an be got
out of the residual solution by appropriate methods, if such be desired;
so that the facts really support DALTON'S theory rather than the
alchemical doctrines. But to the alchemist it looked like a real
transmutation of iron into copper, confirmation of his fond belief that
iron and other base metals could be transmuted into silver and gold by
the aid of the Great Arcanum of Nature.

In all the alchemical doctrines mystical connections are evident, and
mystical origins can generally be traced. I shall content myself here
with giving a couple of further examples. Consider, in the first place,
the alchemical doctrine of purification by putrefaction, that the metals
must die before they can be resurrected and truly live, that through
death alone are they purified--in the more prosaic language of modern
chemistry, death becomes oxidation, and rebirth becomes reduction. In
many alchemical books there are to be found pictorial symbols of the
putrefaction and death of metals and their new birth in the state of
silver or gold, or as the Stone itself, together with descriptions of
these processes. The alchemists sought to kill or destroy the body
or outward form of the metals, in the hope that they might get at and
utilise the living essence they believed to be immanent within. As
PARACELSUS put it: "Nothing of true value is located in the body of a
substance, but in the virtue... the less there is of body, the more in
proportion is the virtue." It seems to me quite obvious that in such
ideas as these we have the application to metallurgy of the mystic
doctrine of self-renunciation--that the soul must die to self before it
can live to God; that the body must be sacrificed to the spirit, and the
individual will bowed down utterly to the One Divine Will, before it can
become one therewith.

In the second place, consider the directions as to the colours that
must be obtained in the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, if
a successful issue to the Great Work is desired. Such directions are
frequently given in considerable detail in alchemical works; and,
without asserting any exact uniformity, I think that I may state that
practically all the alchemists agree that three great colour-stages are
necessary--(i.) an inky blackness, which is termed the "Crow's Head" and
is indicative of putrefaction; (ii.) a white colour indicating that
the Stone is now capable of converting "base" metals into silver; this
passes through