operations. I have not written in this style, having resigned my will
to the Divine pleasure. I do not fear that the art will be disesteemed
because I write plainly, for true wisdom will defend its own honour.
I wish gold and silver were as mean in esteem as earth, that we need
not so strictly conceal ourselves. For we are like Cain, driven from
the pleasant society we formerly had without fear; now we are tossed
up and down as if beset with furies; nor can we suppose ourselves safe
in any one place long. We weep and sigh, complaining to the Lord,
‘Behold, whosoever shall find me will slay me!’ We travel through many
nations like vagabonds, and dare not take upon us the care of a family,
neither do we possess any certain habitation. Although we possess all
things we can use but a few; what, therefore, do we enjoy except the
speculations of our minds? Many strangers to this art imagine that
if they enjoyed it they would do great good; so I believed formerly,
but the danger I have experienced has taught me otherwise. Whoever
encounters the eminent peril of his life will act with more caution
thenceforward. I found the world in a most wicked state, scarce a man
but is guided by some selfish and unworthy motive, however honest
or upright he is judged in public. An adept cannot effect the works
of mercy to an uncommon extent without in some degree confiding to
the secrecy of others, and this is at the hazard of imprisonment and
death. I lately had a proof of it; for, being in a foreign place, I
administered the medicine to some distressed poor persons who were
dying, and they having miraculously recovered, there was immediately
a rumour spread abroad of the elixir of life, insomuch that I was
forced to fly by night with exceeding great trouble, having changed my
clothes, shaved my head, put on other hair, and altered my name, else
I would have fallen into the hands of wicked men that lay in wait for
me, merely on suspicion, excited by the thirst of gold. I could mention
other dangers which would seem ridiculous to those who did not stand
in a similar situation. They think they would manage their affairs
better, but they do not consider that all those intelligent people,
whose society is chiefly desirable, are extremely discerning, and a
slight conjecture is enough to produce a conspiracy; for the iniquity
of men is so great that I have known a person to have been strangled
with a halter on suspicion; although he did not possess the art, it was
sufficient that a desperate man had report of it. This age abounds with
ignorant alchemists; however ignorant of science, they know sufficient
to discover an adept, or to suspect him. An appearance of secresy will
cause them to search and examine every circumstance of your life.
If you cure the sick, or sell a large quantity of gold, the news is
circulated all through the neighbourhood. The goldsmith knows that the
metal is too fine, and it is contrary to law for any one to alloy it
who is not a regular metallurgist. I once sold pure silver worth £600
in a foreign country. The goldsmith, notwithstanding I was dressed as a
merchant, told me ‘this silver was made by art.’ I asked the reason he
said so. He replied, ‘I know the silver that comes from Spain, England,
&c. This is purer than any of them.’ Hearing this I withdrew. There is
no better silver in trade than the Spanish, but if I had attempted to
reduce my silver from its superior purity, and was discovered, I would
be hanged for felony. I never called again for either the silver or the
price of it. The transmission of gold and silver from one country to
another is regulated by strict laws, and this is enough to condemn the
adept who appears to have a quantity of it. Thus, being taught by these
difficulties, I have determined to lie hid, and will communicate the
art to thee who dreamest of performing public good, that we may see
what you will undertake when you obtain it.
“The searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth; nor is there
any cause to accuse me of envy. I write with an unterrified quill in an
unheard of style, to the honour of God, to the profit of my neighbours,
with contempt of the world and its riches; because ELIAS the artist is
already born, and now glorious things are declared of the city of God.
I dare affirm that I do possess more riches than the whole known world
is worth, but I cannot make use of it because of the snares of knaves.
I disdain, loathe, and detest the idolizing of silver and gold, by
which the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated. Ah, filthy
evil! Ah, vain nothingness? Believe ye that I conceal the art out of
envy? No, verily I protest to you, I grieve from the very bottom of
my soul that we are driven like vagabonds from the face of the Lord
throughout the earth. But what need many words? The thing we have seen,
taught, and made, which we have, possess, and know, that we do declare;
being moved with compassion for the studious, and with indignation of
gold, silver, and precious stones, not as they are creatures of God,
far be it from us, for in that respect we honour them, and think them
worthy of esteem, but the people of God adore them as well as the
world. Therefore let them be ground to powder like the golden calf! I
do hope and expect that within a few years money will be as dross; and
that prop of the anti-Christian beast will be dashed to pieces. The
people are mad, the nations rave, an unprofitable wight is set up in
the place of God. At our long expected and approaching redemption, the
New Jerusalem shall abound with gold in the streets, the gates thereof
shall be made with entire stones, most precious ones, and the tree of
life in the midst of Paradise shall give leaves for the _healing_ of
the nations. I know these my writings will be to men as pure gold; and
through them gold and silver will become vile as dirt. Believe me, the
time is at the door, I see it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall
return from the four corners of the earth, nor shall we fear any snares
that are laid against our lives, but we shall give thanks to the Lord
our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the whole earth
understood this science; then it would only be valued for its wisdom,
and virtue only would be had in honour. I know many adepts who have
vowed a most secret silence. I am of another judgment because of the
hope I have in my God; therefore I consulted not with my brethren, or
with flesh and blood, in these my writings: God grant that it be to the
glory of His name!”
We are told in the preface to “Ripley Revived” the authors to whom
he was at any rate chiefly indebted. “For my own part, I have cause
to honour Bernard Trévisan, who is very ingenious, especially in the
letter to Thomas of Boulogne, where I seriously confess I received
the main light in the hidden secret. I do not remember that ever I
learned anything from Raymond Lully. Some who are not adepts give
more instruction to a beginner than one whom perfect knowledge makes
cautious. I learned the secret of the _magnet_ from one, the _chalybs_
from another, the use of _Diana’s Doves_ from a third, the _air_ or
_cameleon_ from another, the gross preparation of the dissolvent in
another, the number of _eagles_ in another; but for _operations_ on
the _true matter_ and signs of the _true mercury_, I know of none like
Ripley, though Flamel be eminent. I know what I say, having learned by
experience what is truth and what is error.
“I have read misleading, sophistical writers, and made many toilsome,
laborious experiments, though but young; and having at length,
through the undeserved mercy of God, arrived at my haven of rest, I
shall stretch out my hand to such as are behind. I have wrote several
treatises, one in English, very plain but not perfected--unfortunately,
it slipped out of my hand. I shall be sorry if it comes abroad into
the world--two in Latin, _Brevis Manuductio ad Rubinem Cœlestem_, and
_Fons Chymicæ Philosophiæ_--these, for special reasons, I resolve to
suppress. Two others I lately wrote, which, perhaps, you may enjoy,
namely, _Ars Metallorum Metamorphoses_, and _Introitus Apertus ad
Occlusum Regis Palatium_. I wrote two poems in English, which are
lost; also, in English, an Enchiridion of experiments, a diurnal of
meditations, with many receipts declaring the whole secret, and an
Enigma annexed. These also fell into the hands of one who, I conceive,
will never restore them.”
The delinquent in question was undoubtedly George Starkey, who
published the “Marrow of Alchemy” under the name of Eirenæus Philoponos
Philalethes; this metrical account of the Hermetic theory and practice
is apparently the vanished verse of the adept, but it contains in
addition an account of the editor’s own initiation, which is certainly
worth transcribing.
“I have now to assert, from my own experience, facts of transmutation
of which I was an eye-witness. I was well acquainted with an artist
with whom I have often conversed on the subject, and I saw in his
possession the white and the red elixir in very large quantity. He gave
me upwards of two ounces of the white medicine, of sufficient virtue
to convert 120,000 times its weight into the purest virgin silver.
With this treasure I went to work ignorantly upon multiplication,
and was caught in the trap of my own covetousness, for I expended or
wasted all this tincture. However, I made projection of part of it,
which is sufficient for my present purpose, enabling me to assert the
possibility of the art from ocular demonstration. I have tinged many
times hundreds of ounces into the best silver. Of a pound of mercury
I have made within less than a scruple of a pound of silver; of lead,
little more waste; but ’tis wondrous to see tin--although a dross was
burnt from it, yet its weight increased in the fire. I essayed the
medicine on copper, iron, even on brass and pewter, on spelter, solder,
tinglass, mercury, and on regulus of antimony; and I can say with truth
it conquers all metallic things, and brings them all to perfection. I
found there was nothing akin to it but it would tinge into pure silver.
Even perfect gold was penetrated and changed into a white glass, that
would transmute, but in small quantity, inferior metals into silver;
but when this silver was assayed it was found to abide _aquafortis_,
cupel of antimony, and weighed as gold, so that it was _white gold_.
This was because the white tincture had fermented with red earth, and
both virtues coming into projection, produced silver-coloured gold,
or silver equalling gold in perfection, but wanting its hue. I did
not know the value of this silver till my medicine was nearly gone,
and sold eighty ounces of it at the common price, though it was as
valuable as gold. I projected the medicine on pure silver, and had a
chrystalline metal, like burnished steel or mirror, but there was no
increase of virtue in this; it tinged only so much as it would if it
had not been projected on silver.
“The artist who gave me this is still living; I prize him as my own
life; I wish his happiness, for he has been a sure friend. He is at
present on his travels, visiting artists and collecting antiquities as
a citizen of the world. He is an Englishman of an ancient, honourable
family, who now live in the place wherein he was born. He is scarcely
thirty-three years of age, and is rarely learned. You cannot know more
of him from me, nor can you be acquainted with him; his acquaintance
with me is as unexpected as his love was cordial. I had often seen by
experiment that he was master of the white and red before he would
vouchsafe to trust me with a small bit of the stone, nor would I press
him, trusting for his courtesy soon or late, which I shortly received,
by what I have said of the white medicine, and also a portion of his
mercury.
“He told me this mercury was a matchless treasure, if God would open
my eyes to the use of it, else I might grope in blindness. With this
dissolvent, which is the hidden secret of all masters, he exceedingly
multiplied his red stone. I saw him put a piece of the red, by weight,
into that same mercury, which then digested, dissolved it, and made
it change colour, and in three days it passed through the process of
black, white, and red.
“I thought that if the red and white could be multiplied that one
lineal progress led to either, and on this false ground I destroyed ten
parts in twelve of my medicine. This loss did not suffice me, for I
mixed the remaining two parts with ten times their weight of Luna, and
fell to work again, hoping to make up for my first error. I then began
to think upon the maxims of the old books, revolved in my mind the
agreement of my work with the laws of Nature, and at length I concluded
that each thing is to be disposed according to its condition.
“When I found that my vain attempts only threw away the tincture, I
stopped my hand, resolving to keep the few grains left for some urgent
necessity, which for its preservation I mixed with ten parts of Luna.
“I tried some of the mercury before mentioned on gold, my desire
being to see the work carried forward and brought to Luna, if not to
Sol. This, then, I projected on mercury. After having alloyed it with
silver it tinged fifty parts, and I strove to imbibe it, but in vain,
because I had let it cool. I foolishly supposed to obtain the oil by
imbibition. However, Nature carried on the work into blackness, the
colours, and whiteness, which yet was far short of what I looked for.
“In these trials I wasted nearly all my mercury likewise; but I
had for my consolation the witnessing of transmutations, and those
extraordinary processes which I beheld with mine own eyes, and blessed
God for seeing.
“In some time I met my good friend and told all my mishaps, hoping that
he would supply me as before; but he, considering that my failures had
made me wise, would not trust me with more, lest I should pluck the
Hesperian tree as I chose for my own and other men’s hurt. He said to
me, ‘Friend, if God elects you to this art, He will in due time bestow
the knowledge of it; but if in His wisdom He judge you unfit, or that
you would do mischief with it, accursed be that man who would arm a
maniac to the harm of his fellow-creatures. While you were ignorant,
I gave you a great gift, so that, if Heaven ordained, the gift should
destroy itself. I see it is not right you should enjoy it at present;
what providence denies I cannot give you, or I should be guilty of your
misconduct.’
“I confess this lesson of divinity did not please me; as I hoped so
much from him, his answer was a disappointment. He further said that
God had granted me knowledge, but withheld the fruit of it for the
present.
“Then I gave him to understand how I had discovered the skill of the
water, ‘by which, in time, I may obtain what you deny, and which I am
resolved to attempt.’
“‘If so, then,’ he replied, ‘attend to what I say, and you may bless
God for it. Know that we are severely bound by strong vows never to
supply any man by our art who might confound the world, if he held it
at will; and all the evil he does is left at the door of that adept
who is so imprudent. Consider what a prize you had both of the _stone_
and of the _mercury_. Would not any one say that he must be mad that
would throw it all away without profit?
“‘Had you been guided by reason you might have enough of what I gave
you. Your method was to add to the purest _gold_ but a grain of the
_stone_; in fusion it would unite to it, and then you might go about
the work with your _mercury_, which would speedily mix with that gold
and greatly shorten the work, which you might easily govern to the
_red_; and as you saw how I wedded new _gold_ to _such sulphur_ and
_mercury_, you saw the weight, time, and heat, what more could you have
wished? And seeing you know the art of preparing the _fiery mercury_,
you might have as much store as any one.
“‘But you do not perceive by this that God is averse to you, and caused
you to waste the treasure I gave you. He sees perhaps that you would
break His holy laws and do wrong with it; and though He has imparted so
much knowledge, I plainly see that He will keep you some years without
the enjoyment of that which no doubt you would misuse. Know, that
if you seek this art without a ferment, you must beware of frequent
error; you will err and stray from the right path, notwithstanding all
your care, and perhaps may not in the course of your life attain this
treasure, which is the alone gift of God. If you pursue the straightest
course it will take a year to arrive at perfection; but if you take
wrong ways, you shall be often left behind, sometimes a year, and
must renew your charge and pains, repenting of your loss and error,
in much distraction, care, and perils, with an expense you can hardly
spare. Attend therefore to my counsel, and I shall disclose the secret
conditionally. Swear before the mighty God that you will, for such a
time, abstain from the attempt or practice; nor shall you at that
time, even if you are at the point of death, disclose some few points
that I will reveal to you in secrecy.’
“I swore, and he unlocked his mind to me, and proved that he did not
deceive by showing me those lights which I shall honestly recount, as
far as my oath will admit.”
* * * * *
Eirenæus Philalethes has the credit of unexampled perspicuity, and
his _Introitus Apertus_, in particular, is an abridgement or digest
of the whole _turba philosophorum_. Those who are in search of the
physical secret should begin by the careful study of his works; thence
they should proceed to a consideration of the authors whom he himself
recommends, after which the best Hermetic writers, from the days of
Geber downward, should be taken in their chronological order, carefully
analysed, and their points of difference and agreement duly noted.
The physical nature of the alchemical arcana in the custody of the
true Philalethes are best seen by the narratives and commentaries
of his pupil, George Starkey. The mystery which surrounds the adept
stimulates unbalanced imaginations, and dilates into Titanic stature
the projects which he cherished and the wonders he is supposed to have
accomplished. The _Introitus Apertus_, amid much that is mystical
and much that suggests an exceedingly romantic interpretation, is a
treatise of practical alchemy, and further elaborates the principles,
evidently physical, that are expounded in the metrical essays which
were preserved and made public by Starkey.
FOOTNOTES:
[AH] It was published at Amsterdam in 1667, and is supposed to have
been free from the numerous typographical errors of the later editions.
PIERRE JEAN FABRE.
This physician of Montpellier, to whom chemistry is indebted for
some steps in its progress, flourished at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. He believed in the transmutation of metals, but
is not considered as an adept, though he wrote seventeen treatises
on this subject, and on the Spagiric Medicine. His most curious
work is _Alchimista Christianus_. Toulouse, 1632, 8vo. In _Hercules
Piochymicus_, published at the same place two years later, he maintains
that the labours of Hercules are allegories, which contain the arcana
of Hermetic philosophy.
He defines the philosophical stone as the seed out of which gold and
silver are generated. It is three and yet one; it may be found in all
compounded substances, and is formed of salt, mercury, and sulphur,
which, however, are not to be confounded with the vulgar substances so
denominated.
HELVETIUS.
The following singularly impressive and even convincing testimony to
the alleged fact of metallic transmutation was published by the eminent
Dutch physician, John Frederick Helvetius, at the Hague in 1667, and
was dedicated to his friends, Dr Retius of Amsterdam, Dr Hansius of
Heidelberg, and Dr Menzelin of Brandeburg.
“On the 27th December 1666, in the afternoon, a stranger, in a plain,
rustic dress, came to my house at the Hague. His manner of address was
honest, grave, and authoritative; his stature was low, with a long
face and hair black, his chin smooth. He seemed like a native of the
north of Scotland, and I guessed he was about forty-four years old.
After saluting me, he requested me most respectfully to pardon his rude
intrusion, but that his love of the pyrotechnic art made him visit
me. Having read some of my small treatises, particularly that against
the sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, and observed therein my
doubt of the Hermetic mystery, it caused him to request this interview.
He asked me if I still thought there was no medicine in Nature which
could cure all diseases, unless the principal parts, as the lungs,
liver, &c., were perished, or the time of death were come. To which
I replied, I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though
I read much of it, and often wished for it. Then I asked if he was
a physician. He said he was a founder of brass, yet from his youth
learned many rare things in chemistry, particularly of a friend--the
manner to extract out of metals many medicinal arcana by the use of
fire. After discoursing of experiments in metals, he asked me, Would
I know the philosophers’ stone if I saw it? I answered, I would not;
though I read much of it in Paracelsus, Helmont, Basil, and others, yet
I dare not say I could know the philosophers’ matter. In the interim
he drew from his breast pocket a neat ivory box, and out of it took
three ponderous lumps of the stone, each about the size of a small
walnut. They were transparent and of a pale brimstone colour, whereto
some scales of the crucible adhered when this most noble substance
was melted. The value of it I since calculated was twenty tons weight
of gold. When I had greedily examined and handled the stone almost
a quarter of an hour, and heard from the owner many rare secrets of
its admirable effects in human and metallic bodies, also its other
wonderful properties, I returned him this treasure of treasures, truly
with a most sorrowful mind, like those who conquer themselves, yet, as
was just, very thankfully and humbly. I further desired to know why
the colour was yellow, and not red, ruby colour, or purple, as the
philosophers write. He answered, that was nothing, for the matter was
mature and ripe enough. Then I humbly requested him to bestow a little
piece of the medicine on me, in perpetual memory of him, though but of
the size of a coriander or hemp seed. He presently answered, ‘Oh no,
this is not lawful, though thou wouldst give me as many ducats in gold
as would fill this room, not for the value of the metal, but for some
particular consequences. Nay, if it were possible,’ said he, ‘that fire
could be burnt by fire, I would rather at this instant cast all this
substance into the fiercest flames.’ He then demanded if I had a more
private chamber, as this was seen from the public street. I presently
conducted him into the best furnished room backward, not doubting but
he would bestow part thereof or some great treasure on me. He entered
without wiping his shoes, although they were full of snow and dirt. He
asked me for a little piece of gold, and, pulling off his cloak, opened
his vest, under which he had five pieces of gold. They were hanging to
a green silk ribbon, and were of the size of breakfast plates. This
gold so far excelled mine that there was no comparison for flexibility
and colour. The inscriptions engraven upon them he granted me to write
out; they were pious thanksgivings to God, dated 20th August 1666, with
the characters of the Sun, Mercury, the Moon, and the signs of Leo and
Libra.
“I was in great admiration, and desired to know where and how he
obtained them. He answered, ‘A foreigner, who dwelt some days in my
house, said he was a lover of this science, and came to reveal it to
me. He taught me various arts--first, of ordinary stones and chrystals,
to make rubies, chrysolites, sapphires, &c., much more valuable than
those of the mine; and how in a quarter of an hour to make an oxide
of iron, one dose of which would infallibly cure the pestilential
dysentery, or bloody flux; also how to make a metallic liquor to
cure all kinds of dropsies most certainly and in four days; as also
a limpid, clear water, sweeter than honey, by which in two hours of
itself, in hot sand, it would extract the tincture of garnets, corals,
glasses, and such like.’ He said more, which I, Helvetius, did not
observe, my mind being occupied to understand how a noble juice could
be drawn out of minerals to transmute metals. He told me his said
master caused him to bring a glass of rain-water, and to put some
silver leaf into it, which was dissolved therein within a quarter of
an hour, like ice when heated. ‘Presently he drank to me the half, and
I pledged him the other half, which had not so much taste as sweet
milk, but whereby, methought, I became very light-headed. I thereupon
asked if this were a philosophical drink, and wherefore we drank this
potion; but he replied, I ought not to be so curious.’ By the said
master’s directions, a piece of a leaden pipe being melted, he took a
little sulphureous powder out of his pocket, put a little of it on the
point of a knife into the melted lead, and after a great blast of the
bellows, in a short time he poured it on the red stones of the kitchen
chimney. It proved most excellent pure gold, which the stranger said
brought him into such trembling amazement that he could hardly speak;
but his master encouraged him saying, ‘Cut for thyself the sixteenth
part of this as a memorial, and give the rest away among the poor,’
which the stranger did, distributing this alms, as he affirmed, if my
memory fail not, at the Church of Sparenda. ‘At last,’ said he, ‘the
generous foreigner taught me thoroughly this divine art.’
“As soon as his relation was finished, I asked my visitor to show me
the effect of transmutation and so confirm my faith; but he declined
it for that time in such a discreet manner that I was satisfied, he
promising to come again in three weeks, to show me some curious arts
in the fire, provided it were then lawful without prohibition. At the
three weeks end he came, and invited me abroad for an hour or two. In
our walk we discoursed of Nature’s secrets, but he was very silent on
the subject of the great elixir gravely asserting that it was only to
magnify the sweet fame and mercy of the most glorious God; that few men
endeavoured to serve Him, and this he expressed as a pastor or minister
of a church; but I recalled his attention, entreating him to show me
the metallic mystery, desiring also that he would eat, drink, and lodge
at my house, which I pressed, but he was of so fixed a determination
that all my endeavours were frustrated. I could not forbear to tell him
that I had a laboratory ready for an experiment, and that a promised
favour was a kind of debt. ‘Yes, true,’ said he, ‘but I promised to
teach thee at my return, with this proviso, if it were not forbidden.’