LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS.
LIVES
OF
ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS
_BASED ON MATERIALS COLLECTED IN 1815_
_AND_
_SUPPLEMENTED BY RECENT RESEARCHES_
WITH A PHILOSOPHICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUE
PRINCIPLES OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, OR GREAT WORK
OF ALCHEMICAL RE-CONSTRUCTION, AND SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY
BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
AUTHOR OF
“THE REAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS;” “THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC:
A DIGEST OF THE WRITINGS OF ÉLIPHAS LÉVI,” ETC.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
_A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALCHEMY AND
HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY_
LONDON
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1888
PREFACE.
The foundation of this work will be found in “The Lives of
Alchemystical Philosophers; with a Critical Catalogue of Books in
Occult Chemistry, and a Selection of the most celebrated Treatises on
the Theory and Practice of the Hermetic Art,” which was published in
the year 1815 by Lackington, Allen, & Company, of Finsbury Square,
London. This anonymous book has been attributed by certain collectors
to Francis Barrett, author of the notorious treatise entitled “The
Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer;” but it may be safely affirmed
that, alike in matter and treatment, it far transcends the extremely
meagre capacities of that credulous amateur in occultism. It is indeed
a work of much sense and unpretentious discrimination, and is now a
bibliographical rarity which is highly prized by its possessors.
The independent researches which have supplemented the biographical
materials of the original compilation have produced in the present
volume what is practically a new work under an old title; those lives
which have been left substantially untouched as to facts have been more
or less rewritten with a view to the compression of prolixities and the
elimination of archaic forms, which would be incongruous in a work so
extensively modified by the addition of new details. The “Alphabetical
Catalogue of Works on Hermetic Philosophy” has been considerably
enlarged from such sources as Langlet du Fresnoy’s _Histoire de la
Philosophie Hermétique_. The preliminary account of the “Physical
Theory and Practice of the Magnum Opus” is a slight original sketch
which, to readers unacquainted with alchemy, will afford some notion
of the processes of accredited adepts. The introductory essay on the
object of alchemical philosophy advocates new and important views
concerning the great question of psychal chemistry, and appreciates
at their true worth the conflicting theories advanced by the various
schools of Hermetic interpretation.
IMPORTANT NOTE.
I am forced to append to this Preface a correction of one or two
errors of absolutely vital importance, which were unfortunately
overlooked in the text. On page 188, line 18, the date was intended
to read 1643; on page 189, line 5, read _anno trigesimo tertio_ for
_trigesimo anno_; and on line 6, _anno vigesimo tertio_ instead of
_vigesimo anno_. But if these emendations restore the passage to its
original integrity, a discovery which I have made while this work was
passing through the press has entirely cancelled its value. I have
been gratified with a sight of the original edition of Philalethes’
_Introitus Apertus_--a small octavo pamphlet in the original paper
cover as it was published at Amsterdam in the year 1667. It definitely
establishes that its mysterious author was born in or about the
year 1623, or two years later than the Welsh adept, Thomas Vaughan,
with whom he has so long been identified. This original edition
is excessively scarce; I believe I am the only English mystic who
has seen it during the present generation. The reader must please
understand that the calculation in the pages referred to was based on
the date 1643; this date, in the light of the original edition, has
proved erroneous, and by a curious chance, that which was accidentally
printed, turns out to be correct at the expense of the calculation.
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE 5
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE TRUE PRINCIPLES AND
NATURE OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, AND ON ITS RELATION
TO SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY 9
ON THE PHYSICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE MAGNUM
OPUS 38
LIVES OF THE ALCHEMISTS.
GEBER 44
RHASIS 46
ALFARABI 48
AVICENNA 51
MORIEN 53
ALBERTUS MAGNUS 57
THOMAS AQUINAS 61
ROGER BACON 63
ALAIN OF LISLE 67
RAYMOND LULLY 68
ARNOLD DE VILLANOVA 88
JEAN DE MEUNG 90
THE MONK FERARIUS 92
POPE JOHN XXII. 93
NICHOLAS FLAMEL 95
PETER BONO 118
JOHANNES DE RUPECISSA 119
BASIL VALENTINE 120
ISAAC OF HOLLAND 123
BERNARD TRÉVISAN 124
JOHN FONTAINE 129
THOMAS NORTON 130
THOMAS DALTON 133
SIR GEORGE RIPLEY 134
PICUS DE MIRANDOLA 136
PARACELSUS 137
DENIS ZACHAIRE 140
BERIGARD OF PISA 148
THOMAS CHARNOCK 148
GIOVANNI BRACCESCO 151
LEONARDI FIORAVANTI 153
JOHN DEE 153
HENRY KHUNRATH 159
MICHAEL MAIER 160
JACOB BÖHME 161
J. B. VAN HELMONT 166
BUTLER 168
JEAN D’ESPAGNET 170
ALEXANDER SETHON 171
MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS 175
GUSTENHOVER 181
BUSARDIER 182
ANONYMOUS ADEPT 184
ALBERT BELIN 186
EIRENÆUS PHILALETHES 187
PIERRE JEAN FABRE 200
JOHN FREDERICK HELVETIUS 201
GUISEPPE FRANCESCO BORRI 208
JOHN HEYDON 210
LASCARIS 211
DELISLE 216
JOHN HERMANN OBEREIT 219
TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND IMPRISONMENTS OF JOSEPH
BALSAMO 220
AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE OF WORKS ON HERMETIC
PHILOSOPHY AND ALCHEMY 274
APPENDIX 307
INDEX 313
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
ON THE TRUE PRINCIPLES AND NATURE OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, AND ON ITS
RELATION TO SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY.
Those unfamiliar with modern alchemical criticism, even if they
have some acquaintance with the mystical labyrinth of the _turba
philosophorum_, will probably learn with astonishment that the opinions
of competent judges are divided not only upon the methods of the
mysterious Hermetic science, but upon the object of alchemy itself.
That it is concerned with transmutation is granted, but with the
transmutation of metals, or of any physical substance, into material
gold, is strenuously denied by a select section of reputable students
of occultism. The transcendental theory of alchemy which they expound
is steadily gaining favour, though the two text-books which at present
represent it are both out of print and both exceedingly scarce.
In the year 1850 “A Suggestive Inquiry concerning the Hermetic Mystery
and Alchemy, being an attempt to recover the Ancient Experiment
of Nature,” was published anonymously in London by a lady of high
intellectual gifts, but was almost immediately withdrawn for reasons
unknown, and which have given occasion, in consequence, to several idle
speculations. This curious and meritorious volume, quaintly written
in the manner of the last century, originated the views which are in
question and opened the controversy.
Fifteen years after the appearance of the “Suggestive Inquiry,”
an American writer, named Hitchcock, after apparently independent
researches arriving at parallel conclusions, made public, also
anonymously, in the year 1865, some “Remarks on Alchemy and the
Alchemists,” in a small octavo volume of very considerable interest.
A psychic interpretation was placed by the previous author on the
arcana of Hermetic typology, and Mr Hitchcock, by adopting a moral
one, brought the general subject within the reach of the most ordinary
readers, and attracted considerable attention in consequence.
The views thus enunciated have filtered slowly through, and, combined
with the Paracelsian theory of the psychic manufacture of material
gold by the instrumentality of the interior magnes, have considerably
influenced the revived occultism of the present day. The question in
itself, taken at its lowest standpoint, is one of the most curious
to be found within the whole circle of esoteric archæology; and
for students whose interest in the great alchemical mystery is of
another than antiquarian kind, it is truly of palmary interest,
and of supreme importance. In an account of the lives and labours
of the Hermetic adepts, it calls for adequate consideration; and,
after careful researches, I believe myself to have discovered a true
alchemical theory which will be equally acceptable to all schools of
interpretation.
The supreme and avowed object of every hierophant, as well as of every
postulant and pretender, in the _ars magna_ discovered by Hermes
Trismegistus, has been commonly supposed to be the chemical manufacture
of material gold from commercially inferior substances. On the other
hand, Hitchcock, marshalling an impressive series of verbatim
citations from writers of all ages and all nationalities, undertakes
to demonstrate that the concealed subject of every veritable adept is
one only--namely, MAN, the triune, and that “the object also is one,
to wit, his improvement, while the method itself is no less one, to
wit, nature directed by art in the school of nature, and acting in
conformity therewith; for the art is nothing but ‘nature acting through
man.’” Again, “the genuine alchemists were not in pursuit of worldly
wealth or honours. Their real object was the perfection, or, at least,
the improvement of man. According to this theory, such perfection lies
in a certain unity, a living sense of the unity of the human with the
divine nature, the attainment of which I can liken to nothing so well
as to the experience known in religion as the NEW BIRTH. The desired
perfection, or unity, is a state of the soul, _a condition of Being_,
and not a mere condition of KNOWING. This condition of Being is a
development of the nature of man from within, the result of a process
by which whatever is evil in our nature is cast out or suppressed,
under the name of superfluities, and the good thereby allowed
opportunities for free activity. As this result is scarcely accessible
to the unassisted natural man, and requires the concurrence of divine
power, it is called _Donum Dei_.”
When the individual man, by a natural and appropriate process, devoid
of haste or violence, is brought into unity with himself by the
harmonious action of intelligence and will, he is on the threshold of
comprehending that transcendent Unity which is the perfection of the
totality of Nature, “for what is called the ‘absolute,’ the ‘absolute
perfection,’ and the perfection of Nature, are one and the same.”
In the symbolism of the alchemists this writer tells us that _sulphur_
signifies Nature, and _mercury_ the supernatural. The inseparable
connection of the two in man is called _Sol_, but “as these three are
seen to be indissolubly one, the terms may be used interchangeably.”
According to Hitchcock, the mystical and mysterious instrument of
preparation in the work of alchemy is the conscience, which is called
by a thousand misleading and confessedly incongruous names. By means
of this instrument, quickened into vital activity under a sense of the
presence of God, the matter of the stone, namely, Man, is, in the first
place, purged and purified, to make possible the internal realisation
of Truth. “By a metonymy, the conscience itself is said to be purified,
though, in fact, the conscience needs no purification, but only the
man, to the end that the conscience may operate freely.”[A]
One of the names given by the alchemists to the conscience, on this
theory, is that of a middle substance which partakes of an azurine
sulphur--that is, of a celestial spirit--the Spirit of God. “The still
small voice is in alchemy, as in Scripture, compared to a _fire_, which
prepares the way for what many of the writers speak of as a _Light_.”
Hitchcock elsewhere more emphatically asserts that there is but one
subject within the wide circle of human interests that can furnish an
interpretation of the citations which he gives, and it is that which
is known under the theological name of spiritual Regeneration. This
gift of God the alchemists investigated as a work of Nature within
Nature. “The repentance which in religion is said to begin conversion,
is the ‘philosophical contrition’ of Hermetic allegory. It is the
first step of man towards the discovery of his whole being. They also
called it the black state of the matter, in which was carried on the
work of dissolution, calcination, separation, &c., after which results
purification, the white state, which contains the red, as the black
contained the white.” The evolution of the glorious and radiant red
state resulted in the fixation or perfection of the matter, and then
the soul was supposed to have entered into its true rest in God.
As this interpretation is concerned chiefly with the conscience, I
have called it the moral theory of alchemy; but Hitchcock, as a man
of spiritual insight, could not fail to perceive that his explanatory
method treated of the way only, and the formless light of an “End,”
which he could not or would not treat of, is, upon his own admission,
continually glimmering before him.
For the rest, when the alchemists speak of a long life as one of the
endowments of the Stone, he considers that they mean immortality; when
they attribute to it the miraculous properties of a universal medicine,
it is their intention to deny any positive qualities to evil, and, by
inference, any perpetuity. When they assert that the possession of the
Stone is the annihilation of covetousness and of every illicit desire,
they mean that all evil affections disappear before the light of the
unveiled Truth. By the transmutation of metals they signified the
conversion of man from a lower to a higher order of existence, from
life natural to life spiritual, albeit these expressions are inadequate
to convey the real meaning of the adepts. The powers of an ever active
nature must be understood by such expressions as “fires,” “menstruums,”
&c., which work in unison because they work in Nature, the alchemists
unanimously denying the existence of any disorder in the creation of
God.
In conclusion, Hitchcock states once more that his object is to
point out the _subject_ of alchemy. He does not attempt to make its
practical treatment plain to the _end_ of the sublime operation. It
is, therefore, evident that he, at any rate, suspected the existence of
more transcendent secrets which he distrusted his ability to discuss,
and declined to speak of inadequately.
The author of the “Suggestive Inquiry” had already taken the higher
standpoint of psychic interpretation, and developed her remarkable
principles, which I must endeavour to reproduce as briefly as possible.
According to this work, the modern art of chemistry has no connection
with alchemy except in its terminology, which was made use of by
the adepts to veil their divine mysteries. The process of the whole
Hermetic work is described with at least comparative plainness in
the writings of the philosophers, with the exception of the _vessel_
which is a holy arcanum, but without the knowledge of it no one can
attain to the magistery. Now, the publication of the writings of Jacob
Böhme caused the alchemists who were his contemporaries to fear that
their art could not much longer remain a secret, and that the mystic
vase in particular would be shortly revealed to all. This vase is the
_vas insigne electionis_, namely, MAN, who is the only all-containing
subject, and who alone has need to be investigated for the eventual
discovery of all. The modern adepts describe the life of man as a pure,
naked, and unmingled fire of illimitable capability. Man, therefore, is
the true laboratory of the Hermetic art; his life is the subject, the
grand distillery, the thing distilling, and the thing distilled; and
self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition.
“Modern discoveries are now tending to the identification of light,
the common vital sustenant, as in motive accord throughout the
human circulatory system with the planetary spheres, and harmonious
dispositions of the occult medium in space; and as human physiology
advances with the other sciences, the notion of our natural
correspondency enlarges, till at length the conscious relationship
would seem to be only wanting to confirm the ancient tradition.”
In addition to the faculties which he commonly exerts to communicate
with the material universe, man possesses within him the germ of a
higher faculty, the revelation and evolution of which give intuitive
knowledge of the hidden springs of nature. This Wisdom-faculty operates
in a magical manner, and constitutes an alliance with the Omniscient
Nature, so that the illuminated understanding of its possessor
perceives the structure of the universe, and enjoys free perspicacity
of thought in universal consciousness.
In support of this statement it is argued that the evidence of natural
reason, even in the affairs of common life, is intuition, that
intuitive faith has a certainty above and independent of reason, that
the subsistence of universals in the human mind includes a promise far
beyond itself, and is stable proof of another subsistence, however
consciously unknown.
The true methods and conditions of self-knowledge are to be learned
from the ancient writers. The discovery of the veritable Light of
alchemy is the reward of an adequate scrutiny of true psychical
experience. Alchemy proposes “such a reducation of nature as shall
discover this latex without destroying her vehicle, but only the modal
life; and professes that this has not alone been proved possible, but
that man by rationally conditionating has succeeded in developing into
action the Recreative Force.”
The One Thing needful, the sole act which must be perfectly
accomplished that man may know himself, is the exaltation, by the
adequately purified spirit, of the cognising faculty into intellectual
reminiscence. The transcendental philosophy of the mysteries entirely
hinges on the purification of the whole understanding, without which
they promise nothing.
The end in view is identical with Hermetists, Theurgists, and with
the ancient Greek mysteries alike. It is the conscious and hypostatic
union of the intellectual soul with Deity, and its participation in the
life of God; but the conception included in this divine name is one
infinitely transcendental, and in Hermetic operations, above all, it
must ever be remembered that God is within us. “The initiated person
sees the Divine Light itself, without any form or figure--that light
which is the true _astrum solis_, the mineral spiritual sun, which
is the Perpetual Motion of the Wise, and that Saturnian Salt, which
developed to intellect and made erect, subdues all nature to His will.
It is the Midnight Sun of Apuleius, the Ignited Stone of Anaxagoras,
the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, the Armed Magnet of Helvetius, the
Fiery Chariot of Mercaba, and the Stone with the new name written on it
which is promised to him that overcometh, by the initiating Saviour of
mankind.”
This method of interpreting the Hermetic allegories is calculated to
exalt the alchemists indefinitely in the estimation of all thinking
minds. From possibly avaricious investigators of a by-way of physical
science, they are transfigured into dreamers of the sublimest
imaginable dream, while if that which they conceived was accomplished,
they are divine and illuminated monarchs who are throned on the
pinnacles of eternity, having dominion over their infinite souls.
A theory so attractive, devised in the interests of men whom romance
has already magnified in the auriferous cloud of mystery which
envelopes both their claims and their persons, is eminently liable
to be accepted on insufficient grounds, because of its poetical
splendour, so it will be well to ascertain the facts and arguments on
which it is actually based.
Both Hitchcock and the unparalleled woman to whom we are indebted for
the “Suggestive Inquiry” appeal to alchemical writings in support of
their statements. A few of their quotations and commentaries must
therefore be submitted to the reader.
The first point which strikes the alchemical student is the unanimous
conviction of all the philosophers that certain initiatory exercises
of a moral and spiritual kind are an indispensable preliminary to
operations which are commonly supposed to be physical. Here the
incongruity is evident, and it is therefore urged that the process
itself is spiritual, and that it was materialised in the writings of
the adepts to confuse and mislead the profane, as well as for the
protection of esoteric psychologists in the days of the Inquisition and
the stake.
The following preparation for the study of Antimony is recommended by
Basil Valentin. “First, Invocation to God, with a certain heavenly
intention, drawn from the bottom of a sincere heart and conscience,
pure from all ambition, hypocrisy, and all other vices which have any
affinity with these; as arrogance, boldness, pride, luxury, petulancy,
oppression of the poor, and other similar evils, all of which are to
be eradicated from the heart; that when a man desires to prostrate
himself before the throne of grace, for obtaining health, he may do
so with a conscience free from unprofitable weeds, that his body
may be transmuted into a holy temple of God, and be purged from all
uncleanness. For God will not be mocked (of which I would earnestly
admonish all), as worldly men, pleasing and flattering themselves
with their own wisdom, think. God, I say, will not be mocked, but the
Creator of all things will be invoked with reverential fear, and
acknowledged with due obedience.... Which is so very true that I am
certainly assured no impious man shall ever be partaker of the true
medicine, much less of the eternal, heavenly bread. Therefore place
your whole intention and trust in God; call upon him, and pray that he
may impart his blessing to you. Let this be the beginning of your work,
that by the same you may obtain your desired end, and at length effect
what you intended. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
The second qualification is contemplation, by which, says Basil, “I
understand an accurate attention to the business itself, under which
will fall these considerations first to be noted. As, what are the
circumstances of anything; what the matter; what the form; whence its
operations proceed; whence it is infused and implanted; how generated
... also how the body of everything may be ... resolved into its
first matter or essence. This contemplation is celestial, and to be
understood with spiritual reason; for the circumstances and depths
of things cannot be conceived in any other way than by the spiritual
cogitation of man: and this contemplation is two-fold. One is called
possible, the other impossible. The latter consists in copious
cogitations which never proceed to effects, nor exhibit any form of
matter which falls under the touch, as if any should endeavour to
comprehend the Eternity of the Most High, which is vain and impossible;
yea, it is a sin against the Holy Ghost, so arrogantly to pry into
the Divinity itself, which is immense, infinite, and eternal; and to
subject the incomprehensible counsel of the secrets of God to human
inquisition. The other part of contemplation which is possible is
called theory. This contemplates that which is perceived by touch and
sight, and hath a nature formed in time; this considers how that
nature may be helped and perfected by resolution of itself; how every
body may give forth from itself the good or evil, venom or medicine,
latent in it; how destruction and confection are to be handled,
whereby, under a right proceeding, without sophistical deceits, the
pure may be severed and separated from the impure. This separation is
made and instituted by divers manual operations ... some of which are
vulgarly known by experience, others remote from vulgar experience.
These are calcination, sublimation, reverberation, circulation,
putrefaction, digestion, distillation, cohobation, fixation, and
the like of these; all the degrees of which are found in operating,
learned, and perceived, and manifested by the same. Whence will clearly
appear what is movable, what is fixed, what is white, what red, black,
blue, green, namely, when the operation is rightly instituted by the
artificer; for possibly the operation may err, and turn aside from
the right way; but that Nature should err, when rightly handled,
is not possible. Therefore if you shall err, so that nature cannot
be altogether free, and released from the body in which it is held
captive, return again unto your way; learn the theory more perfectly,
and inquire more practically into the method of your operating, that
you may discover the foundation and certainty in the separation of all
things; which is a matter of great concern. And this is the second
foundation of philosophy which follows prayer; for in that the sum
of the matter lies, and is contained in these words:--Seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness by prayer, and all other things
shall be added unto you.”
Perhaps it will be thought, even at this preliminary stage of citation,
that there is much to be said for the physical theory of alchemy.
A particular appeal is, however, made to the celebrated “Canons of
Espagnet,” and to the following passage:--“The light of this knowledge
is the gift of God, which by his freeness he bestoweth upon whom he
pleaseth. Let none, therefore, set himself to the study hereof, until,
having cleared and purified his heart, he devote himself wholly unto
God, and be emptied of all affection to things impure. Those that
are in public honours and offices, or be always busied with private
and necessary occupations, let them not strive to attain to the top
of this philosophy; for it requireth the whole man; and being found,
possesseth him, and being possessed, challengeth him from all long and
serious employments, esteeming all other things as strange unto him,
and of no value. Let him that is desirous of this knowledge clear his
mind from all evil motions, especially pride, which is abomination
to heaven, and the gate of hell. Let him be frequent at prayers and
charitable; have little to do with the world; abstain from too much
company-keeping, and enjoy constant tranquillity, that the mind may be
able to reason more freely in private, and be more highly lifted up;
for unless it be kindled with a beam of divine light, it will hardly
be able to penetrate the hidden mysteries of truth.... A studious Tyro
of a quick wit, constant mind, inflamed with the love of philosophy,
very quick in natural philosophy, of a pure heart, perfect in manner,
mightily devoted to God, even though ignorant of chemistry, may enter
with confidence the highway of Nature, and peruse the books of the best
philosophers. Let him seek out an ingenious companion for himself, and
not despair of accomplishing his desire.”
Here Hitchcock points out that the operation is obviously not chemical,
for the chief instrument is determined and concentrated thinking on
the loftiest intellectual planes. The inference that skill in natural
philosophy is indispensable, is contradicted by the counter-statement
that ignorance of chemistry is not necessarily a source of failure.
In this connection, it must be remembered that the distinction between
alchemy and chemistry can scarcely be said to have existed at the
period of Espagnet, and the statement would at first sight seem almost
equivalent to asserting that it was unnecessary to be versed in the
properties of metals to accomplish the _magnum opus_.
“Let a lover of truth,” continues the author of the Canons, “make use
of but a few philosophers, but of best note and experienced truth; let
him suspect things that are quickly understood, especially in mystical
names and secret operations, for truth lies hid in obscurity; nor do
philosophers ever write more deceitfully than when plainly, nor ever
more truly than when obscurely.”
In the same manner, “The New Light of Alchemy,” falsely ascribed to
Sendivogius, and which is in high appreciation among Hermetic students,
declares that “the most commendable art of alchemy is the gift of God,
and truly it is not to be attained but by the alone favour of God
enlightening the understanding, together with a patient and devout
humility, or by an ocular demonstration from some experienced master.”
In _Anima Magica Abscondita_, Eugenius Philalethes gives the following
advice to the student, whether of magic or alchemy:--“Attempt not
anything rashly. Prepare thyself till thou art conformable to Him whom
thou wouldst entertain. Thou hast Three that are to receive, and there
are three that give. Fit thy house to thy God in what thou canst, and
in what thou canst not, He will help thee. When thou hast set thy house
in order, do not think thy guest will come without invitation. Thou
must tyre Him out with pious importunities. This is the way in which
thou must walk, in which thou shalt perceive a sudden illustration,
_eritque in te cum Lumine Ignis, cum Igne Ventus, cum Vento Potestas,
cum Potestate Scientia, cum Scientiâ sanæ mentis integritas_. This
is the chain that qualifies a magician. This is the place (viz., the
abode of the Archetype) where if thou canst but once ascend, and then
descend--
“_Tunc ire ad Mundum Archetypum sæpe atque redire,
Cunctarumque Patrem rerum spectare licebit_’--
thou hast got that spirit _Qui quicquid portentosi Mathematici,
quicquid prodigiosi Magi, quicquid invidentes Naturæ persecutores
Alchymistæ, quicquid Dæmonibus deteriores malefici Necromantes
promittere audent. Ipse novit discernere et efficere idque sine omni
crimine, sine Dei offensâ, sine Religionis injuria._ Such is the power
he shall receive, who from the clamorous tumults of this world ascends
to the supernaturall still voice, from this base earth and mind whereto
his body is allyed, to the spirituall, invisible elements of his Soul.”
After the same fashion, the still greater Eirenæus Philalethes
declares that God alone communicates the whole secret of the _aqua
philosophorum_, that all untaught by Him must wander in mists and
error, but that it is revealed to those who labour in study and prayer.
Quotation might be continued indefinitely. The _Centrum Naturæ
Concentratum_, ascribed to Alipili, and a treatise of some reputation,
declares that “The highest wisdom consists in this, for man to know
himself, because in him God has placed his eternal word, by which all
things were made and upheld, to be his Light and Life, by which he is
capable of knowing all things in time and eternity.... Therefore let
the high inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of nature,
learn first what they have in themselves, before they seek in foreign
matters without them; and by the divine power within them, let them
first heal themselves and transmute their own souls; then they may go
on prosperously and seek with good success the mysteries and wonders of
God in all natural things.”
* * * * *
These quotations, some of which are unknown to, or, at any rate,
uncited by Hitchcock, do not by any means establish the points which
are debated in his book. If the philosophers from whom they are
selected were in possession of the whole secret of wealth, they saw fit
to conceal it from the profane, and their works, full of practically
insoluble enigmas, are proclamations of the fact of their success,
rather than lights for those who sought to follow in their steps. Under
these circumstances, they saw that in the blind guess-work which their
symbols created of necessity, no student would ever attain to the true
light of alchemy except by pure chance--in other words, by the favour
of Heaven, which, accordingly, they counselled him to supplicate. None
of the passages in question are inconsistent with the physical object
of alchemy, and in the citation from Alipili, it is evident that the
mysteries and wonders referred to include metallic transmutation in the
mind of the writer. The investigator of natural secrets was advised to
take counsel with the Author of natural secrets after the only possible
manner.
“Whoever attempteth the search of our glorious stone, he ought,
in the first place, to implore the assistance of the all-powerful
Jehova, at the throne of his mercy, who is the true and sole author
of all mysteries of nature; the monarch of heaven and earth, the King
of kings, omnipotent, most true and most wise; who not only maketh
manifest in the microcosm, the truth of every science to worthy
philosophers, and liberally bestoweth both natural and divine knowledge
on the deserving and faithful; but also layeth open his treasures
of wealth and riches which are locked up in the abyss of nature to
those who devoutly worship him. And forasmuch as none are permitted to
touch the mysteries of nature with foul fingers, therefore it behoveth
all who attempt such matters, to lay aside their natural blindness
from which, by the light of the holy Scripture and a stedfast faith,
they may be freed, that being the means by which the Holy Spirit doth
clearly make manifest the most profoundly hidden light of nature, which
light alone lays open the way to the wisdom of nature, and to unlock
the most abstruse mysteries thereof.”
Even the subdued imagination which is claimed by the author of
“Remarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists,” is likely to go astray in the
labyrinth of alchemical symbolism, and some of the interpretations
of Hitchcock are exceedingly forced and unnatural. His citations
are indiscriminately gathered from the most transcendental writers,
and from those who, like George Starkey, have exhausted language in
emphatic declarations that their subject and their object are actual
metallic gold.
“Zoroaster’s Cave, or the philosopher’s intellectual echo to one
another from their caves,” is the title of a small work quoted by
Hitchcock. It opens thus:--“Dry water from the Philosophers’ Clouds!
Look for it and be sure to have it, for it is the key to inaccessibles
and to those locks that would otherwise keep thee out. It is a middle
nature between fixed and not fixed, and partakes of a sulphureous
azurine. It is a raw, cool, feminine fire, and expects its impregnation
from a masculine solar sulphur.” Hitchcock’s interpretation is this:--a
pure conscience! Look for it and be sure that you have it, &c. It is
of a middle nature between soul and body, and partakes of a heavenly
spirit. It expects its life from God.
It is needless to say that with this method any meaning could be
extracted from any allegorical writings. The author of the “Suggestive
Inquiry” is far more profound and evinces a far keener insight. It
is evident, however, that the truth (or the fallacy) of both methods
of interpretation depends on the connection of the alchemists with
practical chemistry. On this vital question, the uniocular condition of
both writers is utterly astounding.
“No modern art or chemistry has anything to do with alchemy, beyond the
borrowed terms which were made use of in continuance chiefly to veil
the latter.” That is to say, the alchemists did not lay the foundations
of the science, the beginnings of which are attributed to them, and
in this matter we are not by any means indebted to them. This extreme
statement is qualified by the later commentator, who gives a more
detailed expression to his views.
“That chemistry is indebted for its introduction among the sciences
indirectly to the alchemists is certainly true; at least I have
no disposition to question it; but not to the immediate labours
of the alchemists themselves, whose peculiar work was one of
contemplation and not of the hands. Their alembic, furnace, cucurbit,
retort, philosophical egg, &c., in which the work of fermentation,
distillation, extraction of essence and spirits, and the preparation of
salts is said to have taken place, was man--yourself, friendly reader;
and if you will take yourself into your own study, and be candid and
honest, acknowledging no other guide or authority but Truth, you
may easily discover something of Hermetic philosophy; and if at the
beginning there should be ‘fear and trembling,’ the end may be a more
than compensating peace.
“It is a plain case, that, for the most part, the experiments which
led the way to chemistry were made by men who were misled by the
alchemists, and sought gold instead of truth; but this class of men
wrote no books upon alchemy. Many of them no doubt died over their
furnaces, ‘_uttering no voice_,’ and none of them wrote books upon the
philosopher’s stone, for the simple reason that they never discovered
anything to write about. I know that some impostors purposely wrote of
mysteries to play upon the credulity of the ignorant, but their works
have nothing alchemical about them. It is true also that many books
were written by men who really imagined that they had discovered the
secret, and were nevertheless mistaken. But this imaginary success
could never have had place when gold was the object, because in the
_bald fact_ no man was ever deceived: no man ever believed that he had
discovered a method of making gold out of inferior metals. The thing
speaks for itself. It is impossible that any man can ever be deluded
upon this bare fact; but it is quite otherwise with the real object
of alchemy, in which men have been deceived in all ages ... for the
_subject_ is always in the world, and hence the antiquity claimed for
the art by the alchemists.”
* * * * *
This passage is a long series of simply incredible misstatements. The
history of chemistry and the lives of the adepts alike bear witness
against it. My object in publishing this book is to establish the true
nature of the Hermetic experiment by an account of those men who have
undertaken it, and who are shewn by the plain facts of their histories
to have been in search of the transmutation of metals. There is no need
for argument; the facts speak sufficiently. It is not to the blind
followers of the alchemists that we owe the foundation of chemistry; it
is to the adepts themselves, to the illustrious Geber, to that grand
master Basilius Valentinus, to Raymond Lully, the supreme hierophant.
What they discovered will be found in the following pages; here it
will be sufficient for my purpose to quote the views of a French
scientist who has made a speciality of alchemy, and who is also a high
authority on the subject of modern chemistry.
“It is impossible to disown that alchemy has most directly contributed
to the creation and the progress of modern physical sciences. The
alchemists were the first to put the experimental method in practice,
that is, the faculty of observation and induction in its application to
scientific researches; moreover, by uniting a considerable number of
facts and discoveries in the order of the molecular actions of bodies,
they have introduced the creation of chemistry. This fact ... is beyond
every doubt. Before the eighth century, Geber put in practice the rules
of that experimental school, the practical code and general principles
of which were merely developed later on by Galileo and Francis Bacon.
The works of Geber, the ‘Sum of all Perfection,’ and the ‘Treatise
on Furnaces,’ contain an account of processes and operations wholly
conformed to the methods made use of to-day in chemical investigations;
while Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, applying the same order
of ideas to the study of physics, was led to discoveries which, for his
time, were astounding. It is impossible, therefore, to contest that
the alchemists were the first to inaugurate the art of experience.
They prepared the arrival of the positive sciences by basing the
interpretation of phenomena on the observation of facts, and openly
breaking with the barren metaphysical traditions which had so long
checked the progress of the human mind.”[B]
With all their mystery, their subterfuges, and their symbolism, the
testimony of the alchemists themselves to the physical nature of their
object is quite unequivocal and conclusive. One of the most celebrated
experimental treatises in the English language is that entitled
“The Marrow of Alchemy.” It professes to discover the secrets and
most hidden mystery of the philosopher’s elixir, both in theory and
practice. It was published by Eirenæus Philoponos Philalethes, that
is George Starkey, and is generally supposed to be the work of the
true Philalethes; at any rate it develops his principles, and derives
its inspiration from the author of the _Introitus Apertus._ Now,
this little book testifies over and over again, and that in the most
emphatic manner, to the physical object of the alchemists, and to the
fact that they operated on common gold.
“The first matter which we take for our work is gold, and with it
mercury, which we decoct till neither will forsake the other, in which
work both die, rot by putrefaction, and after that are regenerate in
glory. _It is actual gold and nothing else._ What does not equal a
metal in weight will never enter it in flux. Nothing but the metalline
will dwell with metals.” A severe criticism is passed on the blind
folly of those who endeavour to reap the secret stone from strange
material subjects. “Gold is the subject of our art alone, since by it
we seek gold.” Those who, like the noble son of art, Morien, advise
students to descend into themselves to find the true matter, only
intended to point out how kind begets kind:--
“As then himself his likeness did beget,
So gold must gold, this law’s to Nature set.”
Morien adds that the secret stone must be sought in the dunghill, which
signifies, says the “Marrow of Alchemy,” that the metal must be brought
to putrefaction. “Those who assert that common gold is not the matter
are in error. Gold is one. No other substance under Heaven can compare
with it. Gold is the noble seed of our art. Yet it is dead. It needs
to be unloosed, and must go to water. It must be tempered with its
own humidity; it must be blent with our true water, disposed in a due
vessel, closed with all caution, settled in a due nest, and with due
fire inclined to motion.” It becomes the true gold of the philosophers
when by a retrograde motion it tends to resolution. “Then it is our
Sun, our Marchasite, and, joined with our Moon, it becomes our bright
crystal Fountain.”
* * * * *
But if the lives and the writings of the alchemists so clearly
establish the physical nature of the Hermetic aim and _opus_, it may
well be demanded how a psychical or moral interpretation could be
reasonably set upon the symbols and the ambition of all the adepts.
Such interpretations can never be wholly exonerated from the charge
of extravagance, and of a purblind indifference to the most plain
and notorious facts, but they may be to some extent justified by a
consideration of the allegorical methods of the alchemists and by the
nature of the Hermetic theory.
The profound subtleties of thought seldom find adequate expression
even when the whole strength of a truly intellectual nature is brought
to bear upon the resources of language, and where the force of direct
appeal is unwillingly acknowledged to be insufficient, the vague
generalities of allegory can scarcely be expected to succeed. It is
the province of symbolism to suggest thought, and the interpretation
of any sequence of typology inevitably varies in direct proportion
with the various types of mind. Each individual symbol embodies a
definite conception existing in the mind of its inventor, and in
that symbol more or less perfectly expressed, but every student of
allegory out of every individual symbol extracts his own meaning, so
that the significance of typology is as infinite as the varieties of
interpreting intelligence. For this reason, the best and truest adepts
have always insisted on the necessity of an initiated teacher, or of
a special intellectual illumination which they term the grace of God,
for the discovery of the actual secret of the Hermetic art. Without
this light or guidance the unelected student is likely to be adrift for
ever on a chaotic sea of symbols, and the _prima materia_, concealed
by innumerable names and contradictory or illusory descriptions, will
for ever escape him. It is in this way that a thousand unassisted
investigators have operated upon ten thousand material substances,
and have never remotely approached the manufacture of the Grand
Magisterium, and, after the same manner, outwearied by perpetual
failures in the physical process, that others have rejected the common
opinion concerning the object of alchemy, and with imaginations at
work upon the loftier aspirations expressed by Hermetic adepts, have
accredited them with an exclusively spiritual aim, and with the
possession of exclusively spiritual secrets.
If the authors of the “Suggestive Inquiry” and of “Remarks on Alchemy
and the Alchemists” had considered the lives of the symbolists,
as well as the nature of the symbols, their views would have been
very much modified; they would have found that the true method of
Hermetic interpretation lies in a middle course; but the errors which
originated with merely typological investigations were intensified
by a consideration of the great alchemical theorem, which, _par
excellence_, is one of universal development, which acknowledges that
every substance contains undeveloped resources and potentialities, and
can be brought outward and forward into perfection. They applied their
theory only to the development of metallic substances from a lower to a
higher order, but we see by their writings that the grand hierophants
of Oriental and Western alchemy alike were continually haunted by
brief and imperfect glimpses of glorious possibilities for man, if
the evolution of his nature were accomplished along the lines of their
theory.
Eugenius Philalethes enlarges on the infinite capacity of our spiritual
nature and on the power of our soul’s imagination. “She has an
absolute power in miraculous and more than natural transmutations,”
and he clothes his doctrine of human evolution in the terminology of
alchemical adepts.
In one of the twelve treatises attributed to Sendivogius, there are the
following remarkable passages:--“We know the composition of man in all
respects, yet we cannot infuse the soul, which is out of the course
of nature. Nature does not work before there be material given unto
her....” The problem that all composites are subject to dissolution,
and that man is composed of the four elements, and how, therefore, he
could have been immortal in Paradise, is considered thus. “Paradise
was and is a place created of the most pure elements, and of these
man also was formed, and thus was consecrated to perpetuity of life.
After his fall, he was driven into the corruptible elementated world,
and nourished by corruptible elementated elements, which infected his
past nature and generated disease and death. To the original creation
of man in state immortal the ancient philosophers have likened their
stone, and this immortality caused them to seek the stone, desiring
to find the incorruptible elements which entered into the Adamic
constitution. To them the Most High God revealed that a composition of
such elements was in gold, for in animals it could not be had, seeing
they must preserve their lives by corrupt elements; in vegetables also
it is not, because in them is an inequality of the elements. And seeing
all created things are inclined to multiplication, the philosophers
propounded to themselves that they would make tryal of the possibility
of nature in this mineral kingdom, which being discovered, they saw
that THERE WERE INNUMERABLE OTHER SECRETS IN NATURE, OF WHICH, AS OF
DIVINE SECRETS, THEY WROTE SPARINGLY.”
Here the reference probably intended is to the possibilities which
their theory revealed for other than the mineral kingdoms, a theory
the truth of which they believed themselves to have demonstrated by
accomplishing metallic transmutation. In this connection, it should
be noticed that the philosophical stone was generally considered a
universal medicine--a medicine for metals and man, the latter, of
course, by inference.