a spring
discharged its waters with a periodical gushing of carbonic acid gas, it
was agitated by an angel; if an unfortunate descended into a pit and was
suffocated by the mephitic air, it was by some daemon who was secreted;
if the miner's torch produced an explosion, it was owing to the wrath of
some malignant spirit guarding a treasure, and whose solitude had been
disturbed. There was no end to the stories, duly authenticated by the
best human testimony, of the occasional appearance of such spirits under
visible forms; there was no grotto or cool thicket in which angels and
genii had not been seen, no cavern without its daemons. Though the names
were not yet given, it was well understood that the air had its sylphs,
the earth its gnomes, the fire its salamanders, the water its undines;
to the day belonged its apparitions, to the night its fairies. The foul
air of stagnant places assumed the visible form of daemons of abominable
aspect; the explosive gases of mines took on the shape of pale-faced,
malicious dwarfs, with leathery ears hanging down to their shoulders,
and garments of grey cloth. Philosophical conceptions can never be
disentangled from social ideas; the thoughts of man will always gather a
tincture from the intellectual medium in which he lives.

In Christendom, however, the chief application of these doctrines was to
the relics of martyrs and saints. As with the amulets and talismans of
Mesopotamia, these were regarded as possessing supernatural powers. They
were a sure safeguard against evil spirits, and an unfailing relief in
sickness.

[Sidenote: Transmutation of metals--Alchemy.]

[Sidenote: Philosopher's stone.]

A singular force was given to these mystic ideas by the peculiar
direction they happened to take. As there are veins of water in the
earth, and apertures through which the air can gain access, an analogy
was inferred between its structure and that of an animal, leading to an
inference of a similarity of functions. From this came the theory of the
development of metals in its womb under the influence of the planets,
the pregnant earth spontaneously producing gold and silver from baser
things after a definite number of lunations. Already, however, in the
doctrine of the transmutation of metals, it was perceived that to Nature
the lapse of time is nothing--to man it is everything. To Nature, when
she is transmuting a worthless into a better metal, what signify a
thousand years? To man,