ALCHEMY. The art of changing base metals into gold. Among the things that men the most earnestly desire are the means of physical comfort or luxury—that is to say wealth, and freedom from disease, and long life. The hope of discovering among the secrets of Nature the art of making gold, and that magic liquor, which would secure perpetual youth, called the Elixir of Life, gave birth to the science of Alchemy. A class of Hermetic philosophers arose who prosecuted their researches with ardor and seriousness; for it is not necessary to assume that the Alchemists were imposters. They were enthusiasts, and taught their doc trines through mystical images and symbols. To transmute metals they thought it necessary to find a substance which, containing the original principle of all matter, should pos sess the power of dissolving all its elements. This general solvent, or rnenstruum universale, which, at the same time, was to possess the power of renioving all the seeds of disease out of the human system, and renewing life, was called the " Philosopher's Stone "—Lapis Philosophorum—and its pos sessors were styled Adepts. The more obscure the ideas the Alchemists themselves had of the appearances resulting from their experiments the more they endeavored to express themselves in symbolical language, which they afterward employed to conceal their secrets from the uninitiated. The
science of Alchemy is as old as the history of philosophy itself. The Egyptian Hermes, the son of Anubis, who was ranked among the heroes, has been claimed as its author, and many books on the subject of magic are to be attributed to him, though not on sufficient grounds. The name, how ever, is Arabian, and it is well known that the Arabs pro secuted the science with ardor, and to their labors many valuable discoveries in chemistry are to be attributed. Paracelsus, Roger Bacon, Basilius, Valentinus, and many other distinguished men were believers in the art. And even to this day science cannot positively decide that the Philosopher's Stone is not within the circle of possibilities. Alchemy has been more or less connected with Freemasonry since the middle of the last century, chiefly through the Rosicrucians. One of the most interesting degrees in Free masonry—" Adepts, or Knights of the Eagle and the Sun"- is founded on this Hermetic Philosophy, and cannot be understood without a study of the mystic science of the Alchemists.