Astrologers in their Demonology profess to be able to ascertain the characters and seals of spirits,[10] and according to the Cabalists, tables are given of many of these in their books, in the so-called Theban Alphabet; in characters of Celestial Writing; in that called Mallachim; or in the writing called Passing the River. [10] See the Table, Plate I. Fig. 2, for distinguished names of their angels, spirits, or demons. They affect to have suitable bonds by which spirits can be bound, invoked, or cast out. Of Necromancy they pretend to two kinds, one of which is raising the body of a deceased person, which it is said cannot be done without blood;--the other sciomancy, which is the production of a mere shade or shadow. The exorcisms and conjurations of Magicians are so audaciously profane and blasphemous as to be unworthy of even a passing notice. ALCHEMY. We shall now proceed to consider Alchemy, another but very different chimerical pursuit, which was early cultivated in the East, and is generally ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, although its more enthusiastic admirers pretend to trace a knowledge of it to Adam. From the earliest periods of history man was acquainted with gold, silver, and other metals, with bitumen, sulphur, sea salt, sal-ammoniac, gums, and resins, together with other varieties of substances and liquids common to modern chemistry. For the compounding and heating of certain of these materials a multiplicity of means were adopted requiring furnaces, crucibles, and distillatory apparatus. The first workers in these experimental operations formed a body of investigators into the nature and properties of all manner of substances, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, the members of which were distinguished as adepts, alchemists, and later in their career as common chemists. The most esteemed branch of the art however was Alchemy, a pseudo-science which ultimately took three forms. First, the Hermetic Art for the discovery of the Philosopher's stone; and the Alkahest, or universal solvent;--Second, a Medical Alchemy;--and Third, a Theological Alchemy pretending to conceal divine mysteries under an allegorical form, treating of the spiritual while apparently describing alchemical discoveries.