thread, in this apparently entangled skein, is no other than such a principle of attraction, and all principles besides are void of a real basis; from such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted, which taught hard-steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is the same disposition, which impels the light straw to attach itself to the amber; it is the quality, which gives every substance in nature a tendency toward another, and an inclination forcibly directed to a determinate point." CHAPTER V. FROM LUCRETIUS TILL THE DECAY OF ALCHEMY. EGYPT seems to have attained to a knowledge of the qualities of matter never attained in the Greek and Roman empire, and it is highly probable that a more correct theory existed in conformity with the more advanced practice. But it concealed its knowledge of science as it concealed its history, and the treatises which profess an Egyptian origin are more unintelligible than hieroglyphics. One is at first inclined to believe that the mystic mode of writing was simply a result of ignorance, because when the Alexandrian school begins to philosophize, it uses language as clear as it is capable of obtaining, although prevented from great clearness by the mystic nature of its region of thought. But the results of the arts exist to tell us that in the region of actual knowledge they were no triflers, whilst in that of speculation they made such efforts to gain a knowledge of things superhuman, that if they have failed it is not for want of devotion, truth, and energy. We have seen matter viewed in various aspects according to the philosophies of the time, and we might almost have added according to the speculations, viz., those of the popular beliefs and the mythologies of the time, when substance was strangely mingled with spirit, and when the gods of the woods were scarcely separated from the woods themselves. Such a view is analogous to the ancient Scandinavian method of looking at creation, when they formed the earth from the body of Ymir, and the sea from his blood.* It shews us that the intellect does not readily conceive of mind and matter, of * Prose Edda: Mallet's Northern Antiquities. force and substance, as distinct; that in fact the early mind looks on matter in an abstract sense as a thing made of qualities; which qualities may change indefinitely, and all things easily be transformable. The elements in this philosophy are not elements of science, but the common elements of every day life; in other words those aggregate objects with which nature has made the world, without reference to their mechanical or chemical disunion. In reading the ancient authors, one is disposed to think that this was the general sense in nearly every system, and that a strict meaning was not attained by any one of them, except the atomists. In vain do we quote their opinions, another quotation comes with a meaning in exact contradiction, and the vague and indefinite is the only final result. It is not to be wondered at that this should occur with the Alexandrian school, which neglected the body, despised the world, and sought truth only in that state of mind called ecstasy, which, however exalted it may be, is very naturally shunned by us as a dangerous forerunner of the loss of reason, or as a state of hallucination. With them, there are four elements, it is true, but these are like the elements of Plato and others, they are convertible, and there is an abstract matter from which all things are made by the putting on of various properties. It is the origin of all things that exist, and has the power of becoming everything, but it exists only as a power. This leads into metaphysics, which I avoid; for us, it is enough that they looked on the four elements as transformable, which have, therefore, not the character of elements. What are they, then? They are nothing real, the qualities are changeable, but there are no data given for finding whence these qualities come, and so we are led into a region of mere dreams, and nature is a power playing upon us every imaginable illusion by means of its forces; "all which forces have their origin in one, because unity is the basis of all things." Here, then, being no begin ning of matter, properly so called, it is in vain to look for a beginning of such elements as cannot be convertible, even if they had not expressly stated that all are capable of transformation. The early stages of chemistry and metaphysics have unconsciously met. From Alexandria, with its spiritual or mystic views, the ars sacra, iɛpa Texvn, came, perhaps carried by some who had little to teach, at least speaking of matter in terms too mystical to bear to us any distinct meaning, and holding their knowledge too sacred to be given to ordinary mortals. The spiritual faculty was becoming developed in man. It had existed before that time in its greatest powers in individuals, but it had not as yet educated nations. Christianity had directed man to the consideration of God and the moral part of our nature with such power and success, that philosophy was carried away by the current, and at length became entirely absorbed. But to philosophize on morals and upon spiritual phenomena, so to speak, is to become mystic, unless great care be used; and this current of thought induced, acted a long and important part in the history of the world. The course of this philosophy, for many ages, seldom led it to touch on matter with any firmness of step. Man lived in his thoughts, still fancying himself capable of living independent of mere external things, his spirit still disinclined to believe in the great power which the base creations under his feet were capable of exercising over his finest feelings. There was a struggle against matter, one which cost thousands of victims, buried or slain in the ranks of asceticism, or made useless by the perverted consciences which they carried with them into common life. Matter was not seriously believed in, it was a strange power, a thing capable of every action, acted on by the Deity, or by the spirits of those who either in this world, or the next, had obtained a share of the primeval influence of the Creator. With such men there could be no true philosophy of matter. This mystic mode of philosophizing had no doubt been the mode adopted by the chemists of the earliest centuries, but little or nothing now remains. The following is from Zosimus, the Panopolitan, upon the "Divine water:""The mystery sought is great and divine, for all is from it, and by it. There are two natures and one substance. The one carries off and subdues the other. This is silver-water (mercury), the male-female principle always escaping, constant in its properties, the divine water unknown to the world, the nature of which is inexplicable. For it is not a metal, nor is it water; it is always in movement, nor a body; it is all in all; it has life and spirit, and may be held.” * This is quite in the mystic style of the neoplatonic philosophy, although the tone is evidently lower than that taken by the philosophical mystics themselves. We see in it clearly the style of the alchemists, and the impulse that was given to the study of alchemy seems to have come from this source mainly. The philosophy of Aristotle having for many ages taken the lead, the four elements followed him, and we find them acting an important part in nearly all alchemical treatises, but the mode of reasoning is by no means Aristotelian, and is in every sense mystic. And why mystic? This word is itself of indefinite meaning, but I would say that the reasoning on physical law is mystic, when there is no distinction made between the laws of material nature and those of the mind of man, when there is a confusion between that which is done by natural law and that which is caused by the spirit of man, during his observation of the phenomena; when, for example, an experimenter must suit his frame of mind to the experiment, or find that nature will refuse to act. It may be said that such a theory involves the continual presence of God, supporting constantly his own laws, as in a Hindoo system, † or it is a theism which makes God everywhere acting, not * Hoefer. Historie de la Chimie, Vol. i., p. 259. |