In his enthusiasm, he pronounced it the very elixir of life.
But more famous than all was Paracelsus, in whom alchemy proper may be said to have culminated. He held that the elements of compound bodies were salt, sulphur, and mercury — representing respectively earth, air, and water, fire being already regarded as an imponderable — but these substances were in his system purely representative. All kinds of matter were reducible under one or other of these typical forms; everything was either a salt, a sulphur, or a mercury, or, like the metals, it was a "mixt" or compound. There was one element, however, common to the four: a fifth essence or "quintessence" of creation; an unknown and only true element, of which the four generic principles were nothing but derivative forms or embodiments; in other words, he inculcated the dogma that there is only one real elementary matter — nobody knows what. This one prime element of things he appears to have considered to be the universal solvent of which the alchemists were in quest, and to express which he introduced the term alcahest — a word of unknown etymology, but supposed by some to be composed of the two German words all Geist, "all spirit." He seems to have had the notion that if this quintessence or fifth element could be got at, it would prove to be at once the philosopher's stone, the universal medicine, and the irresistible solvent.
After Paracelsus, the alchemists of Europe became divided into two classes. The one class was composed of men of diligence and sense, who devoted themselves to the discovery of new compounds and reactions — practical workers and observers of facts, and the legitimate ancestors of the positive chemists of the era of Lavoisier. The other class took up the visionary, fantastical side of the older alchemy, and carried it to a degree of extravagance before unknown. Instead of useful work, they compiled mystical trash into books, and fathered them on Hermes, Aris- totle, Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, and other really great men. Their language is a farrago of mystical metaphors, full of "red bridegrooms," and "lily brides," "green dragons," "ruby lions," "royal baths," "waters of life.". The seven metals correspond to the seven planets, the seven cosmical angels, and the seven openings of the head — the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and the mouth. Silver was Diana, gold was Apollo, iron was Mars, tin was Jupiter, lead was Saturn, etc. They talk forever of the power of attrac- tion, which drew all men and women after the possessor; of the alcahest, and the grand elixir, which was to confer immortal youth upon the student who should prove himself pure and brave enough to kiss and quaff the golden draught. There was the great mystery, the mother of the elements, the grandmother of the stars. There was the philosopher's stone and there was the philosophical stone. The philosophical stone was younger than the elements, yet at her virgin touch the grossest calx (ore) among them all would blush before her into perfect gold. The philosopher's stone, on the other hand, was the first-born of nature, and older than the king of metals. Those who had attained full insight into the arcana of the science were styled wise: those who were only striving after the light were philosophers; while the ordinary votaries of the art were called adepts. It was these vision- aries that formed themselves into Rosicrucian
societies and other secret associations. It was also in connection with this mock alchemy, mixed up with astrology and magic, that quackery and imposture so abounded, as is depicted by Scott in the character of Dousterswivel in the Antiquary. Designing knaves would, for instance, make up large nails, some of iron and some of gold, and lacquer them, so that they appeared common nails, and when their credulous and avaricious dupes saw them extract from what seemed plain iron an ingot of gold, they were ready to advance any sum that the knaves pretended to be necessary for applying the process on a large scale. It is from this degenerate and effete school that the prevailing notion of alchemy is derived — a notion which is unjust to the really meritorious alchemists who paved the way for the modern science of chemistry. Priestley, Lavoisier, and Scheele, by the use of the balance, tested the results of alchemy, and thence the fundamental ideas of modern chemistry were born; but the work had already been begun by men of genius, such as Robert Boyle, Bergmann, and others. It is interesting to observe that the doctrine of the transmutability of metals — a doctrine which it was at one time thought that modern chemistry had utterly exploded — receives not a little countenance from a variety of facts every day coming to light; not to speak of the periodic law of the elements, which, while separating the elements as a class from all other chemical substances, seems to indicate the existence of unknown relations between the elements themselves. Consult: J. von Liebig, Familiar Letters on Chemistry, original in German, exists in translations (London, 1851); F. Höfer, Histoire de la chimie (Paris, 1869); G. F. Rodwell, The Birth of Chemistry (London, 1874); M. Berthelot, Les origines de l'alchimie (Paris, 1885); H. Kopp, Die Alchemie in alterer und neuerer Zeit (1886), etc. The literature of alchemy is enormous. See also Chemistry.
ALCHYMIST, Der, der iUlce-mest. A German opera by Spohr, the text being by Pfeiffer, produced at Cassel, July 28, 1830. It is founded on Washington Irving's tale of The Alchemist.
ALCIATI, al-chii'te, Andrea (1492-1550).
An Italian jurisconsult of the Renaissance, successively professor of law in the universities of Avignon, Bourges, Bologna, Pavia, and Ferrara. He improved the method of studying Roman law, by substituting historical research for the servile forms of the glossarists. He wrote many legal works, including commentaries on the Code of Justinian and the Decretals, a history of Milan, notes on Tacitus and Plautus, and a Book of Emblems, or moral sayings, in Latin verse, which has been greatly admired.
AL'CIBI'ADES. A tragedy in five acts by Thomas Otway, produced in 1675 at Dorset Garden Theatre, London, with Betterton in the title rôle.
ALCIBIADES (Gk. Ἀλκιβιάδης, Alkibiades) (c. 450-404 B.C.). An Athenian politician and general. He was the son of Clinias and Dinomache, and belonged to the class of the Eupatridæ. He was born at Athens, lost his father in the battle of Coronea in 446 B.C., and was in consequence educated in the house of Pericles, his uncle. In his youth he gave evidence of his future greatness, excelling both in mental and bodily exercises. His handsome person, his distinguished parentage, and the high position of Pericles pro-
