ALCHEMY University of Buffalo, BufFalo, New York
Editor's note-The following @@er is one of a series of Sunday radio talks sponsored by the Buffalo CourierExpress and correlated with a page of illustrations in its Sunday rotograoure section. The pictures reproduced herewith are, for the most, those which the Courier-Express presented to its readers.
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0 SCIENCE has had a more natural beginning,
a more picturesque youth, and a more useful middle age than chemistry. And an ordinary The Alchemist by David Teniers. Teniers painted about imagination is quite inadequate to picture its future--a a dozen pictures of the alchemist. This one is typical. period which we cannot designate as old age, or decliming years, because for science there are no such years. The ancient alchemist with his delightful mysticism villain, is an alchemist as, for example, Ben Jonson's and failures has always been a fascinating subject for "The Alchemist." In almost every important art gallery in the world we find evidence that the old fire writers and painters. By the alchemy of Father Time the old adept or iire philosopher in his mysterious dingy and smoky laboraphilosopher has been transmuted h t o the great modern tory, with its mystic decorations and fascinating furmagician, the chemist, who, with his precise pbysico- naces, has inspired some of the world's greatest painters. The words "alchemy" and "alchemist" appear in mathematical deductions and his intricate and marvelous laboratory equipment, has pried many startling every book on the history of science and in nearly every and useful secrets away from nature. We like to say ' concordance of the classics. We speak of "nature's that many of the dreams of the alchemists have come alchemy" when referring to great natural phenomena o r unusual products. By the alchemy of Time important true. A study of alchemy reveals also a romance that is and mysterious changes are brought about. The science of matter, a study of its composition, i t s fantastic, uncanny, amazing. It has attracted and fascinated poets, playwrights, novelists, and actors. synthesis and analysis, the changes ithmdergoes, and Artists have reveled in its picturesque paraphernalia, the laws governing them, is called hemistry. It has its mysterious alembics, furnaces, and crucibles; in the always been chemistry, but has had different names earnest old sages reading and studying ancient, ponder- during the ages. In prehistoric times i t had no nameous volumes; in its allegory and symbolism, skulls and people did not even know that it was a science. When man began to think he must have n o t i d the skeletons, serpents and salamanders, dragons, sun, differences, the similarities, and the changes in the moon, stars, planets, circles, and triangles. A study of the alchemist, his mystic doctfines and common things with which he came in contact dailydoings, has been a hobby from which I have derived and chemistry was born. Living plants increased in entertainment and much pleasure. The ancient al- size, grew; when they died they decomposed, changed, chemist, whom I like to call a "Fire Philosopher," had disappeared. Plant juices fermented on exposure and as one of his important tools a bellows, with which he produced new effects when drunk. Milk soured, cocoaxed the fire under his crucibles and stills. These agulated; copper tarnished and ironrhanged to a usebellows accelerated not only the fire under his apparatus less rust when exposed to air and moisture. Man ob-they also fired his imagination. Frequently these served and profited by these processes without giving bellows bore the inscription, Sfi'ra et spera, "Breathe them a collective name. This was the infancy of and Hope," which might well have been adopted as a chemistty, its first period. The second period developed rapidly after man disslogan by these earnest workers, for hope certainly covered fire, its nature and uses. It was probably inspired them, urged them on in their search. That references to alchemists and alchemy are fre- brought to him by lightning, or, as he would have said, quently to be found in prose and poetry is well known from Heaven by the gods. F i e and its effects must to all of us. My first contact with the alchemist came have filled the iirst observers with awe and bewilderwhen, as a youngster, I read Goethe's "Faust." Later ment. After learning how to control it, a new world I found that Shakespeare, Marlowe, Swift, Browning, was opened to primitive man. Fire enabled him t o Emerson, and many others had written about him. change nature's crude ores and minerds into m e a s , And I read plays in which the hero, or sometimes the and the latter into alloys and useful shapes. By fire. 3013
raw or inedible foods were changed into more palatable and digestible forms. Fire enlarged his world-not only economically but also geographically. He could now live in colder climates. The third period began when the more intelligent members of the social order-the educated members, monks, priests, teachers, philosophers, doctors-began to experiment, not accidentally, but deliberately. The scientific method of inquiry began a t this time. Often the results of experiments must have been more spectacular and startling than useful. But they were always leading into the unknown, a path which has tempted, and always will tempt man irresistibly. Pbilosophers, who had always speculated on the how, why, and what of man and his world, applied the new discoveries to the old philosophies, and new philosophies as well as new speculations were bom. Glass, dyes, pigments, perfumes, ceramics, and alloys appeared. Man's thinking had developed sufficiently so that wealth, health, and happiness became motivating factors in his actions and ambitions. At about this time the fourth period began. It marks the beginning of alchemy. Man's experiments had yielded many useful substances and useful medicines. Why not aim higher? Why not make the things which insure wealth, happiness, and health? And man said: Let us make gold, and let us make a medicine, an elixir of life, of eternal life! The aims and activities of the medieval alchemists are better understood when we examine some early references and later definitions. As early as 200 A.D., Tertullian wrote about Hermes, the Egyptian god of science. From this name we now have the word, "hermetic," meaning sealed or air-tight. Alchemy is often called the hermetic art. Zozimns reports the legend of the fallen angels who taught alchemy to the daughters of men, whom they married. (Gen. 6: 2) (3rd century A.D.) Julius Firmicus (4th century A.D.)is believed to be the first to have used the term, "alcherpy." Roger Bacon (13th century), in his now famous book, "Mirror of Alchemy," says, "Alchemy fi a science teaching how to transforme any kind of metal into another, by a proper medicine, as it appeareth by many philosopher's bookes." In Agrippa's "Vanitie and Uncertaintie of the Artes," (16th century) we read, "Alcumie, whether i t ought to be termed an arte or a countetfaite colourynge, or a pursuite of nature, is doubtlesse a notable and a suffered deceipte, the vanities whereof is easily perceaved in that i t promiseth thinges whiche nature in nowise can abide, nor attaine, whereas no arte can surmounte nature, but doth imitate and follow it." In the 17th century, Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," asks, "What is alcumy but a bundle of errors?" Umery, in his textbook on chemistry writes, "Alchemy is an art without art, whose beginning is lying, whose middle is nothing but labor, and whose end is beggary." You note from these statements that shrewd observers a t this time (latter part of 17th
century) were becoming aware of the fact that the alchemist was not making gold; in other words, he wasnot making good. But, if there was much vanity, pretense, promise, fraud, and folly on the part of the charlatan, the errors, gropiugs, and failures of the sincere alchemist finally pointed the way to our great modem science, chemistry. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "Alchemy was . . . the sickly but imaginative infancy through which modern chemistry had to pass before it attained its F. & W. Standard Dictionary--"Alchemy majority." was the immature chemistry of the middle ages, characterized by the pursuit of the transmutation of base metals into gold, and a search for the alkahest (universal solvent) and the panacea (universal medicine or elixir)." In German literature alchemy is frequently referred to as the schwarze Kunst (black art). The alchemist had many other names, some of them picturesque, such as: adept, goldmaker, transmuter, multiplier, hermetic, magician, mystic, astrologer, occultist, cabalist, psychic spagirist, hierophant. The early alchemists accepted the four elements of the earlier philosophers, namely, earth, water, air, and 6re. Later others were added such as mercury and sulfur. It should be noted that the "elements" of the alchemist in general denoted qualities rather than chemical elements as we know them today. Thus the "mercury" and "sulfur" of the alchemist were the hypothetical essences of certain qualities rather than the familiar substances we know by those names. Everything was made up of these elements. And i t was thought possible to convert substances which we now know as elements into each other:, There were two classes of alchemists-those who'were sincere, and the charlatans. Enormous amounts of time, effort, and means were sacrificed, and, while the alchemists succeeded in making many practical discoveries and useful products, in their major aims-the making of gold and the elixir of life-they failed. One marvels a t their persistency. But who can analyze human hopes and the will to succeed? The crusades brought western peoples into contact with new ideas, new methods, new literature, new mysteries, and new ambitions. The Renaissance was a period of rising standards of living. People were anxious to have luxuries and make displays. (And we haven't changed.) Wealth was their goal, and any endeavor which had even remote possibilities of transmuting anything into gold seemed worthy of supreme efforts and great sacrifice. Royalty was guilty of even greater cupidity than its subjects. The church a t first condemned and later condoned alchemical practices. Bishops and popes could always use gold, and more gold. From a study of alchemical literature it is obvious that the alchemist, for the greater part, worked without rhyme or reason; he was experimenting blindly, empirically, searching for something indefinablesomething which supposedly contained all powers and poten-
cies of life as well as that which makes it worth living, wealth. This mystical something was variously called the Philosopher's Stone, Stone of Wisdom, the Stone, the One Thing, the Essence, the Quintessence, the Soul, Heavenly Balm, Divine Water, Virgin Water, Carbuncle of the Sun, Old Dragon, Lion, Basilisk, Phoenix, Elixir of Life, the Great Elixir, Panacea, Universal Tincture, Great Magisterium, Red Lion, the Ferment, Universal Solvent, the Alkahest, Dissolving Menstruum, Most Noble Juice, the King's True Bath. . . . Most people have heard of alchemy and the alchemists. The three terms most frequently encountered are: transmutation of metals, the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life. A careful study of alchemical writings, and there is an enormous volume of them, reveals the three main objectives of the alchemist's search : (1) transmutation of cheap metals into gold; (2) preparation of a universal medicine, an elixir of . . . life; (3) mysticism and symbolism in an effort to explain and understand God. TRANSMUTATION
The origin of the idea that metals might be transmuted is not difficult to discover. The early philosophers helieved that all substances consist of an elemental matter, prima materia. All substances had the same prima materia, and they differed because different properties were associated with this prima materia. They reasoned that, if the properties were or could be removed, only the prima materia would be left. Reversing the process and starting with the prima materia, and adding the necessary properties, any substance could he created. This seems simple enough, and surely some combination or- sequence of dissolving, distilling, fusing, melting, digesting, burning, or extracting must do the trick. So they thought, and helieved. Now we all know that the alchemist did not leave us directions for making real gold, but his primitive methods, his meager successes, and a%ove all, his courage and determination in the search for the unknown, have inspired us to carry on. The present-day alchemist has given us many things more valuable than gold. I predict that many of us will live to see the artificial production of gold. Several of the so-called elements have already been transmuted. To bring about transmutation it was thought necessary to prepare a mystical substance with which a common metal must be treated in order to change i t to gold. This substance is usually referred to as the philosopher's stone, or the elixir. It was really not a stone in our sense of the word. It was the pima muteria of all matter. There was a fascinating vagueness, often poetically expressed, about this soul, essence, or quintessence. Paracelsus expressed himself in this way: "A quintessence is nothing else than the goodness of Nature, . , . in which no corruptible thing and nothing contrary is to be found. - It is a matter which is ex-
tracted out of all things that have life, being separated from all impurity and mortality, most purely subtiliated, and divided from all the elements thereof." Rupescissa wrote: "The quintessence we seek is therefore a thing ingeniated by divine breath, which, by continual accessions and decessions is separated from the corruptible body of the four elements. And so, that which is sublimed, even a thousand times . . . comes to so great a virtue of glorification, that it is a compound almost incorruptible, as the heavens, and of the matter of the heavens . . . by which art can imitate nature." Roger Bacon (13th century), the most illustrious alchemist of his time, believed that mercury and sulfur were the essence, and that all minerali and all metals "are begotten of these two, nature always striving to the perfection of gold." To prepare the philosopher's stone Bacon directed "continual concoction in the fire, the method God gave to nature." Raymond Lully (13th century), another famous alchemist, said: "The secret of the philosopher's stone is the extraction of the mercury contained in gold;" and, "Unless you use this mercury, you go to the prac-. tice [transmutation] as blind men, without eyes or sense." The question that naturally comes to mind is, how was the adept to know when he was on the right track? More mysticism. Listen to Rupescissa: "The sign of the work projected will be this: If the stone, when put on a hot plate, doth melt like wax, and not smoke, but. penetrate and tinge, then is the oriental King born, fitting in his Kingdom with more power than all the princes of the world. Hence a philosopher cries out: come forth out of hell, arise from the grave, awake out of darkness, for thou hast put.pn brightness and spirituality, because the voice of resurrection is heard and the soul of life is entered into thee. Praised he the most High; and let his gifts redound to the glory of his most holy name, and to the good and benefit of our neighbor." It is clear that to the uninitiated nothing was clear.^ The alchemist surrounded himself and his activities with much secrecy, mysticism, and symbolism. Descriptions of his operations were usually quite unintelligible, sometimes fantastic, and always cryptic. He had made a solemn vow not to disclose any of the properties. of the mystical agent, or nature of the successful experiment should he discover it, for, "If the secret were manifest to everyman . . . the whole world . . . would run themselves headlong, without any regard to equity or^ piety to the bottom of hell." This plausible veil of' secrecy served to hide not only his possible successes, but also his failures. Here we see one reason why alchemy lasted as long as it did. Of course it was inevitable that royalty should he attracted by the claims of the alchemists. To maintain royal standing and pomp, money was always needed, and almost always lacking. The promise of gold, cheap and abundant, envisioned luxuries, power, conquest. Edward 3rd, of England, is said to have paid large amounts of money to Raymond Lullus to carry on. alchemical experiments.
Queen Elizabeth installed Cornelius de Launey in an alchemical laboratory in Somerset House. Henry VI granted several patents for gold-making. Rudolph 11, of Germany, founded an alchemical school a t Prague. Augustus I, of Saxony, with his wife as assistant, worked a t transmutation, and maintained two alchemists a t regular salaries. Frederick I, of Germany, practiced alchemy. Pope John XI1 had a laboratory a t Avignon. Later he issued a bill condemning .alchemists as charlatans. The same cupidity which led royalty into partnership with alchemists also led the latter to their doom. Since transmutation was a myth, and the would-be transmuters for the most part pretenders, it was inevitable that sooner or later an accounting would be demanded. When the alchemist failed to live up to his pretensions, royalty was disappointed and the alchemist surprised, usually with a rope or an ax.
em cure-alls neither require nor ask God's permission.] If you inquire how this most perfect medicine and celestial tincture . . . do act . . . we answer: They perform this by heating, illuminating and irradiating the archreus." The archreus is a spirit resident in the stomach. It separates poison from the food. If the archreus goes to sleep on the job, poisons find their way into the body and disease results. Don't laugh. On the shelves of every public library there are recent books containing statements equally bizarre.
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
Another major object of the alchemist's search was the elixir of life. To most people the term "alchemist" is synonymous with gold-making. However, many of the more serious-minded operators of stills and furnaces were in search of what to many is more desirable than riches, namely health and long life. It was believed possible to discover a celestial elixir that would prolong life indefinitely--confer immortality. The belief that such an elixir existed or could be developed by knowing the secrets of the gods, was encouraged by Old Testament stories. Moses must have been an alchemist (it was argued) or he could not have converted the golden calf into a drinkable solution. And, to live for centuries, as many biblical characters did, they must have been able to prepare an alchemizing elixir with which to slow down the sand in Father Time's glass. Of course there were imposters in this phase of alchemy as there were among the transmuters. Young alchemists asserted that their elixir ha$ kept them young; the old ones claimed ages of centuries, and that their elixir kept them from dying. Count de St.Germain, of the court of Louis XV, claimed an experience of 2000 years. Once a t a dinner he related a visit to King Richard of Palestine. Wben the diners seemed incredulous he turned to his servant for confirmation. The latter replied, "Yon forget, Sir, that I have been in your service only a little over 500 years, so I cannot say." "Oh yes," replied the Count, "that was a little before your time." One need not be greatly surprised a t this belief in a universal elixir. Most people, then as now, recover from illnesses without medicine, often in spite of it. Today we have not one universal, celestial remedy, but hundreds. In Tumba Semir Amis is this statement: "You must know concerning the . . . universal medicine containing in i t the perfect cure of all diseases, as well hot as cold, so far as. they are known to be curable by nature, and are permitted by God to be cured. [Mod-
This painting by A. H. Toorrier has the simple tille "Gold." It is a scene in a royal alchemical laboratory. The alchemist seems to say: "There! What did I tell you?" Royalty registers surprise. The two in the background may be skeptical.
Joachim Poleman (Tumba Semir Amis) has a diierent explanation of the curative effects of the elixir. "The medicine transmutes the spirit of darkness, to wit, diseases, which are all properties of the seat of death or the forerunner of dark and obscure death, into good spirits . . . For the acquisition of the elixir invoke the light, and with a pure heart pray for the illumination of your understanding and you shall receive it; then operate prudently, give relief to the poor, abuse not the blessings of God, believe the gospel, and exercise yourself in piety." The preparation and .use of the elixir required a religious atmosphere. Without purity and decency on the part of the operator there could be no success. EXPLANATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF GOD
The third aspect of alchemy h e survived in one form or another to the present day. It has been designated by the-terms spiritual and non-material, and is sometimes confused with astrology. And always there has been associated with i t much symbolism and mysticism. The temptation to coin a new word is too great to resist, and I propose Alckmystics as a designation for the adepts who combined alchemy and religion, in the hope that this combination would show the way to God. John Dausten, an early English alchemystic, using mysterious and symbolic language, describes the wedding of the sun and the moon, attended by the stars and planets. The report of this wedding he bases on a book with letters of gold which he saw in a most unusual dream. This manner of revelation brings to mind
another one, very similar, in 1827, when Josiah Smith discovered the golden Book of the Mormons. One wonders if Josiah had read abont Dausten's dream. If the transmuter and his work were vague, the religious alchemical mystic and his symbolism were much more so. His was a transcendental theory of alchemy which concerned itself with man's soul, his spiritual development, and approach to God. It flourished because it appealed to magic, mysticism, and necromancy in an age of superstition. Physical alchemy failed because it did not accomplish what it had promised, and transmutation remained a mystery. None of the many elixirs were able to cure illness or prolong life or secure immortality. In short, the philosopher's stone was a dud. But the m~stico-religiousphase of alchemy did not have to make good by producing a lump of gold or a group of immortals. The spiritual alchemist used a cabalistic jargon, neither understood nor understandable, completely mystifying. It had a psychic effect, causing people to modify their conduct and live in a mystic haze. Howwelove to refer to these silly beliefs and superstitions as the reasons why there were "dark ages," when man was only slightly civilized! And yet, i t is probably true that superstitions flourish to a greater extent now than in the middle ages. We have sects, isms, pathies, cults, and ologies without number. We cure disease in absentia by long-distance treatment; there are mobs of so-called practical psychblogists; hordes of yogis and yogonandas; somebody associates the letters of your name with numbers, the "science" of numerology is born, and promptly thousands flock to it, hoping that in some occult manner the numbers will reveal the future. Astrology, that strange hut worthy ancestor of astronomy, having outlived its usefulness, is resurrected by ignorant mystics, advertised as a science, and tens of thousands of still more ignorant mystics hitch their wagons, thoughts, ambitions, plans, and conduct to the stars and planets and, let us hope, live contentedly ever after. The devotees of spiritual and +religious alchemy hoped to attain immortality, and an understanding of, and unity with God. Their alchemy was to explain why suffering and death were necessary before the life with God could begin. They had much to say abont the philosopher's stone, and they said it for the most part, symbolically. They believed that an analogy existed between the philosopher's stone and J e s u s "the stone which the builders rejected." Although the alchemystics used alchemical terms such as furnaces, alembic, crucible, mercury, gold, cal-
cination, distillation, fixation, these were not to be understood literally--only symbolically and spiritually. Transmutation meant a refining, a salvation of the soul, a new birth to immortality. To Luther, the transmutation of metals seemed symbolical of the resurrection and restoration of the human body. The history of the religious turn of alchemy includes many famous names, and with each there is associated enough mysticism and action to make their stories most interesting reading. I can only mention them: Basil Valentine, Christian Rosenkreutz, Michael Maier, George Ripley, Thomas Norton, Edward Kelley, John Dee, Giovanni Miandola, Robert Fludd, Heinrich Khunrath, Jacob Boehme. The writings of the last two are the great classics among the present-day mystics. The literature of every nation abounds with references to the alchemist, his theories, practices, symbols, and apparatus. Dante, with Vergil as his guide, visits two alchemists in the lowest circle of hell. (Divine Comedy.) Ben Jonson wrote a delightful satire on the vulgar roguery of his day in his play, "The Alchemist." Girodano Bruno in his "I1 Candelaio" uses a similar theme and treatment. Butler's "Hudibras," Browzing's "Paracelsus," and Longfellmu's "Golden Legend" are all most delightful to read; and they show that great writers have studied and have been fascinated by alchemical literature. The original Faust legend has been preserved in English by Marlowe in "The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus," and in German by Goethe in his "Faust," which, in the original, is my favorite of all literature. The list of great artists who have painted the alchemist, his laboratory, and its paraphernalia, is a long one. Among the great artists whom the alchemist attracted and inspired are, P. Breughel, Hans Sebald Beham, Wijck, Teniers, Vedder, Steen, Van Ostade, Tourrier, Jacomin, and Rembrandt. No real artist could read a description of one OS these early scientists without being inspired to transfer his impressions to canvas. The mysticism and symbolism, the dingy, smoky laboratory, the mysterious stills and crucibles, the furnaces and bellows promising miraculous fires, the cabalistic formulas and cryptic operating directions, the human skulls and animal mummies, the scattered, open volumes of earlier adepts . . . everything connected with the saintly old fire-philosopher attracted the artist, and this vision he just had to perpetuate with his brush. This is one sort of immortality the old mystic did achieve.
