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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
83
Another
writer
speaks
of
many
would-be
alchemists
as
"floundering
about
in
a
sea
of
specious
book-learning."
If
alchemists
could
speak
of
their
own
processes
and
materials
as
those
authors
spoke
whom
I
have
quoted,
we
must
expect
that
the
alchemical
language
would
appear
mere
jargon
to
the
uninitiated.
In
Ben
Jonson's
play
The
Alchemist,
Surley,
who
is
the
sceptic
of
the
piece,
says
to
Subtle,
who
is
the
alchemist--
...
Alchemy
is
a
pretty
kind
of
game,
Somewhat
like
tricks
o'
the
cards,
to
cheat
a
man
With
charming
...
What
else
are
all
your
terms,
Whereon
no
one
of
your
writers
'grees
with
other?
Of
your
elixir,
your
lac
virginis,
Your
stone,
your
med'cine,
and
your
chrysosperme,
Your
sal,
your
sulphur,
and
your
mercury,
Your
oil
of
height,
your
tree
of
life,
your
blood,
Your
marchesite,
your
tutie,
your
magnesia,
Your
toad,
your
crow,
your
dragon,
and
your
panther;
Your
sun,
your
moon,
your
firmament,
your
adrop,
Your
lato,
azoch,
zernich,
chibrit,
heutarit,
And
then
your
red
man,
and
your
white
woman,
With
all
your
broths,
your
menstrues,
and
materials,
Of
lye
and
egg-shells,
women's
terms,
man's
blood,
Hair
o'
the
head,
burnt
clout,
chalk,
merds,
and
clay,
Powder
of
bones,
scalings
of
iron,
glass,
And
moulds
of
other
strange
ingredients,
Would
burst
a
man
to
name?
To
which
Subtle
answers,
And
all
these
named
Intending
but
one
thing;
which
art
our
writers
Used
to
obscure
their
art.
Was
not
all
the
knowledge
Of
the
Egyptians
writ
in
mystic
symbols?
Speak
not
the
Scriptures
oft
in
parables?
Are
not
the
choicest
fables
of
the
poets,
That
were
the
fountains
and
first
springs
of
wisdom,
Wrapp'd
in
perplexed
allegories?
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