The principal alchymists who flourished in Europe during the dark ages, and whose names deserve to be recorded, either on account of their discoveries, or on account of the influence which their writings and ex ample had in determining the public taste, were Alber tus Magnus, Arnoldus de Villa Nova, Roger Bacon, Raymond Lully, and the two Isaacs of Holland.
Albertus Magnus was born in the year 1205, and died in 1280. He was a German, and, during the early part of his life, was so remarkable for his dulness, that he became the jest of his acquaintances. \Vhen about 17, he appeared at the university of Paris, where he studied with eclat, and where afterwards he obtained the title of doctor. He joined the order of Dominican Monks at Cologne, and was also bishop of Ratisbon. His works are very numerous ; but those relating to chemistry are only three tracts. i. A treatise entitled De .RIchymia, in which he gives a very distinct account of all the chemi cal substances known in his time, and of the manner of obtaining them. He describes also, very concisely and clearly, the different instruments then employed by che mists, and the various operations which they had occa sion to perform. This treatise, therefore, is of con siderable value, because it exhibits with fidelity the state of chemistry in the 13th century. Towards the end, indeed, he falls into the common cant of the alchy mists ; but even then he uses but little of their ambi guous and metaphorical language. 2. His second trea tise is on Minerals, and is equally plain and sensible. 3. If the third treatise, entitled Lilium de Spinis Eval stun, be genuine, it must have been written at a very different period of life ; for it is infinitely inferior to the two others.
Albertus, during one period of his life, taught publicly in the university of Paris, where he is said to have had for a pupil the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, who after wards wrote several treatises on alchymy,not inferior, in point of mysticism, to the other works of that renowned divine. There arc, however, several words and phrases (amalgam, for instance) still retained in chemistry, which make their first appearance in his works. And his theories, which are ingenious enough, tend not a little to elucidate the data on which the alchymists went. We
find, too, in him the commencement of that combination of astrology and alchymy, which makes so conspicuous a figure in the writings of his successors.
At the same time with Albertus, lived Roger Bacon, by far the most illustrious, the best informed, and the most scientific of all the alchymists. Ile was born in 1224, in the county of Somerset in England ; studied at Oxfoi d, and afterwards at Paris. l le became a conic lier friar, and, devoting himself to philosophical hives tigations, his discoveries, notwithstanding the pains which he took to conceal them, made such a noise, that he was accused of magic, and his brethren in consequence threw him into prison.
Ills writings display a degree of knowledge and ex tent of thought scarcely credible, considering the time when he wrote. In his small treatise, De Mirabili Pu testate Anis et Nitturffl, he begins by pointing out the absurdity of believing in magic, necromancy, charms, or any of those similar opinions which at that time were universally prevalent. lie points out the various ways in which mankind are deceived by jugglers, ventrilo quists, &c.; mentions the advantages which physicians may derive from acting on the imaginations of their pa tients, by means of charms, amulets, and infallible me dicines ; affirms that many of those things which arc considered as supernatural, arc merely so because man kind in general are unacquainted with natural philoso phy. To illustrate this, he mentions a great number of ntuural phenomena which had been reckoned miraculous, and concludes with several secrets of his own, which he affirms to be still more extraordinary imitations of na ture. These he delivers in the enigmatical stile of the times, induced, as he tells us, partly by the conduct of other philosophers, partly by the propriety of the thing, and partly by the danger of speaking too plainly. One of these secrets is a description of gunpowder, in lan guage which cannot be mistaken. This was more than a century before Swartz, the German, who got the credit of the discovery, even existed.