lurgy; and similar
remarks hold of the other prominent doctrines of alchemy.

(1) See, for example, Mr A. E. WAITE'S paper, "The Canon of Criticism
in respect of Alchemical Literature," _The Journal of the Alchemical
Society_, vol. i. (1913), pp. 17-30.

The wonderful fabric of alchemical doctrine was not woven in a day, and
as it passed from loom to loom, from Byzantium to Syria, from Syria to
Arabia, from Arabia to Spain and Latin Europe, so its pattern changed;
but it was always woven _a priori_, in the belief that that which is
below is as that which is above. In its final form, I think, it is
distinctly Christian.

In the _Turba Philosophorum_, the oldest known work of Latin alchemy--a
work which, claiming to be of Greek origin, whilst not that, is
certainly Greek in spirit,--we frequently come across statements of a
decidedly mystical character. "The regimen," we read, "is greater than
is perceived by reason, except through divine inspiration."(1) Copper,
it is insisted upon again and again, has a soul as well as a body; and
the Art, we are told, is to be defined as "the liquefaction of the body
and the separation of the soul from the body, seeing that copper, like
a man, has a soul and a body."(2) Moreover, other doctrines are here
propounded which, although not so obviously of a mystical character,
have been traced to mystical sources in the preceding excursion. There
is, for instance, the doctrine of purification by means of putrefaction,
this process being likened to that of the resurrection of man. "These
things being done," we read, "God will restore unto it (the matter
operated on) both the soul and the spirit thereof, and the weakness
being taken away, that matter will be made strong, and after corruption
will be improved, even as a man becomes stronger after resurrection
and younger than he was in this world."(1b) The three stages in the
alchemical work--black, white, and red--corresponding to, and, as I
maintain, based on the three stages in the life of the mystic, are also
more than once mentioned. "Cook them (the king and his wife), therefore,
until they become black, then white, afterwards red, and finally until a
tingeing venom is produced."(2b)

(1) _The Turba Philosophorum, or Assembly of the Sages_ (trans. by A. E.
WAITE, 1896), p. 128.

(2) _Ibid_., p. 193, _cf_. pp. 102 and 152.

(1b) _The Turba Philosophorum, or Assembly of the Sages_ (trans. by A.
E. WAITE), p. 101, _cf_. pp. 27 a