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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
87
Moreover,
the
working
with
strange
ingredients
and
odd-fashioned
instruments,
and
the
employment
of
mouth-filling
phrases,
and
scraps
of
occult
learning
which
seemed
to
imply
unutterable
things,
gave
just
that
pleasing
dash
of
would-be
wickedness
to
the
process
of
consulting
the
alchemist
which
acts
as
a
fascination
to
many
people.
The
earnest
person
felt
that
by
using
the
skill
and
knowledge
of
the
alchemists,
for
what
he
deemed
a
good
purpose,
he
was
compelling
the
powers
of
evil
to
work
for
him
and
his
objects.
It
was
impossible
that
such
a
system
as
alchemy
should
appear
to
the
plain
man
of
the
middle
ages,
when
the
whole
scheme
of
life
and
the
universe
rested
on
a
magical
basis,
to
be
more
than
a
kind
of
magic
which
hovered
between
the
black
magic
of
the
Sorcerer
and
the
white
magic
of
the
Church.
Nor
is
it
to
be
wondered
at
that
a
system
which
lends
itself
to
imposture
so
easily
as
alchemy
did,
should
be
thought
of
by
the
plain
man
of
modern
times
as
having
been
nothing
but
a
machinery
of
fraud.
It
is
evident
from
the
Canon's
Yeoman's
Tale
in
Chaucer,
that
many
of
those
who
professed
to
turn
the
base
metals
into
gold
were
held
in
bad
repute
as
early
as
the
14th
century.
The
"false
chanoun"
persuaded
the
priest,
who
was
his
dupe,
to
send
his
servant
for
quicksilver,
which
he
promised
to
make
into
"as
good
silver
and
as
fyn,
As
ther
is
any
in
youre
purse
or
myn";
he
then
gave
the
priest
a
"crosselet,"
and
bid
him
put
it
on
the
fire,
and
blow
the
coals.
While
the
priest
was
busy
with
the
fire,
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