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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
27
No
one
might
hope
to
make
this
essence
from
any
one
substance,
because,
as
one
of
the
alchemists
says,
"It
is
the
attribute
of
God
alone
to
make
one
out
of
one;
you
must
produce
one
thing
out
of
two
by
natural
generation."
The
alchemists
did
not
pretend
to
create
gold,
but
only
to
produce
it
from
other
things.
The
author
of
A
Brief
Guide
to
the
Celestial
Ruby
says:
"We
do
not,
as
is
sometimes
said,
profess
to
create
gold
and
silver,
but
only
to
find
an
agent
which
...
is
capable
of
entering
into
an
intimate
and
maturing
union
with
the
Mercury
of
the
base
metals."
And
again:
"Our
Art
...
only
arrogates
to
itself
the
power
of
developing,
through
the
removal
of
all
defects
and
superfluities,
the
golden
nature
which
the
baser
metals
possess."
Bonus,
in
his
tract
on
The
New
Pearl
of
Great
Price
(16th
century),
says:
"The
Art
of
Alchemy
...
does
not
create
metals,
or
even
develop
them
out
of
the
metallic
first-substance;
it
only
takes
up
the
unfinished
handicraft
of
Nature
and
completes
it....
Nature
has
only
left
a
comparatively
small
thing
for
the
artist
to
do--the
completion
of
that
which
she
has
already
begun."
If
the
essence
were
ever
attained,
it
would
be
by
following
the
course
which
nature
follows
in
producing
the
perfect
plant
from
the
imperfect
seed,
by
discovering
and
separating
the
seed
of
metals,
and
bringing
that
seed
under
the
conditions
which
alone
are
suitable
for
its
growth.
Metals
must
have
seed,
the
alchemists
said,
for
it
would
be
absurd
to
suppose
they
have
none.
"What
prerogative
have
vegetables
above
metals,"
exclaims
one
of
them,
"that
God
should
give
seed
to
the
one
and
withhold
it
from
the
other?
Are
not
metals
as
much
in
His
sight
as
trees?"
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