§ =67.= “Then we tried another test, _viz._, that which is performed by means of a septuple of Antimony; at first it seemed as if eight grains of the gold had been lost, but afterwards, not only had two scruples of the silver been converted into gold, but the silver itself was greatly improved both in quality and malleability. Thrice I performed this infallible test, discovering that every drachm of gold produced an increase of a scruple of gold, but the silver is excellent and extremely flexible. Thus I have unfolded to you the whole story from beginning to end. The gold I still retain in my possession, but I cannot tell you what has become of the Artist Elias. Before he left me, on the last day of our friendly intercourse, he told me that he was on the point of undertaking a journey to the Holy Land. May the Holy Angels of God watch over him wherever he is, and long preserve him as a source of blessing to Christendom! This is my earnest prayer on his and our behalf.”[87] [87] J. F. HELVETIUS: _The Golden Calf_, ch. iii. (see _The Hermetic Museum_, vol. ii. pp. 283 _et seq._). Testimony such as this warns us not to be too sure that a real transmutation has never taken place. On the whole, with regard to this question, an agnostic position appears to be the more philosophical. The Genesis of Chemistry. § =68.= But even if the alchemists did not discover the Grand Arcanum of Nature, they did discover very many scientifically important facts. Even if they did not prepare the Philosopher’s Stone, they did prepare a very large number of new and important chemical compounds. Their labours were the seeds out of which modern Chemistry developed, and this highly important science is rightfully included under the expression “The Outcome of Alchemy.” As we have already pointed out (§ 48), it was the iatro-chemists who first investigated chemical matters with an object other than alchemistic, their especial end in view being the preparation of useful medicines, though the medical-chemist and the alchemist were very often united in the one person, as in the case of Paracelsus himself and the not less famous van Helmont. It was not until still later that Chemistry was recognised as a distinct science separate from medicine. The Degeneracy of Alchemy. § =69.= In another direction the Outcome of Alchemy was of a very distressing nature. Alchemy was in many respects eminently suitable as a cloak for fraud, and those who became “alchemists” with the sole object of accumulating much wealth in a short space of time, finding that the legitimate pursuit of the Art did not enable them to realise their expectations in this direction, availed themselves of this fact. There is, indeed, some evidence that the degeneracy of Alchemy had commenced as early as the fourteenth century, but the attainment of the _magnum opus_ was regarded as possible for some three or more centuries.