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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
77
We
should
never
forget
that
the
alchemists
were
patient
and
laborious
workers,
their
theories
were
vitally
connected
with
their
practice,
and
there
was
a
constant
action
and
reaction
between
their
general
scheme
of
things
and
many
branches
of
what
we
now
call
chemical
manufactures.
We
may
laugh
at
many
of
their
theories,
and
regret
that
much
useless
material
was
accumulated
by
them;
we
may
agree
with
Boyle
(end
of
17th
century)
when
he
likens
the
"hermetick
philosophers,"
in
their
search
for
truth,
to
"the
navigators
of
Solomon's
Tarshish
fleet,
who
brought
home
from
their
long
and
tedious
voyages,
not
only
gold,
and
silver,
and
ivory,
but
apes
and
peacocks
too;
for
so
the
writings
of
several
of
your
hermetick
philosophers
present
us,
together
with
divers
substantial
and
noble
experiments,
theories,
which
either
like
peacocks'
feathers
make
a
great
show
but
are
neither
solid
nor
useful;
or
else
like
apes,
if
they
have
some
appearance
of
being
rational,
are
blemished
with
some
absurdity
or
other,
that,
when
they
are
attentively
considered
make
them
appear
ridiculous."
But
however
we
may
condemn
their
method,
because
it
rested
on
their
own
conception
of
what
the
order
of
nature
must
be,
we
cannot
but
praise
their
assiduity
in
conducting
experiments
and
gathering
facts.
As
Bacon
says,
in
De
Augmentis
Scientiarum:
"Alchemy
may
be
compared
to
the
man
who
told
his
sons
that
he
had
left
them
gold
buried
somewhere
in
his
vineyard;
where
they
by
digging
found
no
gold,
but
by
turning
up
the
mould
about
the
roots
of
the
vines,
procured
a
plentiful
vintage.
So
the
search
and
endeavours
to
make
gold
have
brought
many
useful
inventions
and
instructive
experiments
to
light."
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