Page 420 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat

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Table XIV, Figures 5, 7, and 8

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Table XV, Figures 6, 9, and 10

p. 149

Alchemy and Its Exponents

IS the transmutation of base metals into gold possible? Is the idea one at which the
learned of the modern world can afford to scoff? Alchemy was more than a speculative
art: it was also an operative art. Since the time of the immortal Hermes, alchemists have
asserted (and not without substantiating evidence) that they could manufacture gold from
tin, silver, lead, and mercury. That the galaxy of brilliant philosophic and scientific minds
who, over a period of two thousand years, affirmed the actuality of metallic transmutation
and multiplication, could be completely sane and rational on all other problems of
philosophy and science, yet hopelessly mistaken on this one point, is untenable. Nor is it
reasonable that the hundreds declaring to have seen and performed transmutations of
metals could all have been dupes, imbeciles, or liars.

Those assuming that all alchemists were of unsound mentality would be forced to put in
this category nearly all the philosophers and scientists of the ancient and mediæval
worlds. Emperors, princes, priests, and common townsfolk have witnessed the apparent
miracle of metallic metamorphosis. In the face of existing testimony, anyone is privileged
to remain unconvinced, but the scoffer elects to ignore evidence worthy of respectful
consideration. Many great alchemists and Hermetic philosophers occupy an honored
niche in the Hall of Fame, while their multitudinous critics remain obscure. To list all
these sincere seekers after Nature's great arcanum is impossible, but a few will suffice to
acquaint the reader with the superior types of intellect who interested themselves in this
abstruse subject.