The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry |
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17th century A. E. Waite accurate agent alchemical writers alchemists thought Alfarabi apparatus asserted atomic theory atomic weight Basil Valentine body Boyle burning burnt Cagliostro calcined mercury called CHAPTER chemical change Chemical Elements chemist chemistry colour combination combustible composition compounds conception copper Dalton definite substance distilling distinct substances earth Essence essential experimental experiments expressed facts followed four Elements glass vessel heating hydrogen Illustrations investigations John Mayow knowledge language Lavoisier likened lived Lucretius Mary the Jewess mass material changes matter Mayow means metals into gold method Michael Sendivogius mineral mortification of metals natural events nitric acid nitrogen obtained oxygen Paracelsus perfect Philalethes philosophers phlogistic theory phlogiston Priestley processes produced properties pure quantities regarded Sages salt says seed senses separated silver solid soul spirit Stahl stance STORY sulphur supposed three Principles tion to-day transmutation union virtue volatile wherein whole multiples word writings
Popular passages
Page 31 - Therefore thus saith the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Page 102 - That Alchemy is a pretty kind of game, Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man With charming.
Page 103 - Sub. 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 ? Mam.
Page 38 - Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven, and then again descend to the earth, and unite together the powers of things superior and things inferior. Thus you will obtain the glory of the whole world, and obscurity will fly far away from you.
Page 19 - Thus often the woolly flocks as they crop the glad pastures on a hill, creep on whither the grass jewelled with fresh dew summons and invites each, and the lambs fed to the full gambol and playfully butt; all which objects appear to us from a distance to be blended together and to rest like a white spot on a green hill.
Page 95 - Yet alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons, he had left them gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they, by digging, found no gold, but by turning up the mould about the roots of the vines, procured a plentiful vintage. So the search and endeavors to make gold have brought many useful inventions and instructive experiments to light.
Page 48 - twere absurd To think that nature in the earth bred gold Perfect in the instant: something went before. There must be remote matter.
Page 77 - ... concluded his narrative, I besought him to give me a proof of his assertion, by performing the transmutatory operation on some metals in my presence. He answered evasively, that he could not do so then, but that he would return in three weeks, and that, if he was then at liberty to do so, he would shew me something that would make me open my eyes. He appeared punctually to the promised day, and invited me to take a walk with him, in the course of which we discoursed profoundly on the secrets...
Page 20 - ... Again when mighty legions fill with their movements all parts of the plains waging the mimicry of war, the glitter then lifts itself up to the sky and the whole earth round gleams with brass and beneath a noise is raised by the mighty trampling of men and the mountains stricken by the shouting reecho the voices to the stars of heaven, and horsemen fly about and suddenly wheeling scour across the middle of the plains, shaking them with the vehemence of their charge. And yet there is some spot...
Page 56 - ... men finding, that they can no longer write impertinently and absurdly, without being laughed at for doing so, will be reduced either to write nothing, or books, that may teach us something, and not rob men, as formerly, of invaluable time; and so ceasing to trouble the world with riddles or impertinencies, we shall either by their books receive an advantage, or by their silence escape an inconvenience.