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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
29
Although
the
alchemists
regarded
everything
as
influencing,
and
influenced
by,
other
things,
they
were
persuaded
that
the
greatest
effects
are
produced
on
a
substance
by
substances
of
like
nature
with
itself.
Hence,
most
of
them
taught
that
the
seed
of
metals
will
be
obtained
by
operations
with
metals,
not
by
the
action
on
metals
of
things
of
animal
or
vegetable
origin.
Each
class
of
substances,
they
said,
has
a
life,
or
spirit
(an
essential
character,
we
might
say)
of
its
own.
"The
life
of
sulphur,"
Paracelsus
said,
"is
a
combustible,
ill-smelling,
fatness....
The
life
of
gems
and
corals
is
mere
colour....
The
life
of
water
is
its
flowing....
The
life
of
fire
is
air."
Grant
an
attraction
of
like
to
like,
and
the
reason
becomes
apparent
for
such
directions
as
these:
"Nothing
heterogeneous
must
be
introduced
into
our
magistery";
"Everything
should
be
made
to
act
on
that
which
is
like
it,
and
then
Nature
will
perform
her
duty."
Although
each
class
of
substances
was
said
by
the
alchemists
to
have
its
own
particular
character,
or
life,
nevertheless
they
taught
that
there
is
a
deep-seated
likeness
between
all
things,
inasmuch
as
the
power
of
the
essence,
or
the
one
thing,
is
so
great
that
under
its
influence
different
things
are
produced
from
the
same
origin,
and
different
things
are
caused
to
pass
into
and
become
the
same
thing.
In
The
New
Chemical
Light
it
is
said:
"While
the
seed
of
all
things
is
one,
it
is
made
to
generate
a
great
variety
of
things."
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