Pharmacologia anti-empirica, or, A rational discourse of remedies both chymical and Galenical wherein chymistry is impartially represented, the goodness of natural remedies vincidated, and the most celebrated preparation of art proved uncapable of curing diseases without a judicious and methodical administration : together with some remarks on the causes and cure of the gout, the universal use of the Cortex, or Jesuits powder, and the most notorious impostures of divers empiricks and mountebanks / by Walter Harris ...

CHAP. VI.

The Verity of Transmutation of Metals best judged of by Matter of Fact. Some Au∣thors mentioned in Defence of it. Yet all pretended Transmutations thought to be meer Counterfeits. Adulterations to be cautiously treated of. The Philosophers Stone probably a meer Collusion and Trick. Wenceslaus's point examined. No one Alchymist ever yet so Rich as to be En∣vyed. An Argument against Projecti∣on, drawn from Providence. The baser Metals not Transmuted. That supposing the Truth of Projection, it is the greatest Folly to endeavour after it. The Process always undertaken different ways, though by the Rules of the same Author. Penotus a sad Example of what Alchy∣mists ought to fear.

AS for the Metallurgia, or the Art of Transmutation of Metals, it is not a subject so properly to be decided by Argu∣ment and Reason, as by Tryal and Ex∣perience. Let our Reasonings be never so strong and cogent, yet if plain Matter of Fact evinces the contrary, we ought

immediately to acquiesce, and submit to the Real Truth.

Now I must confess, I never was Al∣chymist enough, to try the utmost that is Possible to be done in these matters. Li∣bavius, Penotus, Hogelande, &c. do stiffly maintain the Transmutation, as indubi∣table, both of Mercury, Lead, and the like Metals into Gold, and of the viler Metals into one another. Sennertus, a sober Author, is so well perswaded of the possibility, that he thinks it rash, and im∣prudent, to deny it. He says, there are Fountains at Smolnitium, a Town in Hun∣gary, which will turn Iron into the best Copper. Nay, that not only Natural, but Artificial Vitriolick Waters are able to turn Iron into Copper, a Red powder sticking to the Iron, which being Melted, will become a good Copper. And there∣fore he taxes Nicolaus Guibertus with a greater Impudence than ordinary, for de∣nying absolutely any Perfect Transmuta∣tion.

But notwithstanding we have had so many plausible Stories of this, and that mans having gotten the Tincture, and almost every body fancies he can Trans∣mute the Viler Metals with ease, yet I cannot tell how to give up my full Assent,

even to the Possibility in any one. I know things may be Counterfeited with great cunning and dexterity, but still the most that can be made of them is, that they are Counterfeits. And I never yet met with, or heard of any such Collusion, but that if it be brought to a narrow, and Critical Test, it may by an Able Artist be distinguished from the True kind. Se∣parate two Likes, and you shall hardly resolve which is which; but bring them together, and try the difference, accor∣ding to Art, and you can't easily be mistaken, or imposed upon. And it is too well known, that Pseudo-Chymists, the Spawn, if not Legitimate Issue of the more Learned Alchymists, being bred up, and instructed under those Masters, have such an admirable faculty of Counterfeit∣ing Medicines, that it is now become a set Employment, and there is hardly one that is worth a Counterfeiting, that can escape their Contrivances, and they are as busy as Bees, 'till they have found out a Cheat for it. I could here extend up∣on a great many things, and lay open their base Adulterations, in a great many particulars, that I cannot so much as think of without Indignation, and violent Transport; and therefore I had rather

pass by the particulars, than teach wick∣ed men how to do Mischief. And in∣deed all Authors should be exceeding careful of shewing their Knowledge in those base Impostures. A hint how to discover the Adulteration does always well, but the other deserves to be buried in the deepest silence. And for this rea∣son Galen was very averse to the Writing a History of Poisons, least the World might happen to receive from it more Harm than Good, and the Woolves, and Monsters of Humane Society might there∣by improve their Art of Destruction.

The World sufficiently rings about Raymund Lully, Arnoldus de villà novâ, Roger Bacon, Kelley, Hogelande, Boethius, and several others here and there, as if they were all sanctified upon Earth, with the Power of Projection. And our Co∣temporary Wenceslaus had the luck to find out a Treasure of this kind, very lately, being still alive. The Romantick Story was writ by John Joachim Becher, and said to be published at the request of the Honourable, and most Eminent Mr. Boyle. And yet we may observe of this Wenceslaus, that he was one of the great∣est Libertines upon Earth in his Moralls, that notwithstanding he had a very large

Pot of this Powder of Projection, enough one would think to have bought Empires with, yet his Pot had a Bottom in about two years time, and he grew to be one of the most Wretched Notorious Cheats that ever pretended to Alchymy. He was dip'd over Head and Ears in Debts of all sorts, and was fain to vend Poudred Cin∣nabar, Red Lead, and the Caput Mortuum of Aqua Fortis boiled, and such like In∣gredients instead of the Genuine Powder, mixing also therewith some Filings of Copper, to make it appear the more Glit∣tering and Gold-like. The Grand Elixir at first hearing of, and after having passed an Ordinary Test, strikes men with such Admiration and Reverence, that they are as unwilling strictly to Examine all its Natural qualifications, as to dispute the Existence of the Deity they pay Worship to, or the Power of a Mighty Monarch that they live under. If there be a true Transmutation, as I cannot but somewhat doubt, the Trade shall certainly make a man a Beggar instead of an Emperour, and the Expence that is employed about bringing it to a Tinging Perfection, shall abundantly over-weigh the Profit that it is to produce. We have had no small num∣ber of Alchymists in our own days, who

were many of them born to fair Estates, and yet all after much Bragging, Counter∣feiting, and Lying, have grown Contemp∣tibly Poor and Miserable. If ever one of them had born up against the Stream, and surmounted the necessary consequences of Folly; if one of them all had hapned to appear as Pompous as they aimed, in any other, than the Fools Paradice, it had been a better Argument for the Reality of Projection, than a thousand Tricks and Stratagems, that they have been certainly Guilty of, and which have at several times been discovered to the World.

I shall urge one Consideration more, upon the Supposition of the Philosophers Stone, that there may be, or has been such a thing unquestionably, and without disguise: I offer, whether it be consistent with the Established and Ʋnalterable Pro∣vidence of God over the World, that one man should have that advantage over his Fellow-creatures, as to multiply Riches without end, as it must be sup∣posed that man may, who is Perfect Master of this Secret. I never understood yet, but we are all born to Toyl and Labour, and all subject to the various Revolutions of Fortune. The Greatest Monarch is subject to the same Laws of

Nature with Boors and Peasants; he is not out of the Possibility of being Robb'd of all his Wealth, of being Despised, or over∣turned even by his Vassals. And there are Bounds determined by Providence, be∣yond which the most Ambitious Prince can never pass. But granting the con∣ceit of All powerful Projection, the Laws of Nature are subject to be overwhelmed, by the Inexhaustible Purse of a Whimsical Philosopher Paramount. So that I cannot but necessarily conclude, that if the Tinger's Artificial Gold had been Con'd over again and again, some Flaw or other would have been discovered in the Won∣derful Jewel, and the Philosopher would have been soon tumbled down from his imaginary Royalty in the Mineral King∣dom.

As to the Transmutation of other Me∣tals into one another, though there's no such danger of losiing Life or Liberty by being known to do such Feats, yet it is a rare thing to meet with an Alchymist that will offer to convince us throughly even in those matters. I know some will talk as if they could do every thing in nature, and say what they will, they will take it very unkindly to be Contradicted in their Bold Pretences. But I never heard of

any yet, who offered to set up for the Merchant, and Traffick'd with Copper for Coals. Some of them perhaps have ven∣tured their Neck to make Pieces of Eight, and will shew you a Medal or two which may pass off much as well, as a Gilded Brass-Ring. They will make you a Silver at Half a Crown an Ounce, and this Silver may be work'd into a Plate Vessel just as Wholesome as Copper it self. And after all, the Famous Artist had better have been bred to the Plough, and might that way have gotten a better, and I am sure, an Honester Livelihood.

But again, supposing the Truth of Pro∣jection, as largely as they would fancy, yet can such a Rarity in an Age, such a Phaenix as Paracelsus calls it, sufficiently encourage a Sober man to lay aside all other thoughts, and to dedicate his whole time to the vain hopes of attain∣ing the Grand Elixir? A Sorry Slovenly Fellow seeing my Lord Mayor in all his Pomp and Greatness, had much more rea∣son to conclude, This we must all come to, than a fond Alchymist, because he has seen some Books, which offer to describe this Great Work, and because once in a long time, and one among an Infinite number of Labourers, is said to have gotten the

Prize, that therefore he must needs be another of those Fortunate men. There be divers Books which Teach Magick, and how to Conjure, as there be also divers which would instruct us in the Process. And yet I am strangely misinform'd by others, who had as much mind to Con∣jure, as these to find out the Philosophers Stone; if all the Arts of Conjuration, that are taught in Books, can help a too Inqui∣sitive man to Practise Magick, as it is talk'd of. A man should no more Believe all that he Reads, than all that he Hears. A Lye, or a Mistake, is a Lye or a Mi∣stake, whether it be Printed, or Told. And some Writers have been as Guilty of Falshood or Inadvertency, as those that do not Write, but Talk. And the same Al-Chymical Writers, who would pre∣tend to Teach the World Great Improbabi∣lities, if not Impossibilities on this subject, do, we find plainly, take a larger Liber∣ty than ordinary, in recommending the Virtues of their long-winded and long-worded Magisterial Preparations. Lord, how Happy should the World be in Re∣medies, if the Hundredth part of what they aloud maintain, would upon Tryal prove Constantly True! Is there ever a one Great Chymical Medicine, Great

I mean in respect of its Preparation, that Wonders are not spoken of, and long Pa∣negyricks made of, as if they were all to come within a hairs breadth of the Ʋni∣versal Medicine. And I cannot but here declare, that upon discoursing the most Eminent Practical Physicians, (and in this Town we want not Opportunities to do it) I never yet heard one man, whose Judge∣ment I had reason to value, presume to own, that in any one Great Preparation he had found Experience fully to answer the pretended Virtues ascribed to it by Chymical Authors. For if a Remedy has its effect in some slight and indifferent case, it does not follow, that it must needs perform the same in greater cases of the like nature. And that which will agree very well with one sort of Constitution, shall as absolutely disagree with others under the same kind of Disease.

So that if the Grand Process were to be Learn'd by Books, it is of no small mo∣ment to be consider'd, that every Author varies his Hints after a Different manner, and takes care to wrap up his Information in such Clouds of Darkness, that I verily believe it is absolutely Impossible for Two Operators exactly to pursue the same Me∣thod from the same Author, without Con∣federacy,

though both should as strictly as possible follow the Instructions of the same Book. And most of those very men, who are said to have gained the Tincture, do ascribe it rather to Chance than Cun∣ning, and their Choicest Rules will hardly enable them a second time to perform, what upon a former Essay they stumbled upon by Chance.

Now for those that will not be per∣swaded, who will needs run gadding after Chimaera's, or Wills with a Wisp, before they are misled into forlorn inaccessible places, or fall into the Dirt, which they will never afterwards wipe off; I would desire them to read, and consider well the sad Story of their Predecessor Penotus. He was an Al∣chymist, Hand and Heart, a man of no con∣temptible capacity in other respects, but most wretched and Ʋnfortunate in his Chymical Adventures. Senuertus tells us, he received a Letter concerning him from a Friend of his in Berne in Switzerland, dated November 1617. who writ him word, that at Yverdon, a Town in that Canton, this Penotus had lately died in the Hospital. He had been a great Vin∣dicator of Alchymy all his life, 'till to∣wards his latter end; he had spent all his Fortune, in quest of those Vain Treasures,

and after all was reduced to that Extre∣mity, that an Hospital was the best shelter he could find. A little before he died, which was in the 98 year of his Age, (and if he had gotten the Philosophical Idol, that he Worshipped so long, I dare engage he would never have lived to near that Great Age,) before he Died; Fabritius ab Aquapendente, the Famous Chirurgeon makes him a Visit, and pressed the poor man now to impart his Secrets, for the Good of the Publick; to which request he at length replyed, and 'tis so true, that it is pity it should be a Secret: That if he had an Enemy he wish'd ill to, and did not dare to assail by force, he could wish him no greater a Curse, than that he would give himself up to the Study of Alchymy.

Notes

• De Chymic. cum Arist. & Galen. consens. ac Dissensu, cap. 2.
• Magnalia Naturae Printed in Black-Fryers 1680.
• De consens. & Dissensu Galen. & Perip. cam Chymicis, cap. 2.