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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
89
The
conclusion
of
the
Canon's
Yeoman's
Tale
shows
that,
in
the
14th
century,
there
was
a
general
belief
in
the
possibility
of
finding
the
philosopher's
stone,
and
effecting
the
transmutation,
although
the
common
practitioners
of
the
art
were
regarded
as
deceivers.
A
disciple
of
Plato
is
supposed
to
ask
his
master
to
tell
him
the
"namè
of
the
privee
stoon."
Plato
gives
him
certain
directions,
and
tells
him
he
must
use
magnasia;
the
disciple
asks--
'What
is
Magnasia,
good
sire,
I
yow
preye?'
'It
is
a
water
that
is
maad,
I
seye,
Of
elementés
fourè,'
quod
Plato.
'Telle
me
the
rootè,
good
sire,'
quod
he
tho,
Of
that
water,
if
it
be
yourè
wille.'
'Nay,
nay,'
quod
Plato,
'certein
that
I
nylle;
The
philosophres
sworn
were
everychoon
That
they
sholden
discovers
it
unto
noon,
Ne
in
no
book
it
write
in
no
manere,
For
unto
Crist
it
is
so
lief
and
deere,
That
he
wol
nat
that
it
discovered
bee,
But
where
it
liketh
to
his
deitee
Man
for
tenspire,
and
eek
for
to
deffende
Whom
that
hym
liketh;
lo,
this
is
the
ende.'
The
belief
in
the
possibility
of
alchemy
seems
to
have
been
general
sometime
before
Chaucer
wrote;
but
that
belief
was
accompanied
by
the
conviction
that
alchemy
was
an
impious
pursuit,
because
the
transmutation
of
baser
metals
into
gold
was
regarded
as
trenching
on
the
prerogative
of
the
Creator,
to
whom
alone
this
power
rightfully
belonged.
In
his
Inferno
(which
was
probably
written
about
the
year
1300),
Dante
places
the
alchemists
in
the
eighth
circle
of
hell,
not
apparently
because
they
were
fraudulent
impostors,
but
because,
as
one
of
them
says,
"I
aped
creative
nature
by
my
subtle
art."
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