CHAPTER III.

THE ALCHEMICAL CONCEPTION OF THE UNITY AND SIMPLICITY OF NATURE.

In the preceding chapter I have referred to the frequent use made by the alchemists of their supposition that nature follows the same plan, or at any rate a very similar plan, in all her processes.  If this supposition is accepted, the primary business of an investigator of nature is to trace likenesses and analogies between what seem on the surface to be dissimilar and unconnected events.  As this idea, and this practice, were the foundations whereon the superstructure of alchemy was raised, I think it is important to amplify them more fully than I have done already.

Mention is made in many alchemical writings of a mythical personage named Hermes Trismegistus, who is said to have lived a little later than the time of Moses.  Representations of Hermes Trismegistus are found on ancient Egyptian monuments.  We are told that Alexander the Great found his tomb near Hebron; and that the tomb contained a slab of emerald whereon thirteen sentences were written.  The eighth sentence is rendered in many alchemical books as follows: 

“Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven, and then again descend to the earth, and unite together the powers of things superior and things inferior.  Thus you will obtain the glory of the whole world, and obscurity will fly away from you.”

This sentence evidently teaches the unity of things in heaven and things on earth, and asserts the possibility of gaining, not merely a theoretical, but also a practical, knowledge of the essential characters of all things.  Moreover, the sentence implies that this fruitful knowledge is to be obtained by examining nature, using as guide the fundamental similarity supposed to exist between things above and things beneath.

The alchemical writers constantly harp on this theme:  follow nature; provided you never lose the clue, which is simplicity and similarity.

The author of The Only Way (1677) beseeches his readers “to enlist under the standard of that method which proceeds in strict obedience to the teaching of nature ... in short, the method which nature herself pursues in the bowels of the earth.”

The alchemists tell us not to expect much help from books and written directions.  When one of them has said all he can say, he adds—­“The question is whether even this book will convey any information to one before whom the writings of the Sages and the open book of Nature are exhibited in vain.”  Another tells his readers the only thing for them is “to beseech God to give you the real philosophical temper, and to open your eyes to the facts of nature; thus alone will you reach the coveted goal.”

“Follow nature” is sound advice.  But, nature was to be followed with eyes closed save to one vision, and the vision was to be seen before the following began.