The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart

Author:P. G. Maxwell-Stuart [Maxwell-Stuart, P. G.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2008-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

7

The Rosicrucian Episode and its Aftermath

The early seventeenth century continued to see people’s constant attempt to produce gold by transmutation, and their ever more intricate experiments with a variety of herbs and minerals, intended to manufacture the one elixir which would cure every disease and ailment – the kind of omnium remedium described by the shadowy figure of Johann Isaac Hollandius in terms which are reminiscent of those used by Chinese alchemists talking about their mercury-based elixirs.

This Stone cures skin diseases, plague and every illness which can dominate the earth. It is the true potable gold, the fifth essence sought by the ancients, of which the crowd of philosophers who have concealed its name and operations, has said so many extraordinary things.

Put one grain of this Stone in half a glass of white wine and it will heat the wine. It dissolves as though it were butter. It makes the wine red, and sweetens it so much that sugar cannot add to the sweetness. Let a sick person drink this wine and he will spend very little time in bed. The Stone will go straight to his heart, expel all bad humours from it, draw them, from all his veins and arteries, and eject them through his sweat. This Stone, you see, opens every pore and drives out the humours through them so that the invalid thinks he has been in water. But this sweat does not weaken him, because the Stone does not drive out anything unless it is contrary to Nature. It guards whatever is essentially natural, and so the sick person is not debilitated. The more he sweats, the more he becomes alert and strong, and his veins become lighter. The sweat lasts until every bad humour is expelled from his body, and then it stops.

Next day, give one grain of the Stone in wine, as you did before. At once it will churn up the stomach and will not stop while anything contrary to Nature remains in the body. The more stools there are, the happier and stronger the sick person will be, for the Stone expels only what is inimical to Nature. On the third day, give a grain of the Stone in warm wine. It will fortify the veins and heart so much that the invalid will think he is not a human being but a spirit, because of the lightness and vigour of his limbs.

If anyone were to take a grain every day for nine days, it would be as though he had been in Paradise for nine days and had eaten the fruits which perfect his appearance, his age and his strength. So use one grain of the Stone in warm wine once a week, and you will live in health right up to the time appointed by God.

But in 1603 there were signs in the sky, confusing and troubling to a Europe made tense by apocalyptic expectation and politico-religious tensions. Three times that year there had been a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, a significant phenomenon when it happened only once.

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