What is Alchemy?

[FIRST PAPER.]

THERE are certain writers at the present day, and there are certain
students of the subject, perhaps too wise to write, who would readily,
and do, affirm that any answer to the question which heads this paper
will involve, if adequate, an answer to those other and seemingly
harder problems- What is Mysticism ? What is the Transcendental
Philosophy?  What is Magic? What Occult Science?  What the Hermetic
Wisdom?  For they would affirm that Alchemy includes all these, and so
far at least as the world which lies west of Alexandria is concerned,
it is the head and crown of all. Now in this statement the central
canon of awhole body of esoteric criticism is contained in the
proverbial nut-shell, and this criticism is in itself so important,
and embodies so astounding an interpretation of a literature which is
so mysterious, that in any consideration of Hermetic literature it
must be reckoned with from the beginning; otherwise the mystic student
will at a later period be forced to go over his ground step by step
for a second time, and that even from the starting point. It is
proposed in the following papers to answer definitely by the help of
the evidence which is to be found in the writings of the Alchemists
the question as to what Alchemy actually was and is. As in other
subjects, so also in this, THE UNKNOWN WORLD proposes to itself an
investigation which has not been attempted hitherto along similar
lines, since at the present day, even among the students of the
occult, there are few persons sufficiently instructed for an inquiry
which is not only most laborious in itself but is rendered
additionally difficult from the necessity of expressing its result in
a manner at once readable and intelligible to the reader who is not a
specialist. In a word, it is required to popularise the conclusions
arrived at by a singularly abstruse erudition. This is difficult- as
will be admitted- but it can be done, and it is guaranteed to the
readers of these papers that they need know nothing of the matter
beforehand. After the little course has been completed it is believed
that they will have acquired much, in fact, ndthing short of a 
solution of the whole problem.
    In the first place, let any unversed person cast about within
himself, or within the miscellaneous circle of his non-mystical
acquaintance, and decide what he and they do actually at the present
moment understand by Alchemy. It is quite certain that the answer will
be fairly representative of all general opinion, and in effect it will
be somewhat as follows: "Alchemy is a pretended science or art by
which the metals ignorantly called base, such as lead and iron were
supposed to be, but were never really, transmuted into the other
metals as ignorantly called perfect, namely, gold and silver. The
<I>ignis fatuus</I> of Alchemy was pursued by many persons- indeed, by
thousands- in the past, and though they did not succeed in making gold
or silver, they yet chanced in their investigations upon so many
useful facts that they actually laid the foundations of chemistry as
it is. For this reason it would perhaps be unjust to dishonour them;
no doubt many of them were rank imposters, but not all; some were the
chemists of their period." It follows from this answer that this
guesswork and these gropings of the past can have nothing but a
historical interest in the present advanced state of chemical
knowledge. It is, of course, absurd to have recourse to an exploded
scientific literature for reliable information of any kind. Goldsmith
and Pinnock in history, Joyce and Mangnall in general elementary
science, would be preferable to the Alchemists in chemistry. If
Alchemy be really included as a branch of occult wisdom, then so much
the worse for the wisdom- <I>ex uno disce omnia</I>. The question what
is Alchemy is then easily answered from this standpoint- it is the dry
bones of chemistry, as the Occult Sciences in general are the debris
of of[sic] ancient knowledge, and the dust from the ancient
sanctuaries of long vanished religions- at which point these papers
and THE UNKNOWN WORLD itself; would perforce come to a conclusion.
    There is, however, another point of view, and that is the
standpoint of the occultist. It will be pardonable perhaps to state it
in an occult magazine. Now, what does the student of the Occult
Sciences understand by Alchemy? Of two things, one, and let the second
be reserved for the moment in the interests of that simplicity which
the Alchemists themselves say is the seal of Nature and art-
<I>sigillum Natura et artis simplicitas</I>. He understands the law of
evolution applied by science to the development from a latent into an
active condition of the essential properties of metallic and other
substances. He does not understand that lead as lead or that iron as
iron can be transmuted into gold or silver. He affirms that there is a
common basis of all the metals, that they are not really elements, and
that they are resolvable. In this case, once their component parts are
known the metals will be capable of manufacture, though whether by a
prohibitively expensive process is another issue. Now, beyond
contradiction this is a tolerable standpoint from the standpoint of
modern science itself. Chemistry is still occasionally discovering new
elements, and it is occasionally resolving old and so-called elements,
and indeed, a common basis of all the elements is a thing that has
been talked of by ,men whom no one would suspect of being Mystics,
either in matters df physics or philosophy.
    There is, however, one obviously vulnerable point about this
defensive explanation of Alchemy. It is open to the test question: Can
the occultist who propounds it resolve the metallic elements, and can
he make gold? If not, he is talking hypothesis alone, tolerable
perhaps in the bare field of speculation, but to little real purpose
until it can be proved by the event. Now, THE UNKNOWN WORLD has not
been established to descant upon mere speculations or to expound
dreams to its readers. It will not ignore speculation, but its chief
object is to impart solid knowledge. Above all it desires to deal
candidly on every subject. There are occultists at the present day who
claim to have made gold. There are other occultists who claim to be in
communication with those who possess the secret. About neither class
is it necessary to say anything at present; claims which it is
impossible to verify may be none the less good claims, but they are
necessarily outside evidence. So far as can be known the occultist
does not manufacture gold. At the same time his defence of Alchemy is
not founded on merely hypothetical considerations. It rests on a solid
basis, and that is alchemical literature and history. Here his
position, whether unassailable or not, cannot be impugned by his
opponents, and this for the plain reason that, so far as it is
possible to gather, few of them know anything of the history and all
are ignorant of the literature. He has therefore that right to speak
which is given only by knowledge, and he has the further presumption
in his favour that as regards archaic documents those who can give the
sense can most likely explain the meaning. To put the matter as
briefly as possible, the occultist finds in the great text- books of
Alchemy an instruction which is virtually as old as Alchemy, namely,
that the metals are composite substances. This instruction is
accompanied by a claim which is, in effect, that the Alchemists had
through their investigations become acquainted with a process which
demonstrated by their resolution the alleged fact that metals are not
of a simple nature. Furthermore, the claim itself is found side by
side with a process which pretends to be practical, which is given
furthermore in a detailed manner, for accomplishing the disintegration
in question. Thus it would seem that in a supposed twilight of
chemical science, in an apparently inchoate condition of physics,
there were men in possession of a power with which the most advanced
applied knowledge of this nineteenth century is not as yet equipped.
This is the first point in the defence of Alchemy which will be raised
by the informed occultist. But, in the second place, there is another
instruction to be found in these old text-books, and that is the
instruction of development- the absolute recognition that in all
natural substances there exist potentialities which can be developed
by the art of a skilled physicist, and the method of this eduction is
pretended to be imparted by the textbooks, so that here again we find
a doctrine, and connected with that doctrine a formal practice, which
is not only in advance of the supposed science of the period but is
actually a governing doctrine and a palmary source of illumination at
the present day. Thirdly, the testimony of Alchemical literature to
these two instructions, and to the processes which applied them, is
not a casual, isolated, or conflicting testimony, nor again is it read
into the literature by a specious method of interpretation; it is upon
the face of the whole literature; amidst an extraordinary variety of
formal difference, and amidst protean disguises of terminology, there
is found the same radical teaching everywhere. In whatsoever age or
country, the adepts on all ultimate matters never disagree- a point
upon which they themselves frequently insist, regarding their singular
unanimity as a proof of the truth of their art. So much as regards the
literature of Alchemy, and from this the occultist would appeal to the
history of the secret sciences for convincing evidence that, if
evidence be anything, trausmutations have taken place. He would appeal
to the case of Glauber, to the case of Van Helmont, to the case of
Lascaris and his disciples, to that also of Michael Sendivogius, and
if his instances were limited to these it is not from a paucity of
further testimony, but because the earlier examples, such as Raymond
Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Bernard Trevisan, and Denis Zachaire, will be
regarded as of less force and value in view of their more remote
epoch. Having established these points, the occultist will proceed to
affirm that they afford a sufficient warrant for the serious
investigation of Alchemical literature with the object of discovering
the actual process followed by the old adepts for the attainment of
their singular purpose. He will frankly confess that this process
still remains to be understood, because it has been veiled by its
professors, wrapped up in strange symbols, and disguised by a
terminology which offers peculiar difficulties. Why it has been thus
wilfully entangled, why it was considered advisable to make it
<I>caviare</I> to the multitude, and what purpose was served by the
writing of an interminable series of books seemingly beyond
comprehension, are points which must be held over for consideration in
their proper place later on. Those who, for what reason soever, have
determined to study occultism, must be content to take its branches as
they are, namely, as sciences that have always been kept secret. It
follows from what has been advanced that the occultist should not be
asked, as a test question, whether he can make gold, but whether he is
warranted in taking the Alchemical claim seriously, in other words,
whether the literature of Alchemy, amidst all its mystery, does offer
some hope for its unravelment, and if on the authority of his
acquaintance therewith he can, as he does, assuredly answer yes, then
he is entitled to a hearing.
    Now, the issue which has been dealt with hitherto in respect of
Alchemy is one that is exceedingly simple. Assuming there is strong
presumptive evidence that the adepts could and did manufacture the
precious metals, and that they enclosed the secret of their method in
a symbolic literature, it is a mere question of getting to understand
the symbolism, about which it will be well to remember the axiom of
Edgar Allan Poe, himself a literary Mystic, that no cryptogram
invented by human ingenuity is incapable of solution by the
application of human ingenuity. But there is another issue which is
not by any means so simple, the existence of which was hinted at in
the beginning of the present paper, and this is indeed the subject of
the present inquiry.  To put it in a manner so elementary as to be
almost crude in presentation, there is another school of occult
students who believe themselves to have discovered in Alchemy a
philosophical experiment which far transcends any physical
achievement. At least in its later stages and developments this school
by no means denies the fact that the manufacture of material gold and
silver was an object with many Alchemists, or that such a work is
possible and has taken place. But they affirm that the process in
metals is subordinate, and, in a sense, almost accidental, that
essentially the Hermetic experiment was a spiritual experiment, and
the achievement a spiritual achievement. For the evidence of this
interpretation they tax the entire literature, and their citations
carry with them not infrequently an extraordinary, and sometimes an
irresistible, force. The exaltation of the base nature in man, by the
development of his latent powers; the purification, conversion, and
transmutation of man; the achievement of a hypostatic union of man
with God; in a word, the accomplishment of what has been elsewhere in
this magazine explained to be the true end of universal Mysticism; not
only was all this the concealed aim of Alchemy, but the process by
which this union was effected, veiled under the symbolism of
chemistry, is the process with which the literature is concerned,
which process also is alone described by all veritable adepts. The man
who by proper study and contemplation, united to an appropriate
interior attitude, with a corresponding conduct on the part of the
exterior personality, attains a correct interpretation of Hermetic
symbolism, will, in doing so, be put in possession of the secret of
divine reunion, and will, so far as the requisite knowledge is
concerned, be in a position to encompass the great work of the
Mystics.  From the standpoint of this criticism the power which
operates in the transmutation of metals alchemically is, in the main,
a psychic power. That is to say, a man who has passed a certain point
in his spiritual development, after the mode of the Mystics, has a
knowledge and control of physical forces which are not in the
possession of ordinary humanity. As to this last point there is
nothing inherently unreasonable in the conception that an advancing
evolution, whether in the individual or the race, will give a far
larger familiarity with the mysteries and the laws of the universe. On
the other hand, the grand central doctrine and the supreme hope of
Mysticism, that it is possible for "the divine in man" to be borne
back consciously to "the divine in the universe," which was the last
aspiration of Plotinus, does not need insistence in this place. There
is no other object, as there is no other hope, in the whole of
Transcendental Philosophy, while the development of this principle and
the ministration to this desire are the chief purpose of THE UNKNOWN
WORLD.
    It is obvious that Alchemy, understood in this larger sense, is
mystically of far higher import than a mere secret science of the
manufacture of precious metals. And this being incontestable, it
becomes a matter for serious inquiry which of these occult methods of
interpretation is to be regarded as true. A first step towards the
settlement of this problem will be a concise history of the spiritual
theory. Despite his colossal doctrine of Hermetic development, nothing
to the present purpose, or nothing that is sufficiently demonstrable
to be of real moment, is found in the works of Paracelsus. The first
traces are supposed to be imbedded in the writings of Jacob Bohme and
about the same time Louis Claude de Saint Martin, the French illumine,
is discovered occasionally describing spiritual truths in the language
of physical chemistry. These, however, are at best but traces, very
meagre and very indefinite. It was not till the year 1850, and in
England, that the interpretation was definitely promulgated. In that
year there appeared a work entitled A SUGGESTIVE INQUIRY INTO THE
HERMETIC MYSTERY AND ALCHEMY, BEING AN ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE ANCIENT
EXPERIMENT OF NATURE.  This was a large octavo of considerable bulk;
it was the production of an anonymous writer, who is now known to be a
woman, whose name also is now well known, at least in certain circles,
though it would be bad taste to mention it. For the peculiar character
of its reseach, for the quaint individuality of its style, for the
extraordinary wealth of suggestion which more than justifies its
title, independently of the new departure which it makes in the
interpretation of Hermetic symbolism, truly, this book was remarkable.

***
Scanned from the periodical "The Unknown World", No. 1, Vol. 1, Aug.,
15, 1894. Formatted and corrected by hand.