Chapter IX: Appendix: 307 (7)

“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.