The Argument Betweene Morien The Father, & Merline The Sonne

 

Transcribed by F. Sherwood Taylor from MS Ashmole 1445 in Chymia, Vol. 1 (1948), pp. 23-35

A fragment was published in Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum.

The Argument Betweene Morien The Father
& Merline The Sonne
How The Philosophers' Stone Should Be Wrought.

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Son:	As the Child Merlin sat on hys father's knee.
	Blesse me Father he said for love and Charitie
	For I have sought divers Countryes to and fro
	And so will I yet do many mo,
	To seeke Philosophy that Clarkes do reade
	If I coude of the perfect knowledge thereof spede
	And ther for ffather for charite
	Som good comfort herin give thou me.
Fa:	Son seech goodnes that grace thereof mai spryng
	For fortune may be with thee by vertuous lyvyng.
Son:	Quoth Merlyn wyth grace Father we must bigyn
	Or else good end can we non ever wyn
	Nowe dere Father for Chariti saye the
	In thys Scyence now help thou me
	I have sought and enquired ther for mani a day
	But yet my purpose therein I coude never get I say
	And ther for in mani wildsome Cuntrys have I gon
	But as yet perfeit Elixir coude I find non.
Fa:	What sekest thou therefor sayd Morien
	All thie tyme therein thou spendest in vayne
	Much Philosophy thou maist finde in Scripture
Son:	Alle to mych quoth Merlyn for therin is but lytle sure
	And therfor Father myne a vowe to mani have I made
	That I will have one point therin that never was yet had.
Fa:	It ys ympossible quoth Morien I wynn
	For as good Philosophers bifor hath bynn
	As ever was, or any other since thou wert borne
	Wher for thy labor is alle forlorne
	For reason would that he shoulde have the best
	And ther for desyne thou now but that or the next.
Son:	Never none quoth Merlyn as yet coude I fynde
	For all they worketh agaynst nature and kynde
	ffor they that Salte and Corasives do take
	No cleane mettall can they ever make
	ffor yt hath so much of saltnes
	That yt swelleth it sone and makyth it full of rankness
	Worke yt by nature and it shall not be soe
	For thus thie work would alwayes be do.
Fa:	Wythout Salte quoth Morien thou canst nought doe
Son:	Naye quoth Merlyn ther schale come non therto
	For yt ys but a poesie of Phylosofrys words derke
	What weene ye ffurther that God wyll miracle warke.
	Weene ye to graff good Peres upon an Elder tree
	Or Cheryes on a Cole Stock nay nay father yt wyl not be
	For brambles wyl beare no grapes greene
	Nor the Walnut tre bear good Aples I weene
	And ther for graff kyndly yee that graffers be
	And then ye schale have good frute, prove and se
	Braunches that be graff on stoke good and sure
	The frute therof schale never rott but ever endure.
	And yt schalbe the sweter of swete savour
	And more comly of fresh colour
	And thus worke by Nature kynde and cunning
	For every nature by kynde hys nature wyll forthbring
	And there for I preve the work all contrary
	For God never made thynge but one naturally
	And that was mankynde alone
	For in all other thyngs, nature is none.
Fa:	Yes quoth Morien and that schale I preve
Son:	Not by Astronomi quoth Merlyn I doe beleve
	For Man was made of one Nature I se
Fa:	One nature quoth Moryen what mai yt be
Son:	Of fowle corruption quoth Merlyn I weene
	And of a fowle matter that was unclene
	And that matter was tempered with the Elementes alle
	Wythout wych Elements no man mai live and yt prove I schale
	For God made the Elements hymselfe
	And so he dyd the Planets and sygnes twelfe
	And alsoe God made Man after hys owne lyknesse
	And Planets and Sygnes more and lesse
	In the mould of Man ther place thei tooke
	And of the figure of the shape of Chryst as sath the booke.
Fa:	What are planets and sygnes quoth Moryen.
	The Sun the Moone and Starrs quoth Merlyn agen
	The wych lightened unto Man as he on th'erth laye
	ffor he hath the similitude of our lord I saye
	And of the Man the woman was wrought
	And so much fruite forth they brought
	To multipli the worke of our heaven and kynge
	And yet come thei alle but of on only thyng
Fa:	Of on thyng quoth Moryen what mai yt be
Son:	The slipth or skyn of the Erth so saie I
Fa:	And Erth it was som men would saie
Son:	And yet yt was neyther clene erth sand nor clay
	But the feces of the Erth and yt was of Colour gray
	And it turned into Erth, as yt on the Erth laie
	And the water torned into blud to make men strong
	The Air and the Fire was medled these among
Fa:	How Air and Fire quoth Moryen
Son:	Through the worke of God quoth Merlyn.
	The brightness of the holy Ghost ys Air
	And the light that he gevith of lyfe in any lyvyng thyng ys fyr.
Fa:	Where hast thou gon to lerne all thes
	For the thyng thou sayest is very true I wysse
	Son sayd Moryen who hath thi Master bee
	That thys high wysdome hath tought to the.
Son:	No other quoth Merlyn but our heavenly King
	And my symple wytt theron ever studyeing
Fa:	Yea but in thys Craft thou studyest and spedest nought
	And yet wyth foure spirits yt must be wrought.
Son:	Your Spyryts are to wyld quoth Merlyn againe.
	And therefore I will not have to do with them certaine
	ffor I would have to do wyth a spirit made by kynde naturally
	that wyll abyde with any body kyndly.
Fa:	Such a Spyryt coulde I make quoth Moryen
	But yet neer would hold yt but in vayne;
	And yet of alle worke yt ys the best
	And lest of Cost and most assurest
	ffor yf that fayle then have we don alle
	ffor the most perfit work we yt cale
	ffor yt ys so rych when yt ys wrought
	That if alle the worlde were turn'd to nought
	As mani bodies would again make he
	As ever was or ever should be
	But I wyl teach yt to no manner of Creature
	Except he be of Condicicion good and sure
Son:	Why so quoth Merlyn I you pray.
Fa:	ffor soth son quoth Moryen I shall to thee say
	Who so could thys work perfectly know and see
	The avayle thereof so great might be
	That some men thereof should be so proude and stoute
	That thei would not know the pore people that came them about
	And somme of them would be soe full of Joy and delight
	That thei would forget the Lord God that ys so full of myght
	And then their sowles were lorne and yt were great pittie
	And therfore yt shall not be tought for me.
Son:	That ys well don quoth Merlyn that it so be
	But for chariti father teach yow yt me.
Fa:	My son quoth Moryen yt shall I not
	Nor no man els that ever yet had wrought
Son:	Yes truli father that must you do
	Or els my heart will soone burst in two
	Father of manners I am both stable and good
	And I am of your flesh and also of your blood
	Father to whome should you teach it but unto me.
Fa:	Nay my der Son yt schale never be
Son:	Alas father that ever I was borne
	ffor well I know that I am now forlorne
	Except there for that I this cunning have
	My lyfe truly can you not save.
	Then he fell downe ded short tale for to make
	And his father then did him up take.
Fa:	And said son upon condicicon I shall thee leare
	So that thou wylt on the Sacrament sweare.
	That thou shalt never write it in scripture
	Nor teach yt to no man except thou be sure
	That he is a perfeit man to God and also full of chariti.
	Doing alle waies good deede and that he be full of humilitie
	And that you know him not in lowde words but alwaies soft & still
	And alie so preve whether his life be good or yll
	And alle this shal thou sweare and alle so make a vow
	If thou wylt have thys Cunning of me now
	And the same Oath on booke they make to thee
	Ere thou them let them any parte of thys scyence know or see
Son:	That Oath Father I am now ready to take
	And therein my vow to Jesus Christ I will make
Fa:	Yet soe I will not teach thee properli
	Of the measure the tyme wherefore and why.
Son:	And so likewise will I do said Merlyn truly.
Fa:	And upon thys Condicion I wyl tech thee Son be of good cheere
	Then Merlyn made this Oath the sooth for to say me
	And then the Science of thys Father he began to frame.
Son:	And saie ffather how shall we begyn
Fa:	In principio Son begin
	With the helpe and grace of Jhesus
	The begynnying shalbe thus.
	First a father and a mother you must have beforne
	And a Chyld of them shall be conceived and borne
	For without a woman this thyng canot be doe
	But hyr helpe and worke must be ther unto
Son:	Quoth Merlyn to me yt ys gret mervel
	That womans helpe should there unto avail.
Fa:	May a Chyld wythout a woman into the world be brought
Son:	Nay truly quoth Merlyn that maye yt nought.
Fa:	Truly Son no more canst thou the Elixir make
	Except thou the helpe of a woman thereto take
	For thou mayst see in Scripture thee beforne
	How a Child of a Mother ys conceived and borne
	By a token thereof thou cannot misse
	For when the matrix of a woman receiving the sperme of Man
	The Chylde ys conceived soone and than
	The matrix of a woman closeth truly soe
	That no foule matter cometh then thereto
	And therfore take thou heede of thys ensample in the beginning,
	To close well the vessell, from any maner of thynge
	For if any Corrupcon come where the chylde ys
	It might never ingender then to be a man I wys
	No more shale truli thy work yf ani evil ayre come thereto
	And therefore close thy vessel well as thou shouldst doe
	That alle thie matter may therein abyde
	And not to go oute on never a side.
	Forty two dayes so let yt stand
	And then undoe it with thy hand
	For then ys the chyld borne and so forth brought.
Son:	Then sayde Merlyn thys understand I nought
	Who shall the chyldes father be.
Fa:	Silos son thus reade me
	And the moder Anul shalbe hyr name
Son:	And no Moder els quoth Merlyn but the same.
Fa:	Truly quoth Morien yt wyle non other be
	And theie schale dwelle in a lowe Cuntrie
	And in a stronge Citty welle walled aboute
	That theie of there Enimyes thereof schale have no doubt
	The Cuntrie ys full good ingresse
	The wych ys called Homogenes
	Artevallo thus call me the Citty [marg: Vitreolla]
	And the chylds name must be Mercury
Son:	How high be the walles of the saide Citte
	And what wydenes wyth in them maye be
Fa:	Five Sitigid it may be of wydenesse
	And but lide narrower thereto I gesse
	And one sedep of hight sediprimus [marg: 1½ height]
	And of the wydeness of five setigiderus.
Son:	Whereby live they quoth Merlyn
Fa:	Redrosman ys their meate and their drinke quoth Morien
	Whiles they dwelle in that Citte
	Those vittuals should wyth them be
	The Father in that Cittee shal dye
	But the moder shall live alway
	And when the Chyld ys borne of the Moder free
	Hee shalbe then brought out of the Cittee
	And then he shalbe washed wyth water warme
	So that the Chylde shalle take no harme
	Looke that thou wash hym in waters twelve [marg: 12 imbib]
	And keepe each water by yt selfe
	And the last water wilbe then cleere
	Without any foule matter
	And then hast thou a chylde fayre and bryght
	But then yt ys younge and hath no myght
	And then to make the Chyld hardy and stronge
	I shall thee teach ere yt be longe
	Fyrst thou must put hym to nourishying
	Yet know her well that schale have hym in keeping
	That she be of meane stature
	And alsoe bryght of Colour
	And looke that she be of body cleane and pure
	And also perfeit good and sure
	And looke that she be of a longe stature
	And not massy but in a meane measure
	And then take unto hyr Mercury the chylde
	And she shalle hym tayme if he be wylde
	And wyth hyr mylke she shalle make him white
	And then ys the Chylde of grete myght
	Untyll he hath byne where he was borne
	Wyth hys Moder let hym be alle naked
	[Space in MS indicating lacuna, confirmed by missing rhyme]
	And leave with hym both meate and drynke
	For default of famishing
	Soe by that tyme theie have dwelt there a long tyme
	The Son schale by his Moder lyen
	So that manie chyldren there schalbe borne
	That through default of hunger they schalbe forlorne
	And then take hym out of the Citty
	And wash them as cleane as they may be
	Untyll they be both faire and cleare
	Wyth fayre lukewarme water as I said whileere
	And thou put them to theire Gume and to none other
	The wych wyth Mercuryes fathers brother
	Twenty chyldren and foure and there ys the fyrst
	And altogether him list
	And so him XXV forth beare
	And put then to nourish as I sayde whileere
	And she schale keepe them faire and cleane
	As young children ought to byn
	Wyth her mylke wythin the towne wall
	Tyll death comyth and slayeth them all
	What is death quoth Merlyn I you pray
	It ys a change quothe Morien in fay
	Warme fire, What ys the towne wherein the chyld doth dwell.
	It ys fusion Son I doe the tell
	And yt would be full hygh in hyghnes
	From the grounde to sedeprions and no lesse
	ffor the hygher that she be
	The Kinder mylke have shall he
	ffor the mylke cometh out of the Ayre full sweete
	What is yt quoth Merlyn that would I faine weete
	It ys called Alkade without blame
	And Auaruse ys the Nurses name
	What shall alle the Chyldren dien
	Yea but one quoth Moryen shall tourne to lyfe againe
	Hoy may that be yt is marvel quoth Merlyn y wis
	Son quoth Moryen I shale thee say at this
	Thou shalt take the Chyldren from the Nurse true
	And thou shalt leade them to a Maister newe
	I but say me quoth Merlyn at this tyde
	How longe shale they wyth the Nurse abide
	Till they have eate their Gumme I reade
	And they shall dye for that same deede
	And when they are deade take them againe
	And put them unto a Master Physitian
	And ere nyne dayes be all ygone
	He schale make one chylde of alle them
	And the Maister shall give hym a new name
	The wych ys called or said foresiall in fame
Son:	What schale the Masters name be then quoth Merlyn
Fa:	Acoravenesa is a right wyse man [marg: vasa arenosa]
	And the towne wherein he doth dwell
	Ys called Scaforusa truly to tell [marg: furnace]
Son:	Yt ys a wonderous Medcen quoth Merlyn so mought I thryve
	That maketh againe the chylde to live
Fa:	It is Trofie a good monument
	Jesus to the chylde did sende
Son:	How longe schale thys Chyld with hys Master be
Fa:	Tyll he waxen nygh as hygh as he
	And then schale the chyld be wondrous bryght
	Faire and strong and of great myght
	He shalbe so furious and so strong and myghty
	That of bodyes he shall get the victory
	And turne them alle unto hys beames
	For he schalbe Kyng of seaven Realmes
	And also he schalbe a conqueror wyth the best
	Wherever that he goe either by East or West
	Hys fathers death recover shall he
	And tourne them unto the sayd degree
	Also all bodyes he wyll convert
	Into hys fadyr & modyr being in desert
	A thousand he wyll causen to be yelden in fyre
	And make them of hys fathers power
	Hee schall them make so strong of myght
	Against 2000 that they mought well fight
	And thus 3000 schalbe turned as I gesse
	Unto the Emperor Osmura hys on likeness
Son:	What ys that Emperour they lyken alle
Fa:	Mercury he hyght fryst and after forisiall [or "Soresiall"]
	and now ys called Osmura the Emperour
	For of alle bodyes he beareth the flower
Son:	Why maie not then the Emperour have a Queene
	Yes truly Almaga hyr name shall been
	And yet yt may be wrought as the other was
	And of the said matter and in the said place
	Thee same the besse a cage and do make deane
	And then unto the Emperour thou hast a Queene
	Of alle weomen she ys the flower
	And the most bryghtest of faire Colour
	And as the Emperour doeth so wyl she
	And be as good in hyr degree
	And thus much fruite of them may spring
	And yet all thys ys but on thyng
Son:	Yes quoth Merlyn fadyr and modyr ys two
Fa:	I quoth Moryen but I meane not so
	For truly thou maist change Silos in Anul sure
	And also you maist change Anul into Silos with a liquor
Son:	What is the liquor the fadyr I pray you tel me
Fa:	Vinagras Son thus call yt me
Son:	It ys marvell quoth Merlyn that yt should so doe
Fa:	Yet upon the fire white and red yt will be so
Son:	Then understand I amiss quoth Merlyn.
Fa:	Whie what meanest thou by Silos and anul Son.
Son:	Sol and Luna fadyr and non other
Fa:	Nay my son Sol ys but Silos brother
Son:	Aha quoth Merlyn now have I understanding
	ffor in thys ys more naturall workying
	ffadyr now thys Elixer ys illered
	May it not be multiplyed
Fa:	Yes quoth Moryen that yt maie
	Twelve tymes even in one day
	Take one parte he said of sorifiall
	And ten of sephider, ground small
	And XIII of Osmura or Almuya
	And do them together into a Arocamybusa
	and make Alcagi fire stronge and mighti power
	Arochite and more continually the space of an hower
	Then merke the lyon yt ys of collour sable
	Fie on hym for he ys nothing able
	And therefore set thyne heart and thie delight
	To gett the lyon that ys Collour white
	But most intyrely above every each one
	Take him that Colloured like the Carbuncle stone
	For that noble Lyon in especiall
	Of all other beasts he ys most Emperiall.

 

Some possible anagrammatical readings of words in this poem:

Form in text	Anagram of	Marginal Annotation
Silos	Solis
Anul	Luna
Artevallo	Olla vetra [vitrea]	Vitreolla
Sitigid	Digitis	Digitte
Sedep	Pedes
Setigiderus	Digiti (?)
Sedeprions	Sedes proni (?)
Soresiall	Sol realis (?)
Acoravenesa	Vasa arenoce	Vasa arenos
Scaforusa		Furnace

A Philosophical Riddle

 

[from the Aurifontina Chymica]

A Strife late rose in Heaven, yet undecided,
and the chief Deities were by pairs divided:
Saturn and Luna one Opinion held,
Which Jove and Mercury (combin'd) refell'd:
Venus and Mars, that still have loved either,
Gainsaid them all, and would assent with neither.
In this dire brawl, 'tween these three pairs begun,
To Judge and Umpire, they all chose the Sun:
Therefore amidst them all, his place is still,
With power t' advance and grace which part he will,
By all their joynt assents; for as his might
Great is, so clearest is of all his Light;
And those with whom he holds must needs as best
And worthiest, bear the Glory from the rest:
And since he needs must joyn with one (for odds)
Cannot remain long 'mongst agreeing Gods.
Shew me (some man that can) with which of these
Three pairs the God consents, and best agrees;
And (on the New Lights word) I that before
Knew nought, will rest and ask no Question more.

Anonymous Letter sent to Mr. Bacstrom

transcribed from http://archive.org/details/manlypalmerhbox18v2hall.

Laus Deo

Butter of Antimony is the Philosophers Mercury

It is the Body changed into a Spirit

a Chemical Death and Resurrection only wanted - to obtain which put the Butter to some very pure ⚹ Regulus in Powder and then unite Body and Soul together by digesting to Putrefaction which will soon be done if you dont stop your Glass but if you stop your Glass it will never digest or putrify but remain in the same State for ever

digested to Whiteness is the White Stone to be fermented with Silver - to redness is the Red Stone to be fermented with Gold

the Butter Alone may be made to putrify - quickly if you put it in a Body with a Blind Head but if you nip up or stop your Glass it will never Work but remains the same for ever because the universal Principle which performs the whole by Secret incubation unknown to the Artist cannot possibly enter

Copy of an Anonymous Letter to Mr. Ford on the Lapis Philosophorum

transcribed from http://archive.org/details/manlypalmerhbox18v2hall. This letter was received by Sigismund Bacstrom's friend, a "Mr Ford", and copied by Bacstrom.

Sir

Being informed that you are deserving brother in the study of Alchemy, and as such only I address you; and having reason to suppose that you have not attained to perfection, in order to make your studies easy to yourself, and trusting it will be for the benefit of others also deserving, I send you this information. Alchemy appears to me as a study in so single a point of view that it strikes with astonishment that any person acquainted with Mathematical philosophy should not instantly discover it; for in the study of Mathematics, before you can give a solution or answer to any question proposed you must bring your numbers to the same denomination.

In Alchemy 'tis the same. You must first make a butter of ♁ from the ⚹y regulus in the usual way; then make a luna cornea, or butter of ☽, and digest them both with an equal weight of mercury sublimate.

This will give you a tinging power as to silver and enable you prosecute your studies further, with comfort to your self and assistance to your friends.

Being unknown the only request I have to make is secrecy in the business, and perhaps at some future period I may not only give you a further friendly hint but inform you of a study as much superior to Alchemy as tis possible for the human mind to conceive.

Till then and for ever wishing you health, peace and happiness. I remain

         Philadelphia

The Poem of the Philosopher Theophrastos Upon the Sacred Art

A Metrical Translation With Comments Upon the History of Alchemy

By Dr. C. A. BROWNE

The Scientific Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 3, pp. 193-214
 

 

Among the remains of Greek literature that have come down from the Byzantine period are four poems in iambic verse upon the divine or sacred art. These poems, in the fifteen or more manuscripts which are preserved in different libraries of Europe, form part of a large collection of works upon alchemy. Most of the prose manuscripts of this collection were edited and translated by the French chemist Berthelot in 1888. The four poems, although a part of Berthelot's original plan, were not included in his edition of the Greek alchemists and, except for a meager summary of their contents by Reinesius in 1634 and a few brief extracts by Hoefer in his "Histoire de la Chimie" in 1866, no efforts have been made to give a rendering of their contents in any modern language. A study of these poems has recently been made by the writer and as they throw considerable light upon the history of Greek science in its later days, the following commentary and translation of the poem of Theophrastos are given.

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The four poems, which appear in the different collections under the names of Heliodoros, Theophrastos, Hierotheos and Archelaos, usually In the order given, resemble one another so much in peculiarities of language and meter that they were undoubtedly composed under similar influences. The resemblances are so striking that Reinesius regarded the poems as the work of a single author and as nothing more than versification of different parts of the long prose work of Stephanos, who wrote in the reign of Emperor Heraclius (610 to 641 A.D.). The imitations of Stephanos in style and language are unmistakable and the poems must have been composed after his time. The earliest collection of the poems, the Codex 299, in the library of St. Mark at Venice, is written in a hand of the eleventh century. This codex refers again to a still earlier collection that is lost. Without discussing further the interesting questions of authorship, we are probably safe in saying that the poem of Theophrastos was composed by a Byzantine sophist or schoolman some time between the years 700 and 900 A.D. All four poems, in fact, celebrate the importance and learning of these sophists, which term in the days of the Greek Empire was one of honor and not of reproach. Theophrastos¹ begins his poem with the following eulogy:

We sophists, and the rhetoricians too,

Are fortunate and lead a life most wise;

We know the nature of created things,

The kinds of elements, and understand

How, by close union each to each, they tend

To one new form, most fair and wholly strange,

With brilliant splendor filled, its make-up such

That it bestoweth wealth and great reward. 

The union of the elements into a new wealth-bringing combination has always been the one great aim of alchemy. Theophrastos, however, in order to dispel the belief that he and his fellow sophists were only worshipers of mammon, hastens to add that their chief object in life was to train new converts in the path of wisdom.

But most of all we wish with one accord

All mortals to be taught and disciplined

And trained in wisdom of the sophist school,

That they may shape themselves to perfect men,

That they may know the bounds of Nature's realm,

(How all things thrive and mix and interweave)

And last that they may nothing speak except

What words the wise old masters used to say.

Those masters urge all mortals who are wise

To be instructed in the mystic lore

Of sacred rites, whose meaning they proclaim

By actions rather than by words of mouth.

His introduction finished, Theophrastos proceeds to give a brief account of the skill of the sophists in the different sciences. He begins most naturally with astrology, for the teachers of that time were firm believers in the power of starry influences.

We, who foretell just where the stars shall be,

Who know their natures, heights and intervals,

Their occultations, when they rise and set,

Their measured bounds and what their orbs portend,

Do not misread their signs, though far away,

For when assisted by a knowing mind

Our sense of vision sees them as they are.

We know the truth of what is in the sky

Above and are not ignorant of what

Is there performed, for we perceive it all

And make it evident to mortal minds,

As their experience can testify.

Next in importance after astrology Theophrastos places medicine. In the decadence of Greek science, astrology and medicine were always linked together. The Perignostics of Hermes Trismegistos give in great detail the influence of the planets upon the courses of disease.

The most important branch of Byzantine medicine was prognosis, which was elaborated to such a degree that physicians professed to indicate sickness long before the patient felt any of its symptoms. Copious treatises upon diagnosis have come down from Byzantine writers, who describe with great minuteness methods for examining the urine and feces, or for determining the patient's condition from the beatings of his pulse. In the treatment of disease the regulation of diet played a most important part and elaborate regimens were prescribed for the sick for each season and month of the year.

Yet more than this, the causes we reveal

Of each affliction in the body's frame;

Experimentally our school explores

The science, art and ends of medicine,

With such success that our prognosis shows

What sicknesses are destined to appear

And what is best to cure or ward them off;

Its findings also lead us to foretell

An end of life from sickness far from home.

Leaving medicine Theophrastos next briefly relates the investigations of the sophists in the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms.

Not only has our wisdom known the ways

By which to check each illness and disease,

—Prodigious wonders even though they be—

But with exactness we describe the flowers,

(Their qualities, their mixtures and their kinds),

And taste of juice and substances of plants.

Each class of growing herbs has been portrayed

For our prognosis and with words exact,

We also know the hues and kinds of stones,

The places where the metals are produced

And all their properties both good and bad.

The many kinds' of creatures in the sea

Are known to us and all their many forms;

We teach mankind their natures, good and bad,

How some to use and others to avoid.

Nor do we slight the race of gay-hued birds,

Those strange in form and those who kill their kind,

Those who by nature are of use to man,

And so contribute to the joy of life.

Each class and race of reptiles we describe,

And so all living things find place within

Our catalogue. Nor have we falsified

In anything, for every word is true.

All we have said or shown to mortal men

Is for their use and happiness in life.

But the sophist's career, which Theophrastos has thus far painted in brightest color, was not one of unalloyed happiness. Many of the prose writers among the Greek alchemists dwell upon the opposition which was provoked by their ideas regarding the transmutation of metals, but few of them are as bitter in the denunciation of their critics as the poets. No better example can be found than Theophrastos of that proverbial sensitiveness which Horace states has always characterized the fretful tribe of poets.

How then can those vile critics censure us,

They who in secret learning are inept,

And who in sophic wisdom have no share?

How can they say we sophists speak untruths

With their own minds so pitifully maimed

They give no thought or care to things divine?

They ask how gold is ever to be made,

How that can change which has a nature fixed,

Placed there of old by God the demiurge,

Who formed its substance never to be moved

From that position which from early time

Was its abode and destined resting place;

They say gold thus abides, nor suffers change,

For naught can be transmuted from the class

Or species where its origin took place.

They who speak thus but trifle with their minds

And nothing say that bears the stamp of truth.

The quarrel between the alchemists and their critics involved the old question of the fixity or transmutability of genera and species. It dated back to the time of Aristotle, who was the first to make the distinction between a material cause and a formal cause. The critics of alchemy insisted that matter was unchangeable, that lea,d always remained lead as gold always remained gold and that the gulf between these two metals was an impassable one. To the argument for the unchangeableness of matter the alchemists gave complete assent. They replied to their critics:

We agree with you that matter is unchangeable, but you forget that it is not matter which we seek to change but only the form in which this matter is cast. The material substance or stock (φντη) of lead, gold and other things is one and unchangeable, and the object of our endeavor is simply to pour the matter from the form of lead into the form which our human perceptions recognize as gold. Just as an artist can take the bronze of an ugly vessel and recast it into a beautiful vase. But if the idea of transmutation seems so irrational, take the case of the sun. He is always the same, yet by his movements along the ecliptic he produces the change of seasons which pass from extreme cold to extreme heat and from extreme moisture to extreme dryness.

The comparison of transmutation with the change of seasons was a favorite one with the Greek alchemists, for it rested upon one of those etymological subtilties which always appealed to the Hellenic mind, the word τρόπη meaning both alteration and season (originally solstice). This play upon words is followed by Theophrastos.

But we will show the end of this our art,

An end most useful and most quickly learned,

For nothing strange it needs save that one stock

From which all things by Nature are produced.

From Time's four transformations learn the way

By which the work most skilfully completes

The transformations of sophistic art.

The winter, cold and moist, controls the frost;

By him the fleeting clouds are borne on high

To drench the earth and quicken seeds to life;

Three months elapse before his time expires.

Next Spring, a season moist and warm comes in;

By her the earth is made to bloom with flowers

Of every kind; her course is also run

When three more months their transformation bring.

Next Summer, warm and very dry, appears;

By her Earth's bosom is released from damp

And, warmed from chilliness, is made to bear;

Her period in three more months is run.

The Autumn quickly comes upon his way,

A season dry and cold in which alas

The beauty of the flowers is all destroyed;

His rapid course in three more months is passed.

Through these four transformations runs the sun;

He makes his circuit in the dozen months

Which form the year and sheds his light on all

Beneath the sky. The splendor of his beams

Fills all the earth with mild increasing warmth;

With rapid course he summons things to life

And makes with gentle heat all trees to bud.

From him the moon receives her gleaming light

And all the wandering stars, the planets seven,

And likewise those whose shining orbs are fixed.

The argument of Theophrastos about the seasons is a brief summary of that given in the fifth praxis of Stephanos, who states that the four elements, earth, water, air, fire, in their cycle of the year form twelve combinations of triads in four sets. There is thus one triad of elements for each month and a set of three triads of similiar elements for each season. The arrangement of this cycle of elements is illustrated by the following diagram.

DIAGRAM OF THE YEAR'S CYCLE OF ELEMENTS (constructed from Stephanos). The Elements Earth, Water, Air, Fire are represented by their initials F, W, A, F; the governing element of each season and month is in large letter. Fire is absent in winter, Earth in spring, Water in summer, Air in autumn. Commencing on the middle circle in Dec. Air goes to the outer circle for Jan., Feb., Mar., crosses in April to the inner circle for May, June, and July and finishes again on the middle circle in August. Then Water follows a similar path, to be succeeded by Earth, the final interweaving circuit of the three rings being completed by Fire. The quality Moist is common to winter and spring, Warm to spring and summer, Dry to summer and autumn, Cold to autumn and winter.

Theophrastos, in the last line, expresses the belief, common in ancient times, that the fixed stars, as well as the moon and planets, received their light from the sun. As the production of metals, precious stones, etc., within the earth was believed by the ancient alchemists to be due to emanations from the heavenly bodies and, as the light of the moon and planets was received from the sun, the generation of the metals and precious stones could thus be referred to a single influence.

So understand the work, how to refer

The four mutations to one simple form

And from the four to make the work complete,

Seven colored, even as the planets seven,

Whence Nature gets her species, kinds and forms,

Whence Luna's metal takes a whitened hue

And whence proceeds the yellow principle

(That gives a second splendid purple tint)

Which brightening all bodies tinges them

The brilliant golden color of the sun.

Theophrastos having outlined the theory of his art, next takes up its practical execution. His description of the process of gold-making, however, is so obscured by allegory that it is a hopeless task to follow him without referring to the older works

Transmutation, although described by the Greek alchemists as a conversion of base metals into silver and gold, is everywhere designated as a process of coloring or tingeing. Several methods of tingeing the base metals were employed, but only two of these will be described.

The first method consisted in giving the metal a wash with an amalgam of silver or gold. Upon heating the coated metal the mercury was expelled and a thin film of silver or gold remained. This receipt for silvering, or gilding, metallic objects was an old one. It was a favorite with counterfeiters and was one of the methods resorted to by the Roman Emperors when they wished to debase the coinage. In the practical receipts we find no suggestion of transmutation when this method was used. It is only with the alchemists that the process acquired an additional mystical interpretation. Mercury, which was volatile, was a spiritualizing agent and the leaven, or seed, of precious metal when placed therein had the power of transmuting the baser metal into its own nature. This was illustrated by the sayings.

Just as the yeast of bread can leaven a large mass of dough, so does a little silver or gold act. He who sows wheat produces wheat and harvests it, in the same way gold produces gold and silver produces silver.

In the first method of tingeing metals the coloration took place only upon the surface. In the second, and to the alchemists the most important, method of tingeing the change in color was effected throughout the whole body of metal. The earliest writers drew a clear distinction between these two methods, the Pseudo-Democritos being among the first to condemn those who supposed that mercury should act only upon the surface. The means by which the Greek alchemists claimed to transmute the entire body of base metal into gold can only be understood by going back to the oldest receipts.

When the Greeks under Ptolemy took possession of Egypt they found in the temples a vast collection of practical receipts which were jealously guarded by the Egyptian priests. These ancient books, which formed a large collection of works upon pharmacy, metallurgy and other arts, were ascribed by the Egyptians to Thoth whom the Greeks identified with their god Hermes. These books have all been lost with the exception of one manuscript upon medicine, the so-called Ebers papyrus written about 1500 B.C., which contains various pharmaceutical and magical prescriptions for treating diseases. The mention in this manuscript of such substances as copper, lead, iron, stibium, asem (a gold-silver alloy), sulphur and soda and the reference to such operations as roasting, cooking, melting, extracting and filtering shows that the early Egyptians were familiar with the products and processes of practical chemistry. It is unfortunate that none of the Hermetic books upon metallurgy have survived. Allusions to these books by Olympiodoros and other Greek writers show, however, that the Egyptian priests possessed a vast amount of information upon the smelting, alloying and coloring of metals. Translations of some of these Hermetic receipts have no doubt been incorporated into the collections of the Greek alchemists.

Although the ability to transform the base metals into silver and gold was attributed to the Egyptians by the Greek alchemists, we find no historical mention of this until about 290 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Diocletian destroyed the books of the Egyptians upon the chemistry of gold and silver. The incident is thus commented upon by the historian Gibbon:

At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns. One very remarkable edict which he published, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made "for all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold and silver, and without pity committed them to the flames; apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against the empire." But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the public revenue. It is much more likely that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked that these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the abuse of chemistry. In that immense register, where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind,there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals; and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in the history of alchemy.

 The question "if the Egyptians could make gold why did Diocletian not avail himself of the knowledge?" has puzzled many a writer. We know that the financial condition of the Roman Empire at this time was a desperate one. The argenteus, of which sixty were originally coined from a pound of silver, had, under succeeding Emperors, been continually debased. In the reign of Gallienus the argenteus consisted only of base metal plated with silver. The final limit was reached when it was made of copper and counterfeited to resemble silver by a wash of tin.

Diocletian adopted heroic remedies to relieve the financial condition of his empire by regulation of taxes, fixation of prices and restoration of the silver coinage. From the information contained in papyri, that have recently been published, we now know that Diocletian's destruction of the chemical treatises of the Egyptians was directly in line with these reforms. Counterfeiting had reached a higher state of perfection in Egypt than in any other part of the Roman Empire and when the practical-minded Emperor discovered that the chemical books of the Egyptians gave detailed information for imitating silver and gold he very properly burned these treatises as one of the causes of the Empire's financial troubles. Stringent measures were taken to enforce these regulations and the counterfeiters, who previously worked in the open, were now compelled to labor in secret. Their practical knowledge of the art was rewritten in an obscure enigmatic language which if discovered would deceive the military inspectors. This obscurity was still further enhanced by the decline of the metallurgic arts and the influence of Greek, Jewish and Gnostic mysticism, until what in the older days was bluntly admitted by the practicians to be a fraud was now acclaimed by the speculative mystics to be a transmutation.

This view of the origin of alchemy which was advanced by Berthelot² has been amply confirmed by  the publication in recent years of two Greek papyri belonging to libraries in Leyden and Upsala. These papyri, which have been described as twin brothers, were discovered in Egypt nearly a century ago by natives, while engaged in the plunder of tombs, but it is only lately that their contents have been made known. The two documents consist of over 250 receipts for purifying and treating metals, for preparing alloys, for counterfeiting gold and silver, for imitating pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones and for preparing colors and dyes. Only a few of the receipts for counterfeiting gold and silver will be quoted.

To adulterate gold (χρυσου δολος). An equal part of misy and Sinopic rouge to an equal part of gold. Put the gold in a furnace and when it is bright add each of the other ingredients. Take out and let cool when the quantity of gold is doubled. (Leyden papyrus, Rec. 17.) 

To make silver (αργυρον ποιησις). Clean white soft tin four times, melt six parts of the same with one mina of white Galatian copper. It becomes prime silver that will deceive even skilled workmen who will not suppose it to be made by such a treatment. (Upsala papyrus, Rec. 3.) 

Another receipt. Add six parts of purified tin and seven parts of Galatian copper to four parts of silver and the resulting product will pass unnoticed for silver bullion. (Upsala papyrus, Rec. 4.)

The receipts just quoted are all manifestly fraudulent as they are stated to be in the directions. One other receipt for making silver has an interesting significance, as it makes use of mercury, the spiritualizing medium of the later alchemists.

To make silver. Purchase coals such as the coppersmiths use and steep them in vinegar for one day. Then take one ounce of copper, fix it well with alum and melt in this condition. Then take eight ounces of mercury and empty the same into poppy extract. Take also one ounce of silver and, having incorporated these ingredients together, melt. (Upsala papyrus, Rec. 8.)

The Leyden and Upsala papyri were written apparently towards the close of the third century and are to be regarded as prototypes of the later alchemical receipts, the earliest manuscript of which dates back to the eleventh century. The connection of the two classes of documents with one another is unmistakable. The papyri refer to Democritos and Aphrikanos, who are mentioned repeatedly by the alchemists. Many of the receipts in the two collections are identical and the occurrence of the term an inexhaustible cake (ανεκλειπτος μαζα) of metal in both the papyri and the alchemists shows a certain community of origin.

The two papyri no doubt belong to the class of chemical books which Diocletian destroyed, the accident of burial, or concealment, having secured their preservation. They offer a good illustration of the practical receipts of the Egyptians before they were obscured by the allegorical interpretations of later mystics.

Under Christian influences this allegorizing tendency was further accentuated. The technical term for coloring is βαπτειν, to dip, and the close resemblance of this word to its cognate, βαπτιζειν, to baptize, conveyed a spirit meaning of the process to the Christian alchemists of the Byzantine era. Allusions to the New Testament became frequent. Chemical processes are represented under such terms as baptism, bodily death and resurrection, while the whole language is permeated with mystical expressions. Each metal, the same as man, becomes endowed with the triple hypostacy of body, soul and spirit. " The aim of our philosophy," writes Stephanos, "is the separation of soul and body." Divest lead or copper of its soul and spirit, endow the resulting body with a soul and spirit of a higher type and the result is gold. The change from the black of lead or the red of copper to the yellow of gold could not, however, be accomplished directly. The base metal must first be brought to the whiteness of silver before projection of the stone can produce gold. This is indicated in the lines of Theophrastos:

The white, augmented thrice within a fire,

In three day's time is altogether changed

To lasting yellow and this yellow then

Will give its hue to every whitened form.

This power to tinge and shape produces gold

And thus a wondrous marvel is revealed.

 The great agent of transmutation was the stone. "It is found," said Avicenna, "in the dirt of streets and is trodden under foot by men." The Greek 'alchemists were no less explicit. "It can not be bought with gold," said an unknown prose writer, "yet God has given it freely to beggars." Zosimos, a Greek of Panopolis, described it as "a stone yet not a stone, a thing despised yet full of honor, of many forms yet shapeless, a thing unknown yet familiar to all, of many names yet nameless." The description of Theophrastos is equally obscure.

Though not a stone, it yet is made a stone

From metal, having three hypostases,

For which the stone is prized and widely known;

Yet all the ignorant search everywhere

As though the prize were not close by at hand.

Deprived of honor yet the stone is found

To have within a sacred mystery,

A treasure hidden and yet free to all.

The symbol of chemical change from the earliest days of alchemy has been the fiery dragon or salamander. In the form of a dragon devouring its tail and bearing the mystical motto of three words and seven letters, εν το παν, " The All is One," it was used by the Greek alchemists to typify the unity of matter. It was the symbol of the never-ending cycle of the elements; the appearance of matter is always changing, yet its substance is eternally one and the same.

 A dragon springs therefrom which, when exposed

In horse's excrement for twenty days,

Devours his tail till naught thereof remains.

This dragon, whom they Ouroboros call,

Is white in looks and spotted in his skin,

And has a form and shape most strange to see.

When he was born he sprang from out the warm

And humid substance of united things.

The close embrace of male and female kind,

—A union which occurred within the sea—

Brought forth this dragon, as already said;

A monster scorching all the earth with fire,

With all his might and panoply displayed,

He swims and comes unto a place within

The currents of the Nile; his gleaming skin

And all the bands which girdle him around

Are bright as gold and shine with points of light,

This dragon seize and slay with skillful art

Within the sea, and wield with speed thy knife

With double edges hot and moist, and then,

His carcass having cleft in twain, lift out

The gall and bear away its blackened form,

All heavy with the weight of earthy bile;

Great clouds of steaming mist ascend therefrom

And these become on rising dense enough

To bear away the dragon from the sea

And lift him upward to a station warm,

The moisture of the air his lightened shape

And form sustaining; be most careful then

All burning of his substance to avoid

And change its nature to a stream divine

With quenching draughts; then pour the mercury

Into a gaping urn and when its stream

Of sacred fluid stops to flow, then wash

Away with care the blackened dross of earth.

Thus having brightened what the darkness hid

Within the dragon's entrails thou wilt bring

A mystery unspeakable to light;

For it will shine exceeding bright and clear,

And, being tinged a perfect white throughout,

Will be revealed with wondrous brilliancy,

Its blackness having all been changed to white;

For when the cloud-sent water flows thereon

It cleanses every dark and earthy stain.

Thus he doth easily release himself

By drinking nectar, though completely dead;

He poureth out to mortals all his wealth

And by his help the Earth-born are sustained

Abundantly in life, when they have found

The wondrous mystery, which, being fixed

Will turn to silver, dazzling bright in kind,

A metal having naught of earthy taint,

So brilliant, clear and wonderfully white.

With the help of the practical receipts and early prose treatises upon alchemy we are able to form some idea of the operations thus described.

It was recognized by the very earliest writers upon alchemy that the two important conditions necessary for promoting material change were heat and liquidity. Solution of the interacting substances was first necessary and to effect this solution heat and a liquid solvent were required. "Corpora non agunt nisi soluta" was a tenet of the medieval alchemists, an expression which was simply borrowed from the άναλυόμενα πάντα έργάζεται of the Greeks. When Theophrastos states, therefore, that the dragon is born from "warm and humid substance" and is to be slain in turn by a "knife with double edges hot and moist," we are simply to infer that the ingredients of his preparation are to be acted upon by some liquid through the agency of heat. The ingredients in this case, as in receipt No. 8 of the Upsala papyrus, are copper and silver and the acting liquid, as in the same receipt, is mercury.

Theophrastos describes his ingredients as male and female, a method of appellation common to the alchemists, who classified nearly all their substances under the one or the other of these terms. One very important male ingredient, used for the white coloration of copper, was arsenic, the word αρσενικος in Greek meaning either arsenic or masculine. The connection of gender, however, is not always so apparent as this. Another means of differentiation was based upon the gender of the word, planet or deity representing the substance. Thus lead and gold are always masculine whether represented under the common names μολυβδος and αργυρός or under the planetary names Κρόνος and Ήλιος. Copper and silver, on the other hand, are masculine under the common names χαλκός and άργυρος, feminine under the planetary names Άφροδίτη and Σελήνη. Copper, however, is stated by nearly all the alchemists to be a man, while silver is constantly referred to as copper's bride, the union of the two being symbolized as a marriage.

The mystical marriage of copper to silver was not accomplished, however, by melting. The fusing together of copper and silver into the alloy was recognized by the alchemists as a blending (κρασις) and not as a uniting (ενωσις). For the actual union of two opposites Greek philosophic ideas required the action of an intermediary which shared the qualities of the two elements or substances. The old alchemists dwell constantly upon the necessity of this. Fire, for example, is warm and dry, while water is moist and cold. These two opposites are joined by the intermediary action of air which is warm and moist.

The intermediary agent employed in the union of copper to silver was mercury, which in some of its attributes shared the qualities of both these metals. For example, mercury in color resembled silver, while its oxide in color resembled copper. But the point upon which the alchemists placed most stress was the intermediary influence of gender, mercury being both male and female. In the Upsala papyrus we find the masculine form ό ύδραργυρος in the eighth receipt and the feminine form ή ύδραργυρος, in the seventeenth. The same difference in gender is also observed in other technical treatises. The classic Greek writers used the masculine form, but most of the alchemists employed the feminine, although recognizing the distinction of double gender. Zosimos, for example, in one of his allusions to mercury says "it is the silvery water, the masculine-feminine (τό άρσενόθηλυ), that which is always running away and yet hastening unto its own."

The union of copper and silver is referred to by Theophrastos as taking place within the sea, the latter being a common term for the liquid metal mercury. The amalgamation is hastened by warming the vessel containing the ingredients in fermenting horse dung for twenty days. At the end of this time all traces of metal have been dissolved by the mercury, or as Theophrastos says the dragon "devours his tail till naught thereof remains."

The mixed amalgam of copper and silver, which according to Theophrastos was a speckled white, was next transferred to some form of Egyptian alembic, such as were made at Alexandria, an operation alluded to by saying that the dragon "comes unto a place within the currents of the Nile." The mixture is then heated over a gentle fire until the mercury is distilled away, this part of the operation being indicated by such terms as slaying the dragon " with skillful art within the sea," "Clouds of steaming mist ascend therefrom and these become on rising dense enough to bear away the dragon from the sea," etc. The vapors are condensed in the head of the alembic, "its nature changed into a stream divine," after which the liquid mercury is poured out into a recipient. Theophrastos here for the first time banishes allegory and calls mercury by its actual name, the sign of the waxing crescent being affixed to remove all doubt of his meaning.

During the distillation of the mercury a dross of black oxide gathered on the surface of the melted contents of the alembic, a phenomenon alluded to as the lifting out of the gall, and the removal of  "its blackened form all heavy with the weight of earthy bile." The final flashing of the melted metal under the scum of oxide, which Theophrastos mentions under such terms as brightening "what the darkness hid within the dragon's entrails," is, according to Hoefer, exactly what the metallurgist today observes in the cupellation of silver.

The mass of metal in the alembic is then cooled and scrubbed with running water which "cleanses every dark and earthy stain." The silver-copper alloy thus obtained is described by Theophrastos as "silver dazzling bright in kind, a metal having naught of earthy taint."

The transmutation of copper to silver by the above process is described by many of the Greek alchemists as a combat or battle in which the male contestant copper is completely vanquished by the female victor silver.

Stephanos in his fourth praxis exclaims:

Fight copper! Fight silver! Join male and female! The copper in his contest with silver is destroyed; the silver by her combination with copper is fixed. Destroy the body of copper and make it incorporeal by means of silver.

So also Archelaos in his poem causes the soul of copper to address its lifeless body:

Thou dost not wait the female joined to thee

In wedlock as desired. Thou dost not check

The clash of female conflict but decay

Awaits thy bloom from her.

It is seen from this that Mr. Kipling was not the first poet to declare, "The female of the species is more deadly than the male."

 The first step of transmutation, the albifaction or λευκωσις having been accomplished, there only remains the final step, the yellowing or ξάνθωσις, by means of which the silver is transformed to gold. This part of the process is described by Theophrastos as the second slaying of the dragon.

Then seize again this dragon changed to white

(A change divinely wrought, as I have said,

By means of albifaction twice performed)

And slaying him again with knife of fire

Draw all his blood which gushes blazing hot

And red as shining flame when it ignites.

Then dip the dragon's skin into the blood

Which issued from his belly's gory wound

(As thou wouldst dip a whitened robe in dye

Of murex purple); so wilt thou obtain

A brilliant glory, shining as the sun,

Of goodly form and gladdening the heart

Of mortals who behold its excellence.

This second slaying of the dragon is accomplished by heat alone, the agency of liquid mercury not being required. The weapon this time is " a hot knife of fire " in place of the " knife with double edges hot and moist" previously employed. The metal from the first transmutation is accordingly re-melted over a hot fire preparatory to the addition (of the stone, or powder of projection, by means of which the conversion of the silver to gold is to be accomplished. This is done by drawing off the melted metal, which Theophrastos calls the blood of the dragon, and stirring into it the powder of projection, an operation which is poetically described as dipping "the dragon's skin into the blood."

The composition of this " dragon's skin," or stone, or powder of projection, was the chief subject of investigation by the medieval alchemists, who wrote countless treatises upon the subject. Without discussing any of the medieval receipts it may be said that reference to the oldest writings indicates that the so-called stone was originally a yellow powder composed of such ingredients as copper, cuprous oxide, cinnabar, litharge, yellow arsenic or orpiment, misy (a copper-containing pyrites), sory (basic sulphate of iron), sulphur, and other substances whose yellow color might be a recommendation. A certain amount of gold was also probably included to act as a seed or leaven.

In a receipt, previously quoted from the Leyden papyrus for adulterating gold, misy and Sinopic rouge are mentioned as ingredients to be added to the gold and we have here probably a germ of the later powders of projection.

A somewhat fuller receipt is given in the Pseudo-Democritos:

Lighten the color of cinnabar by means of oil, vinegar, honey, brine or alum; then make it yellow by means of misy, sory, flower of copper, nature sulphur, or in any way desired. Project this upon silver and it will be gold.

A considerable latitude is given in these directions, as is indicated by the expression, "or in any way desired." The rigid exactness of the medieval alchemists, who permitted not the slightest deviation in character or quantity of the ingredients, is not as yet apparent.

Two very important substances, used by the Greek alchemists in projections, were the so-called molybdochalc (μολυβδόχαλκος) and aphroselen (άφροσέληνον). Owing to the very inexact nomenclature of the times, these words were given to a variety of products, although the terms seem most generally applied to the oxidation products obtained in refining lead-copper and copper-silver ores. The waste dust of the lead, copper and silver smelting works was especially prized by the old alchemists. This dust, described under such names as cadmia, tutia, magnesia, tephra, pompholyx, little scoriae, etc., fulfilled the mystical requirements of the stone, "being a product of many names, of no value, found in the dust of streets and trodden under foot by men." The incorporation of metallic oxides into the tinctorial powder or stone is alluded to by Theophrastos where he says " though not a stone, it yet is made a stone from metal."

The substances entering into the tinctorial powder were obtained in many cases by subjecting the metals themselves to a process of corrosion (ϊωσις). The directions for preparing molybdochalc according to a receipt of the Pseudo-Democritos were to heat white lead, or litharge, with flower of copper, or roasted copper, or treated copper-rust until the mixture became yellow. The manufacture of some of these ingredients, according to accounts given in Dioscorides and Pliny, will be briefly described.

White Lead (Greek, ψιμύθιον; Latin, cerussa) was made as follows: plates of lead were put into jars containing vinegar and kept closed for ten days. The corrosion that formed upon the surface of the metal was then scraped off and the lead put into the vinegar again. The process of corroding and scraping was continued until the whole of the lead was consumed. The scrapings were powdered, sifted, and dried in the sun. The method thus described is about the same as the modern Dutch process for making white lead. The white lead obtained was used as such, or else was heated in shallow pans until it was converted into the yellow or red oxides. These changes of color from the black of lead to the white of the basic carbonate and to the yellow of the oxides were of especial significance to the alchemists, for they followed the traditional order which base metals should follow in their conversion to silver and gold.

Flower of Copper (Greek, χαλκού άνθος; Latin, æris flos) was made in several ways. In one method the fused metal was exposed to a blast of air which caused the surface to peel off in small scales. In another method the scales were formed by drenching the hot metal with water. The scales, after being powdered, had a reddish-yellow color and consisted of a mixture;of metallic copper and cuprous oxide.

Roasted copper (Greek, χαλκος κεκαυμένος; Latin, æs ustum) was made by heating copper in closed vessels with various substances, such as sulphur, salt, alum, and vinegar. The calcined residue was then powdered in a mortar, washed and sifted. It consisted of a reddish-yellow powder and had a composition resembling that of flower of copper.

Copper rust (Greek, ϊος; Latin, ærugo) or verdigris was made by sprinkling vinegar upon copper filings or by putting plates of copper into earthern pots c'ontaining vinegar and scraping them every ten days. The scraped rust referred to in the receipt of Pseudo-Democritos was not used directly in making the powder of projection, but was treated, a process which, from a description of Dioscorides, probably consisted in heating the verdigris in a closed vessel until the basic acetate was changed into a red suboxide of copper.

The scraping of the corrosion or oxide from the metal plates, mentioned in these processes, is the operation described by Theophrastos and other alchemists as "skimming the dragon," the figurative skin, which was removed, forming the basis of the older powders of projection.

The action of the "dragon's skin," or stone or powder of projection, upon the silver-copper alloy of the first treatment would simply be to increase the copper content of this alloy and give it a golden color. The seed of gold and unchanged copper in the preparation would of course be readily taken up. The suboxide of copper has also a certain solubility in melted alloys of this kind and would help to impart a red or yellowish tint to the resultant mass of metal. Any unabsorbed ingredients, such as sulphur, orpiment, cinnabar, litharge, etc., would be either colatilized or thrown out as dross. The fused alloy after drawing off and casting probably had a yellow color much like that of gold. It might possibly "escape detection by skillmen workmen," to use the unsophisticated language of the old receipts, and to the credulous-minded alchemists, who had forgotten the old Archimedean method for determining the purity of metals, might easily pass for gold so pure that even "the treasuries of kings did not possess the like."

A final question, which remains to be considered, is the quantity of tinctorial powder that was used for projection. In the Leyden papyrus the receipt for adulterating gold prescribed " an equal part of misy and Sinopic rouge," and we can infer from other practical receipts that the amount of material used in the early days for tingeing metals the color of gold was considerable. In one Greek manuscript the directions state: " As to the weight of the projection, in the first operation one weight is projected into one weight; in the second one weight into a thousand weights; in the third one weight into a million weights." We know from the old writings that the process of projection was frequently repeated and with each repetition of the process the quantity of powder was diminished.

When the old practical receipts became permeated with mysticism, the idea of a seed or leaven, which could transform an almost unlimited amount of base metal, got the upper hand. The quantity of powder was reduced until in the middle ages it was. held that one grain of powder could transmute whole oceans of base metal into gold. By thus diminishing the quantity of powder the coloration produced by the older methods of projection was no longer obtained and the composition of the powder was held to be lost.

The subject of alchemy offered the Byzantine schoolmen a convenient theme for the exercise of rhetorical flourishes and Theophrastos next proceeds in a kind of litany to tell how the fortunate ones, who have been enriched by alchemy, express their appreciation.

They praise the gift with wise and joyous words

As one divinely sent and great in worth;

And thus they speak and voice their thankfulness.

O work divine, well-pleasing and concise!

O beauty brilliant with an aspect clear!

O marriage and conjunction most renowned!

O husband in a single union joined!

O wife united by affection deep!

O offspring famous and with glory filled!

O progeny of splendor, light and worth!

O robe with gold and silver overlaid!

O double-folded mantle bright as snow!

O metal which with gleaming silver teems!

O clear refreshing river of the sea!

O water than the loosened earth more free!

O ether rising far above the earth!

O clouds transformed from blackness into white!

O brilliant colored glory of the heaven!

O light which shines to all beneath the sky!

O system and bright circuit of the stars!

O lunar light reflected from the sun!

O sun whose darting beams engender gold!

From these the work of every sage begins

To reap in practise some deserving end;

In thee appears the object of our search;

Thou shinest scattering thy wondrous light,

A treasure most desired, all filled with pearls;

And bringing gain and wealth to mortal men.

This rhapsody, which repeats in gorgeous rhetoric the various steps of transmutation, seems somewhat overdrawn, yet Theophrastos in the use of exclamation is mild when compared with Stephanos, who in page after page of his prose treatise upon the sacred art lets flow a muddy stream of bombastic Greek. The science of the early Alexandrians had so far degenerated in the days of the Byzantines that it was made a theme for rhetoricians while the ancient clarity and conciseness, which made the scientific writings of Hippocrates and Archimedes models of expression, had now given way to deliberate obscurity of thought and to the empty jingling of an inflated style.

The alchemical poets conclude their verses with reflections of a moral and religious nature. This also was in general keeping with the custom of Stephanos and other Byzantine writers whose treatises usually began and ended with a prayer. Theophrastos simply followed the usage of his time and concluded his poem as follows:

 Who, then, beholding the great universe

Which Thou hast wisely wrought, —a well-designed

Production, made with singleness of art,

And faith inspiring in its glorious works—

Entranced with wonder would not be amazed?

He would extoll the boundless providence

Of reason's God and praise the sympathy

Which He, in ways both wise and manifold,

To us declares. As Lord beneficent

He wishes all mankind a happy life

And wealth by their activities to gain.

Then let us shape life's course with reverence

And cherish piety's clear beacon light,

Our pathways brightening with godly deeds,

Our neighbor loving and the foreign guest;

And day and night with supplicating prayers

Our adoration pay, as servants wise,

To God the Lord, all-seeing King of all,

Forgiveness asking for our trespasses

And that all kin from danger may be spared

And from temptations freed, as they arise;

And let us never undertake a work

Unless we give the praise therefore to God,

The Father, who begot the only Son,

The Son, the holy Word from God produced,

The Holy Ghost, proceeding too from Him,

Both now and always evermore. Amen.

This ending in orthodox Greek fashion is typical and reflects in a measure the ecclesiastical mania of the times, which found its expression in liturgies, ceremonies and the other accompaniments of an extravagant ritual. The doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the first person of the Trinity, contained in the next to the last line, shows that the poem was composed after the Council of Chalkedon in 451, and so could not have been written before this date as some have supposed. The same doctrine is promulgated in Stephanos to the disgust of Reinesius who, however much he admired the opinions of this writer on the subject of transmutation, could not uphold him in this.

The moral admonitions contained in Theophrastos and the other Greek alchemists were not, however, entirely the result of ecclesiastical influences. As the mystical doctrines of the alchemists gained ground the transmutation of the base metals into gold began to be regarded as a symbol of the transformation of man's own lower nature into something nobler and higher. The comparison of the nature of man with that of the metals was used, in fact, by Greek writers of the earlier Alexandrian period. Plotinos writes: "As gold is contaminated by the adherence of earthy dross, so is the soul corrupted by its union with the body." Hierocles makes a similar comparison in his commentary upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, where he says, "Gold is symbolic of virtue because it never corrodes while the baser metals gather rust which is typical of the vice that arises from material contaminations."

An example of the extension of this comparison, after the belief in transmutation had gained currency, is found in a fragment of so-called political verse, attributed to John of Damascus, who lived between 700 and 754. The poem, in which the lines occur, was called the Dioptra and gives a dialogue between the soul and body. The body mentions the unapproachableness of the state of man to that of God, but the soul in reply expresses the possibility of transforming man's condition by the following comparison:

It is as if when lead and gold are banished far asunder

A distance from each other's home, a distance wide are parted,

A certain craftsman then should come, who wished to show his cunning,

The operation of his art and scientific knowledge,

Should take this lead and melting it within his blazing furnace

Should show the same transformed to gold of quality the finest.

And this is surely wonderful and strange beyond believing

That what was never gold before, now gold becomes at present,

What was not gold has gold become, though not so at commencing.

O great display of excellence! O great display of reason!

The alchemists, who were always immoderate in their use of symbols, finally carried this comparison to its ultimate extreme with the result that the symbol became of paramount importance, while the act of material transmutation sank into insignificance. Stephanos, the chief Byzantine writer upon the sacred art, makes the following digression towards the close of his eighth praxis:—

From the objects of sense perception pass over now to those sights which are perceived by the mind. Behold the great order and immaterial splendor of the heavenly bodies. When thou hast seen the beauty of these, lift up thy mind beyond and noting the resplendent glory and great joy of the angels do not hereafter be led astray with respect to the material transformation of this earthy substance, of that which is sought after by the hand and revealed by the philosophy of gold-making.

 It is not surprising, therefore, that certain writers upon the subject should hold that all the old treatises upon alchemy are simply moral and religious allegories and that the gold, "such as was not found in the treasuries of kings," was of a heavenly, and not of an earthy, kind. An American writer, Ethan A. Hitchcock, was the first to advance this view in 1857 in an anonymous book of some three hundred pages. The same opinion in a modified form is also held by the well-known English writer, A. E. Waite, best known for his scholarly edition of Paracelsus.

The theory, however, that ancient alchemy was a moral allegory and nothing more carries with it its own refutation, for if we accept it as true we must also admit that there was a strong contemporary belief in the actuality of transmutation, otherwise the symbol and allegory would have had no meaning.

It was a strange reversal of ideas that the so-called sacred art, which originated in the fraudulent practises of Egyptian counterfeiters, should have afterwards developed into a means for the inculcation of virtue and religion.


[1] The Greek text, upon which the translations of Theophrastos and other Byzantine alchemists in this paper are based, is that given in Ideler's " Physici et Medici Graeci minores," Berlin, 1841.


[2] "It was thus that the workmen, accustomed to compound alloys resembling gold and silver with such perfection that at times they deceived even themselves, ended by believing in the possibility of an actual creation of these metals." (Berthelot, Alchemistes Grecs, Introd., p. 73.) The Upsala papyrus was not published until 1913 (Papyrus Grzecus Holmiensis, Upsala A. B. Akademiska Bokhandeln). Could Berthelot, who saw the great importance of the Leyden papyrus, have only lived to read the Upsala papyrus, he would have seen the most complete verification of his views. Lagercrantz, in his scholarly edition of the Upsala papyrus, discusses the whole question exhaustively and adopts the same view of the fraudulent origins of alchemy. "The Egyptian priests are therefore to be regarded as the oldest representatives of the art of adulterating gold, silver, precious stones and purple. Since the preservation of receipt books in the temples is expressly mentioned, then in all probability we should regard these places also as workshops for counterfeiting. If any one should think such a calling not to conform exactly with the virtues of priesthood, we would reply by saying that we should not entertain too exaggerated ideas of the morality of this profession. Moreover an outward show of uprightness could easily be given to operations from which the public at large was naturally excluded."