Out of Stock
Overview
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LANCASHIRE ALCHEMISTS. Alchemy (from al, Arab, the, and yriiida, chemistry), the pretended art of transmuting the inferior metals into gold or silver, by means of what was called the Philosopher's Stone, orthe powder of projection, a red powder possessing a peculiar smell, is supposed to have originated among the Arabians; Geber, an Arabian physician of the seventh century, being one of the earliest alchemists whose works are extant; but written so obscurely as to have led to the suggestion that his name was the origin of our modern term gibberish, for unintelligible jargon. A subsequent object of alchemy was the discovery of a universal medicine, the Elixir Vltce, which was to give perpetual life, health, and youth. The Egyptians are said to have practised alchemy; and Paulus Diaconus, a writer of the eighth century, asserts that Dioclesian burned the library of Alexandria, in order to prevent the Egyptians from becoming learned in the art of producing at will those precious metals which might be employed as the sinews of war against himself. The earliest English writer on alchemy was probably St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the tenth century. He who shall have the happiness to meet with St. Dunstan's work, ' De Occulta Philosophia' that on the ' Philosopher's stone' is in the Ashmole Museum], may therein read such stories as will make him amazed to think what stupendous and immense things are to be performed by virtue of the Philosopher's Mercury.f A John Garland is also said to have written on alchemy and mineralogy prior to the Conquest. JAlchemy was much studied in conventual establishments and by the most learned doctors and schoolmen, and the highest Church dignitaries?nay, even by kings and popes. Albertus Magnus, a German, born in 1282, wrote seven tre...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217010290 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217010296 |
| Weight | 0.87 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.60 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 266 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
