Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
86
CHAPTER
VIII.
THE
DEGENERACY
OF
ALCHEMY.
I
have
tried
to
show
that
alchemy
aimed
at
giving
experimental
proof
of
a
certain
theory
of
the
whole
system
of
nature,
including
humanity.
The
practical
culmination
of
the
alchemical
quest
presented
a
threefold
aspect;
the
alchemists
sought
the
stone
of
wisdom,
for
by
gaining
that
they
gained
the
control
of
wealth;
they
sought
the
universal
panacea,
for
that
would
give
them
the
power
of
enjoying
wealth
and
life;
they
sought
the
soul
of
the
world,
for
thereby
they
could
hold
communion
with
spiritual
existences,
and
enjoy
the
fruition
of
spiritual
life.
The
object
of
their
search
was
to
satisfy
their
material
needs,
their
intellectual
capacities,
and
their
spiritual
yearnings.
The
alchemists
of
the
nobler
sort
always
made
the
first
of
these
objects
subsidiary
to
the
other
two;
they
gave
as
their
reason
for
desiring
to
make
gold,
the
hope
that
gold
might
become
so
common
that
it
would
cease
to
be
sought
after
by
mankind.
The
author
of
An
Open
Substance
says:
"Would
to
God
...
all
men
might
become
adepts
in
our
art,
for
then
gold,
the
common
idol
of
mankind,
would
lose
its
value,
and
we
should
prize
it
only
for
its
scientific
teaching."
But
the
desire
to
make
gold
must
always
have
been
a
very
powerful
incentive
in
determining
men
to
attempt
the
laborious
discipline
of
alchemy;
and
with
them,
as
with
all
men,
the
love
of
money
was
the
root
of
much
evil.
When
a
man
became
a
student
of
alchemy
merely
for
the
purpose
of
making
gold,
and
failed
to
make
it--as
he
always
did--it
was
very
easy
for
him
to
pretend
he
had
succeeded
in
order
that
he
might
really
make
gold
by
cheating
other
people.
Such
a
man
rapidly
degenerated
into
a
charlatan;
he
used
the
language
of
alchemy
to
cover
his
frauds,
and
with
the
hope
of
deluding
his
dupes
by
high-sounding
phrases.
And,
it
must
be
admitted,
alchemy
lent
itself
admirably
to
imposture.
It
promised
unlimited
wealth;
it
encouraged
the
wildest
dreams
of
the
seeker
after
pleasure;
and
over
these
dreams
it
cast
the
glamour
of
great
ideas,
the
idea
of
the
unity
of
nature,
and
the
idea
of
communion
with
other
spheres
of
life,
of
calling
in
the
help
of
'inheritors
of
unfulfilled
renown,'
and
so
it
seemed
to
touch
to
fine
issues
the
sordidness
of
unblushing
avarice.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
