ntial
mutations, almost infinite colours appear, and shew themselves in
vapours, as the Rainbow in the clouds, which quickly pass away and are
expelled by those that succeed, more affecting the air than the earth:
the operator must have a gentle care of them, because they are not
permanent, and proceed not from the intrinsic disposition of the matter,
but from the fire painting and fashioning everything after its pleasure,
or casually by heat in slight moisture."(1) That D'ESPAGNET is arguing,
not so much from actual chemical experiments, as from analogy with
psychological processes in man, is, I think, evident.

(1) JEAN D'ESPAGNET: _Hermetic Arcanum_, canon 65. (See _Collectanea
Hermetica_, ed. by W. WYNN WESTCOTT, vol. i., 1893, pp. 28 and 29.)

As well as a metallic, the alchemists believed in a physiological,
application of the fundamental doctrines of mysticism: their physiology
was analogically connected with their metallurgy, the same principles
holding good in each case. PARACELSUS, as we have seen, taught that
man is a microcosm, a world in miniature; his spirit, the Divine Spark
within, is from God; his soul is from the Stars, extracted from the
Spirit of the World; and his body is from the earth, extracted from the
elements of which all things material are made. This view of man was
shared by many other alchemists. The Philosopher's Stone, therefore (or,
rather, a solution of it in alcohol) was also regarded as the Elixir of
Life; which, thought the alchemists, would not endow man with physical
immortality, as is sometimes supposed, but restore him again to the
flower of youth, "regenerating" him physiologically. Failing this, of
course, they regarded gold in a potable form as the next most powerful
medicine--a belief which probably led to injurious effects in some
cases.

Such are the facts from which I think we are justified in concluding,
as I have said, "that the alchemists constructed their chemical theories
for the main part by means of _a priori_ reasoning, and that the
premises from which they started were (i.) the truth of mystical
theology, especially the doctrine of the soul's regeneration, and (ii.)
the truth of mystical philosophy, which asserts that the objects of
nature are symbols of spiritual verities."(1)

(1) In the following excursion we will wander again in the alchemical
bypaths of thought, and certain objections to this view of the origin
and nature of alchemy will be dealt w