologne,
1604.

[AE] Galdenfalk, “Alchemical Anecdotes.”




MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS.


Sendivogius, whose true name was Sensophax, was born at Moravia in
1566, and was therefore about thirty-eight years of age on the death
of his taciturn master. He is said by some of his biographers to have
been the natural son of a Polish nobleman, named Jacob Sendimir. His
life has been written at some length by his advocate, an anonymous
German, who, however, produced a romance rather than a history, among
other fictions representing his hero to have been sent by the Emperor
Rodolph II. to the east, where he received from a Greek patriarch the
revelation of the grand mystery. As a matter of fact, Sendivogius had
made no progress in alchemy before his acquaintance with Sethon.

Having almost exhausted his fortune to obtain the liberation of that
adept, and having a taste for extravagant living, he was dissatisfied
with the mere possession of a portion of the transmuting powder, and
was more eager than ever to penetrate the mysteries of the Hermetic
art. He married the widow of Sethon, but she was wholly unacquainted
with the process, and her only possession was the manuscript of that
celebrated treatise, “The New Light of Alchemy,” with the dialogue
of Mercury and the alchemist, which Sendivogius appropriated and
eventually published as his own composition. From this work the
uninitiated inquirer believed himself to have discovered a method of
augmenting the powder, but he only succeeded in diminishing it.

Foiled in this attempt, he was still anxious at any rate to appear as
an adept, and acquired an immense reputation by incessant projections,
which, assisted by his sumptuous living, made him pass for a great
hierophant. At Prague he presented himself to the Emperor Rodolph II.,
and, in presence of several nobles, the king himself made gold by
projection, and overjoyed at the success of the operation he appointed
Sendivogius as one of his counsellors of state. A marble tablet with
the inscription--

  _Faciat hoc quispiam alius
  Quod fecit Sendivogius Polonus_,

was set up in the chamber where the transmutation had been performed,
and the occasion was celebrated in verse by the court poet, Mardochie
de Delle.

This achievement Sendivogius followed by printing at Prague the
treatise written by Sethon under the name of Cosmopolita. It passes
for the work of its editor, as he included his name anagrammatically
on the title-page, in the motto--_Divi Leschi genus amo_, and gave
no information concerning the real author. Some time after he issued
a tract on sulphur, which was probably his own composition. The
motto on the title-page--_Angelus doce mihi jus_--is another anagram
of his name. There are discrepancies between this tract and the
twelve treatises which comprise the work of Sethon. This Sendivogius
perceived, and in the second edition of the latter work he made
alterations in its text.

From the Court of Rodolph II. the alchemist proceeded to that of
Poland. As he passed on his way through Moravia, a lord of the country,
who had heard of his transmutations at Prague, and suspected that he
had abundance of the transmuting powder, laid an ambush for him on the
road, seized him, and secretly imprisoned him, with the threat that
he should never be liberated until he communicated the secret of his
treasure. Sendivogius, dreading the fate of Sethon, cut through the
iron bar that crossed the window of his dungeon, and making a rope
of his clothes, he escaped almost naked from the power of the little
tyrant, whom he summoned to the emperor’s court, where he was condemned
to be fined, a village on his estate was confiscated and transferred to
Sendivogius, who afterwards gave it as dower with his daughter at her
marriage.

Sendivogius made several transmutations at Varsovia, but his powder was
visibly diminishing. Duke Frederick of Würtemberg invited him to visit
him, and two projections took place in the presence of this noble, who,
to place him on the footing of a prince of the blood, gave him the
territory of Nedlingen.

He was destined, however, to meet with a severe reverse at Würtemberg
through the machinations of an envious alchemist already attached to
the Court, and who persuaded him that the Duke Frederic had formed
plans which menaced the freedom of his guest and the safety of his
transmuting treasure. Sendivogius, once more vividly reminded of the
fate of his master, precipitately fled, only to be pursued by his
treacherous brother in science, who overtook him with twelve armed men,
well mounted, arrested him in the name of the prince, robbed him of
the philosophical treasure, and caused him to be cast into prison. Then
this infamous souffleur, whose star had been overwhelmed by the sun of
Sendivogius, proceeded to perform transmutations, more than regaining
his lost reputation; but the report of this discreditable transaction
spread, public opinion decided that the duke was a party to it, and the
wife of the victim applying to the King of Poland, soon obtained the
liberty of alchemist.

Once more Sendivogius appealed for redress to the Emperor Rodolph, who
demanded the person of the souffleur from the Duke of Würtemberg. The
possessions of Sendivogius were at once restored, with the exception of
the powder, all knowledge of which was denied. The souffleur was hanged
by the duke, but from this time the pupil of Sethon perceived his sign
descending. He had but an infinitesimal quantity of the powder in his
possession, which, ever in search of notoriety, he dissolved in spirits
of wine, carefully rectified, and began to astonish the physicians
of Cracovia, whither he had again repaired, by the marvellous cures
which he performed with this for a medicine. Desnoyers, secretary to
the Queen of Poland, and one of the alchemist’s biographers, was in
possession of a crown piece which Sendivogius dipped red-hot into the
same spirit, in the presence of Sigismund III., King of Poland, and
which was partially transformed into gold.[AF] The elixir relieved the
same king from the effects of a serious accident.

When every particle of his powder was expended, Sendivogius appears
to have degenerated into a mere charlatan, obtaining large sums on the
pretence of manufacturing the powder of projection. On one occasion he
so far descended as to silver a piece of gold, and pretending that he
possessed the elixir, he caused the silver to disappear by a chemical
process, which he imposed on the ignorant as a projection of the
tincture and a conversion of silver into gold.

His confidential servant, Bodowski, explains this deception as a
finesse to conceal his real character, having learned from experience
the necessity of defending himself from the violence of covetous men.
He sometimes feigned poverty, or lay in bed as one attacked with
the gout or other sickness. By these means he diverted the general
suspicion that he possessed the philosophers’ stone, preferring to pass
for an impostor than for one in the enjoyment of illimitable wealth. He
frequently travelled in a servant’s livery, concealing most of his red
powder in the footstep of his chariot, and causing one of his servants
to sit inside. He kept some of the powder in a small gold box, and with
a single grain of it would convert so much mercury into gold as would
sell for five hundred ducats.[AG]

He was at his castle of Groverna, on the frontiers of Poland and
Silesia, when he was visited by two strangers, one of whom was old
while the other was young. They presented him with a letter bearing
twelve seals, and addressed to Sendivogius. He declared that he was not
the person whom they sought, but was at length persuaded to open the
document, and learned that they were a deputation from the Rosicrucian
Society, who wished to initiate him. He pretended not to understand
them when they spoke of the stone of the philosophers, but they drew
him into conversation on several abstruse subjects, he, however,
declining to the last the initiation which was offered him.

Michael Sendivogius died at Parma in 1646, aged eighty-four years,
having been counsellor of state to four emperors successively. His only
daughter had married an army captain against her father’s wish. He left
her nothing but a “Treatise on the Salt of the Philosophers,” which
has never been printed, and, therefore, must not be confused with a
spurious work which has been ascribed to him under a similar title.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Sethon-Sendivogius treatises are generally known under the
collective title, “A New Light of Alchemy.” They were written to
counteract the many adulterated and false receipts composed through
the fraud and covetousness of impostors. The procedure they indicate
is declared to be the result of manual experience. “Many men, both of
high and low condition, in these last years past, have to my knowledge
seen Diana unveiled. The extraction of the soul out of gold or silver,
by what vulgar way of alchymy soever, is but a mere fancy. On the
contrary, he which, in a philosophical way, can, without any fraud and
colourable deceit, make it that it shall really tinge the basest metal,
whether with gain or without gain, with the colour of gold or silver
(abiding all requisite tryals whatever), hath the gates of Nature
opened to him for the enquiring into further and higher secrets, and
with the blessing of God to obtain them.”

It is thus in the writings of the alchemists that we are continually
glimpsing or hearing of altitudes beyond transmutation, of regions of
achievement which nothing in the pages of the adepts prove them to have
actually explored, but which in possession of a comprehensive theory
of organic and inorganic development they beheld as a Promised Land.

The “New Light of Alchemy” insists on the existence of a sperm in
everything, and that all Nature originated at the beginning from one
only seed. It treats of the generation of metals and the manner of
their differentiation, of the extraction of their seed, and of the
manufacture of the stone or tincture.


FOOTNOTES:

[AF] See Desnoyer’s Letter in Langlet du Fresnoy’s _Histoire de la
Philosophie Hermétique_. Borel, in his Gallic Antiquities, recounts
that he, with many others at Paris, saw this crown-piece. He describes
it as partly gold, so far only as it was steeped in the elixir.
The gold part was porous, being specifically more compact than in
its silver state. There was no appearance of soldering, or of the
possibility of deception.

[AG] See _Vie de Sendivogius, tirée de la Rélation de Jean Bodowski_.




GUSTENHOVER.


A respectable goldsmith, named Gustenhover, resided at Strasburg
in 1603. In a time of great peril he gave shelter to a certain M.
Hirschborgen, who is described as good and religious. On leaving his
house after a considerable stay, this person presented his humane host
with some powder of projection, and then, departing on his journey, was
heard of no more.

Gustenhover imprudently made transmutations before numerous people,
and the fact was reported to the Emperor Rodolph II., himself an
amateur in alchemy. He wrote to the magistrates of Strasburg, directing
that the goldsmith should be forthwith sent to him. The order was
zealously obeyed, the man arrested, and guarded with vigilance from
all possibility of escape. When he discovered that the intention
of his imprisonment was to send him to the Emperor at Prague, he
divined the whole of the business, and invited the magistrates to meet
together, desiring them to bring a crucet and charcoal, and without
his approaching to melt some lead. Musket balls were used for the
purpose, and when the metal was molten, he handed them a small portion
of red powder, which they cast into the crucet, and the result of their
calcination was a considerable quantity of pure gold.

When he was brought into the presence of the gold-seeking Emperor,
Gustenhover was forced to admit that he had not himself prepared
the miraculous powder, and that he was in total ignorance about its
nature and composition. The monarch regarded this merely as one of the
subterfuges which were common in his experience of jealous adepts.
The goldsmith reiterated his protestations in vain; the whole of his
powder was speedily exhausted, yet he found himself still set to the
now impossible task of making gold. He sought a refuge from the fury of
the avaricious wretch, who has been denominated the German Hermes by
an alchemical blasphemy accursed by all sons of the doctrine; but he
was pursued, dragged back, and immured in the White Tower, where the
imperial dragon, blindly and obstinately convinced that the alchemist
was concealing his secret, detained him for the rest of his life.

The adept who presented the goldsmith with the auriferous gift of
misery, the so-called Hirschborgen, is supposed to be identical with
Alexander Sethon, at that period errant, under various disguises, in
Germany.




BUSARDIER.


Few particulars are recorded of this adept. He dwelt at Prague with a
lord of the Court, and, falling sick, he perceived that his immediate
death was inevitable. In this extremity he wrote a letter to his chosen
friend Richtausen, at Vienna, begging him to come and abide with him
during his last moments. On the receipt of this letter, Richtausen set
out, travelling with all expedition, but, on arriving at Prague, he
had the mortification to find that the adept was no more. He inquired
diligently if he had left anything behind him, and he was informed
by the steward of the nobleman with whom he had lodged that a powder
alone had been left, which the nobleman seemed anxious to preserve,
but which the steward did not know how to use. Upon this information,
Richtausen adroitly got possession of the powder, and then departed.
The nobleman, hearing of the transaction, threatened to hang his
steward if he did not recover the powder, and the latter, judging that
no one but Richtausen could have taken it, pursued him, well-armed. He
overtook him on the road and presented a pistol to his head, saying
he would shoot him if he did not return the powder. Richtausen,
seeing there was no other way to preserve his life, acknowledged his
possession of the treasure, and pretended to surrender it, but, by an
ingenious contrivance, he abstracted a considerable quantity.

He was now the owner of a substance the value of which was fully known
to him. He presented himself to the Emperor Ferdinand III., who was an
alchemist, and who, aided by his mine-master, Count Russe, took every
precaution in making projection with some of the powder given him by
Richtausen. He converted three pounds of mercury into gold with one
grain. The force of this tincture was one upon 19,470. The emperor is
said to have caused a medal to be struck, bearing the effigy of Apollo
with the caduceus of Mercury, and the motto--_Divina metamorphosis
exhibita Praguæ, Jan. 15, anno 1648, in præsentia Sac. Cæs. Majest.
Ferdinandi Tertii_. The reverse bore another inscription--_Raris hæc ut
hominibus est ars; ita raro in lucem prodit, laudetur Deus in æternum,
qui partem suæ infinitæ potentiæ novis suis abjectissimis creaturis
communicat_.

Richtausen was ennobled by the title of Baron Chaos.

Among many transformations performed by the same powder was one by the
Elector of Mayence in 1651. He made projection with all the precautions
possible to a learned and skilful philosopher. The powder, enclosed
in gum tragacanth to retain it effectually, was put into the wax of a
taper, which was lighted, the wax being then placed at the bottom of
a crucet. These preparations were undertaken by the Elector himself.
He poured four ounces of quicksilver on the wax, and put the whole
into a fire covered with charcoal, above, below, and around. Then they
began blowing to the utmost, and in about half an hour, on removing
the coals, they saw that the melted gold was over red, the proper
colour being green. The baron said that the matter was yet too high,
and it was necessary to put some silver into it. The Elector took
some coins out of his pocket, put them into the melting-pot, combined
the liquefied silver with the matter in the crucet, and having poured
out the whole when in perfect fusion into a lingot, he found, after
cooling, that it was very fine gold, but rather hard, which was
attributed to the lingot. On again melting, it became exceedingly soft,
and the master of the mint declared to his highness that it was more
than twenty-four carats, and that he had never seen so fine a quality
of the precious metal.




ANONYMOUS ADEPT.


Athanasius Kircher, the illustrious German Jesuit, records, in his
_Mundus Subterraneus_, that one of his friends, whose veracity he could
not doubt, made him the following relation:--

“From my youth I made a peculiar study of alchemy, without ever
attaining the object of that science. In my course of experiments I
received a visit from a man who was entirely unknown to me. He asked
very politely what was the object of my labours, and said, without
giving me time to reply, ‘I see very well by these glasses and this
furnace that you are engaged in a search after something very great in
chemistry, but, believe me, you never will in that way attain to the
object of your desire.’

“I said to him--‘Sir, if you have better instructions, I flatter myself
that you will give them.’

“‘Willingly,’ replied this generous unknown.

“Immediately I took a pen and wrote down the process he dictated.

“‘To show you the result,’ said the stranger, ‘let us both work
together according to what you have written.’

“We proceeded, and our operation being finished, I drew from the
chemical vessel a brilliant oil; it congealed into a mass, which I
broke into a powder. I took part of this powder and projected it on
three hundred pounds of quicksilver; it was in a little time converted
into pure gold, much more perfect than that of the mines; it endured
all the proofs of the goldsmiths.

“A prodigy so extraordinary struck me with surprise and astonishment.
I became almost stupid, and, as another Crœsus, fancied I possessed
all the riches in the universe. My gratitude to my benefactor was more
than I could express. He told me that he was on his travels and wanted
nothing whatever; ‘but it gratifies me,’ said he, ‘to counsel those
who are unable to complete the Hermetic work.’ I pressed him to remain
with me, but he retired to his inn. Next day I called there, but what
was my surprise at not finding him in it, or at any place in the town!
I had many questions to ask him which left me in doubt. I returned to
work according to the receipt, but failed in the result. I repeated
the process with more care; it was all in vain! Yet I persevered until
I had expended all the transmuted gold and the greater part of my own
property.”

“We see,” remarks Kircher, very gravely, “by this true history, how
the devil seeks to deceive men who are led by a lust of riches. This
alchemist was convinced he had an infernal visitor, and he destroyed
his books, furnace, and apparatus, by the timely advice of his
confessor.”




ALBERT BELIN.


Of this Benedictine, who was born at Besançon in 1610, the amateurs
of alchemy and the occult sciences have much prized the following
opuscula:--“A Treatise on Talismans or Astral figures, demonstrating
the exclusively natural origin of their no less admirable virtues,
with the manner of their composition and their practical utility;”
“Justification of the Sympathetic Powder,” published together
at Paris, 1671, 12mo; and, in particular, “The Adventures of an
Unknown Philosopher in the search after and on the discovery of the
Philosophical Stone.” This is divided into four books, and the manner
of accomplishing the _magnum opus_ is indicated with perspicacity
in the fourth. It was published in duodecimo at Paris in 1664, and
has since been reprinted. In the dedicatory epistle the authorship
is disclaimed by Belin, who remarks that, in accordance with his
profession, he should be occupied with the great work of divine grace
rather than with the natural _magnum opus_. The adventures are the
production of a young man with whom he was once well acquainted, and
who was then lately deceased. In the fourth book, the narrator of the
story relates how, with a copy of Raymond Lully in his hand, he went
by himself into a wood, and there he was interrupted in his studies
by a wonderful lady, in a wonderful silverine dress, embroidered with
flowers of gold. She proves to be Wisdom, and is greeted by the student
as his adorable mistress. In her infinite grace and condescension,
the divine incarnation of philosophy instructs her ravished listener,
during three several discourses, in the nature, effects, and
excellences of the rich and fruitful stone, of the matter whereof it
is composed, and of its development into absolute perfection.

The story is suggestive and curious, but in literary and romantic merit
it will bear no comparison with the “Chemical Nuptials of Christian
Rosencreutz.”




EIRENÆUS PHILALETHES.


In “The Real History of the Rosicrucians,” having no space for an
adequate discussion of the question, I followed the more general
opinion of Hermetic writers by identifying the author of the _Introitas
Apertus_ with the author of the _Lumen de Lumine_, Thomas Vaughan, and
concluded that he wrote indifferently under the pseudonyms of Eugenius
Philalethes and Eirenæus Philalethes.

Certain misleading references in great but fallible bibliographies,
and one piece of inextricable confusion in the text of the _Introitus
Apertus_, made this view appear to be fairly reasonable. However, in
the course of a somewhat detailed notice, a writer in the _Saturday
Review_ has taken me to task, by no means discourteously, be it said,
for inaccuracy in my account of Vaughan.

On the authority of Ashmole and Wood, he states that this personage
was the brother of the Silurist poet, Henry Vaughan, that he was born
at Llansaintfraid, in Brecknockshire, during the year 1621, that he
graduated at Jesus College, Oxford, took orders, and returned to hold
the living of his native parish. Under the Commonwealth he was ejected
as a Royalist, and then betook himself to chemical experiments, one of
which cost him his life on the 27th of February 1665.

Now, it is clear that these facts do not correspond with the life,
such as we know it, of the author of the _Introitus Apertus_, and the
identification of the two Philalethes, a habit which is apparently
unknown to the Saturday Reviewer, must be therefore abandoned. Why this
identification has hitherto taken place, and why, with some misgivings,
it was continued in my work on the Rosicrucians, may be very easily
explained.

The grounds of the confusion are these:--First, the similarity of the
assumed name, half of which was common to them both, while the other
half appears to have been interchangeable in the minds of historians
and bibliographers alike, including the compilers of the Catalogue in
the Library of the British Museum, which attributes the _Introitus
Apertus_ indiscriminately to both Philalethes. Second, the fact that
almost every edition and translation of this treatise contains the
following passage in the initial paragraph of the preface:--

“I being an adept, anonymous, and lover of learning, decreed to write
this little Treatise of physical secrets in the year 1645, in the
twenty-third year of my age, to pay my duty to the sons of art, and
lend my hand to bring them out of the labyrinth of error, to show
the adepts that I am a brother equal to them. I presage that many
will be enlightened by these my labours. They are no fables, but real
experiments, which I have seen, made, and know, as any adept will
understand. I have often in writing laid aside my pen, because I was
willing to have concealed the truth under the mask of envy; but God
compelled me to write, Whom I could not resist: He alone knows the
heart--to Him only be glory for ever. I undoubtedly believe that many
will become blessed in this last age of the world with this arcanum.
May the will of God be done! I confess myself unworthy of effecting
such things--I adore the holy will of God, to Whom all things are
subjected! He created and preserves them to this end.”

A simple arithmetical operation will show that the author was
consequently born in the year 1621, when also Eugenius Philalethes,
otherwise Thomas Vaughan, first saw the light. This would remain
unchallenged, but for the fact that the original edition[AH] of the
_Introitus_ is asserted to read _trigesimo anno_, in the thirty-third
year, instead of _vigesimo anno_. There is no copy of this original
edition in the British Museum, and my knowledge of it is derived
from the reprint in Langlet du Fresnoy’s _Histoire de la Philosophie
Hermétique_. Eirenæus, in accordance with the later impressions, is
venerated by the faithful of Hermes as the adept who accomplished the
grand and sublime act at the age of twenty-two.

These grounds, which in themselves are considerable, may be
supplemented by the fact that there is much similarity in the style and
methods of the two writers.

Eugenius Philalethes wrote _Anthroposophia Theomagica_; _Anima Magica
Abscondita_, published together in 1650; _Magia Adamica_, 1650; “The
Man-Mouse” (a satire on Henry More, the Platonist); “The Second Wash,
or The Moore (_i.e._, Henry More) Scoured once more,” 1651; _Lumen de
Lumine_, 1651; “The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity R.C.,” 1652;
_Aula Lucis_, 1652; “Euphrates, or The Waters of the East,” 1655. “A
Brief Natural History,” published in 1669, also bears his name, and in
1679 his poetical remains were published by Henry, his brother, along
with some effusions of his own, entitled _Thalia Rediviva_.

Some idea of the confusion which exists in the minds of biographers
and bibliographers alike on this point may be gathered from the fact
that some authorities represent Thomas Vaughan as dying in 1656, while
Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary attributes all the works of Eugenius
Philalethes to Henry the Silurist, whom he terms a Rosicrucian fanatic.

If much be confusion which concerns Thomas Vaughan, all is chaos in
respect of Eirenæus Philalethes. He would appear to have emigrated
to America at a comparatively early period. The Amsterdam original
edition of his _Experimenta de Præparatione Mercurii Sophici_, which
was issued by Daniel Elzevir in 1668, describes that work as _ex
manuscripto philosophi Americani, alias Æyrenæi Philalethes, natu
Angli, habitatione Cosmopolitæ_. In this way, those who have refrained
from identifying him with Thomas Vaughan, carefully confuse him
with George Starkey, also an Anglo-American, who claimed a familiar
acquaintance with Philalethes, and who, owing his initiation to him,
may be considered his philosophical son, but not his _alter ego_.
Starkey returned to London, and wrote several chemical books, some
of which detail the transmutations performed by Philalethes in the
apothecary’s trans-atlantic laboratory. He died of the plague in London
in 1665, while Eirenæus continued publishing for many years after that
date, and lived for some time on intimate terms with the illustrious
Robert Boyle, who, however, has given us no biographical particulars
concerning him.

Not the least curious fact in the history of this mysterious adept is
the apparently complete disappearance of numbers of his printed works,
which an authentic list extends to some forty volumes, some of which
seem perfectly unknown and unheard of by bibliographers and collectors
alike. Langlet du Fresnoy enumerates several manuscript treatises, but
gives no clue to their whereabouts.

It is from the books of Philalethes himself that we must be contented
to glean the scanty facts of his life. The thirteenth chapter of the
_Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium_ contains the following
remarkable account of its author:--

“All alchemical books abound with obscure enigmas and sophistical
operations. I have not written in this style, having resigned my will
to the Divine pleasure. I do not fear that the art will be disesteemed
because I write plainly, for true wisdom will defend its own honour.
I wish gold and silver were as mean in esteem as earth, that we need
not so strictly conceal ourselves. For we are like Cain, driven from
the pleasant society we formerly had without fear; now we are tossed
up and down as if beset with furies; nor can we suppose ourselves safe
in any one place long. We weep and sigh, complaining to the Lord,
‘Behold, whosoever shall find me will slay me!’ We travel through many
nations like vagabonds, and dare not take upon us the care of a family,
neither do we possess any certain habitation. Although we possess all
things we can use but a few; what, therefore, do we enjoy except the
speculations of our minds? Many strangers to this art imagine that
if they enjoyed it they would do great good; so I believed formerly,
but the danger I have experienced has taught me otherwise. Whoever
encounters the eminent peril of his life will act with more caution
thenceforward. I found the world in a most wicked state, scarce a man
but is guided by some selfish and unworthy motive, however honest
or upright he is judged in public. An adept cannot effect the works
of mercy to an uncommon extent without in some degree confiding to
the secrecy of others, and this is at the hazard of imprisonment and
death. I lately had a proof of it; for, being in a foreign place, I
administered the medicine to some distressed poor persons who were
dying, and they having miraculously recovered, there was immediately
a rumour spread abroad of the elixir of life, insomuch that I was
forced to fly by night with exceeding great trouble, having changed my
clothes, shaved my head, put on other hair, and altered my name, else
I would have fallen into the hands of wicked men that lay in wait for
me, merely on suspicion, excited by the thirst of gold. I could mention
other dangers which would seem ridiculous to those who did not stand
in a similar situation. They think they would manage their affairs
better, but they do not consider that all those intelligent people,
whose society is chiefly desirable, are extremely discerning, and a
slight conjecture is enough to produce a conspiracy; for the iniquity
of men is so great that I have known a person to have been strangled
with a halter on suspicion; although he did not possess the art, it was
sufficient that a desperate man had report of it. This age abounds with
ignorant alchemists; however ignorant of science, they know sufficient
to discover an adept, or to suspect him. An appearance of secresy will
cause them to search and examine every circumstance of your life.
If you cure the sick, or sell a large quantity of gold, the news is
circulated all through the neighbourhood. The goldsmith knows that the
metal is too fine, and it is contrary to law for any one to alloy it
who is not a regular metallurgist. I once sold pure silver worth £600
in a foreign country. The goldsmith, notwithstanding I was dressed as a
merchant, told me ‘this silver was made by art.’ I asked the reason he
said so. He replied, ‘I know the silver that comes from Spain, England,
&c. This is purer than any of them.’ Hearing this I withdrew. There is
no better silver in trade than the Spanish, but if I had attempted to
reduce my silver from its superior purity, and was discovered, I would
be hanged for felony. I never called again for either the silver or the
price of it. The transmission of gold and silver from one country to
another is regulated by strict laws, and this is enough to condemn the
adept who appears to have a quantity of it. Thus, being taught by these
difficulties, I have determined to lie hid, and will communicate the
art to thee who dreamest of performing public good, that we may see
what you will undertake when you obtain it.

“The searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth; nor is there
any cause to accuse me of envy. I write with an unterrified quill in an
unheard of style, to the honour of God, to the profit of my neighbours,
with contempt of the world and its riches; because ELIAS the artist is
already born, and now glorious things are declared of the city of God.
I dare affirm that I do possess more riches than the whole known world
is worth, but I cannot make use of it because of the snares of knaves.
I disdain, loathe, and detest the idolizing of silver and gold, by
which the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated. Ah, filthy
evil! Ah, vain nothingness? Believe ye that I conceal the art out of
envy? No, verily I protest to you, I grieve from the very bottom of
my soul that we are driven like vagabonds from the face of the Lord
throughout the earth. But what need many words? The thing we have seen,
taught, and made, which we have, possess, and know, that we do declare;
being moved with compassion for the studious, and with indignation of
gold, silver, and precious stones, not as they are creatures of God,
far be it from us, for in that respect we honour them, and think them
worthy of esteem, but the people of God adore them as well as the
world. Therefore let them be ground to powder like the golden calf! I
do hope and expect that within a few years money will be as dross; and
that prop of the anti-Christian beast will be dashed to pieces. The
people are mad, the nations rave, an unprofitable wight is set up in
the place of God. At our long expected and approaching redemption, the
New Jerusalem shall abound with gold in the streets, the gates thereof
shall be made with entire stones, most precious ones, and the tree of
life in the midst of Paradise shall give leaves for the _healing_ of
the nations. I know these my writings will be to men as pure gold; and
through them gold and silver will become vile as dirt. Believe me, the
time is at the door, I see it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall
return from the four corners of the earth, nor shall we fear any snares
that are laid against our lives, but we shall give thanks to the Lord
our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the whole earth
understood this science; then it would only be valued for its wisdom,
and virtue only would be had in honour. I know many adepts who have
vowed a most secret silence. I am of another judgment because of the
hope I have in my God; therefore I consulted not with my brethren, or
with flesh and blood, in these my writings: God grant that it be to the
glory of His name!”

We are told in the preface to “Ripley Revived” the authors to whom
he was at any rate chiefly indebted. “For my own part, I have cause
to honour Bernard Trévisan, who is very ingenious, especially in the
letter to Thomas of Boulogne, where I seriously confess I received
the main light in the hidden secret. I do not remember that ever I
learned anything from Raymond Lully. Some who are not adepts give
more instruction to a beginner than one whom perfect knowledge makes
cautious. I learned the secret of the _magnet_ from one, the _chalybs_
from another, the use of _Diana’s Doves_ from a third, the _air_ or
_cameleon_ from another, the gross preparation of the dissolvent in
another, the number of _eagles_ in another; but for _operations_ on
the _true matter_ and signs of the _true mercury_, I know of none like
Ripley, though Flamel be eminent. I know what I say, having learned by
experience what is truth and what is error.

“I have read misleading, sophistical writers, and made many toilsome,
laborious experiments, though but young; and having at length,
through the undeserved mercy of God, arrived at my haven of rest, I
shall stretch out my hand to such as are behind. I have wrote several
treatises, one in English, very plain but not perfected--unfortunately,
it slipped out of my hand. I shall be sorry if it comes abroad into
the world--two in Latin, _Brevis Manuductio ad Rubinem Cœlestem_, and
_Fons Chymicæ Philosophiæ_--these, for special reasons, I resolve to
suppress. Two others I lately wrote, which, perhaps, you may enjoy,
namely, _Ars Metallorum Metamorphoses_, and _Introitus Apertus ad
Occlusum Regis Palatium_. I wrote two poems in English, which are
lost; also, in English, an Enchiridion of experiments, a diurnal of
meditations, with many receipts declaring the whole secret, and an
Enigma annexed. These also fell into the hands of one who, I conceive,
will never restore them.”

The delinquent in question was undoubtedly George Starkey, who
published the “Marrow of Alchemy” under the name of Eirenæus Philoponos
Philalethes; this metrical account of the Hermetic theory and practice
is apparently the vanished verse of the adept, but it contains in
addition an account of the editor’s own initiation, which is certainly
worth transcribing.

“I have now to assert, from my own experience, facts of transmutation
of which I was an eye-witness. I was well acquainted with an artist
with whom I have often conversed on the subject, and I saw in his
possession the white and the red elixir in very large quantity. He gave
me upwards of two ounces of the white medicine, of sufficient virtue
to convert 120,000 times its weight into the purest virgin silver.
With this treasure I went to work ignorantly upon multiplication,
and was caught in the trap of my own covetousness, for I expended or
wasted all this tincture. However, I made projection of part of it,
which is sufficient for my present purpose, enabling me to assert the
possibility of the art from ocular demonstration. I have tinged many
times hundreds of ounces into the best silver. Of a pound of mercury
I have made within less than a scruple of a pound of silver; of lead,
little more waste; but ’tis wondrous to see tin--although a dross was
burnt from it, yet its weight increased in the fire. I essayed the
medicine on copper, iron, even on brass and pewter, on spelter, solder,
tinglass, mercury, and on regulus of antimony; and I can say with truth
it conquers all metallic things, and brings them all to perfection. I
found there was nothing akin to it but it would tinge into pure silver.
Even perfect gold was penetrated and changed into a white glass, that
would transmute, but in small quantity, inferior metals into silver;
but when this silver was assayed it was found to abide _aquafortis_,
cupel of antimony, and weighed as gold, so that it was _white gold_.
This was because the white tincture had fermented with red earth, and
both virtues coming into projection, produced silver-coloured gold,
or silver equalling gold in perfection, but wanting its hue. I did
not know the value of this silver till my medicine was nearly gone,
and sold eighty ounces of it at the common price, though it was as
valuable as gold. I projected the medicine on pure silver, and had a
chrystalline metal, like burnished steel or mirror, but there was no
increase of virtue in this; it tinged only so much as it would if it
had not been projected on silver.

“The artist who gave me this is still living; I prize him as my own
life; I wish his happiness, for he has been a sure friend. He is at
present on his travels, visiting artists and collecting antiquities as
a citizen of the world. He is an Englishman of an ancient, honourable
family, who now live in the place wherein he was born. He is scarcely
thirty-three years of age, and is rarely learned. You cannot know more
of him from me, nor can you be acquainted with him; his acquaintance
with me is as unexpected as his love was cordial. I had often seen by
experiment that he was master of the white and red before he would
vouchsafe to trust me with a small bit of the stone, nor would I press
him, trusting for his courtesy soon or late, which I shortly received,
by what I have said of the white medicine, and also a portion of his
mercury.

“He told me this mercury was a matchless treasure, if God would open
my eyes to the use of it, else I might grope in blindness. With this
dissolvent, which is the hidden secret of all masters, he exceedingly
multiplied his red stone. I saw him put a piece of the red, by weight,
into that same mercury, which then digested, dissolved it, and made
it change colour, and in three days it passed through the process of
black, white, and red.

“I thought that if the red and white could be multiplied that one
lineal progress led to either, and on this false ground I destroyed ten
parts in twelve of my medicine. This loss did not suffice me, for I
mixed the remaining two parts with ten times their weight of Luna, and
fell to work again, hoping to make up for my first error. I then began
to think upon the maxims of the old books, revolved in my mind the
agreement of my work with the laws of Nature, and at length I concluded
that each thing is to be disposed according to its condition.

“When I found that my vain attempts only threw away the tincture, I
stopped my hand, resolving to keep the few grains left for some urgent
necessity, which for its preservation I mixed with ten parts of Luna.

“I tried some of the mercury before mentioned on gold, my desire
being to see the work carried forward and brought to Luna, if not to
Sol. This, then, I projected on mercury. After having alloyed it with
silver it tinged fifty parts, and I strove to imbibe it, but in vain,
because I had let it cool. I foolishly supposed to obtain the oil by
imbibition. However, Nature carried on the work into blackness, the
colours, and whiteness, which yet was far short of what I looked for.

“In these trials I wasted nearly all my mercury likewise; but I
had for my consolation the witnessing of transmutations, and those
extraordinary processes which I beheld with mine own eyes, and blessed
God for seeing.

“In some time I met my good friend and told all my mishaps, hoping that
he would supply me as before; but he, considering that my failures had
made me wise, would not trust me with more, lest I should pluck the
Hesperian tree as I chose for my own and other men’s hurt. He said to
me, ‘Friend, if God elects you to this art, He will in due time bestow
the knowledge of it; but if in His wisdom He judge you unfit, or that
you would do mischief with it, accursed be that man who would arm a
maniac to the harm of his fellow-creatures. While you were ignorant,
I gave you a great gift, so that, if Heaven ordained, the gift should
destroy itself. I see it is not right you should enjoy it at present;
what providence denies I cannot give you, or I should be guilty of your
misconduct.’

“I confess this lesson of divinity did not please me; as I hoped so
much from him, his answer was a disappointment. He further said that
God had granted me knowledge, but withheld the fruit of it for the
present.

“Then I gave him to understand how I had discovered the skill of the
water, ‘by which, in time, I may obtain what you deny, and which I am
resolved to attempt.’

“‘If so, then,’ he replied, ‘attend to what I say, and you may bless
God for it. Know that we are severely bound by strong vows never to
supply any man by our art who might confound the world, if he held it
at will; and all the evil he does is left at the door of that adept
who is so imprudent. Consider what a prize you had both of the _stone_
and of the _mercury_. Would not any one say that he must be mad that
would throw it all away without profit?

“‘Had you been guided by reason you might have enough of what I gave
you. Your method was to add to the purest _gold_ but a grain of the
_stone_; in fusion it would unite to it, and then you might go about
the work with your _mercury_, which would speedily mix with that gold
and greatly shorten the work, which you might easily govern to the
_red_; and as you saw how I wedded new _gold_ to _such sulphur_ and
_mercury_, you saw the weight, time, and heat, what more could you have
wished? And seeing you know the art of preparing the _fiery mercury_,
you might have as much store as any one.

“‘But you do not perceive by this that God is averse to you, and caused
you to waste the treasure I gave you. He sees perhaps that you would
break His holy laws and do wrong with it; and though He has imparted so
much knowledge, I plainly see that He will keep you some years without
the enjoyment of that which no doubt you would misuse. Know, that
if you seek this art without a ferment, you must beware of frequent
error; you will err and stray from the right path, notwithstanding all
your care, and perhaps may not in the course of your life attain this
treasure, which is the alone gift of God. If you pursue the straightest
course it will take a year to arrive at perfection; but if you take
wrong ways, you shall be often left behind, sometimes a year, and
must renew your charge and pains, repenting of your loss and error,
in much distraction, care, and perils, with an expense you can hardly
spare. Attend therefore to my counsel, and I shall disclose the secret
conditionally. Swear before the mighty God that you will, for such a
time, abstain from the attempt or practice; nor shall you at that
time, even if you are at the point of death, disclose some few points
that I will reveal to you in secrecy.’

“I swore, and he unlocked his mind to me, and proved that he did not
deceive by showing me those lights which I shall honestly recount, as
far as my oath will admit.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Eirenæus Philalethes has the credit of unexampled perspicuity, and
his _Introitus Apertus_, in particular, is an abridgement or digest
of the whole _turba philosophorum_. Those who are in search of the
physical secret should begin by the careful study of his works; thence
they should proceed to a consideration of the authors whom he himself
recommends, after which the best Hermetic writers, from the days of
Geber downward, should be taken in their chronological order, carefully
analysed, and their points of difference and agreement duly noted.

The physical nature of the alchemical arcana in the custody of the
true Philalethes are best seen by the narratives and commentaries
of his pupil, George Starkey. The mystery which surrounds the adept
stimulates unbalanced imaginations, and dilates into Titanic stature
the projects which he cherished and the wonders he is supposed to have
accomplished. The _Introitus Apertus_, amid much that is mystical
and much that suggests an exceedingly romantic interpretation, is a
treatise of practical alchemy, and further elaborates the principles,
evidently physical, that are expounded in the metrical essays which
were preserved and made public by Starkey.


FOOTNOTES:

[AH] It was published at Amsterdam in 1667, and is supposed to have
been free from the numerous typographical errors of the later editions.




PIERRE JEAN FABRE.


This physician of Montpellier, to whom chemistry is indebted for
some steps in its progress, flourished at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. He believed in the transmutation of metals, but
is not considered as an adept, though he wrote seventeen treatises
on this subject, and on the Spagiric Medicine. His most curious
work is _Alchimista Christianus_. Toulouse, 1632, 8vo. In _Hercules
Piochymicus_, published at the same place two years later, he maintains
that the labours of Hercules are allegories, which contain the arcana
of Hermetic philosophy.

He defines the philosophical stone as the seed out of which gold and
silver are generated. It is three and yet one; it may be found in all
compounded substances, and is formed of salt, mercury, and sulphur,
which, however, are not to be confounded with the vulgar substances so
denominated.




HELVETIUS.


The following singularly impressive and even convincing testimony to
the alleged fact of metallic transmutation was published by the eminent
Dutch physician, John Frederick Helvetius, at the Hague in 1667, and
was dedicated to his friends, Dr Retius of Amsterdam, Dr Hansius of
Heidelberg, and Dr Menzelin of Brandeburg.

“On the 27th December 1666, in the afternoon, a stranger, in a plain,
rustic dress, came to my house at the Hague. His manner of address was
honest, grave, and authoritative; his stature was low, with a long
face and hair black, his chin smooth. He seemed like a native of the
north of Scotland, and I guessed he was about forty-four years old.
After saluting me, he requested me most respectfully to pardon his rude
intrusion, but that his love of the pyrotechnic art made him visit
me. Having read some of my small treatises, particularly that against
the sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, and observed therein my
doubt of the Hermetic mystery, it caused him to request this interview.
He asked me if I still thought there was no medicine in Nature which
could cure all diseases, unless the principal parts, as the lungs,
liver, &c., were perished, or the time of death were come. To which
I replied, I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though
I read much of it, and often wished for it. Then I asked if he was
a physician. He said he was a founder of brass, yet from his youth
learned many rare things in chemistry, particularly of a friend--the
manner to extract out of metals many medicinal arcana by the use of
fire. After discoursing of experiments in metals, he asked me, Would
I know the philosophers’ stone if I saw it? I answered, I would not;
though I read much of it in Paracelsus, Helmont, Basil, and others, yet
I dare not say I could know the philosophers’ matter. In the interim
he drew from his breast pocket a neat ivory box, and out of it took
three ponderous lumps of the stone, each about the size of a small
walnut. They were transparent and of a pale brimstone colour, whereto
some scales of the crucible adhered when this most noble substance
was melted. The value of it I since calculated was twenty tons weight
of gold. When I had greedily examined and handled the stone almost
a quarter of an hour, and heard from the owner many rare secrets of
its admirable effects in human and metallic bodies, also its other
wonderful properties, I returned him this treasure of treasures, truly
with a most sorrowful mind, like those who conquer themselves, yet, as
was just, very thankfully and humbly. I further desired to know why
the colour was yellow, and not red, ruby colour, or purple, as the
philosophers write. He answered, that was nothing, for the matter was
mature and ripe enough. Then I humbly requested him to bestow a little
piece of the medicine on me, in perpetual memory of him, though but of
the size of a coriander or hemp seed. He presently answered, ‘Oh no,
this is not lawful, though thou wouldst give me as many ducats in gold
as would fill this room, not for the value of the metal, but for some
particular consequences. Nay, if it were possible,’ said he, ‘that fire
could be burnt by fire, I would rather at this instant cast all this
substance into the fiercest flames.’ He then demanded if I had a more
private chamber, as this was seen from the public street. I presently
conducted him into the best furnished room backward, not doubting but
he would bestow part thereof or some great treasure on me. He entered
without wiping his shoes, although they were full of snow and dirt. He
asked me for a little piece of gold, and, pulling off his cloak, opened
his vest, under which he had five pieces of gold. They were hanging to
a green silk ribbon, and were of the size of breakfast plates. This
gold so far excelled mine that there was no comparison for flexibility
and colour. The inscriptions engraven upon them he granted me to write
out; they were pious thanksgivings to God, dated 20th August 1666, with
the characters of the Sun, Mercury, the Moon, and the signs of Leo and
Libra.

“I was in great admiration, and desired to know where and how he
obtained them. He answered, ‘A foreigner, who dwelt some days in my
house, said he was a lover of this science, and came to reveal it to
me. He taught me various arts--first, of ordinary stones and chrystals,
to make rubies, chrysolites, sapphires, &c., much more valuable than
those of the mine; and how in a quarter of an hour to make an oxide
of iron, one dose of which would infallibly cure the pestilential
dysentery, or bloody flux; also how to make a metallic liquor to
cure all kinds of dropsies most certainly and in four days; as also
a limpid, clear water, sweeter than honey, by which in two hours of
itself, in hot sand, it would extract the tincture of garnets, corals,
glasses, and such like.’ He said more, which I, Helvetius, did not
observe, my mind being occupied to understand how a noble juice could
be drawn out of minerals to transmute metals. He told me his said
master caused him to bring a glass of rain-water, and to put some
silver leaf into it, which was dissolved therein within a quarter of
an hour, like ice when heated. ‘Presently he drank to me the half, and
I pledged him the other half, which had not so much taste as sweet
milk, but whereby, methought, I became very light-headed. I thereupon
asked if this were a philosophical drink, and wherefore we drank this
potion; but he replied, I ought not to be so curious.’ By the said
master’s directions, a piece of a leaden pipe being melted, he took a
little sulphureous powder out of his pocket, put a little of it on the
point of a knife into the melted lead, and after a great blast of the
bellows, in a short time he poured it on the red stones of the kitchen
chimney. It proved most excellent pure gold, which the stranger said
brought him into such trembling amazement that he could hardly speak;
but his master encouraged him saying, ‘Cut for thyself the sixteenth
part of this as a memorial, and give the rest away among the poor,’
which the stranger did, distributing this alms, as he affirmed, if my
memory fail not, at the Church of Sparenda. ‘At last,’ said he, ‘the
generous foreigner taught me thoroughly this divine art.’

“As soon as his relation was finished, I asked my visitor to show me
the effect of transmutation and so confirm my faith; but he declined
it for that time in such a discreet manner that I was satisfied, he
promising to come again in three weeks, to show me some curious arts
in the fire, provided it were then lawful without prohibition. At the
three weeks end he came, and invited me abroad for an hour or two. In
our walk we discoursed of Nature’s secrets, but he was very silent on
the subject of the great elixir gravely asserting that it was only to
magnify the sweet fame and mercy of the most glorious God; that few men
endeavoured to serve Him, and this he expressed as a pastor or minister
of a church; but I recalled his attention, entreating him to show me
the metallic mystery, desiring also that he would eat, drink, and lodge
at my house, which I pressed, but he was of so fixed a determination
that all my endeavours were frustrated. I could not forbear to tell him
that I had a laboratory ready for an experiment, and that a promised
favour was a kind of debt. ‘Yes, true,’ said he, ‘but I promised to
teach thee at my return, with this proviso, if it were not forbidden.’

“When I perceived that all this was in vain, I earnestly requested a
small crumb of his powder, sufficient to transmute a few grains of
lead to gold; and at last, out of his philosophical commiseration, he
gave me as much as a turnip seed in size, saying, ‘Receive this small
parcel of the greatest treasure of the world, which truly few kings or
princes have ever seen or known.’ ‘But,’ I said, ‘this perhaps will not
transmute four grains of lead,’ whereupon he bid me deliver it back
to him, which, in hopes of a greater parcel, I did; but he, cutting
half off with his nail, flung it into the fire, and gave me the rest
wrapped neatly up in blue paper, saying, ‘It is yet sufficient for
thee.’ I answered him, indeed with a most dejected countenance, ‘Sir,
what means this? The other being too little, you give me now less.’
He told me to put into the crucible half an ounce of lead, for there
ought to be no more lead put in than the medicine can transmute. I gave
him great thanks for my diminished treasure, concentrated truly in the
superlative degree, and put it charily up into my little box, saying I
meant to try it the next day, nor would I reveal it to any. ‘Not so,
not so,’ said he, ‘for we ought to divulge all things to the children
of art which may tend alone to the honour of God, that so they may
live in the theosophical truth.’ I now made a confession to him, that
while the mass of his medicine was in my hands, I endeavoured to scrape
away a little of it with my nail, and could not forbear; but scratched
off so very little, that, it being picked from my nail, wrapped in a
paper, and projected on melted lead, I found no transmutation, but
almost the whole mass of lead sublimed, while the remainder was a
glassy earth. At this unexpected account he immediately said, ‘You are
more dexterous to commit theft than to apply the medicine, for if you
had only wrapped up the stolen prey in yellow wax, to preserve it from
the fumes of the lead, it would have sunk to the bottom, and transmuted
it to gold; but having cast it into the fumes, the violence of the
vapour, partly by its sympathetic alliance, carried the medicine quite
away.’ I brought him the crucible, and he perceived a most beautiful
saffron-like tincture sticking to the sides. He promised to come next
morning at nine o’clock, to show me that this tincture would transmute
the lead into gold. Having taken his leave, I impatiently awaited his
return, but the next day he came not, nor ever since. He sent an excuse
at half-past nine that morning, and promised to come at three in the
afternoon, but I never heard of him since. I soon began to doubt the
whole matter. Late that night my wife, who was a most curious student
and inquirer after the art, came soliciting me to make an experiment
of that little grain of the stone, to be assured of the truth. ‘Unless
this be done,’ said she, ‘I shall have no rest or sleep this night.’
She being so earnest, I commanded a fire to be made, saying to myself,
‘I fear, I fear indeed, this man hath deluded me.’ My wife wrapped the
said matter in wax, and I cut half an ounce of lead, and put it into a
crucible in the fire. Being melted, my wife put in the medicine, made
into a small pill with the wax, which presently made a hissing noise,
and in a quarter of an hour the mass of lead was totally transmuted
into the best and finest gold, which amazed us exceedingly. We could
not sufficiently gaze upon this admirable and miraculous work of
nature, for the melted lead, after projection, showed on the fire the
rarest and most beautiful colours imaginable, settling in green, and
when poured forth into an ingot, it had the lively fresh colour of
blood. When cold it shined as the purest and most splendid gold. Truly
all those who were standing about me were exceedingly startled, and
I ran with this aurified lead, being yet hot, to the goldsmith, who
wondered at the fineness, and after a short trial by the test, said it
was the most excellent gold in the world.

“The next day a rumour of this prodigy went about the Hague and
spread abroad, so that many illustrious and learned persons gave me
their friendly visits for its sake. Amongst the rest, the general
Assay-master, examiner of coins of this province of Holland, Mr
Porelius, who with others earnestly besought me to pass some part of
the gold through all their customary trials, which I did, to gratify my
own curiosity. We went to Mr Brectel, a silversmith, who first mixed
four parts of silver with one part of the gold, then he filed it, put
_aquafortis_ to it, dissolved the silver, and let the gold precipitate
to the bottom; the solution being poured off and the calx of gold
washed with water, then reduced and melted, it appeared excellent gold,
and instead of a loss in weight, we found the gold was increased, and
had transmuted a scruple of the silver into gold by its abounding
tincture.

“Doubting whether the silver was now sufficiently separated from the
gold, we mingled it with seven parts of antimony, which we melted and
poured out into a cone, and blew off the regulus on a test, where we
missed eight grains of our gold; but after we blew away the red of the
antimony, or superfluous _scoria_, we found nine grains of gold for our
eight grains missing, yet it was pale and silver-like, but recovered
its full colour afterwards, so that in the best proof of fire we lost
nothing at all of this gold, but gained, as aforesaid. These tests I
repeated four times and found it still alike, and the silver remaining
out of the _aquafortis_ was of the very best flexible silver that could
be, so that in the total the said medicine or elixir had transmuted six
drams and two scruples of the lead and silver into most pure gold.”




GUISEPPE FRANCESCO BORRI.


“The Rape of the Lock” and the graceful romance of “Undine” have
familiarised every one with the doctrine of elementary spirits; but
the chief philosophical, or pseudo-philosophical, account of these
unseen but not extra-mundane intelligences has been the little book
of the Comte de Gabalis, a series of conversations on the secret
sciences. It is generally unknown that this work is little more than an
unacknowledged translation of “The Key to the Cabinet of the Chevalier
Borri, wherein may be found various epistles--curious, scientific,
and chemical--with politic instructions, matters which deserve well
of the curious, and a variety of magnificent secrets.”[AI] Borri, who
appears to have been a microcosmic precursor of Cagliostro, was born
at Milan in 1627. Some proceedings of an equivocal nature caused him,
in his earlier years, to seek sanctuary in a church, but subsequently,
like Joseph Balsamo, he underwent a complete transformation, announced
that he was inspired of Heaven, that he was elected by the omnipotent
God to accomplish the reformation of mankind, and to establish the
_Regnum Dei_. There should be henceforth but a single religion, with
the Pope as its head, and a vast army, with Borri as general, for the
extermination of all anti-catholics. He exhibited a miraculous sword
which St Michael had deigned to present him, declared that he had
beheld in the empyrean a luminous palm-branch reserved for his own
celestial triumph, announced that the Holy Virgin was divine by nature,
that she conceived by inspiration, that she was equal with her Son, and
was present in the Eucharist with him, that the Holy Spirit had taken
flesh in her person, that the second and third persons of the Trinity
are inferior to the Divine Father, that the fall of Lucifer involved
that of a vast number of angels, who now inhabit the regions of the
air, that it was by the intervention of these rebellious spirits that
God created the world and gave life to all beasts, but that men were
in possession of a Divine soul which God made in spite of himself.
Finally, with a contradiction more French than Italian, he gave out
that he was himself the Holy Spirit incarnate.

Needless to say, this novel gospel, according to mystical imposture,
brought him into conflict with hierarchic authority. He was arrested,
and, on the 3d of January 1661, he was condemned as a heretic, and
as guilty of various misdeeds. He managed to escape, took flight
northward, and by the expectation of the stone philosophical contrived
to cheat Christina, Queen of Sweden, out of a large sum of money.
He perambulated various parts of Germany, making many supposed
projections, visited the Low Countries, and in 1665 entered as a
professional alchemist into the service of the King of Denmark.
He announced that he was the master of a demon, who responded to
his magical evocations, and dictated the operations required for
the successful transmutation of metals. The name of this spook was
Homunculus, which, according to Paracelsus, signifies a minute human
being generated unnaturally without the assistance of the female
organism, from the sperm of a man or a boy.

The monarch, determined to monopolise the talents of his adept,
decided that the laboratory of Borri should be transferred to his own
palace. The alchemist, with an eye to his freedom, objected that the
power of his imp would be destroyed on the first attempt to divide
him from a certain vast iron furnace, which was the sulphureous abode
of Homunculus; but his royal patron was a man of resources, and the
furnace was also transported. Five years passed away, and Frederick
III. having died, his successor determined on a closer investigation
of the transmutatory secrets of Borri, who took flight at the rumour,
but was arrested on the frontiers of Hungary, and imprisoned at Vienna,
where he was claimed by the Papal Nuncio as a fugitive condemned for
his heresies. He was sent to Rome, and entombed in the Castle of St
Angelo. There he was permitted to continue his alchemical processes,
which were pursued unsuccessfully till his death in the year 1695.

“The Key to the Cabinet of the Chevalier Borri” has never been actually
translated; the adaptation by the Abbé de Villars is, of course,
of European celebrity. As to the chemical secrets contained in the
original letters, it may be safely concluded that they are few and
unimportant.


FOOTNOTES:

[AI] La Chiave del Gabinetto del Cavagliere G. F. Borri, col favor
della quella si vedono varie lettere scientifiche, chimice, e
curiosissime, con varie istruzioni politiche, ed altre cose degne da
curiosita e molti segreti bellissimi. Cologne (Genève), 1681, 12mo.




JOHN HEYDON.


This mountebank royalist mystic has no claim to be included among
alchemical philosophers, and is only noticed here to advise students
that everything relating to alchemy in the whole of his so-called works
was impudently stolen from Philalethes. He practised wholesale piracy
on his contemporaries and on ancient authors with equal effrontery.
The account of his voyage to the land of the Rosicrucians is a mangled
version of Bacon’s “Atlantis;” his apologues, epilogues, enigmas, &c.,
are also stolen goods; in short, whatever is of value in his books is
matter borrowed from the highways and byways of occultism, and heaped
indiscriminately together. Everything emanating from his own weakly
intelligence is utterly contemptible; he was grossly superstitious and
pitiably credulous, as may be seen by his medical recipes. He claimed a
familiar acquaintance with the most arcane Rosicrucian mysteries, and
pretended that he had visited the temples, holy houses, castles, and
invisible mountains of the Fraternity. Of all the alchemical liars and
of all mystical charlatans who have flourished in England since the
first days of Anglo-occultism, John Heydon is chief.




LASCARIS.


German writers have principally occupied themselves with the
transmutations of this singular personage, who so successfully shrouded
himself in mystery, that his name, his age, his birthplace, and
everything which concerns his private life are completely unknown.

He called himself Lascaris, but also adopted other appellations. He
claimed an Oriental origin, and as he spoke Greek fluently, he has
passed for a descendant of the royal house of Lascaris. He represented
himself as the archimandrite of a convent in the Island of Mytilena,
and bore letters from the Greek patriarch of Constantinople. His
mission in the West was the solicitation of alms for the ransom of
Christian prisoners in the East. He appeared for the first time in
Germany at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a man seemingly
some forty or fifty years old, of attractive mien, agreeable in
manner, and fluent in his conversation. Finding himself indisposed
at Berlin, he sent for a certain apothecary, who for some reason was
unable to attend, and on several occasions was represented by a pupil
at the bedside of the stranger. With this youth Lascaris fell into
conversation, and a sort of friendship sprung up between them. The
apothecary’s pupil had studied Basil Valentine, and had attempted
experiments on the principles of this adept. Lascaris recovered, and
at the moment of departing from Berlin he took the youth aside, and
presented him with a quantity of the transmuting powder, commanding him
to be silent as to whence he had derived it, and while forbidding him
to make use of it till some time after his departure, assured him that
when Berlin unbelievers beheld its amazing effects, no one would be
able to tax the alchemists with madness.

The name of this young man was John Frederick Bötticher. Intoxicated
at the possession of such an unexpected treasure, he determined to
devote himself entirely to alchemy. The apothecary, his master,
vainly endeavoured to dissuade him from a pursuit which he considered
chimerical, for he astonished both him and his friends by changing
silver into gold in their presence.

The experiment was repeated with mercury for the benefit of a friend of
Bötticher, the tale spread, and the apothecary’s pupil became the lion
of Berlin, more especially as he spread the report that he was able to
compose himself the philosophical tincture.

He was summoned before the King, Frederick William I., who wished to
witness his performances, but he fled to an uncle at Wittenburg. He
was claimed from the authorities of that town as a Prussian subject,
but he was now a prize of value, and the Elector of Saxony opposed a
counter claim for the possession of his person, and to him Bötticher
decided to proceed. He was warmly welcomed, and when his transmutations
had been witnessed, the title of baron was conferred on him. He took up
his residence at Dresden, living in a style of great magnificence and
prodigality, till every particle of his powder was expended, when his
extravagance involved him in debt. His servants, whom he was unable to
repay, spread the report that it was his intention to take flight, and
the purblind Elector, refusing to perceive in this sudden failure of
resources a proof that Bötticher was unable to compose or increase the
philosophers’ stone, surrounded his house with guards, and detained him
practically as a prisoner.

At this juncture, Lascaris, who was still wandering in Germany, took
pity on the misfortunes of his young neophyte, and endeavoured to
extricate him from his embarrassing position by means of a young doctor
named Pasch, who was a personal friend of the ennobled apothecary’s
boy. Their manœuvres resulted in the imprisonment of Pasch at the
fortress of Sonneinstein, while Bötticher was closely confined in
another castle at Kœnigstein.

Two years and a half passed away. At the end of that time Pasch
succeeded in escaping at the expense of his limbs, and died after a few
months, bitterly complaining of the treachery of the adept Lascaris,
who had deserted him completely in his danger.

Bötticher remained in confinement with every opportunity to manufacture
the philosophical stone, which, however he failed to accomplish; but
what with his apothecary’s training and his prison experiments, he had
become skilled in several departments of chemistry. He discovered the
process for the production of red porcelain, and afterwards that of
white, very superior in quality to the substances already known by that
name. These inventions proved as valuable to the tyrannical Elector as
the accomplishment of the _magnum opus_. Bötticher was restored to his
favour, and again enjoyed his baronial title, but in his liberty he
surrendered himself to an immoderately luxurious life, and died in 1719
at the age of thirty-seven years.

Bötticher was by no means the only apothecary’s boy who was enriched
with the powder of Lascaris, and despatched to preach the gospel of
alchemy with practical demonstrations. Godwin, Hermann, Braun, and
Martin of Fitzlar are mentioned among these half-initiated labourers,
who shone till their stock-in-trade was exhausted, and then disappeared
in succession.

In the meantime, Lascaris himself was not idle. On the 16th February
1609 he is believed to have changed mercury into gold and gold into
silver, a double transmutation, considered by alchemical connoisseurs
to be the evidence of an unparalleled adeptship. Liebkneck, counsellor
of Wertherbourg, was a witness of this transmutation.

In the same year a goldsmith of Leipsic was visited by a mysterious
stranger, who is unanimously identified with Lascaris, and who showed
him a lingot, which he declared was manufactured by art, and which
proved in assaying to be gold of twenty-two carats. It was purified by
the goldsmith with antimony, and part of it was presented to him by the
unknown as a memorial of the alleged transmutation.

Shortly after, a lieutenant-colonel in the Polish army, whose name was
Schmolz de Dierbach, and who had inherited from his father a belief
in alchemical science, was conversing on the subject at a café, when
he was accosted by a stranger, who presented him with some powder of
projection. It was of a red colour, and a microscopic examination
revealed its crystalline nature. It increased the weight of the
metals which it was supposed to transmute to an extent which chemical
authorities declare to be physically impossible. The recipient made
use of it generously, distributing to his friends and acquaintance the
gold it produced in projection. The unknown donor is identified in the
imagination of German historians with the mysterious Lascaris, who
is supposed, in the same anonymous and unaccountable manner, to have
enriched the Baron de Creux with a box of the precious powder, and to
have gratified the amateur Hermetic ambition of the Landgrave of Hesse
Darmstadt through the commonplace medium of the post. In a word, every
anonymous adept who appeared at this period in or about Germany is
supposed to be Lascaris.

The last of his debtors or victims was the son of a Neapolitan mason,
Domenico Manuel, who claims to have been mysteriously initiated into
the transmutatory art in the year 1695. He was put in possession of a
small quantity both of the white and red tinctures. Being insufficient
to really enrich himself, he determined to trade upon the wonders
they produced, and obtained large sums from wealthy amateurs for
the privilege of beholding the consummation of the great work. He
perambulated Spain, Belgium, and Austria, obtaining large sums,
under the pretence of preparing the tincture, not only from private
individuals, but from the Emperor Leopold and the Palatine Elector.
In different places he assumed names that were different. Now he was
Count Gaëtano, now Count de Ruggiero; at other times he called himself
Field Marshal to the Duke of Bavaria, Commandant of Munich, a Prussian
major-general, and by other titles. In 1705 he appeared at Berlin,
where he imposed on the King himself for a brief period, after which,
unable to ratify his transmutatory engagements, he was convicted of
treason and hanged. This occurred on the 29th of August 1709.




DELISLE.


This artist, whose Christian name is unmentioned by his biographers,
is included by Figuier among the emissaries or disciples of Lascaris,
and much information concerning him will be found in the _Histoire de
la Philosophic Hermétique_ by his contemporary, Langlet du Fresnoy.
He was a rustic of low birth in Provence, and he became acquainted
with alchemical experiments by entering the service of a gentleman
who was believed to be in possession of the stone. This gentleman is
supposed to have received the prize from Lascaris. His operations,
however, fell under suspicion, and he was forced to quit France. He
retired into Switzerland, accompanied by Delisle, who is said to have
assassinated him in the mountains, and to have thus got possession of
a considerable quantity of the transmuting powder. However this may
be, the servant, re-entered France in disguise, and about the year
1708 attracted general attention by changing lead and iron into silver
and gold. He perambulated Languedoc, the Dauphiné, and Provence. At
Sisteron he connected himself with the wife of a certain Alnys, who
eventually shared his fortunes for the space of three years. His renown
was increased by the apparent simplicity of his operations. He spread
powder and oil over iron, thrust it into the fire, and brought it
out a bar of gold. He distributed nails, knives, and rings partially
transmuted, and was particularly successful in his experiments with
common steel.

Cerisy, prior of New Castel, was employed by the Bishop of Senez
to collect evidence concerning the truth of these marvels. An old
gentleman offered Delisle a retreat at his castle of La Palud, where
the alchemist, surrounded by admirers, received the daily visits of
the curious. In Lenglet’s “History of Hermetic Philosophy,” there
is a letter from the Bishop of Senez to the Minister of State and
Comptroller-General of the Treasury at Paris, in which the prelate,
who at first was incredulous, professes his inability to resist the
evidence of actual transformation performed before himself and several
vigilant witnesses, who took every precaution against deception. There
is also the Report of M. de Saint-Maurice, President of the Mint at
Lyons, who testifies to the following facts. That he was accompanied
by Delisle into the grounds of the Chateau de Saint Auban in May 1710,
where he uncovered a basket that was sunk in the ground. In the middle
of this basket there was an iron wire, at the end of which he perceived
a piece of linen with some object tied up in it. He took possession
of this parcel, carried it into the dining-room of the Chateau, and
by the direction of Delisle he exposed its contents--a blackish earth
about half a pound in weight--to the rays of the sun. After a quarter
of an hour the earth was distilled in a retort of a portable furnace,
and when a yellow liquor was perceived to flow into the receiver,
Delisle recommended that the recipient should be removed before a
viscous oil then rising should flow into it. Two drops of this yellow
liquor, projected on hot quicksilver, produced in fusion three ounces
of gold, which were presented to the Master of the Mint. Afterwards
three ounces of pistol bullets were melted and purified with alum and
saltpetre. Delisle handed Saint-Maurice a small paper, desiring him to
throw in a pinch of the powder and two drops of the oil used in the
first experiment. This done, the matter was covered with saltpetre,
kept fifteen minutes in fusion, and then poured out on a piece of iron
armour, which reappeared pure gold, bearing all assays. The conversion
to silver was made in the same manner with white powder, and the
certificate which testifies to these occurrences was officially signed
on the 14th December 1760.

A part of the gold manufactured in this manner by Delisle was subjected
to refinement at Paris, where three medals were struck from it; one
of them was deposited in the king’s cabinet. It bore the inscription
_Aurum Arte Factum_.

With all his alchemical skill, Delisle was unable to read or write, and
in disposition he was untractable, rude, and fanatical. He was invited
to Court, but he pretended that the climate he lived in was necessary
to the success of his experiments, inasmuch as his preparations were
vegetable. The Bishop of Senez, suspecting him of unwillingness rather
than inability, obtained a _lettre de cachet_, after two years of
continual subterfuge on the part of the alchemist, who was thereupon
arrested and taken on the road to Paris. During the journey, his
guards, after endeavouring to extort his supposed riches, wounded him
severely on the head, in which state, on his arrival at the Bastille,
he was forced to begin his alchemical operations, but after a short
time he persistently refused to proceed, tore continually the bandages
from his wound in the frenzy of his desperation, and in the year
following his imprisonment he poisoned himself.

His illegitimate son, Alnys, by some means inherited a portion of
the powder from his mother. He wandered through Italy and Germany
performing transmutations. On one occasion he made projection before
the Duke of Richlieu, then French ambassador at Vienna, and who assured
the Abbé Langlet that he not only saw the operation performed, but
performed it himself, twice on gold and forty times on silver.

Alnys made a considerable collection of gold coins, ancient and modern,
while on a journey through Austria and Bohemia. On his return to Aix
he presented himself to the President of Provence, who desired him to
call the next day. Alnys, suspecting an intention to arrest him, fled
in the interim. He was afterwards imprisoned at Marseilles, whence
he contrived to escape to Brussels. It was here, in 1731, that he
gave some philosophic mercury to M. Percell, the brother of Langlet
de Fresnoy, which mercury the recipient fermented imperfectly, but
succeeded so far as to convert an ounce of silver into gold. The death
of a certain M. Grefier shortly after some operations on corrosive
sublimate, by which Alnys proposed to instruct him in alchemy, made it
necessary for him to depart, and he was heard of no more.




JOHN HERMANN OBEREIT.


This writer, as much mystic as alchemist, was born at Arbon at
Switzerland in 1725, and died in 1798. He inherited from his father a
taste for transcendental chemistry, and the opinion that metals could
be developed to their full perfection, but that the chief instrument
was the grace of God, working in the soul of the alchemist. He laboured
unceasingly at the physical processes, hoping thereby to restore the
fallen fortunes of his family, but his laboratory was closed by the
authorities as endangering the public safety. He contrived to make
evident the harmless nature of his employment, and was received into
the house of a brother of the physiognomist Lavater. He celebrated,
he informs us, a mystical marriage with a seraphic and illuminated
shepherdess named Theantis, the ceremony taking place in a castle on
the extreme summit of a cloud-encompassed mountain. His bride after
thirty-six days of transcendental union, which was neither platonic
nor epicurean, but of a perfectly indescribable character, departed
this life, and the bereaved husband, during the whole night of her
decease, bewailed her in a mystical canticle. _La Connexion Originaire
des Esprits et des Corps, d’apres les principes de Newton_, Augsbourg,
1776, and _Les Promenades de Gamaliel, juif Philosophe_, were
bequeathed by Obereit to a neglectful posterity.




TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND IMPRISONMENTS OF JOSEPH BALSAMO.


The notorious Count Cagliostro appears from an impartial review of his
history and phenomenal exploits, to have been one of those characters
not uncommonly met with in the chequered annals of occultism. Even as
the modern “mediums,” who outrage the confidence of their believers by
leavening the supernatural bread, whereof the ghastly patent is their
prerogative and birthright, with the unrighteous mammon of material
conjuring, and even as those conjurors who are sometimes supposed to
still further perplex their audience by supplementary compacts with
“spooks,” this high priest of transcendental trickery would seem to
have possessed, perhaps unconsciously, a certain share of occult gifts,
which assisted no little his unparalleled rogueries. Mystical knowledge
beyond that of the age in which he lived was undoubtedly his, and
though it was still superficial, he had a genius for making the most of
it.

Joseph Balsamo, whatever has been advanced to the contrary by
himself[AJ] or his admirers, was the son of Peter Balsamo and Felicia
Bracconieri, both of humble extraction. He was born at Palermo,
in Sicily, on the 8th of June 1743. His parents are authentically
described as honest tradespeople and good Catholics, who were careful
in the education of their offspring, and solicitous for their spiritual
welfare. Their shop drew much custom in the populous neighbourhood
which divided the handsome _Rue del Cæsaro_. While his children were
still young, Peter Balsamo died, and, left under the inadequate control
of a widowed mother, Joseph betrayed, even in his earliest years,
a selfish and indolent disposition, greatly neglecting the scanty
educational advantages which were afforded him. According to other
accounts, he was taken under the protection of his maternal uncle,
who endeavoured to instruct him in the principles of religion, and to
give him an education suitable to his age and prospects; but, even
from his infancy, he showed himself uniformly averse to a virtuous
course of life. His uncle was a worthy _bourgeois_ of Palermo, who
foresaw, by the vivacity and penetration of his nephew, that he might
easily become proficient in letters and the sciences.[AK] By him he
was desired to embrace an ecclesiastical career, as the royal road
to distinction in those days. Accordingly, at the age of thirteen he
was placed in the Seminary of St Roch di Palermo, where he proved
his independence and aversion to discipline by continually running
away. Recaptured in vagabond company, he was committed, with no very
favourable character, to a certain father-general of the Bon Fratelli,
who was passing through Palermo. The father-general took charge of him
and straightway carried him to a Benedictine convent on the outskirts
of Cartagirone. There the walls were high, and the caged dove was in
the keeping of an inflexible _frère tourier_. He assumed perforce the
habit of a novice, and the father-general discovering his aptitude for
natural history and, more especially, his herbalistic tastes, placed
him under the tuition of the conventual apothecary, from whom, as he
afterwards acknowledged, he learned the first principles of chemistry
and medicine. Figuier states that in a short time he was able to
manipulate the drugs with astonishing sagacity; but even then it was
remarked that he seemed eager to discover those secrets which would
further the interests of charlatanry.[AL] In strict accordance with
his natural perversity, he did not fail to give various instances
of his innate viciousness, and drew down upon himself the continual
chastisements of his superiors. One day the involuntary novice, whose
irregularities were to some extent excusable on the ground of the
constraint that was put on him, but who often outstripped all bounds,
was set to read during dinner in the refectory a certain portion of an
exceedingly edifying martyrology, and yielding, says one writer with
pious indignation, to an inspiration of Belial, he substituted for
the sacred text a blasphemous version suggested by his own dissolute
imagination, perverting the sense and the incidents, and pushed his
audacity so far as to substitute for the saintly names those of the
most notorious courtesans of the period. A severe penance was imposed
on the insolent offender; but one night he found means to evade the
vigilance of his guardians, escaped from the convent, crossed the
intervening country, and after some days of joyous gipsying and
vagabond wanderings, he arrived at Palermo. Some knowledge of the
principles of chemistry and medicine was about the total of the
advantages he had derived from the discipline of conventual life. His
uncle began to despair of him, but advice and remonstrances were alike
lost upon the young reprobate, who derided them all, and employing
a certain portion of his time in the cultivation of a natural taste
for drawing, he otherwise abandoned himself to unbridled excesses. He
associated with rascals and ne’er-do-wells; his drunkenness, gambling,
and general libertinage, led him into perpetual brawling; and he
was frequently in the hands of the police, whom he is said to have
taken special pleasure in resisting, frequently delivering by force
the prisoners whom they had arrested. He has been also accused of
forging tickets of admission to the theatres, and selling them with
characteristic effrontery. One of his uncles coaxed him back for a
time into his house, and was rewarded by the robbery of a considerable
quantity of money and some valuable effects. He became an intermediary
in the amorous intercourse of a female cousin with one of his friends.
He carried _billets-doux_ to and fro between them, and made the entire
transaction personally profitable by extorting money from his friend,
persuading him that the fair cousin had a partiality for presents,
including both money and jewellery, and, of course, appropriating the
funds which were entrusted to him. Graver crimes were soon laid to his
charge. There was a certain dissolute Marquis Maurigi in Palermo who
coveted an inheritance which had been willed to a pious establishment,
and knowing Balsamo, to him were his projects confided, and an
expedient was presently forthcoming. Joseph had a relative who was a
notary, and by frequenting his office he found means to forge a will,
bearing every mark of authenticity, in favour of the Marquis, who made
good his claim to the estate, and no doubt liberally recompensed the
skill and pains of his confederate. The falsification was discovered
many years after, but the guilty parties were both of them far away.
It was also rumoured that Balsamo was a party to the assassination of
a wealthy canon, but the matter is exceedingly doubtful. He was many
times arrested on various charges, but eluded justice, either by the
absence of direct proof against him, or by the credit of his relations,
and the exertions of reputable persons of Palermo, who took interest in
his family. It will scarcely be credited that at this period Balsamo
was only fourteen years of age. Naturally endowed with artistic
aptitudes, he soon began to give lessons in drawing, and seems to have
been many times on a fair way to reformation. His skill in arms is also
acknowledged, but, conscious of his superiority, his street brawls
frequently ended in duels; his impetuosity even prompted him to take up
the gauntlet for his companions, and he scorned danger.

The most notorious of his youthful exploits, and that which caused
him to commence his life-long wanderings, was the adventure of the
concealed treasure, which has been variously related.

An avaricious goldsmith, named Marano, resided at Palermo. He was
a weak, superstitious man--a believer in magic, says M. Louis
Figuier--and he was much attracted by the mystery which, even at
this period, is declared by Figuier to have surrounded the life and
escapades of Balsamo, who already posed as an initiate of the occult
sciences. Joseph was now seventeen years of age, of handsome mien and
haughty carriage, speaking little, but holding his hearers spell-bound
by the magnetic fascination of his glance. He had been seen evoking
spirits; he was believed to converse with angels, and to obtain by
their agency an insight into the most interesting secrets. He had,
in fact, radically changed; the common rogue was developing into the
transcendental impostor. Marano lent an attentive ear to the stories
concerning him, and burned with anxiety to behold “the friend of the
celestial spirits.” The first interview took place in the lodging of
Balsamo; the goldsmith fell on his knees before him, and Balsamo, after
receiving his homage, raised him condescendingly from the ground, and
demanded in a solemn manner why he had come to him.

“Thanks to your daily communion with spirits, you will easily know,”
answered Marano, “and you should have no difficulty in assisting me to
recover the money which I have wasted among false alchemists, or even
to procure me more.”

“I can perform this service for you, provided you believe,” said
Balsamo, with composure.

“Provided I believe!” cried the goldsmith; “I believe, indeed.”

An appointment was made for the next day in a meadow beyond the town,
and the interview ended without another word.

This version of the story is more romantic than probable, and we owe
it to the vivacity of a Frenchman’s imagination, which is never more
brilliant than when employed in the perversion or embellishment of
history. According to the more sober _Aventures de Cagliostro_, Marano
had for some time been acquainted with the youthful charlatan, who
sought him one day at his own residence, and said to him: “You are
aware of my communications with the supernal spirits; you are aware of
the illimitable potency of the incantations to which I devote myself.
Listen! In an olive field, at no great distance from Palermo, there is
a buried treasure according to my certain knowledge, and by the help of
a ceremonial evocation I can discover the precise spot where the spade
of the seeker should be driven in. The operation, however, requires
some expensive preliminaries; sixty ounces of gold are absolutely
needed. Will you place them at my disposal?”

Marano declaimed against the preposterous extravagance of the demand,
maintaining that the herbs and drugs utilised in alchemical experiments
were exceedingly moderate in their price.

“’Tis well,” said Balsamo, coldly. “The matter is soon settled; I shall
enjoy the vast treasure alone. A blessing when shared is but half a
blessing for those who participate in it.”

On the morrow, however, Marano sought out the enchanter, having been
agonised by the gold fever the whole night.

“I am furnished with the sum you require,” he said. “But I pray you to
bargain a little with the spirits, and endeavour to beat them down.”

“Do you take them for sordid speculators?” cried the magician,
indignant. “The devil is no Jew, though he abode full long in Judea. He
is a magnificent seigneur, living generously in every country of the
world. Treat him with respect, he returns a hundredfold. I shall find
elsewhere the sixty ounces of gold, and can afford to dispense with
your assistance.”

“It is here,” said Marano, drawing quickly a leather bag from his
pocket, and the arrangements were soon made.

At moonlight they repaired to the olive field, where Balsamo had
secretly made preparations for the approaching evocation. The
incantatory preliminaries were sufficiently protracted, and Marano
panted with terror under the influence of the magical charms, till
it seemed to him that the very earth shivered beneath his feet and
phantoms issued from the ground. Marano fell prostrate on his face, an
action apparently foreseen, for there and then the wretched goldsmith
was belaboured unmercifully with sticks by the infernal spirits, who
left him at length for dead, taking flight in the company of the
enchanter, and fortified by the possession of the sixty ounces of gold.
On the morrow, the goldsmith, fortunately discovered by muleteers, was
carried disconsolately home, and forthwith denounced Balsamo to the
law. The adventure spread everywhere, but the magician had sailed for
Messina.

These are the facts of the case, but the mendacious chronicle of
Louis Figuier, alchemical critic and universal manufacturer of light
scientific literature, offers us a far more ornate and attractive
version. There the adept and his miserable dupe repair to a place
appointed at six o’clock in the morning, Balsamo in dignified
silence motioning the goldsmith to follow him, and proceeding with a
pre-occupied aspect along the road to the chapel of Saint Rosalia for
the space of a whole hour. They stopped at length in the middle of a
wild meadow, and in front of a grotto, before which Balsamo extended
his hand, and solemnly declared that a treasure was buried within it
which he himself was forbidden to touch, which was guarded by devils of
hell, which devils might, however, be bound for a brief period by the
angels who commonly responded to his potent magical call.

“It only remains to be ascertained,” he remarked in conclusion,
“whether you will scrupulously fulfil the conditions which must be
imposed on you. At that price, the treasure may be yours.”

The credulous goldsmith impetuously implored him to name them.

“They cannot be learned from my lips,” said Balsamo loftily. “On your
knees, in the first place!”

He himself had already assumed the posture of adoration. Marano
hastened to imitate him, and immediately a clear, harmonious voice in
the celestial altitude pronounced the following words--words, says the
Frenchman, more delicious in the ears of the covetous miser than all
the symphonies of aërial choirs.

“Sixty ounces of pearls, sixty ounces of rubies, sixty ounces of
diamonds, in a coffer of enchased gold, weighing one hundred and twenty
ounces. The infernal genii who protect this treasure will place it in
the hands of the worthy man whom our friend has brought, if he be fifty
years of age, if he be no Christian--if--if--if--” and a series of
conditions followed which Marano perfectly united in his own penurious
person, even to the last, which was thus formulated:--“And if he
deposit at the entrance of the grotto, before setting foot therein,
sixty ounces of gold to propitiate the guardians.”

“You have heard,” said Balsamo, who, already on his feet, began to
retrace his steps, completely ignoring the utter stupefaction of his
companion.

“Sixty ounces of gold!” ejaculated the miser with a dismal groan, and
torn by the internal conflict of avarice and cupidity; but Balsamo
heeded the exclamation as little as the groan, and regained the town in
silence.

When they were on the point of separating, Marano appeared to have
resolved.

“Grant me one instant!” he cried in a piteous voice. “Sixty ounces of
gold? Is that the irrevocable condition?”

“Undoubtedly,” said Balsamo, carelessly.

“Alas! alas! And at what hour to-morrow?”

“At six o’clock in the morning and, mark, at the same spot.”

“I will be there.”

This was the parting speech of the goldsmith, and, as it were, the
last gasp of his conquered avarice. On the morrow, punctual to the
appointed time, they met as before, Balsamo with his habitual coolness,
Marano with his gold. They arrived in due course at the grotto, where
the angels, consulted as on the previous day, returned the same
oracles. Balsamo assumed ignorance of what would take place. With a
terrific struggle, Marano deposited his gold and prepared to cross the
threshold. He took one step forward, then started back, inquired if
there were no danger in penetrating into the depths of the cavern, was
assured of safety if the gold had been faithfully weighed, entered with
more confidence, and again returned, these manœuvres being repeated
several times, under the eyes of the adept, whose expression indicated
the most uninterested indifference. At length, Marano took courage
and proceeded so far that a return was impossible, for three black,
muscular devils started out from the shadows and barred his path,
giving vent to the most alarming growls. They seized him, forced him
to whirl round and round for a long time, and then while the unhappy
creature vainly invoked the assistance of Balsamo, they proceeded to
cudgel him lustily till he dropped overwhelmed to the ground, when a
clear voice bade him remain absolutely silent and motionless, for he
would be instantaneously despatched if he stirred either hand or foot.
The wretched man did not dare to disobey, but after a long swoon the
complete stillness encouraged him to raise his head; he dragged himself
as best he could to the mouth of the terrible grotto, looked round him,
and found that the adept, the demons, and the gold had alike vanished.

       *       *       *       *       *

When Balsamo arrived at Messina he was furnished with a very handsome
sum to support the expenses of his sojourn therein, for the lion’s
share of the booty obtained from the goldsmith had, of course, fallen
to himself. He lodged in one of the chief inns near the port, and had
prepared himself for further adventures, when he suddenly remembered
that he had an old and affluent aunt in the town whom he took occasion
to visit, but only to discover that she had recently died, leaving the
bulk of her fortune to different churches of Messina, and distributing
the rest to the poor. Doubtless the dutiful nephew paid to the memory
of this ultra-Christian relation a just tribute of regrets, and anxious
to inherit at least something from a person so eminent in sanctity, he
determined to assume her family name, joined to a title of nobility,
and from that time forward he commonly called himself the Count
Alessandro Cagliostro. His penetrating and calculating mind, says one
of his biographers, understood the prestige which attached to a title
at a period when the privileges of birth still exercised an almost
undisputed influence.

It was in the town of Messina that Balsamo first met with the
mysterious alchemist Altotas, whom in his fabulous autobiography he
represented as the oriental tutor of his infancy. As he was promenading
one day near the jetty at the extremity of the port, he encountered
an individual singularly habited, and possessed of a most remarkable
countenance. This person, aged apparently about fifty years, seemed
to be an Armenian, though, according to other accounts, he was a
Spaniard or Greek. He wore a species of caftan, a silk bonnet, and the
extremities of his breeches were concealed in a pair of wide boots. In
his left hand he held a parasol, and in his right the end of a cord, to
which was attached a graceful Albanian greyhound.

Whether from curiosity or by presentiment, Cagliostro saluted this
grotesque being, who bowed slightly, but with satisfied dignity.

“You do not reside in Messina, signor?” he said in Sicilian, but with a
marked foreign accent.

Cagliostro replied that he was tarrying for a few days, and they
began to converse on the beauty of the town and on its advantageous
situation, a kind of oriental imagery individualising the eloquence of
the stranger, whose remarks were, moreover, adroitly adorned with a few
appropriate compliments. He eluded inquiries as to his own identity,
but offered to unveil the past of the Count Cagliostro, and to reveal
what was actually passing in his mind at that moment. When Cagliostro
hinted at sorcery, the Armenian smiled somewhat scornfully, and dilated
on the ignorance of a nation which confused science with witchcraft,
and prepared faggots for discoverers.

His hearer, much interested, ventured to ask the address of the
illustrious stranger, who graciously invited him to call. They walked
past the cathedral and halted in a small quadrilateral street shaded by
sycamores, and having a charming fountain in the centre.

“Signor,” said the stranger, “there is the house I inhabit. I receive
no one; but as you are a traveller, as you are young and courteous,
as, moreover, you are animated by a noble passion for the sciences, I
permit you to visit me. I shall be visible to you to-morrow a little
before midnight. You will rap twice on the hammer”--he pointed as he
spoke to the door of a low-storied house--“then three times more
slowly, and you will be admitted. Adieu! Hasten at once to your inn. A
Piedmontese is trying to possess himself of the seven and thirty ounces
of gold that are secured in your valise, and which is itself shut up
in a press, the key of which is in your pocket at this moment. Your
servant, signor!” and he departed rapidly.

Cagliostro, returning in all haste, discovered the thief in the act,
and, as a lawful and righteously indignant proprietor, he forthwith
delivered him to justice.

On the morrow, at the time appointed, he knocked at the door of the
little house inhabited by the Armenian. It was opened at the fifth
blow without any visible agency, and closed as soon as the visitor
had entered. Cagliostro cautiously advanced along a narrow passage,
illuminated by a small iron lamp in a niche of the wall. At the
extremity of the passage a spacious door sprang open, giving admittance
into a ground-floor parlour which was illuminated by a four-branched
candelabra, holding tapers of wax, and was, in fact, a laboratory
furnished with all the apparatus in use among practical alchemists. The
Armenian, issuing from a neighbouring cabinet, greeted the visitor,
inquired after the safety of the gold, had intelligence of the truth
of his clairvoyance, and of the deserved fate of the malefactor, but
cut short the expressed astonishment and admiration of Cagliostro
by declaring that the art of divination was simply the result of
scientific combinations and close observations. He ended by asking his
hearer if he denied the infallible certitude of judicial astrology, but
the self-constituted count denied nothing except the superior power of
virtue over self-interest, whereat the Armenian inquired to whom he was
indebted for his training.

“I was about to say to the solicitude of my uncles and to the
apothecary in the Convent of the Bon Fratelli,” said Cagliostro; “but
to what purpose? You undoubtedly know.”

“I know,” replied the strange individual, “that you have trained
yourself; that the apothecary, equally with your uncles, has but opened
for you the door to knowledge. What are your plans?”

“I intend to enrich myself.”

“That is,” said the other, grandiloquently, “you would make yourself
superior to the imbecile mob--a laudable project, my son! Do you
propose to travel?”

“Certainly, so far as my thirty-seven ounces of gold will take me.”

“You are very young,” said the Armenian. “How is bread manufactured?”

“With flour.”

“And wine?”

“By means of the grape.”

“But gold?”

“I come to inquire of yourself.”

“We will solve that problem hereafter. Listen to me, young man. I
propose to depart for Grand Cairo, in Egypt. Will you accompany me?”

“With all my heart!” exclaimed Cagliostro, overjoyed, and they sat down
in large oak chairs, each at one end of the table where the candelabra
was placed.

“Egypt,” said the Armenian, “is the birthplace of all human science.
Astronomy alone had Chaldea for its fatherland; there the shepherds
first studied the courses of the stars. Egypt availed itself of
the astro-Chaldean initiations, and soon surpassed the methods and
increased the discoveries of the shepherds. Since the reign of the
Pharaoh Manes, and of his successors, Busiris, Osymandyas, Uchoreas,
and Moeris, Egyptian knowledge has advanced with giant strides. Joseph,
the dream-reader, established the basis of chiromancy; the priests
of Osiris and Isis invented the Zodiac; the Cosmogonies of Phre and
Horus revealed agriculture and other physical sciences; the priestesses
of Ansaki unveiled the secrets of philtres; the priests of Serapis
taught medicine. I might proceed with the sublime enumeration, but to
what end? Will you faithfully follow me to Egypt? I hope to embark
to-morrow, and we shall touch at Malta on the way--possibly also at
Candia--reaching the port of Phare in eight days.”

“’Tis settled!” cried the delighted Cagliostro. “I have my thirty-seven
ounces of gold for the journey.”

“And I not a single crown.”

“The devil!” ejaculated Cagliostro.

“What matters it? What need to have gold when one knows how to make
gold? What need to possess diamonds when one can extract them from
carbon more beautifully than from the mines of Golconda? Go to! you are
excessively simple.”

“Therefore, by your leave, I intend to become your disciple.”

The Armenian extended his hand, and their departure was fixed for the
morrow.

This Altotas, or Althotes, we are assured by Figuier, was no imaginary
character. The Roman Inquisition collected many proofs of his
existence, without, however, ascertaining where it began or ended,
for the mysterious personage vanished like a meteor. According to
the Italian biography of Joseph Balsamo, Altotas was in possession
of several Arabic manuscripts, and assumed great skill in chemistry.
According to Figuier, he was a magician and doctor as well, though
others represent him despising and rejecting the abused name of
physician. As to his divinatory abilities, he had already given a
signal proof of their extent to his pupil, but he showed him that he
was acquainted with all his Palermese antecedents.

They embarked on board a Genoese vessel, sailed along the Archipelago,
landed at Alexandria, where they tarried for forty days, performing
several operations in chemistry, by which they are said to have
produced a considerable sum of money, but whether by transmutation or
by imposture is not apparently clear. Cagliostro’s respect for his
master did not prevent him, with true Sicilian subtlety, inquiring as
to his own antecedents, till Altotas, weary of resorting to the same
stratagems of evasion, declared to him once for all that he was himself
in complete ignorance as to his birth and parentage.

“This may surprise you,” he said, “but science, which can enlighten us
on the part of another, is almost invariably impotent to instruct us
concerning ourselves.”

He declared himself to be much older than would appear, but that he
was in possession of certain secrets for the conservation of strength
and health. He had discovered the scientific methods of producing gold
and precious stones, spoke ten or twelve languages fluently, and was
acquainted with almost the entire circle of human sciences. “Nothing
astonishes me,” he said, “nothing grieves me, save the evils which I
am powerless to prevent, and I trust to reach in peace the term of my
protracted existence.”

He confessed that his name of Altotas was self-chosen, yet was it truly
his. His early years had been passed on the coast of Barbary, near
Tunis, where he belonged to a Mussulman privateer, who was a rich and
humane man, and who had purchased him from pirates, by whom he had
been stolen from his family. At twelve years of age he spoke Arabic
like a native, read the Koran to his master, who was a true believer,
studied botany under his direction, and learned the best methods for
making sherbet and coffee. A post of honour was in store for him in
the household of his master; but destiny decreed that when Altotas
was sixteen, the worthy Mussulman should be gathered to his fathers.
In his will he gave the young slave his liberty, and bequeathed him a
sum which was equivalent to six thousand _livres_, wherewith Altotas
quitted Tunis to indulge his passion for travelling.

Cagliostro represented that he had followed his instructor into
Africa and the heart of Egypt, that he visited the pyramids, making
the acquaintance of the priests of different temples, and penetrating
into the arcana of their mysterious sanctuaries. Moreover, he declares
himself to have visited, during the space of three years, all the
principal kingdoms of Africa and Asia. These statements are identical
in their value with the romantic story of his education in the
palace of the muphti at Medina. It is altogether doubtful whether he
ever visited Arabia, which was in any case the extreme limit of his
wanderings, and he is subsequently discovered at Rhodes still in the
society of Altotas, and pursuing, in common with that mysterious being,
his doubtful chemical operations.

At Malta they had letters of introduction to the Grand Master, Pinto,
and tarried for some time to work in his laboratory, for the “supreme
chief of Maltese chivalry” was infatuated with alchemical experiments,
and, after the fashion of that extravagant period, had a strong bias
towards the marvellous. The history of the failure or success of the
errant adepts remains in the laboratory of the Grand Master; but
from this moment Altotas, the chemist and alchemist--Altotas, the
phenomenal, the wise man, the scientist--disappears completely. “Malta
was his sepulchre, or haply the place of his apotheosis.” “There,” says
the Count, in his Memoir, “it was my misery to lose my best friend, the
most wise, the most illuminated of mortals, the venerable Altotas.
He clasped my hands shortly before his death. ‘My son,’ he said, in a
failing voice, ‘keep ever before thine eyes the fear of the Eternal and
the love of thy neighbour. Thou wilt soon learn the truth of all which
I have taught thee.’”

With every mark of respect on the part of the Grand Master, and
accompanied by the Chevalier d’Aquino, of the illustrious house of
Caramania, and himself a Knight of Malta, Cagliostro repaired to
Naples, where he supported himself for some time with money which
had been presented to him by Pinto, and perhaps by loans from his
possibly opulent companion, who, however, eventually quitted him to
proceed into France. In Naples Cagliostro met with a Sicilian prince
who was infected by the prevalent gold fever, and was so enraptured
with the high-sounding theories of Cagliostro that he invited him to
his chateau in the neighbourhood of Palermo, where they might pursue
their operations in common. It was imprudent, but the pupil of the
great Altotas could not resist the desire to revisit his native land.
He tarried a certain period with his companion, but going one day
into Messina, he encountered an old acquaintance, a certain dissolute
priest, his confederate in the affair of Marano, and who had, in
fact, acted as one of the sable fiends whose stout clubs had agonised
the unfortunate goldsmith. The adventurer warned Cagliostro not to
enter Palermo, where justice was highly offended at his youthful
indiscretions. He persuaded him to join fortunes with himself, return
to Naples, and there open a gaming-house for the benefit, or rather for
the bleeding, of the wealthy foreigners who visited Italy. This method
of gold-making was quite after the heart of his hearer, who soon took
his leave of the Sicilian prince, but they were regarded with so much
suspicion by the Neapolitan Government that they retired into the Papal
states. Cagliostro’s companion had, however, received the tonsure,
and he trembled for his safety on the consecrated ground which was
the stronghold of the Holy Inquisition, so he hastened his departure
to less orthodox places, and does not figure further in the chequered
history of his brother in chicanery.

Cagliostro remained, and is said to have assumed several different
characters, occasionally including the sacerdotal habit. According
to some accounts, he made himself remarkable for his extreme piety,
visiting all the churches, fulfilling the duties of religion, and
frequenting the palaces of cardinals. By means of some letters of
recommendation which he had brought with him from Naples, he obtained
access to several persons of distinction, among others to the Seneschal
de Breteuil, at that time Ambassador from Malta to Rome, and who,
hearing of his former connection with the Grand Master, received him
with much warmth, and procured him other honourable connections. One
illustrious dupe ensured others, and we find him in a short time
established in the Holy City, retailing wonderful recipes and specifics
for all the diseases which afflict fallen humanity in Rome and the
universe. Crowns and ducats flowed in upon him; he lived in some state
and luxury, refraining, however, from scandalous enjoyments.

The Italian biography which represents the opinions, embodies the
researches, and champions the cause of the Inquisition, draws, however,
a different picture to those of Saint-Felix and Louis Figuier.
“He employed himself at this period,” says this doubtful, because
indisputably biassed, authority, “in making drawings on paper, the
outlines of which were produced by means of a copperplate engraving,
and afterwards were filled up with Indian ink. These he sold as designs
made by means of the pen alone. Having taken up his abode at the Sign
of the Sun, in the neighbourhood of the Rotunda, he quarrelled with
one of the waiters and suffered imprisonment for three days.”

Whatever these statements are worth, there is no doubt hanging over the
most important incident of his Roman career. It was in that place and
at this period that he first beheld the young and beautiful Lorenza
Feliciani, and having in two days fallen violently in love with her,
he demanded her in marriage from her father, who, fascinated by his
birth, his aristocratic name, and opulent appearance, consented,
together with the lady. The marriage took place, not without _éclat_,
says one section of the witnesses, and the pair resided in the house
of the father-in-law. The Italian life, minimising to the uttermost
the success of Cagliostro, says that he received as a dower a trifling
fortune proportionate to their condition.

According to the testimony of all the biographers, inquisitorial or
otherwise, Lorenza was not only young and beautiful, but “rich in every
quality of the heart, being tender, devoted, honest, and modest;” but
her husband conceived the diabolical design of advancing his fortunes
at the expense of her honour, and in private conversation took occasion
to rally her notions of virtue, which he sought to undermine. The first
lesson which the young bride received from her husband, according
to her own confession, was intended to instruct her in the means of
attracting and gratifying the passions of the opposite sex. The most
wanton coquetry and the most lascivious arts were the principles with
which he endeavoured to inspire her. The mother of Lorenza, scandalised
at his conduct, had such frequent altercations with her son-in-law,
that he resolved to remove from her house, and in other quarters found
it a simpler task to corrupt the mind and morals of his wife. Then,
according to the Italian author, he presented her to two persons well
qualified for the exercise of her talents, having instructed her to
entangle them both by her allurements. With one of these she did not
succeed, but over the other she acquired a complete victory. Cagliostro
himself conducted her to the house destined for the pleasure of the
lover, left her alone in his company, and retired to another chamber.

The interview and the offers made to her were such as entirely
corresponded to the wishes of the husband, but the wife on this
occasion did not exhibit a proper instance of conjugal obedience, and
upon imparting the whole affair confidentially to her husband, received
the most bitter reproach and the most violent and dreadful menaces.
He also repeatedly assured her that adultery was no crime when it
was committed by a woman to advance her interests, and not through
affection for other men. He even added example to precept, by showing
how little he himself respected the ties of conjugal fidelity--that is,
apparently, he sold himself to lascivious females of advanced age, and
on these occasions aroused his dormant passions by drinking a certain
Egyptian wine, composed of aromatics which possessed the necessary
qualities for the completion of his intention. His wife, hearkening
at length to his instructions, was conducted several times to the
place where she had formerly proved so disobedient to his orders. She
sometimes received, says the same witness, either clothes or trinkets,
and sometimes a little money, as the reward of her condescension. One
day her husband wrote a letter, in the name of his wife, in which he
begged the loan of a few crowns; these were immediately sent. In return
for them an interview was promised during the course of the next day,
and the lady was faithful to the appointment.

Such is the version of this disgraceful business given by the
enemies of Cagliostro, but all biographers agree that he corrupted
the morals of his wife. Indeed, the only question is whether the
transaction took place on the sordid scale described by the Italian
writer. Other authorities tell us that his success tempted “a
beautiful Roman--Lorenza Feliciani--to share his rising fortunes.
Unscrupulous, witty, and fascinating, Lorenza was an admirable partner
for Cagliostro, who speedily made her an adept in all his pretended
mysteries.” Whatever were her natural virtues or failings, it is highly
improbable that she sold her uncommon attractions for such paltry and
miserable advantages.

The house which was taken by Cagliostro became the resort of sharpers,
two of whom, Ottavio Nicestro, who was eventually hanged, and a
so-called Marquis d’Agriata, both Sicilians, became intimate associates
of their host. With the latter he was frequently closeted for hours
together. Their occupation is uncertain; but as Cagliostro’s wealth
increased at no ordinary rate, and as the Marquis was an unparalleled
proficient in the production of counterfeit writing, they are supposed
to have succeeded in forging numerous bills of exchange; and it is, at
any rate, certain that the letters patent by which the great charlatan
was authorised to assume the uniform of a Prussian colonel, which he
subsequently did to his definite advantage, were the production of this
skilful miscreant. But a quarrel arose between the three confederates;
Nicastro betrayed his accomplices, the Marquis fled from Rome,
Cagliostro and the unhappy Lorenza incontinently following his example.

Our three fugitives took the road to Venice, reached Bergamo, and there
practised several unparticularised rogueries, till their identity was
discovered by the Government. The marquis again managed to escape,
the others after a short imprisonment were expelled from the town,
and being stripped of all their resources, undertook a pilgrimage
into Galicia, hoping to cross Spain, through the charity of the clergy
and conventual communities. They travelled through the territories of
the King of Sardinia, through Genoa, and so arrived at Antibes. From
this moment the life of the Count Cagliostro was for several years
one of incessant wandering. According to the Italian biographer, as
beggary proved unprofitable, Lorenza was again forced by her husband
to augment their resources through the sale of her charms. In this way
they arrived at Barcelona, where they tarried for six months, the same
course of infamous prostitution, followed by Lorenza with the most
manifest reluctance, contributing in the main to their support.

From Barcelona they proceeded to Madrid, where also certain noble
Spaniards proved sensible to the charms of Lorenza. From Madrid they
journeyed to Lisbon, and thence sailed to England, where Cagliostro
is said to have adopted the profession of a common quack, to have
fallen into prison, to have been bought out by his wife, in whose
person he still continued to traffic, bartering her charms to every
opulent man who wished to become a purchaser; but the frequency of her
prostitutions has probably been grossly exaggerated.

An English Life of the Count Cagliostro, dedicated, in 1787, to Madame
la Comtesse, and written in the interests of the charlatan, gives a
singular account of his misfortunes in London, showing that when he
arrived there he was in possession of plate, jewels, and specie to the
amount of three thousand pounds, that he hired apartments in Whitcomb
Street, where he dedicated a large portion of his time to his favourite
studies of chemistry and physics, and that all he suffered must be
entirely attributed to the profuse generosity and charity of himself
and his lady.

In 1772, Cagliostro and his wife crossed over to France, accompanied by
one M. Duplaisir, who lodged with them at Paris, and seems to have been
intimate with Lorenza. But Cagliostro was insatiable, says St Felix. He
sold his honour at a high price, and the fortune of Duplaisir melted
in the crucible of another’s follies and extravagances. At length,
in alarm, the victim took leave of his rapacious guests, not without
strongly warning Lorenza to return to her parents, for he had learned
to esteem the natural good qualities which she possessed. According to
one account, she attempted to follow this advice, but others say that
she sought refuge from incessant prostitution with Duplaisir himself.
In either case, Cagliostro had recourse to the authority of the king,
and obtaining an order for her arrest, she was imprisoned in the
penitentiary of Sainte Pélagie, and was detained there several months,
during which Cagliostro abandoned himself to a life of congenial
dissipation. The sale of a certain wash for beautifying the complexion
appears to have procured him a considerable revenue about this period.

The imprisonment of Lorenza did not prevent a reconciliation with her
husband immediately after her release, which occurred on December
21, 1772, on which date, having obtained under false pretences some
magnificent dresses from the _costumiers_, Cagliostro appeared at the
ball of a dancing-master in a peculiarly brilliant costume.

It is from this period that our adventurer’s success as an alchemist
must be dated. Here he found means to form an acquaintance with two
persons of distinction, who carried their love of chemistry to a
ridiculous excess. He pretended to have discovered some miraculous
secrets in the transcendent science, proclaimed himself publicly a
depository of the Hermetic Mystery, and posing as a supernatural
personage in possession of the great arcanum of the philosophers’
stone and of the glorious life-elixir. This also was the epoch of
mesmerism, of which novel science Cagliostro decided to avail himself.
After a time, according to the Italian biography, his two dupes
entertained suspicions of his veracity, and being in fear of arrest,
he obtained a passport under a fictitious name, fled with great
precipitation to Brussels, traversed Germany and Italy, and once more
arrived at his native city Palermo.[AM]

At Palermo he was speedily arrested by the implacable Marano, but
the protection of a noble, to whom he had obtained a powerful
recommendation while at Naples, ensured his speedy release, and he
embarked with his wife for Malta, where, according to the Italian
biographer, he ostensibly supported himself by the sale of his pomade
for the improvement of the complexion, but his more certain income
appears to have been his wife. Monsieur Saint-Félix, however, declares,
and this, on the whole, is most probable, that they were received with
the most marked distinction by the Grand Master. In either case, they
soon retired to Naples, when Cagliostro professed in public for three
months both chemistry and the Kabbalah. At Naples they were joined by a
younger brother of Feliciani, a lad named Paolo, who was remarkable for
his extraordinary loveliness. Cagliostro, seeing that he might prove
useful, persuaded him to share their fortunes. They embarked with a
great train for Marseilles, and thence proceeded to Barcelona. The star
of the great adventurer was now fairly in the ascendant, and from this
time he seems always to have travelled in considerable state. He met,
however, with no dupes of importance in the peninsula till he reached
its extremity, where he cheated a fanatical alchemist of a hundred
thousand crowns, under the pretence of a colossal accomplishment of the
_magnum opus_. After this signal success he incontinently departed for
England, while Paolo, with whom he had quarrelled, returned to Rome,
much to the grief of his sister.

The commencement of the grandeur of Cagliostro is to be dated from
his second visit to London. It was then that he was initiated into
masonry, and conceived his titanic project of the mysterious Egyptian
rite. Saint Félix accredits him even from the moment of his admission
into the order with an unavowed object. Cagliostro, he informs us,
was resolved one day to seat himself on the throne of the grand
master of a rival and more potent institution, and he appears to have
lived henceforth in the light of his high aspiration, and to have
eschewed--theoretically at least--all petty rogueries.

He incessantly visited the various London lodges, and a correspondence
printed in English at Strasburg during the year 1788, relates that by
a pure chance he picked up a curious manuscript at an obscure London
bookstall. This manuscript appears to have belonged to a certain George
Gaston, who is absolutely unknown. It treated of Egyptian masonry, and
abounded in magical and mystical notions which excited the curiosity
of its purchaser, nourished both his ambition and his imagination,
and in a short time he developed his own system from its suggestive
hints. The source of his inspiration, of course, remained concealed.
He pretended to have received his masonic tradition by succession from
Enoch and Elias. Privately, however, he pursued his former rogueries,
and his sojourn in London was not infrequently disturbed by his
squabbles with the police. Those who are interested in this part of the
Cagliostro controversy will do well to refer to the English biography,
dedicated to the countess, and which contains much curious information.

When all his plans were matured he departed for the Hague, and thence
proceeded to Venice, where some of his English creditors seem to have
disturbed his serenity, and prompted him in consequence to retire
through Germany into Holstein, where he is supposed to have visited the
renowned Count de St Germain.

According to the _Mémoires Authentiques pour servir à l’Histoire du
Comte de Cagliostro_, published in 1785, he demanded an audience
with this man of inscrutable mystery, in order that he might
prostrate himself before the _dieu des croyants_. With characteristic
eccentricity the Count de St Germain appointed two in the morning
as the hour for the interview, which moment being arrived, say the
“Memoirs,” Cagliostro and his wife, clothed in white garments, clasped
about the waist with girdles of rose-colour, presented themselves at
the castellated temple of mystery, which was the abode of the dubious
divinity whom they desired to adore. The drawbridge was lowered, a
man six feet in height, clothed in a long grey robe, led them into
a dimly-lighted chamber. Therein some folding doors sprang suddenly
open, and they beheld a temple illuminated by a thousand wax lights,
with the Count de Saint-Germain enthroned upon the altar; at his
feet two acolytes swung golden thuribles, which diffused sweet and
unobtrusive perfumes. The divinity bore upon his breast a diamond
pentagram of almost intolerable radiance. A majestic statue, white and
diaphanous, upheld on the steps of the altar a vase inscribed, “Elixir
of Immortality,” while a vast mirror was on the wall, and before it
a living being, majestic as the statue, walked to and fro. Above the
mirror were these singular words--“Store House of Wandering Souls.” The
most solemn silence prevailed in this sacred retreat, but at length a
voice, which seemed hardly a voice, pronounced these words--“Who are
you? Whence come you? What would you?” Then the Count and Countess
Cagliostro prostrated themselves, and the former answered after a long
pause, “I come to invoke the God of the faithful, the Son of Nature,
the sire of truth. I come to demand of him one of the fourteen thousand
seven hundred secrets which are treasured in his breast, I come to
proclaim myself his slave, his apostle, his martyr.”

The divinity did not respond, but after a long silence, the same voice
asked:--“What does the partner of thy long wanderings intend?”

“To obey and to serve,” answered Lorenza.

Simultaneously with her words, profound darkness succeeded the glare of
light, uproar followed on tranquillity, terror on trust, and a sharp
and menacing voice cried loudly:--“Woe to those who cannot stand the
tests!”

Husband and wife were immediately separated to undergo their respective
trials, which they endured with exemplary fortitude, and which are
detailed in the text of the memoirs. When the romantic mummery was
over, the two postulants were led back into the temple, with the
promise of admission to the divine mysteries. There a man mysteriously
draped in a long mantle cried out to them:--“Know ye that the arcanum
of our great art is the government of mankind, and that the one means
to rule them is never to tell them the truth. Do not foolishly
regulate your actions according to the rules of common sense; rather
outrage reason and courageously maintain every unbelievable absurdity.
Remember that reproduction is the palmary active power in nature,
politics, and society alike; that it is a mania with mortals to be
immortal, to know the future without understanding the present, and to
be spiritual while all that surrounds them is material.”

After this harangue the orator genuflected devoutly before the divinity
of the temple and retired. At the same moment a man of gigantic stature
led the countess to the feet of the immortal Count de Saint-German, who
thus spoke:--

“Elected from my tenderest youth to the things of greatness, I
employed myself in ascertaining the nature of veritable glory.
Politics appeared to me nothing but the science of deception, tactics
the art of assassination, philosophy the ambitious imbecility of
complete irrationality; physics fine fancies about Nature and the
continual mistakes of persons suddenly transplanted into a country
which is utterly unknown to them; theology the science of the misery
which results from human pride; history the melancholy spectacle of
perpetual perfidy and blundering. Thence I concluded that the statesman
was a skilful liar, the hero an illustrious idiot, the philosopher
an eccentric creature, the physician a pitiable and blind man, the
theologian a fanatical pedagogue, and the historian a word-monger.
Then did I hear of the divinity of this temple. I cast my cares upon
him, with my incertitudes and aspirations. When he took possession of
my soul he caused me to perceive all objects in a new light; I began
to read futurity. This universe so limited, so narrow, so desert, was
now enlarged. I abode not only with those who are, but with those who
were. He united me to the loveliest women of antiquity. I found it
eminently delectable to know all without studying anything, to dispose
of the treasures of the earth without the solicitation of monarchs,
to rule the elements rather than men. Heaven made me liberal; I have
sufficient to satisfy my taste; all that surrounds me is rich, loving,
predestinated.”

When the service was finished the costume of ordinary life was resumed.
A superb repast terminated the ceremony. During the course of the
banquet the two guests were informed that the Elixir of Immortality was
merely Tokay coloured green or red according to the necessities of the
case. Several essential precepts were enjoined upon them, among others
that they must detest, avoid, and calumniate men of understanding, but
flatter, foster, and blind fools, that they must spread abroad with
much mystery the intelligence that the Count de Saint-Germain was five
hundred years old, that they must make gold, but dupes before all.

The truth of this singular episode is not attested by any sober
biographer. If it occurred as narrated, it doubtless served to confirm
Cagliostro in his ambitious projects. The change which had taken place
in the adventurer since his second visit to England is well described
by Figuier. “His language, his mien, his manners, all are transformed.
His conversation turns only on his travels in Egypt, to Mecca, and in
other remote places, on the sciences into which he was initiated at the
foot of the Pyramids, on the arcana of Nature which his ingenuity has
discovered. At the same time, he talks little, more often enveloping
himself in mysterious silence. When interrogated with reiterated
entreaties, he deigns at the most to draw his symbol--a serpent with
an apple in its mouth and pierced by a dart, meaning that human wisdom
should be silent on the mysteries which it has unravelled.... Lorenza
was transfigured at the same time with her husband. Her ambitions and
deportment became worthy of the new projects of Cagliostro. She aimed,
like himself, at the glory of colossal successes.”

The initiates of the Count de Saint-Germain passed into Courland,
where they established Masonic lodges, according to the sublime rite
of Egyptian Freemasonry. The countess was an excellent preacher to
captivate hearts and enchant imaginations, her beauty fascinated a
large number of Courlandaise nobility. At Mittau, Cagliostro attracted
the attention of persons of high rank, who were led by his reputation
to regard him as an extraordinary person. By means of his Freemasonry
he began to obtain an ascendency over the minds of the nobles, some of
whom, discontented with the reigning duke, are actually said to have
offered him the sovereignty of the country, as to a divine man and
messenger from above. The Italian biography represents him plotting
with this end in view. “He pretends,” say the documents of the Holy
Inquisition, “that he had virtue enough to resist the temptation, and
that he refused the proffered boon from the respect due to sovereigns.
His wife has assured us that his refusal was produced by the reflection
that his impostures would soon be discovered.” He collected, however, a
prodigious number of presents in gold, silver, and money, and repaired
to St Petersburg, provided with regular passports. But the prophet soon
found that a sufficiently brilliant reputation had not preceded him,
and he, therefore, simply announced himself as a physician and chemist,
by his retired life and air of mystery soon attracting attention.

His assumption of the _rôle_ of physician leads to a brief
consideration of the miraculous cures which have been attributed
to him. They are generally referred to a broad application of the
principles and methods of Mesmer, his contemporary. They were performed
without passes, iron rods, or any of the cumbrous paraphernalia of his
rival in the healing art; he trusted simply to the laying on of hands.
Moreover, he did not despoil his patients, but rather dispensed his
wealth, which now appeared unlimited, among the poor, who flocked to
him in great numbers as his reputation increased. The source of this
wealth is not accurately known, but it is supposed to have been derived
from the Masonic initiates, whose apostle and propagandist he was.

Many of the miraculous cures which Cagliostro performed in Germany
spread widely, and in Russia he was soon surrounded by the curious.
Lorenza played her own part admirably; she answered discreetly and
naturally, making the most outrageous statements with apparently
complete unconsciousness. The physician-chemist, besides his healing
powers, had his reputation as an alchemist and adept of the arcane
sciences. The supposed restoration in a miraculous manner of the infant
child of an illustrious nobleman to health exalted him to the pinnacle
of celebrity, and his extravagant pretensions, assisted, as they
powerfully were, by the naïve beauty of his wife, were beginning to be
taken seriously, but the combined result of an amour between Lorenza
and Prince Poternki, Prime Minister and favourite of the Czarina,
Catherine, and the discovery that the nobleman’s child had been
apparently changed, caused them to depart hastily with immense spoils
towards the German frontier.

They tarried at Warsaw for a time, and there the Italian biographer
tells us that Cagliostro made use of all his artifices to deceive a
prince to whom he was introduced, and who was exceedingly anxious
to obtain, with the help of the pretended magician, the permanent
command of a devil. Cagliostro puffed him up for a long time with the
expectation of gratifying this preposterous ambition, and actually
procured presents from him to the amount of several thousand crowns.
The prince at length perceiving that there was no hope of retaining one
of the infernal spirits in his service, wished to make himself master
of the earthly affections of the countess, but in this too he was
disappointed, the lady positively refusing to comply with his desires.
Finding himself thus balked in both his attempts, he abandoned every
sentiment but revenge, and intimidated our adventurer and his wife so
much by his menaces that they were obliged to restore his presents.

The veracity of this account is not, however, beyond suspicion, and
other of his biographers represent Cagliostro proceeding directly
to Francfurt and thence to Strasbourg, into which, more wealthy and
successful than ever, he made a triumphal entry. The distinguished
visitor, the Rosicrucian, the alchemist, the physician, the sublime
count, had been expected since early morning by the bourgeois of the
old town, and the following extraordinary account in the _Dictionnaire
des Sciences Occultes_ has been given by an anonymous biographer.

“On the 19th of September 1780, in a public-house just outside
Strasburg, surrounded by a group of humble tipplers, who stared from
the little window at the vast crowd collected below them, there might
have been remarked the countenance of a bald and wrinkled man, some
eighty years of age, and evidently of southern origin; this was the
goldsmith Marano. Successive failures, and debts which he did not
see fit to liquidate, had forced him to leave Palermo, and he had
established himself in his former trade at Strasbourg. Like the rest
of the townsfolk he had come out to behold the phenomenal personage
whose arrival was expected, and who made a greater sensation than
many a powerful monarch. He had come by way of Germany from Varsovia,
where he had amassed immense riches, said popular rumour, by the
transmutation of base metals into gold, for he was possessed of the
secret of the philosophic stone, and had all the incalculable talents
of an alchemist.”

“By my faith,” said a hatter, “I am indeed happy since I am destined to
behold this illustrious mortal, if indeed he be a mortal.”

“’Tis asserted,” added a druggist, “that he is a son of the Princess of
Trebizond, and that he has withal the fine eyes of his mother.”

“Also that he is a lineal descendant of Charles Martel,” said a town
clerk.

“He dates still further back,” put in a rope-maker, “for he took part
in the marriage feast of Cana.”

“Beyond doubt then, he is the wandering Jew!” exclaimed Marano.

“Still better, some credible persons assert that he was born before the
deluge.”

“What hardihood! Yet suppose he is the devil.”

These notions here reproduced with fidelity, and which were adorned
by the most extravagant commentaries, were actually at that period in
general circulation among the crowd. Some regarded the mysterious Count
Cagliostro as an inspired saint, a performer of miracles, a phenomenal
personage outside the order of Nature. The cures attributed to him were
equally innumerable and unexplainable. Others regarded him merely as
an adroit charlatan. Cagliostro himself boldly asserted that all his
prodigies were performed under the special favour and help of heaven.
He added that the Supreme Being had deigned to accord him the beatific
vision, that it was his mission to convert unbelievers and reinstate
catholicism, but in spite of this exalted vocation he told fortunes,
taught the art of winning at lotteries, interpreted dreams, and held
séances of transcendental phantasmagoria.

“But,” contended the rope-maker with much animation, “a man who
converses with angels is never the devil.”

“Is he in communication with angels?” cried Marano, struck by the
circumstances. “In that case I must see him at all costs. How old is
he?”

“Bah!” said the druggist, “as if such a being could have an age! He
looks about thirty-six.”

“Oh!” muttered the goldsmith. “What if he were my rascal? My rascal
should now be thirty-seven.”

As the hoary Sicilian ruminated over his lamentable past, he was
roused by a tumult of voices. The supernal being had arrived, and he
passed presently in the road, surrounded by a numerous cortege of
couriers, lacqueys, valets, &c., all in magnificent liveries. By his
side, in the open carriage, sat Lorenza or Seraphina Feliciani, his
wife, who seconded with all her ability the intrigues of her husband,
whom reasonable people regarded as a wandering member and emissary of
the masonic templars, his opulence insured by contributions from the
different lodges of the order.

A great shout rose up when Count Cagliostro passed before the inn.
Marano had recognised his man, and flying out had contrived to stop the
carriage, shouting as he did so--“Joseph Balsamo! It is Joseph! Coquin,
where are my sixty ounces of gold?”

Cagliostro scarcely deigned to glance at the furious goldsmith; but
in the middle of the profound silence which the incident occasioned
among the crowd, a voice, apparently in the clouds, uttered with
great distinctness the following words: “Remove this lunatic, who is
possessed by infernal spirits!”

Some of the spectators fell on their knees, others seized the
unfortunate goldsmith, and the brilliant cortege passed on.

Entering Strasburg in triumph, Cagliostro paused in front of a large
hall, where the equerries who had preceded him had already collected
a considerable concourse of the sick. The famous empiric entered and
cured them all, some simply by touch, others apparently by words or
by a gratuity in money, the rest by his universal panacea; but the
historian who records these things asserts that the sick persons thus
variously treated had been carefully selected, the physician preferring
to treat the more serious cases at the homes of the patients.

Cagliostro issued from the hall amidst universal acclamations, and was
accompanied by the immense crowd to the doors of the magificent lodging
which had been prepared against his arrival. The élite of Strasburg
society was invited to a sumptuous repast, which was followed by a
séance of transcendental magnetism, when he produced some extraordinary
manifestations by the mediation of clairvoyant children of either sex,
and whom he denominated his doves or pupils. The unspotted virginity
and innocence of these children were an indispensable condition
of success. They were chosen by himself, and received a mystical
consecration at his hands. Then he pronounced over a crystal vessel,
filled with water, the magical formulæ for the evocation of angelic
intelligences as they are written in the celestial rituals. Supernal
spirits became visible in the depths of the water, and responded to
questions occasionally in an intelligible voice, but more often in
characters which appeared on the surface of the water, and were visible
to the pupils alone, who interpreted them to the public.

Contemporary testimony establishes that these manifestations, as
a whole, were genuine, and there is little doubt of the mesmeric
abilities of Cagliostro, who had probably become acquainted in the East
with the phenomena of virginal lucidity, especially in boys, and had
supplemented the oriental methods by the discoveries of Puséygur, which
were at that time sufficiently notorious.

For three years Cagliostro remained at Strasburg and was fêted
continually. Here he obtained a complete ascendency over the mind
of the famous cardinal-archbishop, the Prince de Rohan. His first
care, on taking up his abode in the town, was to prove his respect
for the clergy by his generosity and zeal. He visited the sick in the
hospitals, deferentially participated in the duties of the regular
doctors, proposed his new remedies with prudence, did not condemn the
old methods, but sought to unite new science with the science which was
based on experience. He obtained the reputation of a bold experimenter
in chemistry, of a sagacious physician, and a really enlightened
innovator. The inhabitants of the crowded quarters regarded him as a
man sent from God, operating miraculous cures, and dispensing riches
from an inexhaustible source with which he was alone acquainted.
Unheard-of cures were cited, and alchemical operations which surpassed
even the supposed possibilities of the transmutatory art.

Anything which savoured of the marvellous was an attraction for the
cardinal-archbishop, and he longed to see Cagliostro. An anonymous
writer states that he sought an interview with him again and again
unsuccessfully; for the cardinal-prince of trickery divined even
at a distance the character of the prince-cardinal, and enveloped
himself in a reserve which, to the imagination of his dupe, was like
the loadstone to the magnet. Others represent him, however, courting
the favour of the great ecclesiastic’s secretary, and so obtaining
an introduction. At the first interview he showed some reserve, but
permitted certain dazzling ideas to be glimpsed through the more
ordinary tenour of his discourse. After a judicious period he admitted
that he possessed a receipt for the manufacture of gold and diamonds. A
supposed transmutation completed his conquest of the cardinal, and the
Italian historian confesses that he accordingly lavished immense sums
upon the virtuous pair, and to complete his folly, agreed to erect a
small edifice, in which he was to experience a physical regeneration by
means of the supernal and auriferous elixir of Cagliostro. The sum of
twenty thousand francs was actually paid the adept to accomplish this
operation.

Doubtless during his sojourn at Strasburg he propagated with zeal
the mysteries of his Egyptian Freemasonry, and at length, laden with
spoils, he repaired to Bordeaux, where he continued his healing in
public, and then proceeded to Lyons, where for the space of three
months he occupied himself with the foundation of a mother-lodge,
and, according to the Italian biographer, here as elsewhere, in less
creditable pursuits. At length he arrived at Paris, where, says the
same authority, he soon became the object of general conversation,
regard, and esteem. His curative powers were now but little exercised,
for Paris abounded with mesmerists and healers, and the prodigies
of simple magnetism were stale and unprofitable in consequence. He
assumed now the _rôle_ of a practical magician, and astonished the
city by the evocation of phantoms, which he caused to appear, at the
wish of the inquirer, either in a mirror or in a vase of clear water.
These phantoms equally represented dead and living beings, and as
occasionally collusion appears to have been well-nigh impossible,
and as the theory of coincidence is preposterous, there is reason to
suppose that he produced results which must sometimes have astonished
himself. All Paris at any rate was set wondering at his enchantments
and prodigies, and it is seriously stated that Louis XVI. was so
infatuated with _le divin Cagliostro_, that he declared anyone who
injured him should be considered guilty of treason. At Versailles, and
in the presence of several distinguished nobles, he is said to have
caused the apparition in mirrors, vases, &c., not merely of the spectra
of absent or deceased persons, but animated and moving beings of a
phantasmal description, including many dead men and women selected by
the astonished spectators.

The mystery which surrounded him abroad was deepened even when he
received visitors at home. He had lived in the Rue Saint Claude,
an isolated house surrounded by gardens and sheltered from the
inconvenient curiosity of neighbours. There he established his
laboratory, which no one might enter. He received in a vast and
sumptuous apartment on the first floor. Lorenza lived a retired life,
only being visible at certain hours before a select company, and in
a diaphanous and glamourous costume. The report of her beauty spread
through the city; she passed for a paragon of perfection, and duels
took place on her account. Cagliostro was now no longer young, and
Lorenza was in the flower of her charms. He is said for the first time
to have experienced the pangs of jealousy on account of a certain
Chevalier d’Oisemont, with whom she had several assignations. Private
vexations did not, however, interfere with professional thaumaturgy,
and the evocation of the illustrious dead was a common occurrence at
certain magical suppers which became celebrated through all Paris.
These were undoubtedly exaggerated by report, but as they all occurred
within the doubtful precincts of his own house of mystery, they were
in all probability fraudulent, for it must be distinctly remembered
that in his normal character he was an unparalleled trickster, that
the genuine phenomena which he occasionally produced were simply
supplements to charlatanry, and not that his deceptions were aids to
normally genuine phenomena.

On one occasion, according to the _Mémoires authentiques pour servir
à l’histoire du Comte de Cagliostro_, the distinguished thaumaturgist
announced that at a private supper, given to six guests, he would
evoke the spirits of any dead persons whom they named to him, and
that the phantoms, apparently substantial, should seat themselves at
the banquet. The repast took place with the knowledge and, it may be
supposed, with the connivance of Lorenza. At midnight the guests were
assembled; a round table, laid for twelve, was spread, with unheard-of
luxury, in a dining-room, where all was in harmony with the approaching
Kabbalistic operation. The six guests, with Cagliostro, took their
seats, and thus the ominous number thirteen were designed to be present
at table.

The supper was served, the servants were dismissed with threats of
immediate death if they dared to open the doors before they were
summoned. Each guest demanded the deceased person whom he desired
to see. Cagliostro took the names, placed them in the pocket of his
gold-embroidered vest, and announced that with no further preparation
than a simple invocation on his part the evoked spirits would appear
in flesh and blood, for, according to the Egyptian dogma, there were
in reality no dead. These guests of the other world, asked for and
expected with trembling anxiety, were the Duc de Choiseul, Voltaire,
d’Alembert, Diderot, the Abbé de Voisenon, and Montesquieu. Their names
were pronounced slowly in a loud voice, and with all the concentrated
determination of the adept’s will; and after a moment of intolerable
doubt, the evoked guests appeared very unobtrusively, and took their
seats with the quiet courtesy which had characterised them in life.

The first question put to them when the awe of their presence had
somewhat worn off was as to their situation in the world beyond.

“There is no world beyond,” replied d’Alembert. “Death is simply
the cessation of the evils which have tortured us. No pleasure is
experienced, but, on the other hand, there is no suffering. I have
not met with Mademoiselle Lespinasse, but I have not seen Lorignet.
There is marked sincerity, moreover. Some deceased persons who have
recently joined us inform me that I am almost forgotten. I am, however,
consoled. Men are unworthy of the trouble we take about them. I never
loved them, now I despise them.”

“What has become of your learning?” said M. de ---- to Diderot.

“I was not learned, as people commonly supposed. My ready wit adapted
all that I read, and in writing I borrowed on every side. Thence comes
the desultory character of my books, which will be unheard of in half
a century. The Encyclopædia, with the merit of which I am honoured,
does not belong to me. The duty of an editor is simply to set in order
the choice of subjects. The man who showed most talent in the whole
of the work was the compiler of its index, yet no one has dreamed of
recognising his merits.”

“I praised the enterprise,” said Voltaire, “for it seemed well fitted
to further my philosophical opinions. Talking of philosophy, I am none
too certain that I was in the right. I have learned strange things
since my death, and have conversed with half a dozen Popes. Clement
XIV. and Benedict, above all, are men of infinite intelligence and good
sense.”

“What most vexes me,” said the Duc de Choiseul, “is the absence of sex
where we dwell. Whatever may be said of this fleshly envelope, ’twas
by no means so bad an invention.”

“What is truly a pleasure to me,” said the Abbé Voisenon, “is that
amongst us one is perfectly cured of the folly of intelligence. You
cannot conceive how I have been bantered about my ridiculous little
romances. I had almost confessed that I appreciated these puerilities
at their true value, but whether the modesty of an academician is
disbelieved in, or whether such frivolity is out of character with my
age and profession, I expiate almost daily the mistakes of my mortal
existence.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Amid these marvels, Cagliostro proceeded with the dearest of all his
projects, namely, the spread of his Egypto-masonic rite,[AN] into which
ladies were subsequently admitted, a course of magic being opened for
the purpose by Madame Cagliostro. The postulants admitted to this
course were thirty-six in number, and all males were excluded. Thus
Lorenza figured as the Grand Mistress of Egyptian Masonry, as her
husband was himself the grand and sublime Copt. The fair neophytes
were required to contribute each of them the sum of one hundred louis
to abstain from all carnal connection with mankind, and to submit to
everything which might be imposed on them. A vast mansion was hired
in the Rue Verte, Faubourg Saint Honoré, at that period a lonely part
of the city. The building was surrounded with gardens and magnificent
trees. The séance for initiation took place shortly before midnight on
the 7th of August 1785.

On entering the first apartment, says Figuier, the ladies were obliged
to disrobe and assume a white garment, with a girdle of various
colours. They were divided into six groups, distinguished by the tint
of their cinctures. A large veil was also provided, and they were
caused to enter a temple lighted from the roof, and furnished with
thirty-six arm-chairs covered with black satin. Lorenza, clothed
in white, was seated on a species of throne, supported by two tall
figures, so habited that their sex could not be determined. The light
was lowered by degrees till surrounding objects could scarcely be
distinguished, when the Grand Mistress commanded the ladies to uncover
their left legs as far as the thigh, and raising the right arm to rest
it on a neighbouring pillar. Two young women then entered sword in
hand, and with silk ropes bound all the ladies together by the arms and
legs. Then after a period of impressive silence, Lorenza pronounced
an oration, which is given at length, but on doubtful authority, by
several biographers, and which preached fervidly the emancipation of
womankind from the shameful bonds imposed on them by the lords of
creation.

These bonds were symbolised by the silken ropes from which the fair
initiates were released at the end of the harangue, when they were
conducted into separate apartments, each opening on the Garden, where
they made the most unheard-of experiences. Some were pursued by men
who unmercifully persecuted them with barbarous solicitations; others
encountered less dreadful admirers, who sighed in the most languishing
postures at their feet. More than one discovered the counterpart of
her own lover, but the oath they had all taken necessitated the most
inexorable inhumanity, and all faithfully fulfilled what was required
of them. The new spirit infused into regenerated woman triumphed along
the whole line of the six and thirty initiates, who with intact and
immaculate symbols re-entered triumphant and palpitating the twilight
of the vaulted temple to receive the congratulations of the sovereign
priestess.

When they had breathed a little after their trials, the vaulted roof
opened suddenly, and, on a vast sphere of gold, there descended a man,
naked as the unfallen Adam, holding a serpent in his hand, and having a
burning star upon his head.

The Grand Mistress announced that this was the genius of Truth, the
immortal, the divine Cagliostro, issued without procreation from the
bosom of our father Abraham, and the depositary of all that hath been,
is, or shall be known on the universal earth. He was there to initiate
them into the secrets of which they had been fraudulently deprived.
The Grand Copt thereupon commanded them to dispense with the profanity
of clothing, for if they would receive truth they must be as naked
as itself. The sovereign priestess setting the example unbound her
girdle and permitted her drapery to fall to the ground, and the fair
initiates following her example exposed themselves in all the nudity of
their charms to the magnetic glances of the celestial genius, who then
commenced his revelations.

He informed his daughters that the much abused magical art was the
secret of doing good to humanity. It was initiation into the mysteries
of Nature, and the power to make use of her occult forces. The
visions which they had beheld in the Garden where so many had seen
and recognised those who were dearest to their hearts, proved the
reality of hermetic operations. They had shewn themselves worthy to
know the truth; he undertook to instruct them by gradations therein. It
was enough at the outset to inform them that the sublime end of that
Egyptian Freemasonry which he had brought from the very heart of the
Orient was the happiness of mankind. This happiness was illimitable in
its nature, including material enjoyments as much as spiritual peace,
and the pleasures of the understanding.

The Marquis de Luchet, to whom we are indebted for this account,
concludes the nebulous harangue of Cagliostro by the adept bidding
his hearers abjure a deceiving sex, and to let the kiss of friendship
symbolise what was passing in their hearts. The sovereign priestess
instructed them in the nature of this friendly embrace.

Thereupon the Genius of Truth seated himself again upon the sphere
of gold, and was borne away through the roof. At the same time the
floor opened, the light blazed up, and a table splendidly adorned and
luxuriously spread rose up from the ground. The ladies were joined by
their lovers _in propria persona_; the supper was followed by dancing
and various diversions till three o’clock in the morning.

About this time the Count Cagliostro was unwillingly compelled to
concede to the continual solicitations of the poor and to resume
his medical _rôle_. In a short time he was raised to the height of
celebrity by a miraculous cure of the Prince de Soubise, the brother
of the Cardinal de Rohan, who was suffering from a virulent attack of
scarlet fever. From this moment the portrait of the adept was to be
seen everywhere in Paris.

In the meantime, the cloud in his domestic felicity, to which a
brief reference has been made already, began to spread. A certain
adventuress, by name Madame de la Motte, surprised Lorenza one day in
a _tête-à-tête_ with the Chevalier d’Oisemont. The count at the time
was far away from Paris, and the adventuress promised to keep the
secret on condition that Lorenza should in turn do all in her power to
establish her as an intimate friend in the house, having free entrance
therein, and should persuade Cagliostro to place his knowledge and
skill at her disposal, if ever she required it. The result of this
arrangement was the complicity of Cagliostro in the extraordinary and
scandalous affair of the Diamond Necklace. When the plot was exposed,
Cagliostro was arrested with the other alleged conspirators, including
the principal victim, the Cardinal de Rohan. He was exonerated, not
indeed without honour, from the charge of which he was undoubtedly
guilty, but his wife had fled to Rome at his arrest, and had rejoined
her family. He himself began to tremble at his own notoriety, and grew
anxious to leave France. He postponed till a more favourable period
his grand project concerning the metropolitan lodge of the Egyptian
rite.[AO] A personage, calling himself Thomas Ximenes, and claiming
descent from the cardinal of that name, sought to reanimate his former
masonic enthusiasm; but the vision of the Bastile seemed to be ever
before his eyes, and neither this person, nor the great dignitaries of
the Parisian lodges, could prevail with him. In spite of his acquittal
he nourished vengeance against the Court of France, and more than once
he confided to his private friends that he should make his voice heard
when he had passed the frontier. He prepared to depart, and one day
his disconsolate adepts learned that he was on the road to England.

Once in London he recovered his energy. He was received with great
honour; many of his disciples from Lyons and Paris followed him. The
English masons invited him to the metropolitan lodge, and gave him
the first place, that of grand orient. He was entreated to convene a
masonic lodge of the Egyptian rite, and consented with some sadness,
for the memory of the brilliant Paris lodge which he had been on the
point of founding was incessantly before him. He could not console
himself for the fall of that beautiful and long-cherished plan, which
had cost him so much study, pains, and preaching.

It was from this discreet distance that Cagliostro addressed his famous
Letter to the People of France, which was translated into a number
of languages, and circulated widely through Europe. It predicted the
French Revolution, the demolishment of the Bastile, and the rise of
a great prince who would abolish the infamous _lettres de cachet_,
convoke the States-General, and re-establish the true religion.

The publication was intemperate in its language and revolutionary
in its sentiments, and close upon its heels followed his well-known
quarrel with the _Courrier de l’Europe_, which resulted in the exposure
of the real life of Cagliostro from beginning to end.

Dreading the rage of his innumerable dupes, and extreme measures on
the part of his creditors, he hastened to quit London, disembarked in
Holland, crossed Germany, took refuge in Basle, where the patriarchal
hospitality of the Swiss cantons to some extent reassured the unmasked
adept. From the moment, however, of this exposure, the descent of
Cagliostro was simply headlong in its rapidity. Nevertheless, he was
followed by some of his initiates, who pressed him to return to
France, assuring him of the powerful protection of exalted masonic
dignitaries. In his hesitation he wrote to the Baron de Breteuil, the
king’s minister of the house, but, as it chanced, a personal enemy of
the Cardinal de Rohan. Considering Cagliostro as a _protégé_ of the
prince, he replied that if he had sufficient effrontery to set foot
within the limits of the kingdom, he should be arrested and transferred
to a prison in Paris, there to await prosecution as a common swindler,
who should answer to the royal justice for his criminal life.

From this moment Cagliostro saw that he was a perpetual exile from
France, and feeling in no sense assured of his safety even in
Switzerland, he left Basle for Aix, in Savoy. He was ordered to
quit that town in eight and forty hours. At Roveredo, a dependency
of Austria, the same treatment awaited him. He migrated to Trent,
and announced himself as a practitioner of lawful medicine, but the
prince-bishop who was sovereign of the country discerned the cloven
hoof of the sorcerer beneath the doctor’s sober dress, and showed
him in no long space of time his hostility to magical practices. The
wandering hierophant of Egyptian masonry, somewhat sorely pressed, took
post to Rome, and reached the Eternal City after many vicissitudes.
Here, according to Saint-Félix and Figuier, he was rejoined by his
wife; according to the Italian biographer, Lorenza had accompanied him
in his wanderings, and persuaded him to seek refuge in Rome, being sick
unto death of her miserable course of life. The former statement is,
on the whole, the most probable, as it is difficult to suppose that
she left Italy to rejoin Cagliostro at Passy, and she appears to have
returned to him with marked repugnance. She endeavoured to lead him
back to religion, which had never been eradicated from her heart. He
lived for some time with extraordinary circumspection, and consented
at last to see a Benedictine monk, to whom he made his confession. The
Holy Inquisition, which doubtless had scrutinised all his movements, is
said to have been deceived for a time, and he was favourably received
by several cardinals. He lived for a year in perfect liberty, occupied
with the private study of medicine. During this time he endeavoured to
obtain loans from the initiates of his Egyptian rite who were scattered
over France and Germany, but they did not arrive, and the sublime Copt,
the illuminated proprietor of the stone philosophical and the medicine
yclept metallic, came once more, to the eternal disgrace of Osiris,
Isis, and Anubis, on the very verge of want.

His extremity prompted him to renew his relations with the masonic
societies within the area of the Papal States. A penalty of death
hung over the initiates of the superior grades, and their lodges were
in consequence surrounded with great mystery, and were convened in
subterranean places. He was persuaded to found a lodge of Egyptian
Freemasonry in Rome itself, from which moment Lorenza reasonably
regarded him as lost. One of his own adepts betrayed him; he was
arrested on the 27th of September 1789, by order of the Holy Office,
and imprisoned in the Castle of St Angelo. An inventory of his papers
was taken, and all his effects were sealed up. The process against him
was drawn up with the nicest inquisitorial care during the long period
of eighteen months. When the trial came on he was defended by the Count
Gætano Bernardini, advocate of the accused before the sacred and august
tribunal, and to this pleader in ordinary the impartial and benign
office, of its free grace and pleasure, did add generously, as counsel,
one Monsignor Louis Constantini, “whose knowledge and probity,” saith
an unbought and unbuyable witness (inquisitorially inspired), “were
generally recognised.” They did not conceal from him the gravity of his
position, advised him to refrain from basing his defence on a series of
denials, promising to save him from the capital forfeit, and so he was
persuaded to confess everything, was again reconciled to the church;
and being almost odoriferous with genuine sanctity, on the 21st of
March 1791 he was carried before the general assembly of the purgers of
souls by fire, before the Pope on the 7th of the following April, when
the advocates pleaded with so much eloquence that they retired in the
agonies of incipient strangulation, Cagliostro repeated his avowal, and
as a natural consequence of the unbought eloquence and the purchased
confession, the penalty of death was pronounced.

When, however, the shattered energies of the advocates were a little
recruited, a recommendation of mercy was addressed to the Pope, the
sentence was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, and the condemned man
was consigned to the Castle of St Angelo. After an imprisonment of two
years, he died, God knows how, still in the prime of life, at the age
of fifty.

Lorenza, whose admissions had contributed largely towards the
condemnation of her husband, was doomed to perpetual seclusion in a
penitentiary. The papers of Cagliostro were burned by the Holy Office,
and the phantom of that institution keeps to the present day the secret
of the exact date of its victim’s death. It carefully circulated the
report that on one occasion he attempted to strangle a priest whom he
had sent for on the pretence of confessing, hoping to escape in his
clothes; and then it made public the statement that he had subsequently
strangled himself. When the battalions of the French Revolution entered
Rome, the commanding officers, hammering at the doors of Saint-Angelo,
determined to release the entombed adept, but they were informed that
Cagliostro was dead, “at which intelligence,” says Figuier, “they
perceived plainly that the former _Parlement de France_ was not to
be compared with the Roman Inquisition, and without regretting the
demolished Bastile, they could not but acknowledge that it disgorged
its prey more easily than the Castle of Saint Angelo.”

       *       *       *       *       *

The personal attractions of Cagliostro appear to have been exaggerated
by some of his biographers. “His splendid stature and high bearing,
increased by a dress of the most bizarre magnificence, the extensive
suite which invariably accompanied him in his wanderings, turned all
eyes upon him, and disposed the minds of the vulgar towards an almost
idolatrous admiration.”

With this opinion of Figuier may be compared the counter-statement
of the Italian biographer:--“He was of a brown complexion, a bloated
countenance, and a severe aspect; he was destitute of any of those
graces so common in the world of gallantry, without knowledge and
without abilities.” But the Italian biographer was a false witness,
for Cagliostro was beyond all question and controversy a man of
consummate ability, tact, and talent. The truth would appear to lie
between these opposite extremes. “The Count de Cagliostro,” says
the English life, published in 1787, “is below the middle stature,
inclined to corpulency; his face is a round oval, his complexion and
eyes dark, the latter uncommonly penetrating. In his address we are
not sensible of that indescribable grace which engages the affections
before we consult the understanding. On the contrary, there is in
his manner a self-importance which at first sight rather disgusts
than allures, and obliges us to withhold our regards, till, on a more
intimate acquaintance, we yield it the tribute to our reason. Though
naturally studious and contemplative, his conversation is sprightly,
abounding with judicious remarks and pleasant anecdotes, yet with an
understanding in the highest degree perspicuous and enlarged, he is
ever rendered the dupe of the sycophant and the flatterer.”

The persuasive and occasionally overpowering eloquence of Cagliostro
is also dwelt upon by the majority of his biographers, but, according
to the testimony of his wife, as extracted under the terror of the
Inquisition and adduced in the Italian life:--“His discourse, instead
of being eloquent, was composed in a style of the most wearisome
perplexity, and abounded with the most incoherent ideas. Previous to
his ascending the rostrum he was always careful to prepare himself for
his labours by means of some bottles of wine, and he was so ignorant as
to the subject on which he was about to hold forth, that he generally
applied to his wife for the text on which he was to preach to his
disciples. If to these circumstances are added a Sicilian dialect,
mingled with a jargon of French and Italian, we cannot hesitate a
single moment as to the degree of credibility which we are to give
to the assertions that have been made concerning the wonder-working
effects of his eloquence.”

But the Inquisition was in possession of documents which bore
irrefutable testimony to the extraordinary hold which Cagliostro
exercised over the minds of his numerous followers, and it is
preposterous to suppose it could have been possessed by a man who was
ignorant, unpresentable, and ill-spoken. Moreover, the testimony of
Lorenza, given under circumstances of, at any rate, the strongest moral
intimidation is completely worthless on all points whatsoever, and the
biassed views of our inquisitorial apologists are of no appreciable
value.

I have given an almost disproportionate space to the history of Joseph
Balsamo, because it is thoroughly representative of the charlatanic
side of alchemy, which during two centuries of curiosity and credulity
had developed to a deplorable extent. There is no reason to suppose,
despite the veil of mystery which surrounded Altotas, that he was an
adept in anything but the sophistication of metals, and his skill
in alchemical trickery descended to his pupil. That Balsamo was a
powerful mesmerist, that he could induce clairvoyance with facility in
suitable subjects, that he had dabbled in Arabic occultism, that he
had the faculty of healing magnetically, are points which the evidence
enables us to admit, and these genuine phenomena supported his titanic
impostures, being themselves supplemented wherever they were weak or
defective by direct and prepared fraud. Thus his miraculous prophecies,
delineations of absent persons, revelations of private matters, &c.,
may to some extent be accounted for by the insatiable curiosity and
diligence which he made use of to procure knowledge of the secrets of
any families with which he came into communication. Lorenzo declared
upon oath during her examination that many of the pupils had been
prepared beforehand by her husband, but that some had been brought to
him unawares, and that in regard to them she could only suppose he had
been assisted by the marvels of magical art.

His powers, whatever they were, were imparted to some at least of
his Masonic initiates, as may be seen in a genuine letter addressed
to him from Lyons, and which describes in enthusiastic language
the consecration in that town of the Egyptian lodge called Wisdom
Triumphant. This letter fell into the hands of the Inquisition.
It relates that at the moment when the assembly had entreated of
the Eternal some explicit sign of his approval of their temple and
their offerings, “and whilst our master was in mid air,” the first
philosopher of the New Testament appeared uninvoked, blessed them after
prostration before the cloud, by means of which they had obtained the
apparition, and was carried upwards upon it, the splendour being so
great that the young pupil or dove was unable to sustain it.

The same letter affirms that the two great prophets and the legislator
of Israel had given them palpable signs of their goodwill and of their
obedience to the commands of the august founder, the sieur Cagliostro.
A similar communication testifies that the great Copt, though absent,
had appeared in their lodge between Enoch and Elias.[AP]


CONCLUSION.

It has now been made plain beyond all reasonable doubt by the certain
and abundant evidence of the lives and labours of the alchemists,
that they were in search of a physical process for the transmutation
of the so-called baser metals into silver and gold. The methods and
processes by which they endeavoured to attain this _désir désiré_, and
the secrets which they are supposed to have discovered, are embodied
in allegorical writings, and their curious symbolism in the hands
of ingenious interpreters is capable of several explanations, but
the facts in their arduous and generally chequered careers are not
allegorical, and are not capable of any mystical interpretations;
consequently, the attempt to enthrone them upon the loftiest pinnacles
of achievement in the psychic world, however attractive and dazzling
to a romantic imagination, and however spiritually suggestive, must
be regretfully abandoned. Their less splendid but substantial and
permanent reputation is based on their physical discoveries and on
their persistent enunciation of a theory of Universal Development,
which true and far-sighted adepts well perceived, had an equal
application to the triune man as to those metals which in their
conception had also a triune nature.

As stated in the Introduction to this work, I have little personal
doubt, after a careful and unbiassed appreciation of all the evidence,
that the _Magnum Opus_ has been performed, at least occasionally,
in the past, and that, therefore, the alchemists, while laying
the foundations of modern chemistry, had already transcended its
highest results in the metallic kingdom. Now, the Hermetic doctrine
of correspondences which is, at any rate, entitled to the sincere
respect of all esoteric thinkers, will teach us that the fact of
their success in the physical subject is analogically a substantial
guarantee of the successful issue of parallel methods when applied
in the psychic world with the subject man. But the revelations of
mesmerism, and the phenomena called spiritualism, have discovered
thaumaturgic possibilities for humanity, which in a wholly independent
manner contribute to the verification of the alchemical hypothesis
of development in its extension to the plane of intelligence. These
possibilities I believe to be realizable exclusively along the lines
indicated in Hermetic parables. I am not prepared to explain how the
alchemical theory of Universal Development came to be evolved in the
scientific and psychological twilight of the middle ages, but the
fact remains. Nor am I prepared to explain how and why the method of
a discredited science which is not commonly supposed to have attained
its end, should not only be consistent within its own sphere, but
should have a vast field of application without it; yet, again, the
fact remains. I have brought a wide acquaintance with the history of
modern supernaturalism to bear on the serious study of alchemy, and
have found the old theories illustrated by the novel facts, while novel
facts coincided with old theories. As all this has occurred, in the
words of the alchemists, “by a natural process, devoid of haste or
violence,” I may trust that it is no illusory discovery, and that its
future enunciation may give a new impulse to the study of the Hermetic
writings among the occultists of England and America.


FOOTNOTES:

[AJ] In the Memoir written by Joseph Balsamo during his imprisonment
in the Bastille, he surrounds his origin and infancy with romantic
and glamorous mystery. “I am ignorant,” he asserts, “not only of my
birthplace, but even of the parents who bore me. All my researches on
these points have afforded me nothing but vague and uncertain, though,
in truth, exalted, notions. My earliest infancy was passed in the
town of Medina, in Arabia, where I was brought up under the name of
Acharat--a name which I afterwards used during my Asiatic and African
travels--and was lodged in the palace of the muphti. I distinctly
recollect having four persons continually about me--a tutor, between
fifty-five and sixty years of age, named Altotas, and three slaves, one
of whom was white, while the others were black. My tutor invariably
told me that I had been left an orphan at the age of three months, and
that my parents were noble, and Christians as well, but he preserved
the most absolute silence as to their name and as to the place where I
was born, though certain chance words led me to suspect that I first
saw the light at Malta. Altotas took pleasure in cultivating my natural
taste for the sciences; he himself was proficient in all, from the most
profound even to the most trivial. It was in botany and physics that I
made most progress. Like my instructor I wore the dress of a Mussulman,
and outwardly we professed the Mohammedan law. The principles of the
true religion were, however, engraven in our hearts. I was frequently
visited by the muphti, who treated me with much kindness and had great
respect for my instructor, through whom I became early proficient in
most oriental languages.”

[AK] “Life of the Count Cagliostro, compiled from the original
Proceedings published at Rome by order of the Apostolic Chamber. With
an engraved Portrait.” London, 1791.

[AL] _L’Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes_, tom. iv.

[AM] “At a later period, when Cagliostro, uplifted by notoriety
and fortune, returned in state to Paris with a sumptuous equipage,
he strenuously denied his first sojourn in our capital, and the
disgraceful episode of Sainte-Pélagie. He maintained that his wife,
to whom he now gave the name of Seraphina, had no connection with the
imprisoned Lorenza Feliciani, nor he, the Count Cagliostro, with the
quack who at this epoch was prohibited from continuing his rogueries.
But certain legal documents of irrefutable authenticity substantiate
the contrary assertion of his enemies. It is interesting to know that,
as a fact, during the incarceration of Lorenza, depositions were made
before the tribunal of police by M. Duplaisir, who stated that, in
addition to supporting Balsamo and his wife for the space of three
months, they had contracted debts to the amount of two hundred crowns,
chiefly for clothes, for the perruquier, and the dancing-master.” These
depositions, with others, will be found in a pamphlet entitled, _Ma
Correspondence avec le Comte de Cagliostro_. Figuier. _Histoire du
Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes_, t. iv. pp. 83, 84.

[AN] “It was his ambition to inaugurate a mother-lodge at Paris,
to which the rest should be entirely subordinate. He proclaimed
himself as the bearer of the mysteries of Isis and Anubis from the
far East. Though he threatened common masonry with a radical reform,
his innovations triumphed over all obstacles. He obtained numerous
and distinguished followers, who on one occasion assembled in great
force to hear Joseph Balsamo expound to them the doctrines of Egyptian
freemasonry. At this solemn convention he is said to have spoken
with overpowering eloquence, and such was his signal success that
his auditors departed in amazement and completely converted to his
regenerated and purified masonry. None of them doubted that he was an
initiate of the arcana of Nature, as preserved in the temple of Apis
at the epoch when Cambyses belaboured that capricious divinity. From
this moment the initiations into the new masonry were numerous, albeit
they were limited to the aristocracy of society. There are reasons
to believe that the grandees who were deemed worthy of admission
paid exceedingly extravagantly for the honour.”--Figuier, _Hist. du
Merveilleux_, t. iv. pp. 23, 24.

[AO] These projects included a determination to force the royal
government to recognise the new order, and to obtain its recognition
in Rome as an institution constituted on the same basis, and therefore
to be endowed with the same great privileges which had belonged to the
order of St John of Jerusalem.

[AP] See Appendix II.




AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE OF WORKS ON HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY AND ALCHEMY.


Antonius de Abbatia--Epistolæ duæ. (_German._) Hamburg, 1672.

Abrahamus è Porta Leonis--De Auro, dialogi tres. Venice,
1514-1584-1586. (_Disesteemed._)

D’Acqueville (Le Sieur)--Les effets de la Pierre Divine. 12mo. Paris,
1681.

Ægidius de Vadis--Dialogus inter Naturam et Filium Artis. Francfurt,
1595.

---- Tabula Diversorum Metallorum. (Printed in the Theatrum Chymicum.)

F. Aggravio--Sourano Medicina. 8vo. Venice, 1682.

Georgius Agricola--De Re Metallica, libri xii. Fol. Basiliæ, 1546-1621.
(_Curious, and embellished with figures and diagrams._)

---- De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum, libri v. De Natura eorum quæ
effluunt Terra, libri v. De Natura Fossilium, libri x. De Veteribus et
Novis Metallis, libri ii. Bermannus, sive De Re Metallici. Fol. Basil,
1546.

---- Lapis Philosophorum. (_Rare._) 16mo. Coloniæ, 1531.

Johannes Agricola--Of Antimony. (_German._) 4to. Leipsic, 1639.

Luigi Alamanni--Girone il Cortese, Poema. 4to. In Parigi, 1548. (_Rare
chymical romance._)

Alani Philosophi Germani, Dicta de Lapide Philosophorum. Lugduni
Batavorum. 8vo. 1599.

Albertus Magnus--Opera Omnia, 21 v. Folio. Lugduni, 1653.

---- Libellus de Alchymia. (Theatrum Chemicum, v. 2.)

---- De Rebus Metallicis et Mineralibus, libri v. 4to. Augustæ
Vindelicor, 1519.

Alchimia Denudata, adept Naxagoras (_pseud_). (_In German._) 8vo.
Breslaw, 1708.

Alchemia Opuscula, nine scarce tracts. 4to. Franco, 1550.

Alchymia vera lapidis philos. (_German._) 8vo. Magd., 1619.

A Revelation of the Secret Spirit of Alchemy. Anon. 8vo. London, 1523.

Alchemia--Volumen Tractatum, 10. (_Esteemed._) 4to. Norim., 1541.

Oder Alchymischer particular Zeiger: id est. Unterricht von Gold, und
Silbermachen. 8vo. Rostoch, 1707.

Alkahest (Bedencken von). 8vo. Frank., 1708.

Alcaest--Merveilles de l’Art et de la Nature. 12mo. Paris, 1678.

Alstedii (Joh. Henric.)--Philosophia dignè restituta. 8vo. Herbornæ,
1612.

---- Panacæa Philosophica cum critico de infinito Harmonico Philosophiæ
Lullianæ. 8vo. Herb., 1610.

La Ruine des Alchimistes. 16mo. Paris, 1612.

Alvetanno (Cornelius)--De Conficiendo Divino Elixire sive Lapide
Philosophico. _Theatri Chimici_, t. 5.

Amelungii (D. Petri)--Tractatus Nobilis, in quo de Alchimiæ Inventione,
necessitate et utilitate agitur. 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1607.

---- Apologia, seu Tractatus Nobilis Secundus pro defensione Alchimiæ.
8vo. Lipsiæ, 1601.

Amelungs (J. C.)--Stein Tinctur. 4to. 1664.

Anthoris (Caspar)--Chrysoscopion, sive Aurilogium. (_A treatise on the
extension of life by auriferous preparations._) 4to. Jenal, 1632.

Andaloro (Andrea)--La Miniera dell’ Argento Vivo. Messina, 1672.

Angelique (Le Sieur d’)--La Vraye Pierre Philosophale de Médecine. 12
mo. Paris, 1622.

Altus Mutus Liber, in quo tota Philosophia Hermetica figuris
Hieroglyphicis depingitur. Fol. Rupellæ, 1677.

Apocalypses Hermeticorum. 4to. Gedani, 1683.

Apologie du Grand Œuvre, ou Elixir des Philosophes. 12 mo. Paris, 1657.

Avantures du Philosophe Inconnu en la recherche et Invention du Pierre
Philosophale, divisées en quatre livres, au dernier desquels il est
parlé si clairement de la façon de la faire, que jamais on n’en a parlé
avec tant de canduer. 12mo. Paris, 1646. (_Attributed to the celebrated
Abbé Bebris._)

Aurifontana Chimiæ incomparabilis. 4to. Lugd. Batav., 1696.

Vier Ausserlesene Chymische Buchlein. 8vo. Ham., 1697.

Aureum Seculum Patefactum, oder Entdeckung dess Menstrivi Universal.
8vo. Nurnberg, 1706.

L’Ayman Mystique. 12mo. Paris, 1659.

Arludes--Mystères de la Grace et de la Nature. 1646.

Arca--Artificiosissimi Arcani Arca. (_German._) 18mo. Franc., 1617.

Arcana--Antiquorum Philosophorum Arcana, 8vo. Leip., 1610.

---- Magni Philosophi Arcani Revelator. 12mo. Hamb., 1672. (_Rare._)

A Strange Letter of the Treasure of an Adept. 24mo. London, 1680.

Ars Transmutationis Metallicæ. 8vo. 1550.

Aristoteles--De Perfecto Magisterio. In Theatrum Chymicum. t. 3.

Arnaud, _see_ Villeneuve.

Ancient War of the Knights, _by an adept_. 12mo. London, 1723.

Aphorisms. 153 Chemical APHORISMS. (_Esteemed._) London, 1680.

Artephius (_adept, 12th cent._)--Secret Book of the Occult Art and
Metallic Transmutation. 24mo. London, 1657.

---- La Clef majeure de Sapience et Science des Secrets de la Nature.
8vo. (_Without date or place of printing._)

---- De Vita Proroganda, aitque se anno 1025 ætatis suae scripsisse
libum suum.

Alphonso (King)--Of the Philos. Stone. 4to. Lond., 1657.

Pseudo ATHENAGORAS--Du Vrai et Parfait Amour. 12mo. Paris, 1599. _Very
curious._

Artis AURIFERÆ, 47 treatises. 3 vols. 8vo. Basil, 1610.

Alciata, Andreæ, Emblemata. Patav., 1618.

Aurifontina, chym., 14 tracts on the Philosophical Mercury.

Arrais (G. M.)--Tree of Life. 8vo. London, 1683.

Ashmole (Elias)--Theatrum Chemicum Britanicum. (_Esteemed._) 25 tracts.
English adepts.

Avicenna--De Tinctura Metallorum. 4to. Franc., 1530.

---- Porta Elementorum. 8vo. Basiliæ, 1572.

---- Epistola ad Regem Hasen. Theatrum Chymicum, t. 4.

---- De Mineralibus. Dantzick, 1687. Printed with Geber.

(_All these treatises of Avicenna are doubtful._)

Bacon (Roger)--Art of Chemistry, 16mo. London.

---- Mirror of Alchemy. 4to. 1597.

---- Admirable power of Art and Nature. (Alchemical.)

---- Opus Majus, ad Clementum IV. Fol. Dublin, 1733.

---- Care of Old Age and Preservation of Youth. 8vo. London, 1683.

---- Radix Mundi (alchemical, English). 12mo. 1692.

---- Opus Minus. M.S. Lambeth Library.

---- Thesaurus Chimicus. De Utilitate Scientiarum. Alchimia Major.
Breviarum de Dono Dei. Verbum abbreviarum de Leone Viridi. Secretum
Secretorum. Trium Verborum. Speculum Secretorum. Seven Treatises. 8vo.
Francof., 1603.

---- De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturæ. 8vo. Hamb., 1598.

---- (Fr. Lord Verulam)--History of Metals. Fol. Lond., 1670.

Baker (Geo.)--New Jewel of Health. 4to. London, 1576.

Balbian (J.)--Tractatus Septem de Lapide Philosophico. (_Rare._) 8vo.
Lug., 1599.

---- Specchio Chimico. 8vo. Roma., 1624.

Balduini (C. A.)--Aurum Superius et Inferius. 12mo. Lipsiæ, 1674.

---- Phosphorus Hermeticus, sive magnes luminaris. Lipsiæ, 1674.

---- Hermes Curiosus. 12mo. Lips., 1680.

---- De Auro Auræ et ipsum hoc Aurum Auræ. 12mo. 1674.

---- Venus Auræ--_See_ Miscellanea Curiosa. 4to. Lips., 1678.

Barchusen (J. C.)--Elementa Chemiæ. (_Contains seventy-eight alchemical
emblems._) Lug. Bat., 1718.

Barlet (A.)--L’Ouvrage de l’Univers. 12mo. Paris, 1653.

Barnaudi (N.)--Triga Chimica. 8vo. Lug. Bat., 1600.

---- Brevis Elucidatio Arcani Philosophorum. 8vo. Lugd. Batav., 1599.

Bartoleti (Fabr.)--Encyclopedia Hermetico-Medica. 4to. Bononiæ, 1619.

Batfdorff (Henric à)--Filum Ariadnes. 8vo. 1636.

Bazio (Antonia)--Florida Corona. Lug., 1534.

Beato (G.)--Azoth, seu Aureliæ Occultæ Philosophorum, materiam primam
et decantatum illum Lapidem Philosophorum, filiis Hermetis solide
explicantes. 4to. Franc., 1613.

Beausoleil (Baron)--De Materia Lapidis. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. 1627.

---- De Sulphure Philosophorum Libellus.

Becher (J. J.)--Transmutations at Vienna. London, 1681.

---- Physica Subterranea. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. Franc., 1669.

---- Institutiones Chimicæ. 4to. Moguntiæ, 1662.

---- Oedipus Chimicus. Franc., 1664.

---- Laboratium Chimicum. 8vo. Francfurt, 1680.

---- Opera Omnia. 2 v. fol. (_In German._)

Beguinus--Tyrocinium Chimicum. (_In English._) London, 1669.

Benedictus--Liber Benedictus, Nucleus Sophicus. (_Allegorical._) 8vo.
Franc., 1623.

Benzius (A. C.)--Philosopische Schanbuhne nebst einen, Anhaug der
Weisen. 8vo. Hamb., 1690.

---- Tractatlein von Menstruo Universali. 8vo. Nurem., 1709.

---- Lapis Philosophorum, seu Medicina Universalis. 8vo. Franc., 1714.

---- Thesaurus Processuum Chemicorum. 4to. Nurem., 1715.

Bergeri--Catalogus Medicamentorum Spagirice præparatorum. 4to. 1607.

Bericht--Von Universal Arts Neyen. 8vo. 1709.

Berle (John de)--Opuscule de Philosophie.

Berlichius--De Medicina Universali. 4to. Jena, 1679.

Bernardi (Comitis, _an adept_)--Libèr de Chimia. 12mo. Geismariæ, 1647.

---- De Chimico Miraculo. 8vo. Basil, 1600.

---- La Turbe des Philosophes. 8vo. Paris, 1618.

---- Opus de Chimia. (_Curious._) 8vo. Argent, 1567.

---- Traité de l’Œuf des Philosophes. 8vo. Paris, 1659.

---- La Parole Delaissée. 12mo. 1672.

---- Epistle to Thomas of Bononia. 24mo. London, 1680.

---- Trevisan’s Fountain. Lond.

Bernard--Le Bernard d’Alemagne, cum Bernardo Trevero. 8vo. 1643.

Beroalde (P.)--Histoire des Trois Princes. 2 v. 8vo. 1610.
(_Disesteemed._)

Beroalde (P.)--Le Palais des Curieux. (_Poem._) 12mo. Paris, 1584.

---- Le Cabinet de Minerva. Rouen, 1601.

Berteman (M.)--Dame de Beau Soliel--Restitution de Pluton. 8vo. Paris,
1640.

Besardi (J. B.)--Antrum Philosophicum, De Lapide Physico, &c. 4to.
Aug., 1617.

Beuther (D.)--Universale et Particularia. 8vo. Hamb., 1718.

Bickeri (O.)--Hermes Redivivus. 8vo. Hanov., 1620.

Billikius (A. G.)--De Tribus Principiis. 8vo. Bremen, 1621.

---- Deliria Chimica Laurenbergii. 8vo. Bremæ, 1625.

---- Assertionem Chymicarum Sylloge Opposita Laurenbergio. 8vo.
Helmestadii, 1624.

Birelli (G. B.)--De Alchimia. 4to. Firenze, 1602.

Birrius (Martinus)--Tres Tractatus de Metallorum Transmutatione. 8vo.
Amsterdam, 1668.

Blarvenstein (Sol.)--Contra Kircherum. 4to. Vienna, 1667.

Boerhave (H.)--De Chimia Expurgante suos errores. 4to. Lugduni
Batavorum, 1718.

Böhme (Jacob)--“Teutonicus Theosophus.” Works. Containing The
Aurora, Three Principles, Threefold Life of Man, Answers to Forty
Questions concerning the Soul, Treatise of the Incarnation, Clavis
Mysterium Magnum, Four Tables of Divine Revelation, Signatura Rerum,
Predestination, Way to Christ, Discourse between Souls, The Four
Complexions, Christ’s Testaments, &c. Fol. London, 1764-81.

---- Works, by Elliston and Sparrow. 10 vols. 4to. Lond., 1659.

---- Miroir Temporel de l’Éternité. 8vo. Franc., 1669.

---- Idæa Chimiæ Adeptæ Bohmianæ. 12mo. Amst., 1690.

Bolnesti (Edw.)--Aurora Chimica. Lond., 1672.

Bolton (Samuel)--Magical but Natural Physic. 8vo. Lond., 1656.

Bonardo (G. M.)--Minera del Mondo. 8vo. Mantua, 1591.

Bono (P., _an adept_)--Margarita Novella. 4to. Basil, 1572.

---- Introductio in Divinam Artem Alchemiæ. 8vo. 1692.

---- De Secreto Omnium Secretorum. 8vo. Venet., 1546.

Bonveau (J. D.)--De l’Astronomie Inférieure. 4to. Paris, 1636.

Bade (---- de la)--De l’Énigme trouvé à Pillier. 4to. Paris, 1636.

Borelli (Petri)--Hermetic Catalogue. 12mo. Paris, 1654.

Bornetti (D.)--Jatrochimicus. Franc., 1621.

Borri (G. F.)--La Chiave del Cabinetto. 12mo. Colon., 1681.

Borrichius (O.)--De Ortu et Progressu Chemiæ. 4to. Hafnia, 1668.

Borro (Tomaso)--Ze Fieriele Tomaso Borro Opere. Venez., 1624.

Boyle (Hon. Robert)--Works, _useful_, many editions.

Braceschi (J.)--Gebri Explicatio. 4to. Lugd., 1548.

Bradley (Richard)--Work of Nature. (_Rare._) 8vo. Dub., 1721.

Brachel (P.)--On Spurious Potable Gold. (_German._) 8vo. Col., 1607.

Brandaw (M. Erbineusà)--12 Columnæ Naturæ et Artis. 8vo. Lip., 1689.

Brebil (J. F.)--Concursus Philosophorum. 8vo. Jena, 1726.

Brendelius (Zac.)--De Chimia in Artis Formam Redacta, ubi de Auro
Potabile Agit. 8vo. Jenæ, 1630.

Brentzius (Andrew)--Farrago Philos. 8vo. Ambergæ, 1611.

Breton (L.)--Clefs de la Philosophie Spagirique. 12mo. Paris, 1726.

Broault (T. D.)--Abrégé de l’Astronomie Inferieure ... Des Planetes
Hermétiques. 4to. Paris, 1644.

Brown (Thomas)--Nature’s Cabinet. 12mo. Lond., 1657.

Buchlein (----)--Von Farben, und Künsten, auch der Alchimisten. 8vo.
1549.

Burchelati (B.)--Dialogicum Septem Philosophorum. 4to. Trevisis, 1603.

Burgavii (J. Ernest)--Balneum Dianæ. Lud., 1600-1612.

---- Introductio in Philosophiam Vitalem. 4to. Franc., 1623.

Cæsar (T.)--Alchemiæ Speculum. (_German._) 8vo. Franco, 1613.

Cæsii (B.)--Mineralogia. (_Rare._) Fol. Lug., 1636.

Calid--Regis Calid Liber Secretorum. 8vo. Franc., 1615.

Campegii (M.)--De Transmutatione Metallorum. 4to. Lud., 1503.

Carellis (J. de)--De Auri Essentia ejusque Facultate in Medendis
Morbis. 8vo. Venet., 1646.

Carerius (A.)--Quæstio an Metalla Artis Beneficio permutari possint.
4to. Patavii, 1579.

Casi (Jo.)--Lapis Philosophicus. 4to. Oxonii, 1599.

Castagne (Gabriel de)--Œuvres Medicinales et Chimiques--1. Le Paradis
Terrestre. 2. Le Miracle de la Nature Métallique. 3. L’Or Potable. 4.
La Médecine Métallique. 8vo. Paris, 1661.

Cato--Chemicus. 12mo. Lypsiæ, 1690.

Cephali (Ar.)--Mercurius Triumphans. 4to. Magdeburgi, 1600.

Charles VI.--Trésor de Philosophie. 8vo. Paris.

Chartier (J.)--Antimoine, Plomb Sacré. 4to. Paris, 1651.

Chesne (J.)--De Plus Curieuses Etrares. Paris, 1648.

Chevalier Impérial--Miroir des Alchimistes. 16mo. 1609.

Chiaramonte (G.)--Elixir Vitæ. 4to. Genoa, 1590.

Christop--Paris. (_Adept, 13th age._) Chimica. 8vo. Paris, 1649.

Chymia Philosophica. 8vo. Norimberg, 1689.

Cicollini (Barab.)--Via Brevis. Romæ, 1696.

Claf (E. Lucii)--De Lapide Christo Sophico. 4to. Ingol., 1582.

Claves (E. de)--Des Principes de la Nature. 8vo. Paris, 1633.

Clavei (Gas., _adept_.)--Apologia Argyropœiæ. 8vo. Niverius, 1590.

---- De Ratione Proginendi Lap. Philosophorum. 8vo. Nivers, 1592.

---- Philosophia Chimica, Prep. Auri. 8vo. Frank., 1602-1612.

Clinge (F.)--Philosophia Hermetica. (_German._) 4to. 1712.

Cogitationes Circa Alchæst. (_German._) 8vo. Fran., 1708.

Collectanea Chimica. _Ten tracts._ 16mo. Lond., 1684.

Collesson (J.)--De la Philosophie Hermétique. (_Disesteemed._) 8vo.
Paris, 1630.

Colletel (G.)--Clavicule et Vie de Raymond Lulle. 8vo. Paris, 1642.

Colson (L.)--Philosophia Maturata. (_German._) 8vo. Hamb., 1696.

Combachius (L.)--Salt and Secret of Philosophy. 16mo. Lond., 1657.

Comenius (J. A.)--Natural Philosophy Reformed. 16mo. London, 1651.

Commentatio--De Lapide Philosoph. 8vo. Cologne, 1595.

Couringii (Herm.)--De Hermetica Ægyptiorum vetere et Paracelsicorum
nova Medecina. 4to. Helmstadii, 1648.

Cooper (N.)--Catalogue of Alchemical Books. 8vo. Lond., 1675.

Cosmopolita--Novum Lumen. (_Adept._) Twelve Treatises, Enigma,
Dialogue, &c. By Alexander Sethon. 8vo. Prague, 1604.

---- Ses Lettres. (_Spurious._) 2 v. 12mo. Paris, 1691.

Cozzandi (L.)--De Magisterio Antiq. Colon., 1684.

Crameri (J. A.)--Fossilium. 2 v. 8vo. Lug. Bat., 1730.

Creilingius (J. C.)--De Transmutatione Metallorum. 4to. Tubing.

Cremeri (Gaspar)--De Transmutatione Metallorum. 8vo.

Crollii (Osw.)--Philosophy Reformed. 12mo. Lond., 1657.

---- Basilica Chimica. (_English._) Fol. Lond., 1670.

Crollius Redivivus. Stein Tinchtur. 4to. Fran., 1635.

Culpeper (Nic.)--Three-Fold World. 8vo. Lond., 1656.

Curiosities of Chemistry. Lond., 1691.

Dammy (Mathieu)--Observations sur La Chimie. 8vo. Amst., 1739.

Dastinii (Johan.)--Visio, seu de Lapide Philosophico. (_English
adept._) 8vo. Franc., 1625.

---- Rosarium Correctius. 8vo. Geismar, 1647.

Deani (E.)--Tractatus Varii de Alchimia. (_Rare._) 4to. Fran., 1630.

Dee (Dr Arthur)--Fasciculus Chimicus. 12mo. Lond., 1650.

---- (Dr Joannes)--Monas Hieroglyphica. 1564.

---- Propædemnata Aphoristica de Naturæ Virtutibus. 4to. Lond., 1568.

Democritus--De Arte Sacra. (_Adept._) 8vo. Patav., 1573.

Deodato (C.)--Pantheum Hygiasticum. Brunstruti, 1628.

Dichiaratione, di Enimoni de gl’ Antichi Filosifi Alchimisti. 4to.
Rome, 1587.

Dickinson (E.)--De Chrysopœia. 8vo. Oxon., 1686.

Disputatio Solis et Mercurii cum Lapide Philos. (_The Ancient War of
the Knights._) 8vo. Tolos., 1646.

Donato (Fra., Eremita). (_Adept._) Elixir Vitæ. Napoli, 1624.

Dorneus (Gerard)--Clavis Philosophiæ. 12mo. Lugd., 1567.

Doux (Gaston le)--Dictionnaire Hermétique. 12mo. Paris, 1695.

Drebellius (C.)--Quinta Essentia. (_Not an adept._) 8vo. Hamb., 1621.

Dubourg (Jacques)--Saint Saturne de la Chimie.

Duchesne--Les Œuvres diverses de M. Duchesne sieur de la Violette. 6 v.
8vo. Paris, 1635.

Dumbelei (J.)--Hortus Amoris Arboris Philosophicæ. 8vo. Fran., 1625.

Dunstan (Saint)--On the Philosopher’s Stone. Lond.

Eclaircissement de la Pierre Philosophale. 8vo. Paris, 1628.

Efferarius (_an adept_.)--De Lapide Philos. 8vo. Argent., 1659.

---- Thesaurus Philosophicus. (_Esteemed and scarce._) 8vo. Argent.,
1659.

Elmulleri (M.)--Opera Omnia. Venet., 1727.

Emblemata de Secretis Naturæ Chimicæ. 4to. Oppen., 1618.

Epistola, cujusdam Patris ad Filium. 8vo. Lugd. Lyons, 1601.

Epistolarum philos. Chemicarum. Fol. Francofurti, 1598.

Erasti (Thomæ.)--De Auro Potabili. 8vo. Basil, 1578-1584.

Erkern (Laz.)--De Re Metallica. (_English and excellent._) Fol.
Francof., 1629.

L’Escalier des Sages, avec figures. (_Curious and scarce._) Fol.
Gronigen, 1689.

Espagnet (John)--Enchyridion Physicæ Restitutæ. Paris, 1601.

---- Enchyridion Philosophiæ Hermeticæ. (_The anonymous works of this
esteemed adept in English._) 16mo. Lond., 1651.

Euchiontis (A.)--De Aquis, Oleis, et Salibus Philos. 8vo. Francof.,
1567.

Examen des Principes des Alchimistes. 12mo. Paris, 1711.

L’Expositione de Geber Filosofo. (_Disesteemed._) 12mo. Venet., 1544.

Eygeum (M.)--Le Pilote de l’Onde vive, ou le Secret du Flux et Reflux
de la Mer et du Point Fixe. (_Scarce._) 12mo. Paris, 1678.

Fabri (P. J., _not an adept_)--Alchimista Christianus. 8vo. Tolv., 1632.

Fabricius (G.)--De Rebus Metallicis. 8vo. Tiguri, 1565.

Fallopius (G.)--Secreti Diversi Raccolti del G. F. 8vo. Venet., 1578.

Faniani (J. C.)--De Arte Alchimiæ. 8vo. Basil, 1576.

Faniani (J. C.)--Metamorphosis Metallica. 8vo. Basil, 1660.

Faustia (J. M.)--Philalethæ Illustratus. 8vo. Francofruts, 1706.

---- Pandora Chemica. (_Hermetic Extracts._) 1706.

Fenton (Ed.)--Secrets and Wonders of Nature. Lond., 1659.

Fernelius (J.)--De Abditis Rerum Causis. (_Doubtful._) 8vo. Paris, 1560.

Fernel (Phil.)--Soliloquium Salium. Neapoli, 1649.

Ferarius--Fratris Ferarii--Tractatus Integer. 12mo. 1647.

Ferro (Josua)--Trattato de Meravigliosi Secreti. 8vo. Venet., 1606.

Figuli (B.)--Paradisus Aureolus Hermeticus. 4to. Fran., 1600.

---- Auriga Benedictus Spagiricus. 12mo. Norimbergæ, 1609.

---- (G.)--Medicina Universalis. 12mo. Brux., 1660.

Filareto Racolto di Secreti. 8vo. Fioren., 1573.

Le Filet d’Ariadne. (_Hermetic._) 8vo. Paris, 1693.

Fincki (T. V.)--Enchiridion Hermetico. 16mo. Lip., 1626.

Flamel (Nicholas, _an adept_)--Explanation of his Hieroglyphics. 8vo.
Lond., 1624.

---- Le Grand Eclaircissement. 8vo. Paris, 1628.

---- Summary. 24mo. Lond., 1680.

---- Le Désir Désiré, ou Trésor de Philosophie. 8vo. Paris, 1629.

---- La Musique Chimique.

---- Annotationes in D. Zacharia. (_Spurious._) _See_ Theatrum Chemicum.

Fludd (Robert)--Clavis Philosophiæ et Alchimiæ. 2 v. Fol. Francof.

La Fontaine des Amoureux de Science. 16mo. Paris, 1561.

La Fontaine Perilleuse. (_Reputed._) 8vo. Paris, 1572.

Fradin (P.)--Histoire Fabuleuse. (_Scarce._) 8vo. Lyons, 1560.

Frankenberg (Von)--Gemma Magica. 8vo. Amstelodami.

Freind (J.)--Prelectiones Chemicæ. 8vo. Amst., 1710.

Frickius (J.)--De Auro Potabile Sophorum et Sophistarum. 4to. Ham.,
1702.

Frischi (D. G.)--Anatomiá Alchimiæ. 8vo. Parma, 1696.

Frundeck (L.)--De Elixire Arboris Vitæ. 8vo. Hague, 1660.

Furichius (J. N.)--De Lapide Philosophico. 4to. Argentorati, 1631.

Gabella (Phil. à)--De Lapide Philos. 4to. Cassel., 1615.

---- Secretioris Philosophiæ Consideratio. 4to. Cassel., 1616.

Gamon (C.)--Trésor des Trésors. 2 v. 12mo. Lyons, 1610.

Garlandii (J.)--Dictionarium Alchimiæ. 8vo. Basil, 1571.

Gault--Les Erreurs de l’Art Refutées. 4to. Paris, 1588.

Geber, Works (_Adept of Chorasan in the Eighth Age_). 1. Sum of
Perfection. 2. Investigation of Perfection. 3. Invention of Verity. 4.
Furnaces. 8vo. Gedani, 1682.

Gerhardi (J. C.)--Panacea Hermetica. 8vo. Ulm., 1640.

---- In Apertorium Lullii. 8vo. Tabing., 1641.

Germanni (D.)--Judicium Philosophicum. 8vo. 1682.

Gerzan (François de Soucy sieur de Gerzan)--Le Vrai Trésor de la Vie
Humaine. 8vo. Paris, 1653.

---- L’Histoire Africaine. (_Chemical._) 8vo. Paris, 1634.

---- Historie Asiatique Mystique. 8vo. Paris, 1634.

Giangi (Rinaldo)--Istruzione Speziele. Roma., 1715.

Girolani (Flavio)--La Pietro Philosophica. 4to. Venet., 1590.

Givry (P.)--Arcanum Acidularum. 12mo. Amst., 1682.

Glauber (J. R.)--Works. (_Chemistry._) Fol. Lond., 1689.

Glissenti (Fabio)--Della Pietra de Filosofi. 4to. Venet., 1596.

Gloria Mundi. Hamb., 1692.

Glutten--Minerale de Mercurio Philos. 8vo. Lips., 1705.

Godfrey (B.)--Miscellaneous Experiments. 8vo. Lond.

Gonelli (Jos.)--Thesaurus Philos. Neapoli, 1702.

Gohory (J.)--Ancien Poeme, science minerale. 8vo. Paris, 1572.

Grand Œuvre--Apologie pour le G. O. par D. B. 12mo. Par., 1659.

Granger (G.)--Paradox que les Metaux out Vie. 8vo. Par., 1640.

Gratarole (William)--Vera Alchimia. Twenty-three tracts. 2 v. 8vo.
Bas., 1572.

---- On the Philosopher’s Stone. 4to. Lond., 1652.

Greveri (Jod.)--Secretum Magnum. 8vo. Lugd., 1588.

Grevin (Jac.)--De L’Antimoine Contre Launay. 4to. Par., 1567.

Groschedeli (J. B.)--Proteus Mercurialis. 4to. Francof., 1629.

---- Hermetisches Kleebat, weisheit. 8vo. Fran., 1629.

Groschedeli (J. B.)--Mineralis, seu Physici Metallorum Lapidis
Descriptio. 8vo. Hamb., 1706.

Guiberto (Mi.)--De Alchimiæ Ratione et Experientia. 8vo. Arg., 1603.

---- De Interitu Alchymiæ. Tulli, 1614.

Guide to Alchemy. Lond.

Guidi (J.)--De Mineralibus, De Alchimisticis, De Thesauris. 4to.
Venet., 1625.

Guissonius (P.)--De Tribus Principiis. 8vo. Fran., 1686.

Gulielmi (Dom)--De Salibus. 8vo. Lugd. Batav., 1707.

Guinaldi (J.)--Dell’ Alchimia Opera. 4to. Palermo, 1645.

Hadrianeum--De Aureo Philosophorum Lapide. 8vo. Rothomagi, 1651.

Haffeurefferi (J.)--Officina Hermetico Paracelsica, 8vo. Ulmmæ, N.D.

Hagedon (E.)--Secreta Spagirica. Jena, 1676.

Hannemanni (J. L.)--Ovum Hermetico Trismegistum. Franc., 1694.

Hapelius (N. N.)--Chieragogia Heliana. 8vo. Marpurgi, 1612.

Hartman (J.)--Opera omnia Medico-Chimica. Fol. Franc., 1684.

Haumerie (C.)--Les Secrets les Plus Cachés. Par., 1722.

Helbegii (J. O.)--Introitus in veram, atque Inauditam Phisicam. 8vo.
Ham., 1680.

---- Centrum Naturæ Concentratum. 12mo. Gedani, 1682.

---- Judicium de Viribus Hermetecis. 12mo. Amst., 1683.

---- Salt of Nature, by Alipili. 16mo. Lond., 1696.

Heliæ (A Franciscan)--Speculum Alchemiæ. 8vo. Fra., 1614.

Helmont (J. B.)--Works, translated. Fol. Lond., 1664.

Helvetius (J. E.)--Of a Transmutation. 8vo. Lond., 1670.

Helwig (J. O.)--Curiositates Alchemiæ. 8vo. Leip., 1710.

Hermetis Trismegisti, 7 capitula. (_Adept._) 8vo. Lips., 1600.

---- Seven Chapters, Tablet and Second Book. 8vo. Lond., 1692.

Hermetical Banquet. 8vo. London, 1652.

Hermophile--Canones Hermetici. 8vo. Marpurgh, 1608.

Heydon (John)--Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdome. In three
parts--spirituall, celestiall, and elementall. 8vo. London, 1262-3-4.

Heydon (John)--The Wise Man’s Crown ... With the Full Discovery of the
true Cœlum Terræ, or First Matter of the Philosophers, with the Regio
Lucis. 8vo. London, 1664.

---- Saphiric Medicine. Fol. Lond., 1665.

Hieroglyphica Egyptio-Græca (de Lapide). 4to. Basil, 1571.

Hoffmann (F.)--Dissertationes Phisico-Medico-Chimicæ. 4to. Haf., 1726.

Hoghelande (Ewald)--Historia Transmutat. 8vo. Colon., 1604.

---- (Theo.)--De Alchimiæ Difficultatibus. 8vo. Colon., 1594.

Holland (Isaac, _adept_)--Mineralia Opera de Lapide Phil. Middl., 1600.

---- De Triplici Ordine Elixiris et Lapidis Theoria. 8vo. Bernæ, 1608.

---- Opera Universalia et Vegetabilia. Amh., 1617.

---- Vegetable Work. 4to. London, 1659.

---- Universali Opere. (_Sicut filio suo M. Johanni, Isaaco Hollando e
Flandria Paterno animo._) 8vo. Fran., 1669.

Hornei (C.)--De Metallis Medecis. 8vo. Helm., 1624.

Hortulanus Hemeticus. (_Cum fig._) 8vo. Franc., 1627.

---- Reign of Saturn Revived. Lond., 1698.

Hydropyrographum, true Fire-Water. 24mo. London, 1680.

Hylealischen, Natural Chaos. 8vo. Franc., 1708.

Icon Phil. Occultæ. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. Par., 1672.

Imperial--Chevalier Impérial. Le Miroir d’Alchimie. 16mo. Paris, 1607.

Inconnu--Chevalier Inconnu. La Nature au Découvert. 8vo. Aix., 1669.

Isabella--Secreti della Isabella. Venet., 1665.

Isagoge--Triunus Dei et Naturæ. 8vo. Ham., 1674.

Isnard (Abel)--La Médecine Universelle. 4to. Par., 1655.

Jean--Pope John XXII. L’Art Transmutatoire. 8vo. Lyons, 1557.

Jebsenii (J.)--De Lapide Philosophorum Discursus. 4to. Rostochii, 1645.

Johnsoni (Guil.)--Lexicon Hemeticarum. 8vo. London, 1652.

Jonstoni (J.)--Notilia Regni Mineralis. 12mo. Lips., 1661.

Jungkin (J. H.) Chimia Experimentalis Curiosa. 8vo. Franc., 1687.

Kalid (_Arabian adept_). Secreta Alchimiæ. 8vo. Lond., 1692.

Kelleus (Edw.)--De Lapide Philos. 8vo. Ham., 1673.

Kergeri (M.)--De Fermentatione. Wittenb., 1663.

Kerneri (A.)--De Auro Mercurio Antimonio. 12mo. Erfurt., 1618.

Khunrath (H. Conrad)--Symbolum. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. Magd., 1599.

---- Magnesia Catholica. 12mo. Argen., 1599.

---- Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ. 4to. Mag., 1608.

Kieseri (F.)--Azoth Solificatum. Mulhusit, 1666.

Kircheri (Athan.)--Mundus Subterraneus. 2 v. Fol. Amst., 1678.

Kircmayer (G.)--De Natura Lucis, de Igne Philos. 4to. Vittebergæ, 1680.

Keickringii (T.)--Commentarius in Currum Triumphalem Antimonii. 8vo.
Amst., 1671.

Kleinold--Oder Schatz der Philosophen, &c. 8vo. Fran., 1714.

Knorr (L. G.)--Basil Redivivus. (_German._) 8vo. Lip. 1716.

Koffski (V.)--Vonder Ehrste Tinctur Burtzel. 4to. Dan., 1687.

Kriegsmanni (G. C.)--Commentariolus interpres Tabulæ Hermetis. (_Sine
loco._)

Kruger (A. A.)--De Sol. Chemicorum. Brunswici, 1713.

Kunckel (J.)--Experiments. 8vo. Lond., 1705.

Kunst (J. C.)--De Menstruo Universali. 4to. Hal., 1737.

Lacinium (J.)--Pretiosa Margarita. 8vo. Venet., 1546.

Lagnei (D.)--Consensus Philosophorum. 8vo. Paris, 1601.

---- Harmonie Mystique, ou Accord des Philosophes Chimiques. 8vo.
Paris, 1636.

Lambye (S. B.)--Revelation of the Secret Spirit. 8vo. Lond., 1623.

---- An Italian Comment on the above work, by Agnelli. 1665.

Lamy (Guillaume)--Sur L’Antimoine. 12mo. Paris.

Lancilotti (C.)--Guida alla Chimia. 12mo. Modene, 1672.

---- Triumfo del Mercurio. 16mo. Modene, 1677.

---- Triumfo D’ell Antimonio. 12mo. Modene, 1683.

Langlet du Fresnoy--Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique, avec
Catalogue des Livres Hermétiques. 3 v. 8vo. Hay, 1742.

---- The Hermetic Catalogue separately. 8vo. Paris, 1762.

Lanis (Francisie Tertii de)--Magisterium. 3 v. Fol. Brix., 1684.

Lampas Vitæ et Mortis. 12mo. Ludg. Bat., 1678.

Lapis Philosophicus--Lapis Metaphisicus. (_Rare._) 8vo. Paris, 1570.

---- De Lapidis Physici Conditionibus. 8vo. Colon., 1595.

---- De Lapide Philosophico. ---- 1618.

---- Disceptatio de Lapide Philos. 8vo. Col., 1671.

Lasnioro (J.)--Tractatus Aureus. 8vo. 1612.

Lavini (Ven.)--De Cœlo Terrestre. 8vo. Marp., 1612.

Lazarel (Louis)--Le Basin D’Hermes. 8vo. Paris, 1577.

Lee (Thomas)--Of the Sovereign Balsam. Lond., 1665.

Lemery (Nic.)--De L’Antimoine. 12mo. Paris, 1707.

Lemnius (Lav.)--Secret Miracles of Nature. Fol. London, 1658.

Lettre sur le Secret du Grand Œuvre. 12mo. Hay, 1606.

Leonardi (Camilla)--Speculum Lapidem. Paris, 1610.

Libavius (And.) of Halle in Saxony--44 works on the various branches of
Alchemy. Fol. Franc., 1595.

Liberii (B.)--Explanatio in Tincturam Physicorum. 8vo. Franc., 1623.

Locatelli (Lud.)--Theatro D’Arcani Chimici. 8vo. Venet., 1648.

Locques (J.)--Philosophie Naturelle. (_Scarce._) 8vo. Par., 1665.

Longino (C.)--Trinum Magicum. (_Rare._) 12mo. Fran., 1616.

Long Livers. Folio. Lond., 1722.

Lossii (F.)--De Martis Curationibus. Lip., 1685.

Lucerna Salis Philos. (_Curious. It is by John Harprecht of Tubingen, a
professed adept._) 8vo. Amst., 1658.

Lucii (C.)--De Lapide Christo Sophico. 4to. Ingold., 1582.

Ludovicus Comitibus--Practicæ Manualis. Francof.

Lulli (Raymundi, _an adept_)--Opera Alchemia. 2 v. Lond., 1673.

---- Opera Omnia. 8vo. Argent., 1677.

---- Practica Artis. Fol. Lug., 1523.

---- De Secretis. 8vo. Aug., 1541.

---- De Aquis Super Accurtationes. 8vo. Aug., 1541.

---- Alchimia Magia Naturalis. 8vo. Norimb., 1546.

---- Tertia Distinctio Transmutatione. 4to. Norimb., 1546.

---- Cantilena ad Regem Anglorum. 8vo. Colon., 1553.

---- Summaria Lapidis Abbreviationes. Fol. Basil, 1561.

---- Mercuriorum Repertorium Apertorium. 8vo. Colon., 1566.

---- De Aquis Mineral Epist. Rupert. 8vo. Colon., 1567.

---- Testamentum Novissimum. 8vo. Basil, 1572.

---- De Secretis Medicina Magna. Basil, 1600.

---- Secreta Magnalia Alchimia. Lugd. Bat., 1602.

---- Le Vade Mecum. Abrège de l’Art. 8vo. Paris, 1613.

---- De Conservatione Vitæ. 8vo. Argent., 1616.

---- Testament and Codicil. 8vo. Lond., 1680.

---- Clavicule, or Little Key. 24mo. Lond., 1680.

---- Blaquerna in Lullium--De Amico et Amate. 32mo. Paris.

---- Lullius Redivivus. 8vo. Norim., 1703.

---- Histoire R. L. par Vernon. 12mo. Paris, 1668.

Lumière--La Lumière sortant des Tenébres. 12mo. Paris, 1687.

Maffei (G. E.)--Scala Naturale. 8vo. Venet., 1564.

Magni Philosophorum Arcani Revelator. 12mo. Geneva, 1688.

Majeri (M.)--Lusus Serius. 50 Figs. 4to. Fran., 1617.

---- Simbola Aureæ Mensæ. 4to. Franc., 1617.

---- Tripus Aureus. 4to. Franc., 16--.

---- Septimana Philosophica. 4to. Franc., 1620.

---- De Circuito Physico Quadrato. 4to. Franc., 1616.

---- Arcana Arcanissima. 4to. Londini, 1614.

---- Atalanta Fugiens. 4to. Oppenheimii, 1618.

---- Silentium Post Clamores. 8vo. Franc., 1617.

---- Themis Aurea. 8vo. Franc., 1618.

---- Jocus Severus. 4to. Franc., 1617.

---- Maieri Viatorium. 4to. Franc., 1618.

---- De Rosea Cruce. 4to. Franc., 1618.

---- Cantilenæ Intellectuales. 16mo. Roma., 1622.

---- Quatuor Anguli Mundi.

---- Ulyssus. 8vo. Franc., 1628.

---- Verum Inventum. 8vo. Franc., 1619.

---- Civitas Corporis Humani. 8vo. Franc., 1621.

---- Museum Chimicum. 4to. Franc., 1708.

(_Some of these rare works are embellished with curious and beautiful
copperplates._)

Mangeti (J. J.)--Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa. 2 v. Fol. It contains 133
alchemical tracts, of which 33 are reprinted from Theatrum Chemicum,
viz., Arisleus, Artephius, Aristotle, Avicenna, Arnold, Altus Liber
Mutus, Angenelli, Albinus, Bacon, Becher, Blawenstein, Borrichius,
Brachesky, Bono, Bernard, Basil, Bernaud, Balduinus, Cato, Clauder,
Chortalasseus, Cuoffelius, Dornea, Dastin, Espagnet, Faber, Fanianus,
Ficinus, Friben, Geber, Gerard, Guido, Hermes, Hogheland, Helvetius,
Icon, Johnson, Kalid, Kircher, Kuigman, Libavius, Lewis, Lully, Massa
Solis, Merlin, Morhoff, Morien, Malvisius, F. Mirandola, T. Norton,
Orthelius, Paracelsus, Philalethes, Pantaleon, Ripley, Richard,
Rupescissa, Sachs, Sendivogius, Stoleius, Todenfeld, Zadith, Zacharia.
Col, 1702.

Manna--Of the Blessed Manna of the Philosophers. Lond., 1680.

Margarita Philosophica. 4to. Basil, 1583.

Maria Egypti Dialogues. (_An adept._) A. M. 3630. 8vo. Leip., 1708.

Mark (B.)--Hermetischen Philos. Herren. 8vo. Strasb., 1701.

Mars Philosophische, vel Azoth. 8vo. Fran., 1656.

Martinière (La)--Le Tombeau de la Folie. 12mo. Paris.

Massin (P.)--De la Pierre Philosophale.

Mazotta (B.)--De Triplici Philosophia. 4to. Banoniæ, 1653.

Medices (C. de)--Concursus Philosophorum. 8vo. 1706.

Medicina Metallorum, seu Transmutatio. 4to. Lip., 1723.

Medicinesche, Universal-Sonne. 8vo. Hamb., 1706.

Meerheim (T. G.)--Discours Curieuser Sachen, &c. 8vo. Leip., 1708.

Melceri (N.)--Lapis Philosophorum. Fol. 1449.

Menneus (G.)--Sacræ Philosophiæ. 4to. Antwerp, 1604.

Mercurii Trismegisti--Sapientia Dei. Basil, 1532.

Mercurius Redivivus. (_Scarce._) 4to. Franc., 1630.

Mercurius Triumphans. (_Scarce._) 4to. Magd., 1600.

Mercury’s Caducean Rod, by Cleidophorus. 16mo. Lond., 1704.

Meresini (Thi.)--Metal Transubstant. 8vo. Han., 1593.

Meun (Jean de)--Ses Œuvres. 3 tomes. 12mo. Paris, 1735.

---- Le Miroir d’Alchimie. 18mo. Paris, 1613.

Meurdrack (Maria)--Light of Chemistry. (_German._) 12mo. Fran., 1712.

Meysonnier (L.)--La Belle Magie. Lyons, 1669.

Milii (J. D.)--Opus Medico-Chemicum, cum Fig. (_Disesteemed._) 4to.
Franc., 1620.

Milii (J. D.)--Philosophia Reformata. (_Curious._) 4to. Fran., 1622.

Minderii (R.)--Disquisido Jatrochimica. Aug., 1618.

Minera del Mondo, Secreti di Natura. 12mo. Ven., 1659.

Minzicht (H.)--Thesaurus Medico-Chimicus. 8vo. Hamb., 1638.

Mizaldi (A.)--Memorabilium IX. Centuriæ. 16mo. Coloniæ, 1572.

---- De Lapide Aureo Philosophico. 4to. Hamb., 1631.

Mollii (H.)--Physica Hermetica. 8vo. Franc., 1619.

Montani (J. B.)--De Arte Alchemia, libri xviii.

Monte (J.)--De Medicina Universali. 8vo. Fran., 1678.

---- Hermetis, Erlauterung dess Hermetischen Guldenen Fluss. 8vo. Ulmæ,
1680.

Morestel (P.)--De La Pierre Naturelle. 12mo. Rouen, 1667.

Morhoffi (D. G.)--De Metal Transmut. 8vo. Hamb., 1673.

Morienus (_adept_)--De Transfiguratione Metallorum. 4to. Han., 1565.

Morleii (C. L.)--Collectanea Chemica. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. Ant., 1702.

Mormii (P.)--Arcana Naturæ. Lugd., 1630.

Mortii (J.)--Opera Varia. Lug. Bat., 1696.

Mose (Der Von)--Urtheilende Alchymist. 8vo. Chern., 1706.

Motren (M.)--Amadis de Gaule Livre. 14^{me}. (_Various editions._)

Moüilhet (P.)--La Vie de P. M. de Carcassonne, avec figs. 8vo. Par.,
1613.

Muller (A.)--Paradiess-Spiegel. 8vo. Leips., 1704.

---- (J. E.)--Des Steins der Wéisen. 8vo. Franc., 1707.

Mulleri (P.)--Miracula Chemica. 12mo. Regio, 1614.

Mutus Liber (_Altus_)--The Process in Fifteen Views. Fol. Rup., 1677.

Museum Hermeticum--21 tracts, by the following authors: Alze, Cremer,
Flamel, Hydrolitus, Helvetius, Lampspring, De Meun, Mynsicht, Maierus,
T. Norton, Philalethes, Pansophus, Sendivogus. Franc., 1677.

Mylii (J. D.)--Philosophia Reformata. Fran., 1622.

Mysii (F.)--De Secretis Antimonii. 8vo. Basil, 1575.

Nabre (G. B.)--Il Metamorfosi Metallicoe Humano. 4to. Brescia, 1564.

Nadasti (Teodo.)--Teorica Prattica. Cosmop., 1718.

Nasari (J. B.)--Della Transmutat. 4to. Bresc., 1599.

Nasari (J. B.)--Concordanza dei Filosofi. 4to. Bresc., 1599.

Nature--History of Nature Confirmed by Experience. 8vo. Lond., 1678.

Naxagoras (J. Equitis von)--Veritas Hermetica. 8vo. Vratislau, 1712.

---- Alchimia Denudata. (_German._) 8vo. Vratislàu, 1716.

---- Aurea Catena Homeri. 12mo. Lipsiæ, 1728.

---- Concorda Philosophica.

Neander (Theop.)--Heptas Alchimica. 8vo. Hallæ, 1621.

Nehusi (Henr.)--Tres Tractatu de Lapide. (_Curious._) 16mo. Hanoviæ,
1618.

Nollius (H.)--Theoria Philosophiæ Hermeticæ. 8vo. Hanov., 1617.

---- Corruption and Generation. 8vo. Lond., 1657.

Nortoni (Samuelis)--Septem Tractatus Chimici, cum Figuris. 1. Catholic
Physic. 2. Elixir Vitriol. 3. Mercury Revived. 4. Medicine of Life. 5.
Saturn Saturated. 6. Gems of Pebbles. 7. Alchemy. 4to. Fran., 1630.

Norton (Thomas)--Ordinall of Alchemy. 4to. Lond., 1652.

Nuysement (Dom)--True Salt of Philosophers. 8vo. London, 1657.

Ohacan (D. A., _Spaniard_)--Commentum in Parabolas Arnoldi. Fol. Hisp.,
1514.

Olympe--Le Grand Olympe, ou Explication de 79 Metamorphoses. (_The
author of this treatise is said mendaciously to have been a friend of
Flamel._) 8vo. Franc., 1614.

Opuscula Diversorum Authorum. 8vo. Franc., 1614.

Opus Tripartitum de Philosophorum Arcanis. 8vo. Lond., 1678.

Orontii (Finei)--De Philosophorum Lapide. 4to. Paris, 1542.

Or Potable--Discours des Vertus de l’Or Potable. 12 mo. Paris, 1575.

Ortholanus--Practica Vera Alkimik. Parisiis, 1358.

Padua (J.)--Sapientia Consummata.

Pagez (J.)--Les Miracles de la Création. 8vo. Paris, 1632.

Palissy (B.)--Les Moyens de devenir Riche. 12mo. Paris, 1636.

---- Du Jardinage et de la Chimie. 8vo. Paris, 1580.

Palladis Chimicæ Arcana Detecta, J. B. Marnigue. (_Rare._) 8vo. Genev.,
1674.

Palladium Spagiricum. 8vo. Paris, 1624.

Palmarii (Petri, M.D., Paris)--Lapis Philosophicus. 8vo. Paris, 1609.

Pamphilus (Lucidas)--Theatri Alchymistico-Medici breve et jucundum
spectaculum. 8vo. 1681.

Pansæ (Mart.)--Libellus Aureus. 8vo. Lips., 1615.

Pantaleonis--Bifolium Metallicum. 8vo. Norimbérgæ, 1676.

Pantheus (J. A.)--Sacerdos Venetus, de Arte et Theoria Transmutationis
Metallicis. 8vo. Paris, 1550.

Paracelsi Theophrasti Opera Omnia. 3 v. Fol. Gen., 1662.

---- Compendium Vitæ et Catalogus. Basil, 1568.

---- Pyrophilia Vexationem. 8vo. Basil, 1568.

---- Septem Libri de Gradibus Philosophiæ Magnæ.

---- De Tartaro. 8vo. Basil, 1570.

---- Archidoxorum, lib. x. 8vo. Colon., 1570.

---- Aurora. 8vo. Basil, 1577.

---- Key of Philosophy. 8vo. Lond., 1580.

---- De Mercuriis Metallorum. 8vo. Colon., 1582.

---- Medico-Chimico Chirurgica. 12 t. 4to. Franc., 1603.

---- Sympathy. 8vo. Lond., 1656.

---- Chemical Transmutation. 8vo. Lond., 1657.

---- Philosophy to the Athenians. 12mo. Lond., 1657.

---- Prescription of 114 Cures. 4to. 1659.

---- Archidoxis of Arcana and Elixirs. 8vo. London, 1663.

---- Philosophiæ Adeptæ. 8vo. Basil.

Parkhurst’s Sympathetic Mummy. Lond., 1653.

Partricii (F.)--Magia Philos. Zoroastris. 8vo. Hamb., 1593.

Partridge (John)--Treasury of Secrets. 8vo. Lond., 1591.

Paysan--Le Petit Paysan. Alchemical. (_German, rare._) 8vo. Strasb.,
1619.

Pellagii Greci, In Democritum Abderitam, de Arte Sacra, sive de Rebus
Mysticis, et Naturalibus comment. 8vo. Coloniæ, 1574.

Pelletier, L’Alcæst de Helmont. (_Esteemed._) 12mo. Rouen, 1704.

Penotus (B.)--Alchemist’s Enchiridion. 12mo. Lond., 1692.

---- De Materia Lapidis Philosophorum. 8vo. Bern., 1608.

Persons (David)--Salamandra. 4to. Lond., 1636.

Petrei (H.)--Nosologia Hermetica. 4to. Marpurg, 1614.

Petty (John)--Mine Laws of England. Fol. Lond., 1610.

Pharmundi (J. P.)--Compendium Hermeticum. 12mo. Fran., 1635.

Philadelphia, or Brotherly Love. Lond.

Philalethes (Eirenæus)--Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium,
edente Joanne Langio. 8vo. Amstelodami, 1667.

---- Medulla Alchymiæ. 8vo. Lond., 1664. (_In verse and in English._)

---- Ripley Revised. With the Commentaries of Philalethes. 8vo. Lond.,
1678.

---- Experimenta de Præparatione Mercurii Sophici. 8vo. Amstel., 1668.

---- Enarratio Methodica trium Gebri Medicinarum. 8vo. Amstel., 1668.

---- Tractatus Tres ... edente Martino Birrio. 8vo. Amstel., 1668.

---- Vera Confectio Lapidis Philosophici. 8vo. Amstel., 1678.

---- (Eugenius)--Anthroposophia Theomagica. Anima Magica Abscondita.
8vo. London, 1650.

---- Magia Adamica. Whereunto is added a perfect and full Discovery of
the _Cœlum Terræ_. 8vo. London, 1650.

---- Lumen de Lumine. 8vo. Lond., 1651.

---- Aula Lucis. 1652.

---- Euphrates; or, The Waters of the East. 8vo. Lond., 1655.

---- Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of R. C. With a Declaration
of their Physicall Work. 8vo. Lond., 1659.

---- (Eirenæus Philoponos, _i.e._, George Starkey)--Marrow of Alchemy.
12mo. Lond., 1709.

---- (B. P.)--Enchiridion Alchemiæ. Lond., 1692.

Philalethæ--Tractätlein von Verwandelung der Metallen, &c. 12mo. Ham.,
1675.

Philaleta (T.)--Theosophischer Wunder Saal. 8vo. 1709.

Philosophus Gallus--De Arbore Solari. 8vo. Arg., 1659.

Picus de Mirandola (J. F.)--De Auro. 4to. Venet., 1586.

Pietra de Philosopha Catala. Ascoli, 1737.

Pinæus (V.)--De Concordia Hipoc et Parcels. 8vo. Arg., 1569.

Pittore (M. G.)--Dialogi. Venet., 1550.

Plan--Projet du Plan de la Création. 8vo. Paris, 1653.

Planis Campi (D.)--L’École Transmutatoire. 8vo. Paris, 1633.

---- De la Médecine Universelle. 8vo. Paris, 1633.

Platt (H.)--Jewel House of Art. 4to. Lond., 1594.

Politii (A.)--Libri duo de Quinta Essentia Solutiva. 4to. Panormi, 1613.

Pontanus (John, _adept_)--Sophic Fire. 24mo. Lond., 1624.

---- De Rebus Celestibus. Fiorenza, 1520.

Poppii (J.)--Hodogeticus Chemicus. (_German._) 1627.

Poppius (H.)--Basilica Antimonii. 4to. Fran., 1618.

Porta (J. B.)--De Æris Transmutationibus. 4to. Romæ, 1610.

---- Magia Naturale. Napo., 1611.

Potier (M.)--Apologia Hermetico-Philosophica. 4to. Franc., 1630.

---- De Vera Materia et Processu Lapidis. 8vo. Franc., 1617.

---- Philosophia Pura. 8vo. Francof., 1617.

---- Fons Chimicus, _id est_, Vera Auri Conficienda. 4to. Col., 1637.

---- (P.)--Opera Omnia. (_Disesteemed._) 4to. Franc., 1692.

Privy Seal of Secrets, or First Matter. Lond., 1680.

Processes for the Philosophical Stone. (_German._) 8vo. Jena, 1704.

Prudhomme (P.)--Deux Merveilles. 12mo. Paris, 1669.

Pruggmayr (M.)--De Vero Elixire Vitæ. 8vo. Salisburgi, 1687.

Quercetan (J.)--Hermetical Physic. 4to. London, 1605.

Rabbard’s (Raphael) Book of Alchemy. 4to. Lond., 1591.

Ramsaia (C. A.)--Observationes, J. Kunkell. Rott., 1678.

Rantæ (Mariani), _English Prophetess_--Apocaliptica Clavis Auri
Facturum Brevi Promittens. (_Rare._) 8vo. Tolosæ.

Raphælis (S.)--De Sale, Sulphure, et Mercurio. 12mo.

Rattri (Silv.)--Theatrum Sympatheticum. Norim., 1658.

Reconditiorum Opulentiæ, sapientæque mundi magni, &c. (_Esteemed._)
Amst., 1666.

Regio Salutifera--Prima Materia. 8vo. Fran., 1708.

Reinecerri Thesaurus Chimicus. 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1609.

Renaudot (E.)--De L’Antimoine Justifié. 4to. Paris, 1653.

Respom--Sur L’Esprit Minérale. 12mo. Paris, 1668.

Reyheri (S.)--De Juridice Philosophica. 4to. Kibiæ, 1692.

Rhenani (J.)--Aureus Tractatus. 4to. Franc., 1612.

---- Decades Duæ, seu Syntagma harmoniæ Chimicorum--Rhasis, Merlin,
Guido, Saure, Wittich, Dumbel, Gratian, Antonio, Aquinas, Dastin,
Salamon, Small Rosary. 8vo. Fran., 1625.

---- De Solutione Materiæ. 8vo. Fran., 1635.

Rhodagiri (L.)--De Solutione Philosophica. 8vo. Lugd., 1566.

Richebourg (J. M.)--Bibliothèque. Eighteen tracts. Artephius, Azot,
Ancient War, Bernard, Basil, Flamel, Geber, Hermes, Hortulain, Morien,
Mary, Turba, Zachary. 3 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1741.

Riplei (Georgii, _adept_)--Opera Omnia. 8vo. Casselis, 1649.

---- Treatise of Mercury. Lond., 1680.

---- Bosom Book, Accurtations. 8vo. Lond., 1680.

Riviere (Cesare della)--Il Mondo Magico. Milano, 1605.

Robertus (Valensis)--De Antiquitate Artis Chemiæ. 8vo. Lugd., 1602.

Rochas (H.)--La Physique Demonstrative. 8vo. Paris, 1643.

Rodostanticum Speculum. (_German._) 4to. 1618.

Rodocanacis (C.)--Of Antimony. 4to. Lond., 1664.

Rolfincius (G.)--Mercurius Metallorum et Mineralium. 4to. Jena, 1670.

Rosarium Novum--De Lapide Benedicto. 4to. Germ., 1668.


ROSICRUCIANS.

Communis et Generalis Reformatio Totius Mundi. (_German._) 8vo.
Casselis, 1614.

Fama Fraternitatis of the meritorious order of the R. C. (_German._)
8vo. Casselis, 1614.

Secretioris Philosophiæ Consideratio Brevis à Philippo à Gabella,
Philosophiæ studioso, conscripta; et nunc primum unà cum CONFESSIONE
FRATERNITATIS R. C., in lucem edita. 4to. Cassellis, 1615.

Exercitatio Paracelsica Nova de Notandis ex Scripto Fraternitatis de
Rosea Cruce. (_See_ Andreas Libavius’ Examen Philosophiæ Novæ, quæ
veteri abrogandæ opponitur.) Fol. 1615.

Analysis Confessionis Fraternitatis de Rosea Cruce pro admonitione et
instructione eorum, qui, quia judicandum sit de ista nova factione
scire cupiant. Fol. 1615.

Chymische Hochzeit: Christiani Rosencreutz. Anno 1459. 8vo. Strasbourg,
1616.

Echo of the God-illuminated Brotherhood of the Worthy Order R. C. (? By
Julius Sperber). 8vo. Dantzig, 1615.

Julianus de Campis--An Open Letter or Report addressed to all who have
read anything concerning the new Brotherhood of the R. C. (_German._)
8vo. 1616.

Andreas Libavius--Well wishing Objections concerning the Fame and
Confessions of the Brotherhood of the R. C. (_German._) 8vo. Francfurt,
1616.

Fama Remissa ad Fratres Roseæ Crucis. (_German._) 8vo. 1616.

Radtichs Brotoffer--Elucidarius Major, oder Ekleuchterunge über die
Reformatio der Ganzen Weiten Welt. 8vo. 1617.

Fraternitatis Rosatæ Crucis Confessio Recepta. (Written by A. O. M. T.
W.) 8vo. 1617.

Fredericus G. Menapius (_i.e._, Johann Valentin Alberti)--Epitimia F.
R. C. The Final Manifestation or Discovery of the worthy and worshipful
Order R. C.... Written by command of the above-mentioned Society by
Irenæus Agnostus (Menapius). _An attack on the Society._ (_German._)
8vo. 1619.

---- I. Menapius Roseæ Crucis, to wit: Objections on the part of the
Unanimous Brotherhood against the obscure and unknown writer, F. G.
Menapius. (_With other matters. Is also a covert attack written by
Menapius._) 8vo. 1619. (_German._)

Florentinus de Valentia--Rosa Florescens contra F. G. Menapii
Calumniis. 8vo. 1617.

Judicia de Statu Fraternitatis de Rosea Cruce. 12mo. 1617.

Responsum ad Fratres Rosaceæ Crucis Illustres. 12mo. 1618.

F. R. C.--Fama e Scanzia Redux. 12mo. 1618.

φλενοθιονρεδας.--Hoc est Redintegratio. (_Addressed to the Brotherhood
of the Rose Cross._) 8vo. 1619.

Johann Valentin Andreas--Turris Babel, sive Judicium de Fraternitatis
Roseæ Crucis Chaos. 24mo. Argentorati, 1619.

S. R. (_i.e._, Sincerus Renatus, a pseudonym of Sigmund
Richter)--Perfect and True Preparation of the Philosophical Stone,
according to the Secret of the Brotherhood of the Golden and Rosy
Cross. With the Rules of the above-mentioned Order for the Initiation
of New Members. 8vo. Breslau, 1710.

Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries. Fol. Altona, 1785-88.

Joachim Fritz (? Robert Fludd)--Summum Bonum, quod est verum subjectum
veræ magicæ, cabalæ, alchymiæ Fratrum Roseæ Crucis verorum in dictarum
scientiarum laudem, et insignis calumniatoris ... M. Mersenni dedecus
publicatum. Fol. Francfurt, 1629.

Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes)--The Fame and Confession of
the Fraternity of R. C., with a Preface annexed thereto, and a short
declaration of their Physicall Work. 8vo. London, 1652.

John Heydon--The Rosie Crucian Infallible Axiomata. 12mo. London, 1660.

---- The Holy Guide, leading the Way to the Wonder of the World. 8vo.
London, 1662.

---- Theomagia; or, The Temple of Wisdome. In three parts--spirituall,
celestiall, and elementall. 8vo. London, 1662-3-4.

---- The Wise Man’s Crown, or The Glory of the Rosy Cross. 8vo. London,
1664.

---- El Havarevna; or The English Physitian’s Tutor in the
Astrobolismes of Mettals Rosie Crucian. 8vo. London, 1665.

Hargrave Jennings--The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries. With
chapters on the Ancient Fire and Serpent Worshippers, and Explanations
of the Mystic Symbols Represented on the Monuments and Talismans of the
Primeval Philosophers. 8vo. London, 1870.

Arthur Edward Waite--The Real History of the Rosicrucians. Founded on
their own Manifestoes and on Facts and Documents collected from the
writings of Initiated Brethren. 8vo. London, 1887.

       *       *       *       *       *

Rosnel (P.)--Le Mercure Indien. (_Curious._) 4to. Paris, 1672.

Rossello (T.)--Secreti Universali. 8vo. Venet., 1574.

Rossinus (H.)--De Opera Dei Creationis. 4to. Fran., 1597.

Rothscoltzii (F.)--Bibliotheca Chimica. 4to. 1719.

---- Bibliotheca Chemia Curiosa Adornata. 12mo. Noren., 1720.

Rouillac (P.)--Practica Operis Magni. 8vo. Lugd., 1582.

Rousselet--La Chrysospagirie. 8vo. Lyons, 1582.

Rudenius (M.)--Bendencten Von der Alchimistichen Artzen Kunst. 8vo.
Lip., 1605.

Ruelli (J.)--De Natura Stribium. 2 vols. 8vo. Venet., 1538.

Rullandi (M.)--Progymnasmata Alchimiæ. 8vo. Fran., 1607.

Rullandi (M.)--Lexicon Alchimiæ. 4to. Fran., 1612.

Rupecissa (Johan, _adept_)--Cœlum Philosophorum. 8vo. Parisiis, 1543.

---- De Quinta Essentia Rerum Omnium. 8vo. Basil, 1561.

---- De Secretis Alchemiæ. 4to. Col. Agi., 1579.

---- Livre de Lumière. 16mo. Paris.

Sabor (Chr. Fer.)--Practica Naturæ vera Preparatio Lapidis Mineralis de
Antimonio. (_German._) 8vo. 1721.

Saignier (J.)--Magni Lapidis Naturalis Philosophia. 4to. Brem., 1664.

Saint Romain--Effets de la Pierre Divine. 12mo. Paris, 1679.

Salæ (Angeli)--Opera Medico-Chymica Omnia. 4to. Rothomagi, 1650.

Sale (De)--De Secreto Philosophorum. 8vo. Cass., 1651.

Salmon (William, M.D.)--Hermes, Kalid, Pontanus, Artephius, Geber,
Flamel, Bacon, Ripley. 8vo. Lond., 1692.

---- Bibliothèque. Containing twelve tracts by reputed adepts. 12mo.
Paris, 1672.

Saltzhal (S.)--De Potentissima Medicina Univali. 8vo. Argent., 1659.

Sapientia--Clavis Majoris Sapientiæ (Artephius). 8vo. Paris, 1609.

Sawtree (John)--Of the Philosopher’s Stone. 4to. Lond., 1652.

Schennemannus (H.)--De Medecina Reformata seu denario
Hermetico-Chemico. 8vo. Fran., 1617.

Schleron (H.)--De Lapide Philosophorum. 8vo. Marpus, 1612.

Schlussel--Zur Findung dess Steins der Weissen. 8vo. Leip., 1706.

Scholzii (L.)--Summum Philosophiæ. Fol. Hano., 1610.

Schotti (C.)--Physica Curiosa cum Figuris. 4to. Herb., 1667.

---- Mirabilia Artis. 2 v. 4to. Norim., 1664.

Schuleri (C.)--De Miraculo Chemico. 1616.

Schwertzer (Sibald)--Chrysopœiæ. (_Esteemed._) 8vo. Hamb., 1618.

Scientia Exemplar (_ex Lagneo_). 4to. Ulm., 1641.

Scot (Patrick)--Tillage of Light. 8vo. Lond., 1623.

Scoti (Michael)--De Secretis Naturæ. 12mo. Fran., 1614.

Sebilista (W.)--Manuale Hermeticum. 4to. Wolf., 1655.

Secrets Disclosed of the Philosopher’s Stone. 24mo. 1680.

Seilerus--Of a Transmuting Powder Found. 4to. Lond., 1633.

Sel--Du Sel de Sapience. (_Disesteemed_). 8vo. Paris, 1619.

Semita Rectitudinis de Alchemia. 8vo. Gratianopoli, 1614.

Sendivogius (Mich.)--De Vero Sale. (_Spurious._) Franc., 1651.

---- New Light of Alchymy.

Senfrid (J. H.)--Medulla Naturæ. 8vo. Taltzlach, 1679.

Sennertus (D.)--Institutions of Chemistry. 8vo. London.

Severini (Petri)--Totius Philos. Adeptæ. 8vo. Basil, 1572.

Severino (Scipione)--Triomfo d’Ell Alchimia. 8vo. Venet., 1691.

---- Filosofia Alchemia. Venet., 1695.

---- Commentary on Lully. (_Italian._) 1684.

Seyfarti (A.)--Klar und Deutliche Luorterung. 8vo. Leypsich, 1723.

Sferza (La)--De Gli Alchemisti. Lion., 1665.

Sidrach--Le Grand Fontaine de Science. 4to. Paris, 1514.

Simpson--Of Fermentation. Lond., 1675.

Snoyus (R.)--De Arte Alchimiæ. Fol. Francof., 1620.

Sol Sine Vesta (_anonymous adept_). Amst., 1684.

Spacheri (S.)--Alchimia, cum Figuris. 4to. 1616.

Sperberi (J.)--Argumentum in Veram Triunius Dei et Naturæ. 8vo. Hamb.,
1672.

---- De Materia Lapidis. 8vo. Hamb., 1674.

Stahli (G. E.)--Fundamenta Chimiæ. 4to. Norim., 1723.

Starky (G.)--Pyrotechny Asserted. 12mo. Lond., 1658.

---- Nature’s Explication. 1658.

---- Marrow of Chemical Physic. 12mo. 1661.

Steebe (I. S.)--Elixir Solis. 12mo. Francof., 1672.

---- Cœlum Sephiroticum. Fol. Moguntiæ, 1679.

Stisseri (J. A.)--Acta Laboratorii Jesiæ. 4to. Helen., 1701.

Stolcii (D.)--Viridiarium Chimicum, cum Figuris. Franc., 1624.

---- Hortulus Hermeticus, cum Figuris. 8vo. Franc., 1627.

Struthius (J.)--Medecina Priscorum. Lugd., 1600.

Struvius (E. G.)--Chimicum sine Igne. 8vo. Jenæ, 1715.

Surmiti (J.)--Physica Electiva. 4to. Nor., 1697.

---- In Collegium Experimentale Curiosum. 4to. Norim., 1701.

Suchten (Alex.)--Clavis Alchemiæ. (_German._) 8vo. Montis., 1614.

---- Secrets of Antimony. 8vo. Lond., 1670.

Sudum Philosophicum. 8vo. Hamb., 1660.

Swedenburgii (Em.)--Regnum Minerale. 3 v. Fol. Liq., 1734.

Synes--De Sapientia Divina. 12mo. Lutet., 1635.

T. W.--Marrow of Chemical Physic. Lond., 1659.

Tabulæ Septem Synopsim Lapidis. Erph., 1598.

Tachemius (Oth)--De Liquore Alkæst. 4to. Hamb., 1655.

---- Hippocrates’ Viperine Salt. 4to. London, 1677.

Tackii (J.)--Triplex Phasis Sophicus Solis arbe expiditus. 4to. Franc.,
1673.

Tankins (J.)--Collection of Alchemy in German. Leipsic, 1610.

Teichmeyeri (H. F.)--Institutiones. Jenæ, 1729.

Tenzelius (A.)--Medecina Diastatica. 12mo. Jenæ, 1629.

Theatrum Chimicum. Two hundred and nine treatises by Arnold, Albert,
Augmelli, Aristotle, Aquinas, Alanus, Alvetanus, Alphonso, Avicenna,
Artephius, Aphorisms, Bacon, Balbius, Bernard, Bernaud, Bona,
Brentzius, Brosse, Blawenstein, Caravantis, Colleson, Christopher, Dee,
Dornea, Democritus, Egidius, Eck, Ficinus, Fanian, Flamel, Ferarius,
Gaston, Greverius, Grossius, Haymonis, Hermes, Hogheland, Hornius,
Isaac, Kalid, Lagneus, Lasinoro, Lavinius, Lacinius, Lampsprink, Lully,
Muffetus, Mary, P. Mirandola, Micreris, Meneus, Monachus, Nigrius,
Orthelius, Odomar, Ortholan, Ponlanus, Penotus, Pantheus, Plato,
Phedio, Quercetan, Rhedargii, Rupecissa, Ripley, Richard, Rosary,
Phasis, Sendivogius, Silento, M. Scott, Trithemius, Turba, Troginani,
Vogelius, Ventma, Vallensis, Vigenerus, Zacharia, Zonetus, Zadith. 6 v.
8vo. Argent., 1662.

Theobaldi (Zach.)--Arcana Naturæ. 4to. Norin., 1628.

Thomæ Aquinatis--Secreta Alchemiæ. 4to. Colon., 1579.

---- Thesaurus Alchemiæ. 8vo. Lugd., 1602.

---- De Esse et Essentia Mineralium. (_Spurious._) 4to. Venet., 1488.

Thor (G.)--Cheiragogia Heliana. (_English._) 8vo. Lond., 1659.

Thornburgh (John)--Nihil, aliquid, omnia in gratiam eorum qui artem
auriferam Phisico-chimice et pie profitentur. 4to., Oxon., 1621.

Thurneyssers (Leo.)--Hoechste sublilitad der Alchimia. 4to. Munst.,
1569.

Tombeau de la Pauvreté, par Atramont. 12mo. Par., 1673.

Tombeau de Semiramis. 8vo. Par., 1689.

Tractat--Gulden Rose Chit der Natur, &c. 8vo. 1706.

Tractatus Antiquorum Arcanorum. 8vo. 1612.

Tractat. 7 Von Stein der Weissen. 8vo. Ham.

Tranas Facilis ad Hermetis Artem. 12mo. Corolopili, 1686.

Transformation Métallique. 8vo. Paris, 1651.

Transfiguratione Metallorum (De). 8vo. Hanov., 1593.

Treasure of Treasures. 24mo. Lond., 1680.

Tres Tractatus de Metallorum Transmutatione. Amst., 1668.

Trinum--Koffski, Alphidius, and Lully. 8vo. Arg., 1699.

Triomphe Hermétique (_i.e._, Ancient War of the Knights). 12mo. Amst.,
1689.

Trifolium Hermeticum. (_German._) 1629.

Trimosin (S., _adept_)--La Toison d’Or. 8vo. 1611.

Trithemius (J.)--De Lapide Phil. 8vo. 1611.

Trinum Magicum Opus Secretorum. 12mo. Tran., 16, 1809.

Trompette de Philosophie Hermétique. 12mo. Paris.

Tubicum Conviviale Hermeticum. 4to. Gedani, 1682.

Tymme (J.)--Nature’s Closet Opened. 4to. Lond., 1612.

Ulstadii (P.)--Cœlum Philosophorum. 12mo. Lugd., 1553.

Untzerus (M.)--Anatomia Mercurii. 4to. Hale Sax., 1620.

Urbigero (Baro., _adept_)--Aphorisms. 12mo. Lond., 1690.

Vallensis (R.)--De Veritate et Antiquitate Artis Chemicæ. 16mo. Par.,
1651.

Valentine (Basil, _adept_)--Last Will, Practica, Twelve Keys, Manual,
Natural and Supernatural Things, Microcosm, &c. 8vo. Lond., 1671.

---- Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 8vo. 1656.

---- Scripta Chimica. 8vo. Hamburgi, 1700.

Vallerlis (V.)--Lulliam Explicano. 4to. August., 1589.

Vanderlinden--De Scriptis Medecis. 4to. Norim., 1686.

Vanner (T.)--Way to Long Life. 4to. Lond., 1623.

Vannucio Pyrotecnia della Minere. 4to. Venet., 1540.

Vargas (B. P.)--De Re Metallica. 8vo. Madrid, 1569.

Vigam of Verona--Medulla Chymiæ. Lond., 1683.

Vigenerus (B.)--Of True Fire and Salt. Lond., 1649.

Vigani (J. A.)--Medulla Chymiæ. Lug. Bat., 1693.

Villanova (Arnoldus de)--Opera Omnia--Conversion of Metals, Rosary,
Speculum, Questions, Flos Florum, &c. Fol. Lugd., 1520.

Villanovani (Petri), _compiler_--Speculum. Duæ, 1626.

Vittestein--De Quinta Essentia. 8vo. Basil, 1582.

Vogelii (Ewal.)--De Lapide Physici. Colon., 1575.

Vonderbeet (D.)--Experimenta. Ferrariæ, 1688.

Wallerus--Chemia Physica. 8vo. Lond.

Water--The Water Stone of the Wise. 8vo. Lond., 1659.

Webster’s History of Metals. 4to. Lond., 1671.

Wecker (Dr, of Basle)--Secrets. 8vo. Lyons, 1643.

Weidenfeld (J. J.)--Secrets of the Adepts. 4to. Lond., 1685.

Weidnerus (J.)--De Arte Chimica. 4to. Basil, 1610.

Wickffbain (J. P.)--Salamandra. Norimb., 1683.

Williams (W.)--Occult Physics. 8vo. Lond., 1660.

Willis (T.)--Theophisical Alchemy. 8vo. Lond., 1616.

---- Opera Omnia Medicin. 2 v. Lugd., 1681.

Wilson (G.)--Three Hundred Unknown Experiments. Lond., 1699.

Wirdig (Sebas.)--Medicina Spiritum. Norimberg, 1675.

Wittestein (C.)--De Quinta Essentia. 8vo. Basil, 1583.

Wittichius (J.)--De Lapide Philos. 8vo. Francof., 1625.

Zacharia--Clavis Spagirica. 4to. Venet., 1611.

Zacharii (D., _adept_)--La Vraie Philosophie des Metaux. 8vo. Anvers.,
1567.

---- De Chimico Miracule. 8vo. Basil, 1583.

Zadith--Antiquissimi Philos. 8vo. Argent., 1566.

Zelator (J.)--Alchemistici. 8vo. Basil, 1606.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Note._--The titles of some of the treatises enumerated above have been
mutilated by the original bibliographers, and owing to the extreme
rarity of most alchemical books, it has been impossible to correct all
errors.




APPENDIX.


I.

The life of Denis Zachaire has been made the subject of an interesting
and well-written novel--“A Professor of Alchemy”--by “Percy Ross,”
recently published by Mr George Redway. The life of the great adept,
after his accomplishment of the Magnum Opus, is detailed at some
length, M. Louis Figuier being apparently the authority for the bare
facts of the case. The alchemist is represented by the French writer
as having travelled to Lausanne, where he became enamoured of a young
and beautiful lady, whom he carried from Switzerland into Germany, and
then abandoned himself completely to a life of dissipation and folly,
which closed tragically at Cologne in the year 1556. He was strangled
in the middle of a drunken sleep by the cousin who had accompanied
him in his travels, and who coveted his wealth and his mistress. The
murderer effected his escape with the lady, who appears to have been
his accomplice. The sole authority for this narrative appears to be a
poem by Mardoché de Delle, who was attached, as a sort of laureate, to
the court of Rodolph II. It is not improbably a mere invention of the
versifier; there is nothing in the sober treatise of Denis Zachaire,
written at the period in question, to give colour to the account of his
extravagance.


II.

The manuscript volume entitled “Egyptian Freemasonry” fell, with
the other papers of Cagliostro, into the hands of the Inquisition,
and was solemnly condemned in the judgment as containing rites,
propositions, a doctrine and a system which opened a broad road to
sedition and were calculated to destroy the Christian religion. The
book was characterised as superstitious, blasphemous, impious, and
heretical. It was publicly burnt by the hands of the executioner, with
the instruments belonging to the sect. Some valuable particulars
concerning it are, however, preserved in the Italian life; they are
reproduced from the original proceedings published at Rome by order of
the Apostolic Chamber.

“It may be necessary to enter into some details concerning Egyptian
Masonry. We shall extract our facts from a book compiled by himself,
and now in our possession, by which he owns he was always directed in
the exercise of his functions, and from which those regulations and
instructions were copied, wherewith he enriched many mother lodges. In
this treatise, which is written in French, he promises to conduct his
disciples to perfection by means of physical and moral regeneration,
to confer perpetual youth and beauty on them, and restore them to that
state of innocence which they were deprived of by means of original
sin. He asserts that Egyptian Masonry was first propagated by Enoch
and Elias, but that since that time it has lost much of its purity
and splendour. Common masonry, according to him, has degenerated into
mere buffoonery, and women have of late been entirely excluded from
its mysteries; but the time was now arrived when the grand Copt was
about to restore the glory of masonry, and allow its benefits to be
participated by both sexes.

“The statutes of the order then follow in rotation, the division of
the members into three distinct classes, the various signs by which
they might discover each other, the officers who are to preside over
and regulate the society, the stated times when the members are to
assemble, the erection of a tribunal for deciding all differences that
may arise between the several lodges or the particular members of each,
and the various ceremonies which ought to take place at the admission
of the candidates. In every part of this book the pious reader is
disgusted with the sacrilege, the profanity, the superstition, and the
idolatry with which it abounds--the invocations in the name of God, the
prostrations, the adorations paid to the Grand Master, the fumigations,
the incense, the exorcisms, the emblems of the Divine Triad, of the
moon, of the sun, of the compass, of the square, and a thousand other
scandalous particulars, with which the world is at present well
acquainted.

“The Grand Copt, or chief of the lodge, is compared to God the Father.
He is invoked upon every occasion; he regulates all the actions of
the members and all the ceremonies of the lodge, and he is even
supposed to have communication with angels and with the Divinity. In
the exercise of many of the rites they are desired to repeat the _Veni_
and the _Te Deum_--nay, to such an excess of impiety are they enjoined,
that in reciting the psalm _Memento Domine David_, the name of the
Grand Master is always to be substituted for that of the King of Israel.

“People of all religions are admitted into the society of Egyptian
Masonry--the Jew, the Calvinist, the Lutheran, are to be received into
it as well as the Catholic--provided they believe in the existence of
God and the immortality of the soul, and have been previously allowed
to participate in the mysteries of the common masonry. When men are
admitted, they receive a pair of garters from the Grand Copt, as is
usual in all lodges, for their mistresses; and when women are received
into the society, they are presented by the Grand Mistress with a
cockade, which they are desired to give to that man to whom they are
most attached.

“We shall here recount the ceremonies made use of on admitting a female.

“The candidate having presented herself, the Grand Mistress (Madame
Cagliostro generally presided in that capacity) breathes upon her face
from the forehead to the chin, and then says, ‘I breathe upon you on
purpose to inspire you with the virtues which we possess, so that
they may take root and flourish in your heart, I thus fortify your
soul, I thus confirm you in the faith of your brethren and sisters,
according to the engagements which you have contracted with them. We
now admit you as a daughter of the Egyptian lodge. We order that you be
acknowledged in that capacity by all the brethren and sisters of the
Egyptian lodges, and that you enjoy with them the same prerogatives as
with ourselves.’

“The Grand Master thus addresses the male candidate: ‘In virtue of the
power which I have received from the Grand Copt, the founder of our
order, and by the particular grace of God, I hereby confer upon you the
honour of being admitted into our lodge in the name of Helios, Mene,
Tetragrammaton.’

“In a book, said to be printed at Paris in 1789, it is asserted that
the last words were suggested to Cagliostro, as sacred and cabalistical
expressions by a pretended conjuror, who said that he was assisted
by a spirit, and that this spirit was no other than the soul of a
cabalistical Jew, who by means of the magical art had murdered his own
father before the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

“Common masons have been accustomed to regard St John as their patron,
and to celebrate the festival of that saint. Cagliostro also adopted
him as his protector, and it is not a little remarkable that he was
imprisoned at Rome on the very festival of his patron. The reason for
his veneration of this great prophet was, if we are to believe himself,
the great similarity between the Apocalypse and the rites of his
institution.

“We must here observe that when any of his disciples were admitted into
the highest class, the following execrable ceremony took place. A young
boy or girl, in the state of virgin innocence and purity, was procured,
who was called the pupil, and to whom power was given over the seven
spirits that surround the throne of the divinity and preside over the
seven planets. Their names according to Cagliostro’s book are Anaël,
Michaël, Raphaël, Gabriel, Uriel, Zobiachel, and Anachiel. The pupil
is then made use of as an intermediate agent between the spiritual and
physical worlds, and being clothed in a long white robe, adorned with a
red ribbon, and blue silk festoons, he is shut up in a little closet.
From that place he gives response to the Grand Master, and tells
whether the spirits and Moses have agreed to receive the candidates
into the highest class of Egyptian masons....

“In his instructions to obtain the moral and physical regeneration
which he had promised to his disciples, he is exceedingly careful
to give a minute description of the operations to which they are to
submit. Those who are desirous of experiencing the moral regeneration
are to retire from the world for the space of forty days, and to
distribute their time into certain proportions. Six hours are to be
employed in reflection, three in prayer to the Deity, nine in the holy
operations of Egyptian Masonry, while the remaining period is to be
dedicated to repose. At the end of the thirty-three days a visible
communication is to take place between the patient and the seven
primitive spirits, and on the morning of the fortieth day his soul will
be inspired with divine knowledge, and his body be as pure as that of a
new-born infant.

“To procure a physical regeneration, the patient is to retire into the
country in the month of May, and during forty days is to live according
to the most strict and austere rules, eating very little, and then
only laxative and sanative herbs, and making use of no other drink
than distilled water, or rain that has fallen in the course of the
month. On the seventeenth day, after having let blood, certain white
drops are to be taken, six at night and six in the morning, increasing
them two a day in progression. In three days more a small quantity of
blood is again to be let from the arm before sunrise, and the patient
is to retire to bed till the operation is completed. A grain of the
_panacea_ is then to be taken; this panacea is the same as that of
which God created man when He first made him immortal. When this is
swallowed the candidate loses his speech and his reflection for three
entire days, and he is subject to frequent convulsions, struggles, and
perspirations. Having recovered from this state, in which, however, he
experiences no pain whatever, on the thirty-sixth day, he takes the
third and last grain of the panacea, which causes him to fall into a
profound and tranquil sleep; it is then that he loses his hair, his
skin, and his teeth. These again are all reproduced in a few hours, and
having become a new man, on the morning of the fortieth day he leaves
his room, enjoying a complete rejuvenescence, by which he is enabled
to live 5557 years, or to such time as he, of his own accord, may be
desirous of going to the world of spirits.”


CONCERNING THE LODGE OF FREEMASONS DISCOVERED AT ROME.

The final chapter of the Italian life of Cagliostro, which appeared
before the death of its subject, contains a curious and interesting
account under the above title. The lodge was situated in the quarter
of the city called the Holy Trinity of the Mountain. It was visited on
the night of Cagliostro’s capture, but the members had been evidently
forewarned; they had taken precautions as to their personal safety,
had removed the symbols of their craft and the greater part of their
books and papers, which perhaps, says the writer, contained secrets
of great importance. The Inquisition claims to have a true insight,
notwithstanding, into the origin, establishment, and other particulars
of this lodge, drawn in part from the depositions of “a multitude of
well-informed persons.”

The founders were seven in number, five Frenchmen, an American, and
a Pole, all of whom had been previously initiated into other lodges.
It assumed the title of the Lodge of the Reunion of True Friends,
and the first meeting took place on November 1, 1787. Proselytes
were immediately made, and included candidates who had not been
received into any other society. Its numbers rapidly increased, and
to establish it with all the necessary formalities approbation was
procured from the Mother Lodge at Paris, and a deputy was sent to
reside in that city as its representative. Its letters were transported
by special messengers. Mention is made in the register of archives
kept under three locks, in which the statutes, the mysteries, and
the symbols transmitted from Paris were preserved, with all the most
interesting speeches delivered within the lodge. However, the Egyptian
lodge is affirmed to have been in this instance devoid of special
characteristics. The list of its officers was as follows:--

1. The Venerable, or Grand Master.

2. The Superintendent, or Deputy Grand Master.

3. The Terrible.

4. The Master of the Ceremonies.

5. The Treasurer.

6. The Almoner.

7. The Secretary.

8. The Orator, or Export Broker.

The entire Lodge was composed of two chambers, or halls. The first
was called the Chamber of Reflections. A death’s head was placed on a
table, and above it were two inscriptions in French, which contained
an arcane significance. The second apartment was called the Temple;
it was adorned according to the various rites performed in it. On
all occasions it was provided with a throne, on which the Venerable
constantly sat. Some emblems of masonry adorned the walls--among them
were the sun, moon, and planets. On the two sides of the throne several
magnificent pillars were placed, and opposite to these the brotherhood
were arranged in order, each of them wearing his leathern apron, and
a black ribbon in the form of a deacon’s stole about his neck, while
in his hands, which were covered with a pair of white gloves, he
brandished a naked sword, a hammer, or a compass, according to the
different formalities prescribed by the institution.

With the secret signs and passports, the Inquisition does not seem to
have been acquainted.




INDEX.


  Abraham the Jew, 99

  Adfar, an Arabian adept of Alexandria, 53

  Alain of Lisle, 67

  Albertus Magnus, 57

  Alcahest, 157

  Alchemy--Diversity of opinion on the object of alchemical science, 9;
    the avowed object, 10;
    the aim said to be concealed, 11;
    symbolism of the science, 11;
    distinction between alchemy and chemistry, 21;
    alchemy as a factor in the progress of the physical sciences, 27;
    physical nature of the alchemical aim established by the lives and
      writings of the adepts, 29;
    side issues of alchemical theories, 32;
    application of alchemy to the extension of life, 65;
    modification of the human body by alchemy, 65;
    alchemy the science of the four elements, 93;
    the Seal of God set on the secret of alchemy, 165

  Alfarabi, 48

  Alipili, 22, 23

  Altotas, 221, 234

  Ancient War of the Knights, 43

  Anima Magica Abscondita, 21

  Anonymous adept, 184

  Antimony, Basil Valentine’s preparation for the study of, 17;
    the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, 121

  Aphrodite Urania, 37

  Apono, Peter d’, 88

  Aquinas, St Thomas, 61

  Argent Vive--Reduction of metals into sophic Argent Vive, 87;
    the Medicine of all Metals, 90;
    the first thing to be ascertained in alchemy is the significance of
      this term, 92

  Arnold de Villanova, 88

  Ars Lulliana, 68

  Avicenna, 51

  Azoth, or The Star in the East, a forthcoming work on the psychic
    potencies which enter into the higher act of transmutation, on the
    mysteries of spiritual chemistry, and on the possibilities of
    practical transcendentalism, 37


  Bacon, Roger, 63

  Balsamo, Joseph, Travels, Adventures, and Imprisonments, 220

  Basil, Valentine, 120

  Belin, Albert, 186

  Berigard of Pisa, 148

  Bird, William, unknown adept, 150

  Böhme, Jacob, 161

  Bono, Peter, 118

  Borri, Guiseppe Francesco, 208

  Botticher, John Frederich, neophyte, 212

  Braccesco, Giovanni, 151

  Busardier, unknown adept, 182

  Butler, 168


  Cagliostro, Count Allesandro, name assumed by Balsamo, 230

  Calcination, an alchemical process, 13, 19

  Canons of Espagnet, 19

  Charnock, Thomas, 148

  Chemistry, said to have no connection with alchemy, 14;
    distinction between alchemy and chemistry, 21, 25;
    a counter view, 44

  Contemplation, a preparation for alchemical practices, 18

  Cremer, John, pseudo-abbot of Westminster, 83


  Dalton, Thomas, 133

  Dee, John, 153

  Delisle, 216

  D’Espagnet, Jean, 170;
    on the obstacles which beset the alchemist, 39

  Diana Unveiled, 180

  Dissolution, an alchemical process, 12

  Dominic, St, said to have been an adept, 58

  Dubois, descendant of Flamel, 114

  Dunstan, St, Book of, 154, 155


  Egyptian Masonry, 245, 250, and Appendix II.

  Elias the Artist, 193

  Eliphas Lévi, 82

  Elixir, the White and Red, 195

  _Étoile Flamboyante_, 59

  Eugenius Philalethes, 21, 31, 189

  Exaltation, an alchemical process, 32


  Fabre, Pierre Jean, 200

  Ferarius, 92

  Figuier, Louis, alchemical critic, 27, 63

  Fioravanti, Leonardi, 153

  Flamel, Nicholas, 95

  Fontaine, John, 129


  Galip, 55

  Geber, 44

  Generation of Metals, 38, 48, 133

  Goëtic magic, 65

  Gold, 10, 28, 140

  Grand Magisterium, 57, 123

  Grand Secret and Grand Act, 170, 189

  Great Art, 130

  Grimoire, 60

  Gustenhover, 181


  Helmont, J. B. Van, 166

  Helvetius, John Frederick, 201

  Hermetic--Aim of Hermetic science, 29;
    true method of Hermetic interpretation, 30;
    supreme secret of Hermetic philosophy, 66;
    the Hermetic art a gift of God, 68

  Heydon, John, 210

  Hitchcock--His Remarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists, 10, 14, 23, 30


  Interpretation of Hermetic theories, &c.--Hermetic typology, 10;
    the moral method, 13;
    the Psychic method, 122

  Invocation as a preparation for the practice of alchemy, 17

  Isaac of Holland, 123


  Jean de Meung, 90

  Johannes de Rupecissa, 119

  John XXII., Pope, 93


  Kalid, an initiated monarch, 54

  Khunrath, Henry, 159;
    treats of spiritual alchemy, 33, 36


  Lascaris, 211

  Lavures, alchemical operations, 112

  Light--Veritable light of alchemy, 15;
    vision in the Divine Light, 16;
    light the First Matter of the Magnum Opus, 38


  Magic Chain, 22

  Magnum Opus--The first Matter of the Magnum Opus in its psychic aspect
    to be revealed in a forthcoming work, AZOTH, OR THE STAR IN THE
    EAST, 37;
    processes for the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus, 42;
    these described by Arnold, 90;
    the composition of the Stone is the accomplishment of the Magnum
      Opus, 152;
    manner of the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus described in “The
      Adventures of an Unknown Philosopher,” 186

  Maier, Michael, 58, 87, 160

  Man--The concealed subject of every adept, 11;
    the mystic vase of election, 14

  Manuel, Domenico, 215

  Mary of Alexandria, 36

  Matter, the first matter of the Magnum Opus, said to be gold, 28;
    defined as a fifth element, 39;
    one only and self-same thing, 40;
    its true nature not disclosed by the adepts, 41;
    its informing spirit variously adaptable, 43;
    a duplex nature, 53;
    contained in silver and gold, 87;
    the seed of every metal can be reduced into the first matter, 93;
    figured in the book of Rabbi Abraham, 103;
    found by Nicholas Flamel, 106;
    mercury the true first matter, 118;
    the matter of the philosophical stone a viscous water, 119;
    said to be Saturn, or lead, 124;
    is found everywhere, 136;
    may be discovered by studying the best books of the philosophers,
      145

  Medicine--Properties of a universal medicine attributed to the Stone,
    13;
    the Stone a medicine for metals and man, 32;
    life is prolonged by the stone, 123;
    application of the tincture as a medicine for the human body, 148

  Mercury--Identified with the supernatural, 11;
    obstacles to its discovery, 39;
    sophic mercury described by Avicenna, 52;
    mercury the water of metals, 129;
    a matchless treasure, 197

  Morien, 53

  Morning Star, 36


  New Birth, 11, 12

  Norton, Thomas, 130


  Obereit, John Hermann, 219

  One Thing Needful--The exaltation of the cognising faculty, 15

  Orizon Æternitatis, mystical term of Paracelsus, 36


  Palingenesis, 92

  Philalethes, Eirenæus, 187;
    on the Aqua Philosophorum, 22

  Picus de Mirandola, 136

  Psychic Chemistry--A Scheme of Absolute Reconstruction, 36;
    accomplished by the Divine Power in the Soul, 22;
    general observations on spiritual alchemistry, 32-37


  Regnauld, Brother, 63

  Rhasis, 46

  Richthausen, his transmutations with stolen powder, 183

  Ripley, George, 134;
    his description of the Stone, 41;
    supposed to have initiated Thomas Norton, 130

  Romance of the Rose, 90

  Rose Nobles, 82, 84, 86

  Rosicrucians--Had other alchemical objects than metallic
    transmutations, 36;
    the associates defended by Michael Maier, 160;
    initiation offered by the Rosicrucians to Sendivogius, 179


  Sendivogius, Michael, 175;
    “The New Light of Alchemy” falsely ascribed to this neophyte, 21, 31

  Separation an alchemical process, 12, 17

  Sethon, Alexander, 171

  Son of the Sun, 37

  Sophistication of metals, 62

  Starkey, George, 165, 195, 197, &c.

  Stone of the Philosophers--Said to be a symbol of immortality, 13;
    analogous in its nature to the state of primeval man, 31;
    Transmutation accomplished by its means, 38;
    in appearance a subtle, brown, and opaque earth, 132;
    dark, disesteemed, and grey in colour, 165;
    the seed out of which gold and silver are generated, 201

  Subject of Alchemy--According to Hitchcock, 13;
    according to George Starkey, 24

  Suggestive inquiry concerning the Hermetic Mystery, 9, 14, 17, 24, 30,
    34

  Sulphur (Sophic)--Said to symbolise Nature, 11;
    sophic sulphur and the conscience, 12;
    difficulties in its discovery, 39;
    described by Avicenna, 52


  Transmutation--Doubts as to the significance of the term, 9;
    identified with spiritual conversion, 13;
    the physical theory of Transmutation, 38, &c.;
    possibility of the fact, 33

  Transmutations performed by adepts and their emissaries, 84, 94, 106,
    118, 133, 136, 148, 156, 167, 168, 177, 178, 181, 183, 184, 185,
    196, 201-208, 212-216, 217, 218

  Trévisan, Bernard, 124;
    honoured by Philalethes, 194

  Tschoudy, Baron, 39

  Typology--Possibility of an infinite variety of interpretations of any
    sequence of typology, 29


  Urbigerus--His alchemical aphorisms, 40


  Vase of the Philosophers--Identified with man, 14;
    its true nature unexplained by adepts, 41;
    described by Geber, 46

  Vaughan, Thomas, 187


  Wisdom Faculty, 15

  Wood of Life, 152


  Zachaire, Denis, 140


_Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh._




PUBLISHED BY MR GEORGE REDWAY.


_With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Historico-Symbolical Binding. 454 pp,
price 7s. 6d._

 =THE REAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.= Founded on their own
 Manifestoes, and on Facts and Documents collected from the Writings of
 Initiated Brethren. By ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.

 “We desire to speak of Mr Waite’s work with the greatest respect on
 the points of honesty, impartiality, and sound scholarship. Mr Waite
 has given, for the first time, the documents with which Rosicrucianism
 has been connected _in extenso_.”--_Literary World._

 “There is something mysterious and fascinating about the history of
 the Virgin Fraternity of the Rose.”--_Saturday Review._

 “A curious and interesting story of the doings of a mysterious
 association in times when people were more ready to believe in
 supernatural phenomena than the highly-educated, matter-of-fact people
 of to-day.”--_Morning Post._


_Crown 8vo, cloth, with Frontispiece, price 7s. 6d. Third Edition,
revised and enlarged._

 =MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK; or, The Science of= Finite and Infinite
 Life, containing Practical Hints for Students of Occultism. By FRANZ
 HARTMANN, M.D.

 “Dr Hartmann’s ‘Magic,’ as compared with ‘Light on the Path,’ is a
 bulky tome; and in its closely-printed pages students of occultism
 will find hints, ‘practical’ and otherwise, likely to be of great
 service to them in the pursuit of their studies and researches. It was
 not the author’s ‘object, in composing this book, to write merely a
 code of Ethics, and thereby to increase the already existing enormous
 mountain of unread moral precepts, but to assist the student of
 occultism in studying the elements of which his own soul is composed,
 and to learn to know his own physical organism. I want to give an
 impulse to the study of a science which may be called the “anatomy and
 physiology of the Soul,” which investigates the elements of which the
 soul is composed, and the source from which man’s desires and emotions
 spring.’ Dr Hartmann’s compendium is ‘an attempt to show the way how
 man may become a co-operator of the Divine Power, whose product is
 Nature,’ and his pages, as described by himself, ‘constitute a book
 which may properly have the title of “Magic,” for if the readers
 succeed in practically following its teaching, they will be able to
 perform the greatest of all magical feats, the spiritual regeneration
 of Man.’ Dr Hartmann’s book has also gone into a third edition, and
 has developed from an insignificant pamphlet, ‘written originally for
 the purpose of demonstrating to a few inexperienced inquirers that the
 study of the occult side of nature was not identical with the vile
 practices of sorcery,’ into a compendious volume, comprising, we are
 willing to believe, the entire philosophic system of occultism. There
 are abundant evidences that the science of theosophy has made vast
 strides in public estimation of late years, and that those desirous
 of experimenting in this particular and in many respects fascinating,
 branch of ethics, have leaders whose teaching they can follow with
 satisfaction to themselves.”--_Saturday Review._


_Crown 8vo, Cloth, price 7s. 6d._

 =POSTHUMOUS HUMANITY; A Study of Phantoms.= By ADOLPHE D’ASSIER,
 Member of the Bordeaux Academy of Sciences. Translated and Annotated
 by HENRY S. OLCOTT, President of the Theosophical Society. To which
 is added an Appendix shewing the Popular Beliefs current in India
 respecting the Post-mortem Vicissitudes of the Human Entity.

 _Truth_ says--“If you care for ghost stories, duly accredited,
 excellently told, and scientifically explained, you should read the
 translation by Colonel Olcott of M. Adolphe d’Assier’s ‘Posthumous
 Humanity,’ a study of phantoms. There is no dogmatism so dogged and
 offensive as that of the professed sceptic--of the scientific sceptic
 especially--who _ex vi termini_ ought to keep the doors of his mind
 hospitably open; and it is refreshing, therefore, to find such
 scientists as Wallace, Crookes, and M. d’Assier, who is a Positivist,
 in the ranks of the Psychical Research host. For my own part, though
 I have attended the séance of a celebrated London medium, and there
 convinced myself beyond all doubt of his imposture, I no more think
 that the detection of a medium fraud disposes of the whole question
 of ghosts, &c., than that the detection of an atheist priest disposes
 of the whole question of Christianity. Whatever view you take of this
 controversy, however, I can promise you that you will find the book
 interesting at least if not convincing.”


_Pott 8vo, Cloth, Limp, price 1s. 6d._

 =LIGHT ON THE PATH. A Treatise written for the= Personal Use of those
 who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within
 its influence. Written down by M. C., Fellow of the Theosophical
 Society. New Edition, with Notes, by the Author.

 “So far as we can gather from the mystic language in which it is
 couched, ‘Light on the Path’ is intended to guide the footsteps of
 those who have discarded the forms of religion while retaining the
 moral principle to its fullest extent. It is in harmony with much
 that was said by Socrates and Plato, although the author does not use
 the phraseology of those philosophers, but rather the language of
 Buddhism, easily understood by esoteric Buddhists, but difficult to
 grasp by those without the pale. ‘Light on the Path’ may, we think,
 be said to be the only attempt in this language and in this century
 to put practical occultism into words; and it may be added, by way of
 further explanation, that the character of Gautama Buddha, as shown in
 Sir Edwin Arnold’s ‘Light of Asia,’ is the perfect type of the being
 who has reached the threshold of Divinity by this road. That it has
 reached a third edition speaks favourably for this _multum in parvo_
 of the science of occultism; and ‘M. C.’ may be expected to gather
 fresh laurels in future.”--_Saturday Review._


_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 6s._

_A BIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE._

 =A PROFESSOR OF ALCHEMY (Denis Zachaire).= By PERCY ROSS, Author of “A
 Comedy without Laughter” and “A Misguidit Lassie.”

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 manufacturing pure gold.”--_Court Journal._

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 Review._

 “A vivid picture of those bad old times.”--_Knowledge._

 “Sure of a special circle of readers with congenial
 tastes.”--_Graphic._

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 suggestions of Faust. The figure of Berengaria, his wife, is a noble
 and touching one, and her purity and sweetness stand out in beautiful
 relief from the gloom of the alchemist’s laboratory and the horrors
 of the terrible Inquisition into whose hands she falls. The romance
 of the crucible, however, is not all permeated by sulphurous vapours
 and tinged with tartarean smoke. There is often a highly dramatic
 element.”--_Glasgow Herald._


_Demy 8vo, bevelled cloth, gilt, price 10s. 6d._

 =THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC: A Digest of the= Writings of Eliphas Lévi.
 With Biographical and Critical Essay, by ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.

 _The Morning Post_ says:--“Of the many remarkable men who have gained
 notoriety by their proficiency, real or imaginary, in the Black Arts,
 probably none presents a more strange and irreconcilable character
 than the French magician, Alphonse Louis Constant. Better known under
 the Jewish pseudonym of Eliphas Lévi Zahed, this enthusiastic student
 of forbidden art made some stir in France, and even in London, and was
 frequently consulted by those who were inclined to place some credit
 in his reputation as a magician. His works on magic are those of an
 undoubted genius, and divulge a philosophy beautiful in conception if
 totally opposed to common sense principles. There is so great a fund
 of learning and of attractive reasoning in these writings that Mr
 Arthur Waite has published a digest of them for the benefit of English
 readers. This gentleman has not attempted a literal translation in
 every case, but has arranged a volume which, while reproducing with
 sufficient accuracy a great portion of the more interesting works,
 affords an excellent idea of the scope of entire literary remains of
 an enthusiast for whom he entertains a profound admiration.

 “With regard to the contents of the present volume, there is nothing
 in it very suggestive of sulphur. No apprehension need be felt if
 the book be left about the house that the adventurous members of the
 family circle will commence incantations in mystic robes with the
 aid of Abracadabra, the Pentagram and incense. In fact, Eliphas over
 and over again sets his face against amateur attempts at magical
 practices. The reader may, however, with profit peruse carefully
 the learned dissertations penned by M. Constant upon the Hermetic
 art treated as a religion, a philosophy, and a natural science. As
 a religion, Eliphas holds it to be that of the ancient Magi and the
 initiates of all ages; as a philosophy its principles are traced
 in the Alexandrian school, and in the theories of Pythagoras; as a
 science, he indicates the methods to be ascertained from Paracelsus,
 Nicholas Flamel, and Raymond Lully. In view of the remarkable
 exhibitions of mesmeric influence and thought-reading which have
 recently been given, it is not improbable that the thoughtful reader
 may find a clue in the writings of this cultured and amiable magician
 to the secret of many of the manifestations of witchcraft that
 formerly struck wonder and terror into the hearts of simple folks
 eager to behold and ready to believe in supernatural powers.”


_Fcap. 8vo, cloth, price, including the pack of cards 78 in number, 5s._

 =FORTUNE-TELLING CARDS.--THE TAROT; Its= Occult Signification, Use in
 Fortune-Telling, and Method of Play, &c. By S. L. MACGREGOR MATHERS.

 “The designs of the twenty-one trump cards are extremely singular; in
 order to give some idea of the manner in which Mr Mather uses them in
 fortune-telling it is necessary to mention them in detail, together
 with the general signification which he attaches to each of them. The
 would-be cartomancer may then draw his own particular conclusions,
 and he will find considerable latitude for framing them in accordance
 with his predilections. It should further be mentioned that each of
 the cards when reversed conveys a meaning the contrary of its primary
 signification. No. 1 is the Bateleur or Juggler, called also Pagad;
 the latter designation is adduced by Count de Gebelin in proof of
 the Oriental origin of Tarots, it being derived from PAG, chief or
 master, and GAD, fortune. The Juggler symbolizes Will. 2. The High
 Priestess, or female Pope, represents Science, Wisdom, or Knowledge.
 3. The Empress, is the symbol of Action or Initiative. 4. The Emperor,
 represents Realization or Development. 5. The Hierophant or Pope is
 the Symbol of Mercy and Beneficence. 6. The Lovers, signify Wise
 Disposition and Trials surmounted. 7. The Chariot, represents Triumph,
 Victory over Obstacles. 8. Themis or Justice, symbolizes Equilibrium
 and Justice. 9. The Hermit, denotes Prudence. 10. The Wheel of
 Fortune, represents Fortune, good or bad. 11. Fortitude, symbolizes
 Power or Might. 12. The Hanged Man--a man suspended head downwards
 by one leg--means Devotion, Self-Sacrifice. 13. Death, signifies
 Transformation or Change. 14. Temperance, typifies Combination. 15.
 The Devil, is the image of Fate or Fatality. 16. The Lightning-struck
 Tower, called also Maison-Dieu, shows Ruin, Disruption. 17. The Star,
 is the Emblem of Hope. 18. The Moon, symbolises Twilight, Deception,
 and Error. 19. The Sun, signifies Earthly Happiness. 20. The Last
 Judgment, means Renewal, Determination of a matter. 21. The Universe,
 represents Completion and Reward. 0. The Foolish Man, signifies
 Expiation or Wavering. Separate meanings, with their respective
 converses, are also attached to each of the other cards in the pack,
 so that when they have been dealt out and arranged in any of the
 combinations recommended by the author for purposes of divination, the
 inquirer has only to use this little volume as a dictionary in order
 to read his fate.”--_Saturday Review._


GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.




Transcriber’s Notes:

Minor errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed.

Inconsistent hyphenations have been maintained from the text.

Inconsistencies and errors in spelling have been maintained from
  the text.

Please note that small caps have been transformed into ALL CAPS
  in this text.

Page 288: “Guinaldi (J.)--Dell’ Alchimia Opera. 4to. Palermo,
  1645.” placed in alphabetical order.

Corrections related in the Preface by specific page and line refer to
the following corrections in the chapter on Eirenæus Philalethes:

“secrets in the year 1643” was intended to read “secrets in the year
1645”.

“asserted to read _trigesimo anno_” was intended to read “asserted to
read _anno trigesimo tertio_”.

“instead of _vigesimo anno_” was intended to read “instead of _anno
vigesimo tertio_”.