Page 422 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat

and silver, so procured, from time to time, according to the assay and fineness thereof,
and so for any greater or less weight, and that none of that metal of gold and silver so
refined and procured be permitted to be used or disposed of in any other place or places
within their Majesties dominions." After this repealing measure had become effective,
William and Mary encouraged the further study of alchemy.

Dr. Franz Hartmann has collected reliable evidence concerning four different: alchemists
who transmuted base metals into gold not once but many times. One of these accounts
concerns a monk of the Order of St. Augustine named Wenzel Seiler, who discovered a
small amount of mysterious red powder in his convent. In the presence of Emperor
Leopold I, King of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, he transmuted quantities of tin into
gold. Among other things which he dipped into his mysterious essence was a large silver
medal. That part of the medal which came in contact with the gold-producing substance
was transmuted into the purest quality of the more precious metal. The rest remained
silver. With regard to this medal, Dr. Hartmann writes:

"The most indisputable proof (if appearances can prove anything) of the possibility of
transmuting base metals into gold, may be seen by everyone who visits Vienna; it being a
medal preserved in the Imperial treasury chamber, and it is stated that this medal,
consisting originally of silver, has been partly transformed into gold, by alchemical
means, by the same Wenzel Seiler who was afterwards made a knight by the Emperor
Leopold I. and given the title Wenzeslaus Ritter von Reinburg. "(In the Pronaos of the
Temple of Wisdom.)

Space limitations preclude a lengthy discussion of the alchemists. A brief sketch of the
lives of four should serve to show the general principles on which they worked, the
method by which they obtained their knowledge, and the use which they made of it.
These four were Grand Masters of this secret science; and the stories of

Click to enlarge
PARACELSUS.
From The Complete Writings of Paracelsus, of Hohenheim.

In his Biographia Antiqua, Francis Barrett appends to the name of Paracelsus the following titles of
distinction: "The Prince of Physicians and Philosophers by Fire; Grand Paradoxical Physician; The
Trismegistus of Switzerland; First Reformer of Chymical Philosophy; Adept in Alchymy, Cabala, and
Magic; Nature's Faithful Secretary; Master of the Elixir of Life and The Philosopher's Stone," and the
"Great Monarch of Chymical Secrets"