To perfect the metals, therefore, the alchemists argued, from analogy with mystical theology, which teaches that men can be regenerated only by the power of CHRIST within the soul, that it is necessary to subject them to the action of this world-spirit, this one essence underlying all the varied powers of nature, this One Thing from which "all things were produced . . . by adaption, and which is the cause of all perfection throughout the whole world."[2a] "This," writes one alchemist, "is the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot comprehend without the interposition of the Holy Ghost, or without the instruction of those who know it.
The same is of a mysterious nature, wondrous strength, boundless power.... By Avicenna this Spirit is named the Soul of the World. For, as the Soul moves all the limbs of the Body, so also does this Spirit move all bodies.
And as the Soul is in all the limbs of the Body, so also is this Spirit in all elementary created things. It is sought by many and found by few. It is beheld from afar and found near;for it exists in every thing, in every place, and at all times.
It has the powers of all creatures; its action is found in all elements, and the qualities of all things are therein, even in the highest perfection . . . it heals all dead and living bodies without other medicine . . . converts all metallic bodies into gold, and there is nothing like unto it under Heaven."[1b] It was this Spirit, concentrated in all its potency in a suitable material form, which the alchemists sought under the name of "the Philosopher's Stone". Now, mystical theology teaches that the Spirit of CHRIST, by which alone the soul of man can be tinctured and transmuted into the likeness of God, is Goodness itself;consequently, the alchemists argued that the Philosopher's Stone must be, so to speak, Gold itself, or the very essence of Gold:
it was to them, as CHRIST is of the soul's perfection, at once the pattern and the means of metallic perfection.
"The Philosopher's Stone," declares "EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES"(_nat. c_. 1623), "is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetrative, and fixed substance, which brings all metals to the perfection of gold or silver (according to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature.... Know, then, that it is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire as successfully as any stone.
In species it is gold, more pure than the purest; it is fixed and incombustible like a stone [_i.e_. it contains no outward sulphur, but only inward, fixed sulphur], but its appearance is that of a very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous, and easily capable of tingeing a plate of metal.... If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more than the truth; if we described it as corporeal the expression would be equally correct;for it is subtle, penetrative, glorified, spiritual gold.
It is the noblest of all created things after the rational soul, and has virtue to repair all defects both in animal and metallic bodies, by restoring them to the most exact and perfect temper;wherefore is it a spirit or `quintessence.' "[1c]
[1a] BASIL VALENTINE: _The Twelve Keys_. (See _The Hermetic Museum_, vol.
i. pp. 333 and 334.)
[2a] From the "Smaragdine Table," attributed to HERMES TRISMEGISTOS(_ie_. MERCURY or THOTH).
[1b] _The Book of the Revelation of_ HERMES, _interpreted by_THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS, _concerning the Supreme Secret of the World_. (See BENEDICTUS FIGULUS, _A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels_, trans. by A. E. WAITE, 1893, pp.
36, 37, and 41.)
[1c] EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES: _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_.
(See _The Hermetic Museum_, vol. ii. pp. 246 and 249.)In other accounts the Philosopher's Stone, or at least the _materia prima_ of which it is compounded, is spoken of as a despised substance, reckoned to be of no value.
Thus, according to one curious alchemistic work, "This matter, so precious by the excellent Gifts, wherewith Nature has enriched it, is truly mean, with regard to the Substances from whence it derives its Original. Their price is not above the Ability of the Poor. Ten Pence is more than sufficient to purchase the Matter of the Stone. . . . The matter therefore is mean, considering the Foundation of the Art because it costs very little;it is no less mean, if one considers exteriourly that which gives it Perfection, since in that regard it costs nothing at all, in as much as _all the World has it in its Power_ . . . so that . . . it is a constant Truth, that the Stone is a Thing mean in one Sense, but that in another it is most precious, and that there are none but Fools that despise it, by a just Judgment of God."[1] And JACOB BOEHME (1575--1624) writes:
"The _philosopher's stone_ is a very dark, disesteemed stone, of a grey colour, but therein lieth the highest tincture."[2] In these passages there is probably some reference to the ubiquity of the Spirit of the World, already referred to in a former quotation.
But this fact is not, in itself, sufficient to account for them.
I suggest that their origin is to be found in the religious doctrine that God's Grace, the Spirit of CHRIST that is the means of the transmutation of man's soul into spiritual gold, is free to all; that it is, at once, the meanest and the most precious thing in the whole Universe. Indeed, I think it quite probable that the alchemists who penned the above-quoted passages had in mind the words of ISAIAH, "He was despised and we esteemed him not."And if further evidence is required that the alchemists believed in a correspondence between CHRIST--"the Stone which the builders rejected"--and the Philosopher's Stone, reference may be made to the alchemical work called _The Sophic Hydrolith:
