THE LANGUAGE OF ALCHEMY
The vagueness of the general conceptions of alchemy, and the
attribution of ethical qualities to material things by the alchemists,
necessarily led to the employment of a language which is inexact,
undescriptive, and unsuggestive to modern ears. The same name was
given to different things, and the same thing went under many names.
In Chapter IV. I endeavoured to analyse two terms which were
constantly used by the alchemists to convey ideas of great importance,
the terms _Element_ and _Principle_. That attempt sufficed, at any
rate, to show the vagueness of the ideas which these terms were
intended to express, and to make evident the inconsistencies between
the meanings given to the words by different alchemical writers. The
story quoted in Chapter III., from Michael Sendivogius, illustrates
the difficulty which the alchemists themselves had in understanding
what they meant by the term _Mercury_; yet there is perhaps no word
more often used by them than that. Some of them evidently took it to
mean the substance then, and now, called mercury; the results of this
literal interpretation were disastrous; others thought of mercury as a
substance which could be obtained, or, at any rate, might be obtained,
by repeatedly distilling ordinary mercury, both alone and when mixed
with other substances; others used the word to mean a hypothetical
something which was liquid but did not wet things, limpid yet capable
of becoming solid, volatile yet able to prevent the volatilisation of
other things, and white, yet ready to cause other white things to
change their colour; they thought of this something, this soul of
mercury, as having properties without itself being tangible, as at
once a substance and not a substance, at once a bodily spirit and a
spiritual body.
It was impossible to express the alchemical ideas in any language save
that of far-fetched allegory. The alchemical writings abound in such
allegories. Here are two of them.
The first allegory is taken from _The Twelve Keys_, of Basilius
Valentinus, the Benedictine:--
"The eleventh key to the knowledge of the augmentation of our
Stone I will put before you in the form of a parable.
"There lived in the East a gilded knight, named Orpheus, who was
possessed of immense wealth, and had everything that heart can
wish. He had taken to wife his own sister, Euridice, who did not,
however, bear him any children. This he regarded as the punishment
of his sin in having wedded his own sister, and was instant in
prayer to God both by day and by night, that the curse might be
taken from him. One night when he was buried in a deep sleep,
there came to him a certain winged messenger, named Phoebus, who
touched his feet, which were very hot, and said: 'Thou noble
knight, since thou hast wandered through many cities and kingdoms
and suffered many things at sea, in battle, and in the lists, the
heavenly Father has bidden me make known to thee the following
means of obtaining thy prayer: Take blood from thy right side, and
from the left side of thy spouse. For this blood is the heart's
blood of your parents, and though it may seem to be of two kinds,
yet, in reality, it is only one. Mix the two kinds of blood, and
keep the mixture tightly enclosed in the globe of the seven wise
Masters. Then that which is generated will be nourished with its
own flesh and blood, and will complete its course of development
when the Moon has changed for the eighth time. If thou repeat this
process again and again, thou shalt see children's children, and
the offspring of thy body shall fill the world.' When Phoebus
had thus spoken, he winged his flight heavenward. In the morning
the knight arose and did the bidding of the celestial messenger,
and God gave to him and to his wife many children, who inherited
their father's glory, wealth, and knightly honours from generation
to generation."
In the "Dedicatory Epistle" to his _Triumphal Chariot of Antimony_,
Basil Valentine addresses his brother alchemists as follows:--
"Mercury appeared to me in a dream, and brought me back from my
devious courses to the one way. 'Behold me clad not in the garb of
the vulgar, but in the philosopher's mantle.' So he said, and
straightway began to leap along the road in headlong bounds. Then,
when he was tired, he sat down, and, turning to me, who had
followed him in the spirit, bade me mark that he no longer
possessed that youthful vigour with which he would at the first
have overcome every obstacle, if he had not been allowed a free
course. Encouraged by his friendly salutation, I addressed him in
the following terms: 'Mercury, eloquent scion of Atlas, and father
of all Alchemists, since thou hast guided me hitherto, shew me, I
pray thee, the way to those Blessed Isles, which thou hast
promised to reveal to all thine elect children. 'Dost thou
remember,' he replied, that when I quitted thy laboratory, I left
behind me a garment so thoroughly saturated with my own blood,
that neither the wind could efface it, nor all-devouring time
destroy its indelible essence? Fetch it hither to me, that I may
not catch a chill from the state of perspiration in which I now
am; but let me clothe myself warmly in it, and be closely incited
thereto, so that I may safely reach my bride, who is sick with
love. She has meekly borne many wrongs, being driven through water
and fire, and compelled to ascend and descend times without
number--yet has she been carried through it all by the hope of
entering with me the bridal chamber, wherein we expect to beget a
son adorned from his birth with the royal crown which he may not
share with others. Yet may he bring his friends to the palace,
where sits enthroned the King of Kings, who communicates his
dignity readily and liberally to all that approach him.'
"I brought him the garment, and it fitted him so closely, that it
looked like an iron skin securing him against all the assaults of
Vulcan. 'Let us proceed,' he then said, and straightway sped
across the open field, while I boldly strove to keep up with my
guide.
"Thus we reached his bride, whose virtue and constancy were equal
to his own. There I beheld their marvellous conjugal union and
nuptial consummation, whence was born the son crowned with the
royal diadem. When I was about to salute him as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, my Genius stood by me and warned me not to be
deceived, since this was only the King's forerunner, but not the
King himself whom I sought.
"When I heard the admonition, I did not know whether to be sad or
joyful. 'Depart,' then said Mercury, 'with this bridal gift, and
when you come to those disciples who have seen the Lord himself,
show them this sign.' And therewith he gave me a gold ring from
his son's finger. 'They know the golden branch which must be
consecrated to Proserpina before you can enter the palace of
Pluto. When he sees this ring, perhaps one will open to you with a
word the door of that chamber, where sits enthroned in his
magnificence the Desire of all Nations, who is known only to the
Sages.'
"When he had thus spoken, the vision vanished, but the bridal gift
which I still held in my hand shewed me that it had not been a
mere dream. It was of gold, but to me more precious than the most
prized of all metals. Unto you I will shew it when I am permitted
to see your faces, and to converse with you freely. Till that
earnestly wished-for time, I bid you farewell."
One result of the alchemical modes of expression was, that he who
tried to follow the directions given in alchemical books got into
dire confusion. He did not know what substances to use in his
operations; for when he was told to employ "the homogeneous water of
gold," for example, the expression might mean anything, and in despair
he distilled, and calcined, and cohobated, and tried to decompose
everything he could lay hands on. Those who pretended to know abused
and vilified those who differed from them.
In _A Demonstration of Nature_, by John A. Mehung (17th century),
Nature addresses the alchemical worker in the following words:--
"You break vials, and consume coals, only to soften your brains
still more with the vapours. You also digest alum, salt, orpiment,
and altrament; you melt metals, build small and large furnaces,
and use many vessels; nevertheless I am sick of your folly, and
you suffocate me with your sulphurous smoke.... You would do
better to mind your own business, than to dissolve and distil so
many absurd substances, and then to pass them through alembics,
cucurbits, stills, and pelicans."
Henry Madathanas, writing in 1622, says:--
"Then I understood that their purgations, sublimations,
cementations, distillations, rectifications, circulations,
putrefactions, conjunctions, calcinations, incinerations,
mortifications, revivifications, as also their tripods, athanors,
reverberatory alembics, excrements of horses, ashes, sand, stills,
pelican-viols, retorts, fixations, etc., are mere plausible
impostures and frauds."
The author of _The Only Way_ (1677) says:
"Surely every true Artist must look on this elaborate tissue of
baseless operations as the merest folly, and can only wonder that
the eyes of those silly dupes are not at last opened, that they
may see something besides such absurd sophisms, and read something
besides those stupid and deceitful books.... I can speak from
bitter experience, for I, too, toiled for many years ... and
endeavoured to reach the coveted goal by sublimation,
distillation, calcination, circulation, and so forth, and to
fashion the Stone out of substances such as urine, salt, atrament,
alum, etc. I have tried hard to evolve it out of hairs, wine,
eggs, bones, and all manner of herbs; out of arsenic, mercury, and
sulphur, and all the minerals and metals.... I have spent nights
and days in dissolving, coagulating, amalgamating, and
precipitating. Yet from all these things I derived neither profit
nor joy."
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?
The alchemists were very fond of using the names of animals as symbols
of certain mineral substances, and of representing operations in the
laboratory by what may be called animal allegories. The _yellow lion_
was the alchemical symbol of yellow sulphides, the _red lion_ was
synonymous with cinnabar, and the _green lion_ meant salts of iron and
of copper. Black sulphides were called _eagles_, and sometimes
_crows_. When black sulphide of mercury is strongly heated, a red
sublimate is obtained, which has the same composition as the black
compound; if the temperature is not kept very high, but little of the
red sulphide is produced; the alchemists directed to urge the fire,
"else the black crows will go back to the nest."
[Illustration: A salamander lives in the fire, which imparts to it a
most glorious hue.
This is the reiteration, gradation, and amelioration
of the Tincture, or Philosopher's Stone; and the whole
is called its Augmentation.
FIG. XV.]
The salamander was called the king of animals, because it was supposed
that he lived and delighted in fire; keeping a strong fire alight
under a salamander was sometimes compared to the purification of gold
by heating it.
Fig. XV., reduced from _The Book of Lambspring_ represents this
process.
The alchemists employed many signs, or shorthand expressions, in place
of writing the names of substances. The following are a few of the
signs which were used frequently.
[Symbol: Saturn] Saturn, also lead; [Symbol: Jupiter] Jupiter, also
tin; [Symbol: Mars-1] and [Symbol: Mars-2] Mars, also iron; [Symbol:
Sun] Sol, also gold; [Symbol: Venus] Venus, also copper; [Symbol:
Mercury-1], [Symbol: Mercury-2] and [Symbol: Mercury-3] Mercury;
[Symbol: Moon] Luna, also silver; [Symbol: Sulphur] Sulphur; [Symbol:
Vitriol] Vitriol; [Symbol: Fire] fire; [Symbol: Air] air; [Symbol:
Water] and [Symbol: Aquarius] water; [Symbol: Earth] earth; [Symbol:
Aqua Fortis] aqua fortis; [Symbol: Aqua Regis] aqua regis; [Symbol:
Aqua Vitæ] aqua vitæ; [Symbol: Day] day; [Symbol: Night] night;
[Symbol: Amalgam] Amalgam; [Symbol: Alembic] Alembic.