Part 4 (1/2)

The choice of workmen to aid in the mechanical parts of the quest was a great trouble to the alchemists. On this subject Norton says--”If you would be free from all fear over the gross work, follow my counsel, and never engage married men; for they soon give in and pretend they are tired out.... Hire your workmen for certain stipulated wages, and not for longer periods than twenty-four hours at a time. Give them higher wages than they would receive elsewhere, and be prompt and ready in your payments.”

Many accounts are given by alchemical writers of the agent, and many names are bestowed on it. The author of _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_ speaks thus of the agent--”It is our doorkeeper, our balm, our honey, oil, urine, maydew, mother, egg, secret furnace, oven, true fire, venomous dragon, Theriac, ardent wine, Green Lion, Bird of Hermes, Goose of Hermogenes, two-edged sword in the hand of the Cherub that guards the Tree of Life.... It is our true secret vessel, and the Garden of the Sages in which our sun rises and sets.

It is our Royal Mineral, our triumphant vegetable Saturnia, and the magic rod of Hermes, by means of which he a.s.sumes any shape he likes.”

Sometimes we are told that the agent is mercury, sometimes that it is gold, but not common mercury or common gold. ”Supplement your common mercury with the inward fire which it needs, and you will soon get rid of all superfluous dross.” ”The agent is gold, as highly matured as natural and artificial digestion can make it, and a thousand times more perfect than the common metal of that name. Gold, thus exalted, radically penetrates, tinges, and fixes metals.”

The alchemists generally likened the work to be performed by their agent to the killing of a living thing. They constantly use the allegory of death, followed by resurrection, in describing the steps whereby the Essence was to be obtained, and the processes whereby the baser metals were to be partially purified. They speak of the mortification of metals, the dissolution and putrefaction of substances, as preliminaries to the appearance of the true life of the things whose outward properties have been destroyed. For instance, Paracelsus says: ”Destruction perfects that which is good; for the good cannot appear on account of that which conceals it.” The same alchemist speaks of rusting as the mortification of metals; he says: ”The mortification of metals is the removal of their bodily structure.... The mortification of woods is their being turned into charcoal or ashes.”

Paracelsus distinguishes natural from artificial mortification, ”Whatever nature consumes,” he says, ”man cannot restore. But whatever man destroys man can restore, and break again when restored.” Things which had been mortified by man's device were considered by Paracelsus not to be really dead. He gives this extraordinary ill.u.s.tration of his meaning: ”You see this is the case with lions, which are all born dead, and are first vitalised by the horrible noise of their parents, just as a sleeping person is awakened by a shout.”

The mortification of metals is represented in alchemical books by various images and allegories. Fig. I. is reduced from a cut in a 16th century work, _The Book of Lambspring, a n.o.ble ancient Philosopher, concerning the Philosophical Stone_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Here the father devours the son; The soul and spirit flow forth from the body.

FIG. I.]

The image used to set forth the mortification of metals is a king swallowing his son. Figs. II. and III. are reduced from Basil Valentine's _Twelve Keys_. Both of these figures represent the process of mortification by images connected with death and burial.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. II.]

In his explanation (?) of these figures, Basil Valentine says:--

”Neither human nor animal bodies can be multiplied or propagated without decomposition; the grain and all vegetable seed, when cast into the ground, must decay before it can spring up again; moreover, putrefaction imparts life to many worms and other animalculae.... If bread is placed in honey, and suffered to decay, ants are generated ... maggots are also developed by the decay of nuts, apples, and pears. The same thing may be observed in regard to vegetable life. Nettles and other weeds spring up where no such seed has ever been sown. This occurs only by putrefaction. The reason is that the soil in such places is so disposed, and, as it were, impregnated, that it produces these fruits; which is a result of the properties of sidereal influences; consequently the seed is spiritually produced in the earth, and putrefies in the earth, and by the operation of the elements generates corporeal matter according to the species of nature. Thus the stars and the elements may generate new spiritual, and ultimately, new vegetable seed, by means of putrefaction.... Know that, in like manner, no metallic seed can develop, or multiply, unless the said seed, by itself alone, and without the introduction of any foreign substance, be reduced to a perfect putrefaction.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. III.]

The action of the mineral agent in perfecting substances is often likened by the alchemists to the conjoining of the male and the female, followed by the production of offspring. They insist on the need of a union of two things, in order to produce something more perfect than either. The agent, they say, must work upon something; alone it is nothing.

The methods whereby the agent is itself perfected, and the processes wherein the agent effects the perfecting of the less perfect things, were divided into stages by the alchemists. They generally spoke of these stages as _Gates_, and enumerated ten or sometimes twelve of them. As examples of the alchemical description of these gates, I give some extracts from _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_.

The first gate is _Calcination_, which is ”the drying up of the humours”; by this process the substance ”is concocted into a black powder which is yet unctuous, and retains its radical humour.” When gold pa.s.ses through this gate, ”We observe in it two natures, the fixed and the volatile, which we liken to two serpents.” The fixed nature is likened to a serpent without wings; the volatile, to a serpent with wings: calcination unites these two into one. The second gate, _Dissolution_, is likened to death and burial; but the true Essence will appear glorious and beautiful when this gate is pa.s.sed.

The worker is told not to be discouraged by this apparent death. _The mercury of the sages_ is spoken of by this author as the queen, and gold as the king. The king dies for love of the queen, but he is revived by his spouse, who is made fruitful by him and brings forth ”a most royal son.”

Figs. IV. and V. are reduced from _The Book of Lambspring_; they express the need of the conjunction of two to produce one.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Here you behold a great marvel-- Two Lions are joined into one.

The spirit and soul must be united in their body.

FIG. IV.]

After dissolution came _Conjunction_, wherein the separated elements were combined. Then followed _Putrefaction_, necessary for the germination of the seed which had been produced by calcination, dissolution, and conjunction. Putrefaction was followed by _Congelation_ and _Citation_. The pa.s.sage through the next gate, called _Sublimation_, caused the body to become spiritual, and the spiritual to be made corporal. _Fermentation_ followed, whereby the substance became soft and flowed like wax. Finally, by _Exaltation_, the Stone was perfected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Here are two birds, great and strong--the body and spirit; one devours the other.

Let the body be placed in horse-dung, or a warm bath, the spirit having been extracted from it. The body has become white by the process, the spirit red by our art.

All that exists tends towards perfection, and thus is the Philosopher's Stone prepared.

FIG. V.]