Transcriber’s Notes Texts printed in italics in the original work have been transcribed as _text_, bold face texts as =text=. Small caps texts have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS. [U] represents a U-shape rather than the letter U. Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text and their settings, not all characters and symbols may display as intended. More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the ned of this text. ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN [Illustration: PLATE 1. PORTRAIT OF PARACELSUS [_Frontispiece_] ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN BEING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ALCHEMISTIC DOCTRINES, AND THEIR RELATIONS, TO MYSTICISM ON THE ONE HAND, AND TO RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE ON THE OTHER HAND; TOGETHER WITH SOME PARTICULARS REGARDING THE LIVES AND TEACHINGS OF THE MOST NOTED ALCHEMISTS BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.C.S. AUTHOR OF “ON THE CALCULATION OF THERMO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS,” “MATTER, SPIRIT AND THE COSMOS,” ETC. WITH 16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND AND REVISED EDITION LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1922 _First published_ 1911 _Second Edition_ 1922 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION It is exceedingly gratifying to me that a second edition of this book should be called for. But still more welcome is the change in the attitude of the educated world towards the old-time alchemists and their theories which has taken place during the past few years. The theory of the origin of Alchemy put forward in Chapter I has led to considerable discussion; but whilst this theory has met with general acceptance, some of its earlier critics took it as implying far more than is actually the case. As a result of further research my conviction of its truth has become more fully confirmed, and in my recent work entitled _Bygone Beliefs_ (Rider, 1920), under the title of “The Quest of the Philosopher’s Stone,” I have found it possible to adduce further evidence in this connection. At the same time, whilst I became increasingly convinced that the main alchemistic hypotheses were drawn from the domain of mystical theology and applied to physics and chemistry by way of analogy, it also became evident to me that the crude physiology of bygone ages and remnants of the old phallic faith formed a further and subsidiary source of alchemistic theory. I have barely, if at all, touched on this matter in the present work; the reader who is interested will find it dealt with in some detail in “The Phallic Element in Alchemical Doctrine” in my _Bygone Beliefs_.