nd that they commenced
their investigations of physical and chemical phenomena. Indeed, if we
may judge by the esteem in which the Hermetic maxim, "What is above
is as that which is below, what is below is as that which is above, to
accomplish the miracles of the One Thing," was held by every alchemist,
we are justified in asserting that the mystical theory of the spiritual
significance of Nature--a theory with which, as we have seen, is closely
connected the Neoplatonic and Kabalistic doctrine that all things
emanate in series from the Divine Source of all Being--was at the very
heart of alchemy. As writes one alchemist: "... the Sages have been
taught of God that this natural world is only an image and material copy
of a heavenly and spiritual pattern; that the very existence of this
world is based upon the reality of its celestial archetype; and that God
has created it in imitation of the spiritual and invisible universe, in
order that men might be the better enabled to comprehend His heavenly
teaching, and the wonders of His absolute and ineffable power and
wisdom. Thus the sage sees heaven reflected in Nature as in a mirror;
and he pursues this Art, not for the sake of gold or silver, but for the
love of the knowledge which it reveals; he jealously conceals it from
the sinner and the scornful, lest the mysteries of heaven should be laid
bare to the vulgar gaze."(1)

(1) MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS (?): _The New Chemical Light, Pt. II.,
Concerning Sulphur_. (See _The Hermetic Museum_, vol. ii. p. 138.)

The alchemists, I hold, convinced of the truth of this view of Nature,
_i.e_. that principles true of one plane of being are true also of all
other planes, adopted analogy as their guide in dealing with the facts
of chemistry and physics known to them. They endeavoured to explain
these facts by an application to them of the principles of mystical
theology, their chief aim being to prove the truth of these principles
as applied to the facts of the natural realm, and by studying natural
phenomena to become instructed in spiritual truth. They did not proceed
by the sure, but slow, method of modern science, _i.e_. the method of
induction, which questions experience at every step in the construction
of a theory; but they boldly allowed their imaginations to leap ahead
and to formulate a complete theory of the Cosmos on the strength of but
few facts. This led them into many fantastic errors, but I would not
venture to deny th