Chapter IV: Appendix: 307 (2)

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.