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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
142
The
alchemist
wished
to
effect
the
transmutation
of
one
substance
into
another;
he
despaired
of
the
possibility
of
separating
the
Elements
whereof
the
substance
might
be
formed,
but
he
thought
he
could
manipulate
what
he
called
the
virtues
of
the
Elements
by
a
judicious
use
of
some
or
all
of
the
three
Principles,
which
he
named
Sulphur,
Salt,
and
Mercury.
He
could
not
state
in
definite
language
what
he
meant
by
these
Principles;
they
were
states,
conditions,
or
qualities,
of
classes
of
substances,
which
could
not
be
defined.
The
directions
the
alchemist
was
able
to
give
to
those
who
sought
to
effect
the
change
of
one
thing
into
another
were
these.
Firstly,
to
remove
those
properties
which
characterised
the
thing
to
be
changed,
and
leave
only
the
properties
which
it
shared
with
other
things
like
it;
secondly,
to
destroy
the
properties
which
the
thing
to
be
changed
possessed
in
common
with
certain
other
things;
thirdly,
to
commingle
the
Essence
of
the
thing
with
the
Essence
of
something
else,
in
due
proportion
and
under
proper
conditions;
and,
finally,
to
hope
for
the
best,
keep
a
clear
head,
and
maintain
a
sense
of
virtue.
If
he
who
was
about
to
attempt
the
transmutation
inquired
how
he
was
to
destroy
the
specific
properties,
and
the
class
properties,
of
the
thing
he
proposed
to
change,
and
by
what
methods
he
was
to
obtain
its
Essence,
and
cause
that
Essence
to
produce
the
new
thing,
he
would
be
told
to
travel
along
"the
road
which
was
followed
by
the
Great
Architect
of
the
Universe
in
the
creation
of
the
world."
And
if
he
demanded
more
detailed
directions,
he
would
be
informed
that
the
substance
wherewith
his
experiments
began
must
first
be
mortified,
then
dissolved,
then
conjoined,
then
putrefied,
then
congealed,
then
cibated,
then
sublimed,
and
fermented,
and,
finally,
exalted.
He
would,
moreover,
be
warned
that
in
all
these
operations
he
must
use,
not
things
which
he
could
touch,
handle,
and
weigh,
but
the
virtues,
the
lives,
the
souls,
of
such
things.
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