In conclusion, Hitchcock states once more that his object is to point out the _subject_ of alchemy. He does not attempt to make its practical treatment plain to the _end_ of the sublime operation. It is, therefore, evident that he, at any rate, suspected the existence of more transcendent secrets which he distrusted his ability to discuss, and declined to speak of inadequately. The author of the “Suggestive Inquiry” had already taken the higher standpoint of psychic interpretation, and developed her remarkable principles, which I must endeavour to reproduce as briefly as possible. According to this work, the modern art of chemistry has no connection with alchemy except in its terminology, which was made use of by the adepts to veil their divine mysteries. The process of the whole Hermetic work is described with at least comparative plainness in the writings of the philosophers, with the exception of the _vessel_ which is a holy arcanum, but without the knowledge of it no one can attain to the magistery. Now, the publication of the writings of Jacob Böhme caused the alchemists who were his contemporaries to fear that their art could not much longer remain a secret, and that the mystic vase in particular would be shortly revealed to all. This vase is the _vas insigne electionis_, namely, MAN, who is the only all-containing subject, and who alone has need to be investigated for the eventual discovery of all. The modern adepts describe the life of man as a pure, naked, and unmingled fire of illimitable capability. Man, therefore, is the true laboratory of the Hermetic art; his life is the subject, the grand distillery, the thing distilling, and the thing distilled; and self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition. “Modern discoveries are now tending to the identification of light, the common vital sustenant, as in motive accord throughout the human circulatory system with the planetary spheres, and harmonious dispositions of the occult medium in space; and as human physiology advances with the other sciences, the notion of our natural correspondency enlarges, till at length the conscious relationship would seem to be only wanting to confirm the ancient tradition.” In addition to the faculties which he commonly exerts to communicate with the material universe, man possesses within him the germ of a higher faculty, the revelation and evolution of which give intuitive knowledge of the hidden springs of nature. This Wisdom-faculty operates in a magical manner, and constitutes an alliance with the Omniscient Nature, so that the illuminated understanding of its possessor perceives the structure of the universe, and enjoys free perspicacity of thought in universal consciousness.