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the secret teachings of all ages
Alchemy And Its
Exponents
CHAPTER xxx
manly p. hall
IS the transmutation of base
metals into gold possible? Is the idea one at which the learned of the
modern world can afford to scoff? Alchemy was more than a speculative
art: it was also an operative art. Since the time of the immortal
Hermes, alchemists have asserted (and not without substantiating
evidence) that they could manufacture gold from tin, silver, lead, and
mercury. That the galaxy of brilliant philosophic and scientific minds
who, over a period of two thousand years, affirmed the actuality of
metallic transmutation and multiplication, could be completely sane and
rational on all other problems of philosophy and science, yet hopelessly
mistaken on this one point, is untenable. Nor is it reasonable that the
hundreds declaring to have seen and performed transmutations of metals
could all have been dupes, imbeciles, or liars.
Those assuming that all
alchemists were of unsound mentality would be forced to put in this
category nearly all the philosophers and scientists of the ancient and
mediæval worlds. Emperors, princes, priests, and common townsfolk have
witnessed the apparent miracle of metallic metamorphosis. In the face of
existing testimony, anyone is privileged to remain unconvinced, but the
scoffer elects to ignore evidence worthy of respectful consideration.
Many great alchemists and Hermetic philosophers occupy an honored niche
in the Hall of Fame, while their multitudinous critics remain obscure.
To list all these sincere seekers after Nature's great arcanum is
impossible, but a few will suffice to acquaint the reader with the
superior types of intellect who interested themselves in this abstruse
subject.
Among the more prominent names
are those of Thomas Norton, Isaac of Holland, Basil Valentine (the
supposed discoverer of antimony), Jean de Meung, Roger Bacon, Albertus
Magnus, Quercetanus Gerber (the Arabian who brought the knowledge of
alchemy to Europe through his writings), Paracelsus, Nicholas Flarnmel,
John Frederick Helvetius, Raymond Lully, Alexander Sethon, Michael
Sendivogius, Count Bernard of Treviso, Sir George Ripley, Picus de
Mirandola, John Dee, Henry Khunrath, Michael Maier, Thomas Vaughan, J.
B. von Helmont, John Heydon, Lascaris, Thomas Charnock, Synesius (Bishop
of Ptolemais), Morieu, the Comte di Cagliostro, and the Comte de
St.-Germain. There are legends to the effect that King Solomon and
Pythagoras were alchemists and that the former manufactured by
alchemical means the gold used in his temple.
Albert Pike takes sides with
the alchemical philosophers by declaring that the gold of the Hermetists
was a reality. He says: "The Hermetic science, like all the real
sciences, is mathematically demonstrable. Its results, even material,
are as rigorous as that of a correct equation. The Hermetic Gold is not
only a true dogma, a light without Shadow, a Truth without alloy of
falsehood; it is also a material gold, real, pure, the most precious
that can be found in the mines of the earth." So much for the Masonic
angle.
William and Mary jointly
ascended the throne of England in 1689, at which time alchemists must
have abounded in the kingdom, for during the first year of their reign
they repealed an Act made by King Henry IV in which that sovereign
declared the multiplying of metals to be a crime against the
crown. In Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom's Collection of Alchemical
Manuscripts is a handwritten copy of the Act passed by William and
Mary, copied from Chapter 30 of Statutes at Large for the first year of
their reign. The Act reads as follows: "An Act to repeal the Statute
made in the 5th year of King Henry IV, late king of England, [wherein]
it was enacted, among other things, in these words, or to this effect,
namely: 'that none from henceforth should use to multiply Gold or Silver
or use the craft of multiplication, and if any the same do they shall
incur the pain of felony.' And whereas, since the making of the said
statute, divers persons have by their study, industry and learning,
arrived to great skill & perfection in the art of melting and
refining of metals, and otherwise improving and multiplying them and
their ores, which very much abound in this realm, and extracting gold
and silver our of the same, but dare not to exercise their said skill
within this realm, for fear of falling under the penalty of the said
statute, but exercise the said art in foreign parts, to the great loss
and detriment of this realm: Be it therefore enacted by the King's and
Queen's most excellent Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of
the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in this present parliament
assembled, that from henceforth the aforesaid branch, article, or
sentence, contained in the said act, and every word, matter and thing
contained in the said branch or sentence, shall be repealed, annulled,
revoked, and for ever made void, any thing in the said act to the
contrary in any wise whatsoever notwithstanding. Provided always, and be
it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the gold and silver that
shall be extracted by the aforesaid art of melting or refining of
metals, and otherwise improving and multiplying of them and their ores,
as before set forth, be from henceforth employed for no other use or
uses whatsoever but for the increase of monies; and that the place
hereby appointed for the disposal thereof shall be their Majesties mint,
within the Tower of London, at which place they are to receive the full
and true value of their gold and silver, so procured, from time to time,
according to the assay and fineness thereof, and so for any greater or
less weight, and that none of that metal of gold and silver so refined
and procured be permitted to be used or disposed of in any other place
or places within their Majesties dominions." After this repealing
measure had become effective, William and Mary encouraged the further
study of alchemy.
Dr. Franz Hartmann has
collected reliable evidence concerning four different: alchemists who
transmuted base metals into gold not once but many times. One of these
accounts concerns a monk of the Order of St. Augustine named Wenzel
Seiler, who discovered a small amount of mysterious red powder in his
convent. In the presence of Emperor Leopold I, King of Germany, Hungary,
and Bohemia, he transmuted quantities of tin into gold. Among other
things which he dipped into his mysterious essence was a large silver
medal. That part of the medal which came in contact with the
gold-producing substance was transmuted into the purest quality of the
more precious metal. The rest remained silver. With regard to this
medal, Dr. Hartmann writes:
"The most indisputable proof
(if appearances can prove anything) of the possibility of transmuting
base metals into gold, may be seen by everyone who visits Vienna; it
being a medal preserved in the Imperial treasury chamber, and it is
stated that this medal, consisting originally of silver, has been partly
transformed into gold, by alchemical means, by the same Wenzel Seiler
who was afterwards made a knight by the Emperor Leopold I. and given the
title Wenzeslaus Ritter von Reinburg. "(In the Pronaos of the Temple
of Wisdom.)
Space limitations preclude a
lengthy discussion of the alchemists. A brief sketch of the lives of
four should serve to show the general principles on which they worked,
the method by which they obtained their knowledge, and the use which
they made of it. These four were Grand Masters of this secret science;
and the stories of their wanderings and strivings,
as recorded by their own pens and by contemporaneous disciples of the
Hermetic art, are as fascinating as any romance of fiction.
PARACELSUS.
From The Complete Writings
of Paracelsus, of Hohenheim.
In his Biographia
Antiqua, Francis Barrett appends to the name of Paracelsus the
following titles of distinction: "The Prince of Physicians and
Philosophers by Fire; Grand Paradoxical Physician; The Trismegistus of
Switzerland; First Reformer of Chymical Philosophy; Adept in Alchymy,
Cabala, and Magic; Nature's Faithful Secretary; Master of the Elixir of
Life and The Philosopher's Stone," and the "Great Monarch of Chymical
Secrets"
PARACELSUS OF
HOHENHEIM
The most famous of alchemical
and Hermetic philosophers was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus
von Hohenheim. This man, who called himself Paracelsus, declared that
some day all the doctors of Europe would turn from the other schools
and, following him, revere him above every other physician. The accepted
date of the birth of Paracelsus is December 17, 1493. He was an only
child. Both his father and mother were interested in medicine and
chemistry. His father was a physician and his mother the superintendent
of a hospital. While still a youth, Paracelsus became greatly interested
in the writings of Isaac of Holland, and determined to reform the
medical science of his day.
When twenty years old he began
a series of travels which continued for about twelve years. He visited
many European countries, including Russia. It is possible that he
penetrated into Asia. It was in Constantinople that the great secret of
the Hermetic arts was bestowed upon him by Arabian adepts. His knowledge
of the Nature spirits and the inhabitants of the invisible worlds he
probably secured from the Brahmins of India with whom he came in contact
either directly or through their disciples. He became an army physician,
and his understanding and skill brought him great success.
Upon his return to Germany, he
began his long-dreamed-of reformation of the medical arts and sciences.
He was opposed on every hand and criticized unmercifully. His violent
temper and tremendously strong personality undoubtedly precipitated many
storms upon his head which might have been avoided had he been of a less
caustic disposition. He flayed the apothecaries, asserting that they did
not use the proper ingredients in their prescriptions and did not
consider the needs of their patients, desiring only to collect
exorbitant fees for their concoctions.
The remarkable cures which
Paracelsus effected only made his enemies hate him more bitterly, for
they could not duplicate the apparent miracles which he wrought. He not
only treated the more common diseases of his day but is said to have
actually cured leprosy, cholera, and cancer. His friends claimed for him
that he all but raised the dead. His systems of healing were so
heterodox, however, that slowly but surely his enemies overwhelmed him
and again and again forced him to leave the fields of his labors and
seek refuge where he was not known.
There is much controversy
concerning the personality of Paracelsus. That he had an irascible
disposition there is no doubt. His barred for physicians and for women
amounted to a mania; for them he had nothing but abuse. As far as can be
learned, there was never a love affair in his life. His peculiar
appearance and immoderate system of living were always held against him
by his adversaries. It is believed that his physical abnormalities may
have been responsible for much of the bitterness against society which
he carried with him throughout all his intolerant and tempestuous
life.
His reputed intemperance
brought upon him still more persecution, for it was asserted that even
during the time of his professorship in the University of Basel he was
seldom sober. Such an accusation is difficult to understand in view of
the marvelous mental clarity for which he was noted at all times. The
vast amount of writing which he accomplished (the Strassburg Edition of
his collected works is in three large volumes, each containing several
hundred pages) is a monumental contradiction of the tales regarding his
excessive use of alcoholics.
No doubt many of the vices of
which he is accused were sheer inventions by his enemies, who, not
satisfied with hiring assassins to murder him, sought to besmirch his
memory after they had revengefully ended his life. The manner in which
Paracelsus met his death is uncertain, but: the most credible account is
that he died as the indirect result of a scuffle with a number of
assassins who had been hired by some of his professional enemies to make
away with the one who had exposed their chicanery.
Few manuscripts are extant in
the handwriting of Paracelsus, for he dictated the majority of his works
to his disciples, who wrote them down. Professor John Maxson Stillman,
of Stanford University, pays the following tribute to his memory:
"Whatever be the final judgment as to the relative importance of
Paracelsus in the upbuilding of medical science and practice, it must be
recognized that he entered upon his career at Basel with the zeal and
the self-assurance of one who believed himself inspired with a great
truth, and destined to effect a great advance in the science and
practice of medicine. By nature he was a keen and open-minded observer
of whatever came under his observation, though probably also not a very
critical analyst of the observed phenomena. He was evidently an
unusually self-reliant and independent thinker, though the degree of
originality in his thought may be a matter of legitimate differences of
opinion. Certainly once having, from whatever combination of influences,
made up his mind to reject the sacredness of the authority of Aristotle,
Galen and Avicenna, and having found what to his mind was a satisfactory
substitute for the ancient dogmas in his own modification of the
neo-Platonic philosophy, he did not hesitate to burn his ships behind
him.
"Having cut loose from the
dominant Galenism of his time, he determined to preach and teach that
the basis of the medical science of the future should be the study of
nature, observation of the patient, experiment and experience, and not
the infallible dogmas of authors long dead. Doubtless in the pride and
self-confidence of his youthful enthusiasm he did not rightly estimate
the tremendous force of conservatism against which he directed his
assaults. If so, his experience in Basel surely undeceived him. From
that time on he was to be a wanderer again, sometimes in great poverty,
sometimes in moderate comfort, but manifestly disillusioned as to the
immediate success of his campaign though never in doubt as to its
ultimate success--for to his mind his new theories and practice of
medicine were at one with the forces of nature, which were the
expression of God's will, and eventually they must prevail."
This strange man, his nature a
mass of contradictions, his stupendous genius shining like a star
through the philosophic and scientific darkness of mediæval Europe,
struggling against the jealousy of his colleagues as well as against the
irascibility of his own nature, fought for the good of the many against
the domination of the few. He was the first man to write scientific
books in the language of the common people so that all could read
them.
Even in death Paracelsus found
no rest. Again and again his bones were dug up and reinterred in another
place. The slab of marble over his grave bears the following
inscription: "Here lies buried Philip Theophrastus the famous Doctor
of Medicine who cured Wounds, Leprosy, Gout, Dropsy and other incurable
Maladies of the Body, with wonderful Knowledge and gave his Goods to be
divided and distributed to the Poor. In the Year 1541 on the 24th day of
September he exchanged Life for Death. To the Living Peace, to the
Sepulchred Eternal Rest."
A. M. Stoddart, in her Life
of Paracelsus, gives a remarkable testimonial of the love which the
masses had for the great physician. Referring to his tomb, she writes:
"To this day the poor pray there. Hohenheim's memory has 'blossomed in
the dust' to sainthood, for the poor have canonized him. When cholera
threatened Salzburg in 1830, the people made a pilgrimage to his
monument and prayed him to avert it from their homes. The dreaded
scourge passed away from them and raged in Germany and the rest of
Austria." It was supposed that one early teacher of
Paracelsus was a mysterious alchemist who called himself Solomon
Trismosin. Concerning this person nothing is known save that after some
years of wandering he secured the formula of transmutation and claimed
to have made vast amounts of gold. A beautifully illuminated manuscript
of this author, dated 1582 and called Splendor Solis, is in the British
Museum. Trismosin claimed to have lived to the age of 150 as the result
of his knowledge of alchemy. One very significant statement appears in
his Alchemical Wanderings, which work is supposed to narrate his search
for the Philosopher's Scone: "Study what thou art, whereof thou art a
part, what thou knowest of this art, this is really what thou art. All
that is without thee also is within, thus wrote
Trismosin."
ALBERTUS
MAGNUS.
From Jovius' Vitae
Illustrium Virorum.
Albert de Groot was born about 1206
and died at the age of 74. It has been said of him that he was "magnus
in magia, major in philosophia, maximus in theologia." He was a member
of the Dominican order and the mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas in alchemy
and philosophy. Among other positions of dignity occupied by Albertus
Magnus was that of Bishop of Regensburg. He was beatified in 1622.
Albertus was an Aristotelian philosopher, an astrologer, and a profound
student of medicine and physics. During his youth, he was considered of
deficient mentality, but his since service and devotion were rewarded by
a vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and bestowed upon him
great philosophical and intellectual powers. Having become master of the
magical sciences, Albertus began the construction of a curious
automaton, which he invested with the powers of speech and thought. The Android, as it was called, was composed of metals and unknown
substances chosen according to the stars and endued with spiritual
qualities by magical formulæ and invocations, and the labor upon it
consumed over thirty years. St. Thomas Aquinas, thinking the device to
be a diabolical mechanism, destroyed it, thus frustrating the labor of a
lifetime. In spite of this act, Albertus Magnus left to St. Thomas
Aquinas his alchemical formulæ, including (according to legend) the
secret of the Philosopher's Stone.
On one occasion Albertus Magnus
invited William II, Count of Holland and King of the Romans, to a garden
party in midwinter. The ground was covered with snow, but Albertus, had
prepare a sumptuous banquet in the open grounds of his monastery at
Cologne. The guests were amazed at the imprudence of the philosopher,
but as they sat down to eat Albertus, uttered a few words, the snow
disappeared, the garden was filled with flowers and singing birds, and
the air was warm with the breezes of summer. As soon as the feast was
over, the snow returned, much to the amazement of the assembled nobles.
(For details, see The Lives of Alchemystical
Philosophers.)
RAYMOND
LULLY
This most famous of all the
Spanish alchemists was born about the year 1235. His father was
seneschal to James the First of Aragon, and young Raymond was brought up
in the court surrounded by the temptations and profligacy abounding in
such places. He was later appointed to the position which his father had
occupied. A wealthy marriage ensured Raymond's financial position, and
he lived the life of a grandee.
One of the most beautiful women
at: the court of Aragon was Donna Ambrosia Eleanora Di Castello, whose
virtue and beauty had brought her great renown. She was at that time
married and was not particularly pleased to discover that young Lully
was rapidly developing a passion for her. Wherever she went Raymond
followed, and at last over a trivial incident he wrote some very amorous
verses to her, which produced an effect quite different from what he had
expected. He received a message inviting him to visit the lady. He
responded with alacrity. She told him that it was only fair that he
should behold more of the beauty concerning which he wrote such
appealing poems and, drawing aside part of her garments, disclosed that
one side of her body was nearly eaten away by a cancer. Raymond never
recovered from the shock. It turned the entire course of his life. He
renounced the frivolities of the court and became a recluse.
Sometime afterwards while doing
penance for his worldly sins a vision appeared to him in which Christ
told him to follow in the direction in which He should lead. Later the
vision was repeated. Hesitating no longer, Raymond divided his property
among his family and retired to a hut on the side of a hill, where he
devoted himself to the study of Arabic, that he might go forth and
convert the infidels. After six years in this retreat he set out with a
Mohammedan servant, who, when he learned that Raymond was about to
attack the faith of his people, buried his knife in his master's back.
Raymond refused to allow his would-be assassin to be executed, but later
the man strangled himself in prison.
When Raymond regained his
health he became a teacher of the Arabic language to those who intended
traveling in the Holy Land. It was while so engaged that he came in
contact: with Arnold of Villa Nova, who taught him the principles or
alchemy. As a result of this training, Raymond learned the secret of the
transmutation and multiplication of metals. His life of wandering
continued, and during the course of it he arrived at Tunis, where he
began to debate with the Mohammedan teachers, and nearly lost his life
as the result of his fanatical attacks upon their religion. He was
ordered to leave the country and never to return again upon pain of
death. Notwithstanding their threats he made a second visit to Tunis,
but the inhabitants instead of killing him merely deported him to
Italy.
An unsigned article appearing
in Household Words, No. 273, a magazine conducted by Charles Dickens,
throws considerable light on Lully's alchemical ability. "Whilst at
Vienna he [Lully] received flattering letters from Edward the Second,
King of England, and from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, entreating him
to visit them. He had also, in the course of his travels, met with John
Cremer, Abbot of Westminster, with whom he formed a strong friendship;
and it was more to please him than the king, that Raymond consented to
go to England. [A tract by John Cremer appears in the Hermetic Museum,
but there is no record in the annals of Westminster of anyone by that
name.] Cremer had an intense desire to learn the last great secret of
alchemy--to make the powder of transmutation--and Raymond, with all his
friendship, had never disclosed it. Cremer, however, set to work very
cunningly; he was not long in discovering the object that was nearest to
Raymond's heart--the conversion of the infidels. He told the king
wonderful stories of the gold Lully had the art to make; and he worked
upon Raymond by the hope that King Edward would be easily induced to
raise a crusade against the Mahommedans, if he had the means.
"Raymond had appealed so often
to popes and kings that he had lost all faith in them; nevertheless, as
a last hope, he accompanied his friend Cremer to England. Cremer lodged
him in his abbey, treating him with distinction; and there Lully at last
instructed him in the powder, the secret of which Cremer had so long
desired to know. When the powder was perfected, Cremer presented him to
the king, who received him as a man may be supposed to receive one who
could give him boundless riches. Raymond made only one condition; that
the gold he made should not be expended upon the luxuries of the court
or upon a war with any Christian king; and that Edward himself should go
in person with an army against the infidels. Edward promised everything
and anything.
"Raymond had apartments
assigned him in the Tower, and there he tells us he transmuted fifty
thousand pounds weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into pure gold,
which was coined at the mint into six million of nobles, each worth
about three pounds sterling at the present day. Some of the pieces said
to have been coined out of this gold are still to be found in
antiquarian collections. [While desperate attempts have been made to
disprove these statements, the evidence is still about equally divided.]
To Robert Bruce he sent a little work entitled Of the Art of
Transmuting Metals. Dr. Edmund Dickenson relates that when the
cloister which Raymond occupied at Westminster was removed, the workmen
found some of the powder, with which they enriched
themselves.
"During Lully's residence in
England, he became the friend of Roger Bacon. Nothing, of course, could
be further from King Edward's thoughts than to go on a crusade.
Raymond's apartments in the Tower were only an honorable prison; and he
soon perceived how matters were. He declared that Edward would meet with
nothing but misfortune and misery for his breach of faith. He made his
escape from England in 1315, and set off once more to preach to the
infidels. He was now a very old man, and none of his friends could ever
hope to see his face again.
"He went first to Egypt, then
to Jerusalem, and thence to Tunis a third time. There he at last met
with the martyrdom he had so often braved. The people fell upon him and
stoned him. Some Genoese merchants carried away his body, in which they
discerned some feeble signs of life. They carried him on board their
vessel; but, though he lingered awhile, he died as they came in sight of
Majorca, on the 28th of June, 1315, at the age of eighty-one. He was
buried with great honour in his family chapel at St. Ulma, the viceroy
and all the principal nobility attending."
NICHOLAS
FLAMMEL
In the latter part of the
fourteenth century there lived in Paris one whose business was that of
illuminating manuscripts and preparing deeds and documents. To Nicholas
Flammel the world is indebted for its knowledge of a most remarkable
volume, which he bought for a paltry sum from some book dealer with whom
his profession of scrivener brought him in contact. The story of this
curious document, called the Book of Abraham the Jew, is best
narrated in his own words as preserved
in his Hieroglyphical Figures: "Whilst therefore, I Nicholas
Flammel, Notary, after the decease of my parents, got my living at our
art of writing, by making inventories, dressing accounts, and summing up
the expenses of tutors and pupils, there fell into my hands for the sum
of two florins, a guilded book, very old and large. It was not of paper,
nor of parchment, as other books be, but was only made of delicate rinds
(as it seemed to me) of tender young trees. The cover of it was of
brass, well bound, all engraven with letters, or strange figures; and
for my part I think they might well be Greek characters, or some such
like ancient language. Sure I am. I could not read them, and I know well
they were not notes nor letters of the Latin nor of the Gaul, for of
them we understand a little.
TITLE PAGE OF ALCHEMICAL TRACT
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN CREMER.
From Musæum Hermeticum
Reformatum et Amplificatum.
John Cremer, the mythical Abbot
of Westminster, is an interesting personality in the alchemical
imbroglio of the fourteenth century. As it is not reasonably certain
that m abbot by such a name ever occupied the See of Westminster, the
question naturally arises, "Who was the person concealing his identity
under the Pseudonym of John Cremer?" Fictitious characters such as John
Cremer illustrate two important practices of mediæval alchemists: (1)
many persons of high political or religious rank were secretly engaged
in Hermetic chemical research but, fearing persecution and ridicule,
published their findings under various pseudonyms; (2) for thousands of
years it was the practice of those initiates who possessed the true key
to the great Hermetic arcanum to perpetuate their wisdom by creating
imaginary persons, involving them in episodes of contemporaneous history
and thus establishing these beings as prominent members of society--in
some cases even fabricating complete genealogies to attain that end. The
names by which these fictitious characters were known revealed nothing
to the uniformed. To the initiated, however, they signified that the
personality to which they were assigned had no existence other than a
symbolic one. These initiated chroniclers carefully concealed their
arcanum in the lives, thoughts, words. and acts ascribed to these
imaginary persons and thus safely transmitted through the ages the
deepest secrets of occultism as writings which to the unconversant were
nothing more than biographies.
"As for that which was within
it, the leaves of bark or rind, were engraven and with admirable
diligence written, with a point of iron, in fair and neat Latin letters
colored. It contained thrice seven leaves, for so were they counted in
the top of the leaves, and always every seventh leaf there was painted a
virgin and serpent swallowing her up. In the second seventh, a cross
where a serpent was crucified; and the last seventh, there were painted
deserts, or wildernesse, in the midst whereof ran many fair fountains,
from whence there issued out a number of serpents, which ran up and down
here and there. Upon the first of the leaves, was written in great
capital letters of gold, Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite,
Astrologer, and Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, by the Wrath of
God dispersed among the Gauls, sendeth Health. After this it was
filled with great execrations and curses (with this word
Maranatha, which was often repeated there) against every person
that should cast his eyes upon it, if he were not Sacrificer or
Scribe.
"He that sold me this book knew
not what it was worth nor more than I when I bought it; I believe it had
been stolen or taken from the miserable Jews, or found in some part of
the ancient place of their abode. Within the book, in the second leaf,
he comforted his nation, counselling them to fly vices, and above all
idolatry, attending with sweet patience the coming of the Messias, Who
should vanquish all the kings of the earth and should reign with His
people in glory eternally. Without doubt this had been some very wise
and understanding man.
"In the third leaf, and in all
the other writings that followed, to help his captive nation to pay
their tributes unto the Roman emperors, and to do other things, which I
will not speak of, he taught them in common words the transmutation of
metals; he painted the vessels by the sides, and he advertised them of
the colors, and of all the rest, saving of the first agent, of the which
he spake not a word, but only (as he said) in the fourth and fifth
leaves entire he painted it, and figured it with very great cunning and
workman ship: for although it was well and intelligibly figured and
painted, yet no man could ever have been able to understand it, without
being well skilled in their Cabala, which goeth by tradition, and
without having well studied their books.
"The fourth and fifth leaves
therefore, were without any writing, all full of fair figures
enlightened, or as it were enlightened, for the work was very exquisite.
First he painted a young man with wings at his ancles, having in his
hand a Caducean rod, writhen about with two serpents, wherewith he
struck upon a helmet which covered his head. He seemed to my small
judgment, to be the God Mercury of the pagans: against him there came
running and flying with open wings, a great old man, who upon his head
had an hour glass fastened, and in his hand a book (or syrhe) like
death, with the which, in terrible and furious manner, he would have cut
off the feet of Mercury. On the other side of the fourth leaf, he
painted a fair flower on the top of a very high mountain which was sore
shaken with the North wind; it had the foot blue, the flowers white and
red, the leaves shining like fine gold: and round about it the dragons
and griffons of the North made their nests and abode.
"On the fifth leaf there was a
fair rose tree flowered in the midst of a sweet garden, climbing up
against a hollow oak; at the foot whereof boiled a fountain of most
white water, which ran headlong down into the depths, notwithstanding it
first passed among the hands of infinite people, who digged in the earth
seeking for it; but because they were blind, none of them knew it,
except here and there one who considered the weight. On the last side of
the fifth leaf there was a king with a great fauchion, who made to be
killed in his presence by some soldiers a great multitude of little
infants, whose mothers wept at the feet of the unpitiful soldiers: the
blood of which infants was afterwards by other soldiers gathered up, and
put in a great vessel, wherein the sun and the moon came to bathe
themselves.
"And because that this history
did represent the more part of that of the innocents slain by Herod, and
that in this book I learned the greatest part of the art, this was one
of the causes why I placed in their church-yard these Hieroglyphic
Symbols of this secret science. And thus you see that which was in the
first five leaves.
"I will not represent unto you
that which was written in good and intelligible Latin in all the other
written leaves, for God would punish me, because I should commit a
greater wickedness, than he who (as it is said) wished that all the men
of the World had but one head that he might cut it off with one blow.
Having with me therefore this fair book, I did nothing else day nor
night, but study upon it, understanding very well all the operations
that it showed, but not knowing with what matter I should begin, which
made me very heavy and solitary, and caused me to fetch many a sigh. My
wife Perrenella, whom I loved as myself, and had lately married was much
astonished at this, comforting me, and earnestly demanding, if she could
by any means deliver me from this trouble. I could not possibly hold my
tongue, but told her all, and showed this fair book, whereof at the same
instant that she saw it, she became as much enamoured as myself, taking
extreme pleasure to behold the fair cover, gravings, images, and
portraits, whereof notwithstanding she understood as little as I: yet it
was a great comfort to me to talk with her, and to entertain myself,
what we should do to have the interpretation of them."
Nicholas Flammel spent many
years studying the mysterious book. He even painted the pictures from it
all over the walls of his house and made numerous copies which he showed
to the learned men with whom he came in contact, but none could explain
their secret significance. At last he determined to go forth in quest of
an adept, or wise man, and after many wanderings he met a physician--by
name Master Canches--who was immediately interested in the diagrams and
asked to see the original book. They started forth together for Paris,
and or, the way the physician adept explained many of the principles of
the hieroglyphics to Flammel, but before they reached their journey's
end Master Canches was taken ill and died. Flammel buried him at
Orleans, but having meditated deeply on the information he had secured
during their brief acquaintance, he was able, with the assistance of his
wife, to work out the formula for transmuting base metals into gold. He
performed the experiment several times with perfect success, and before
his death caused a number of hieroglyphic figures to be painted upon an
arch of St. Innocent's churchyard in Paris, wherein he concealed the
entire formula as it had been revealed to him from the Book of
Abraham the Jew.
COUNT BERNARD OF
TREVISO
Of all those who sought for the
Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Scone, few passed through the chain
of disappointments that beset Count Bernard of Treviso, who was born in
Padua in 1406 and died in 1490. His search for the Philosopher's Stone
and the secret of the transmutation of metals began when he was but
fourteen years of age. He spent not only a lifetime but also a fortune
in his quest. Count Bernard went from one alchemist and philosopher to
another, each of whom unfolded some pet theorem which he eagerly
accepted and experimented with but always without the desired result.
His family believed him to be mad and declared that he was disgracing
his house by his experiments, which were rapidly reducing him to a state
of penury. He traveled in many countries, hoping that in distant places
he would find wise men capable of assisting him. At last as he was
approaching his seventy-sixth year, he was rewarded with success. The
great secrets of the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, and the
transmutation of metals were revealed to him. He wrote a little book
describing the results of his labors, and while he lived only a few
years to enjoy the fruitage of his discovery he was thoroughly satisfied
that the treasure he had found was worth the lifetime spent in search of
it. An example of the industry and perseverance displayed by him is to
be found in one of the processes which some foolish pretender coaxed him
to attempt and which resulted in his spending twenty years calcining egg
shells and nearly an equal period distilling alcohol and other
substances. In the history of alchemical research there never was a more
patient and persevering disciple of the Great Arcanum.
Bernard declared the process of
dissolution, accomplished not with fire but with mercury, to be the
supreme secret of alchemy,
THE SYMBOLS OF ABRAHAM THE
JEW.
From Flammel's Hieroglyphical Figures.
Robert H. Fryar, in a footnote
to his reprint of the Hieroglyphical Figures by Nicholas Flammel, says:
"One thing which seems to prove the reality of this story beyond
dispute, is, that this very book of Abraham the Jew, with the
annotations of 'Flammel,' who wrote from the instructions he received
from this physician, was actually in the hands of Cardinal Richelieu, as
Borel was told by the Count de Cabrines, who saw and examined
it."
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