Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
1
177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
18
As
our
story
proceeds,
we
shall
see
that
the
chemists
of
the
middle
ages,
the
alchemists,
founded
their
theory
of
material
changes
on
the
difference
between
a
supposed
essential
substratum
of
things,
and
their
qualities
which
could
be
taken
off,
they
said,
and
put
on,
as
clothes
are
removed
and
replaced.
How
different
from
the
clear,
harmonious,
orderly,
Greek
scheme,
is
any
picture
we
can
form,
from
such
quotations
as
I
have
given
from
their
writings,
of
the
alchemists'
conception
of
the
world.
The
Greeks
likened
their
imaginings
of
nature
to
the
natural
facts
they
observed;
the
alchemists
created
an
imaginary
world
after
their
own
likeness.
While
Christianity
was
superseding
the
old
religions,
and
the
theological
system
of
the
Christian
Church
was
replacing
the
cosmogonies
of
the
heathen,
the
contrast
between
the
power
of
evil
and
the
power
of
good
was
more
fully
realised
than
in
the
days
of
the
Greeks;
a
sharper
division
was
drawn
between
this
world
and
another
world,
and
that
other
world
was
divided
into
two
irreconcilable
and
absolutely
opposite
parts.
Man
came
to
be
regarded
as
the
centre
of
a
tremendous
and
never-ceasing
battle,
urged
between
the
powers
of
good
and
the
powers
of
evil.
The
sights
and
sounds
of
nature
were
regarded
as
the
vestments,
or
the
voices,
of
the
unseen
combatants.
Life
was
at
once
very
real
and
the
mere
shadow
of
a
dream.
The
conditions
were
favourable
to
the
growth
of
magic;
for
man
was
regarded
as
the
measure
of
the
universe,
the
central
figure
in
an
awful
tragedy.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
