PHILOSOPHER, a person versed in philosophy; or
one who makes profession of, or applies himself to,
the study of nature.
PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, the greatest object of alchemy,
is a long sought for preparation, which, when found, is
to convert all the true mercurial part of metal into pure
gold, better than any that is dug out of mines or perfect-
ed by the refiner's art.
Some Greek writers in the fourth and fifth centuries
speak of this art as being then known; and towards the
end of the 13th century, when the learning of the East
had been brought higher by the Arabians, the same pre-
tensions began to spread through Europe. It is supposed
that this art, called alchemy, was of Egyptian origin;
and that, when the ancient Greek philosophers travelled
into Egypt, they brought back some of the allegoric lan-
guage of this Egyptian art, ill understood, which after-
wards passed into their mythology. Alchemy was the
earliest branch of chemistry, considered as a philosophi-
cal science: in the other parts of chemical knowledge,
facts preceded reasoning or speculation; but alchemy
was originally speculative.
The alchemists supposed the general principles of
metals to be chiefly two substances, which they called
mercury and sulphur; they apprehended also, that the
pure mercurial, sulphureous, or other principles of
which they imagined gold to be composed, were con-
tained separately in other bodies: and these principles,
therefore, they endeavoured to collect, and to concoct
and incorporate by long digestions; and by thus con-
joining the principles of gold, if they could be so pro-
duced and conjoined, it might be expected that gold
would be produced. But the alchemists pretend to a
product of a higher order, called the elixir, the medicine
for metals, the tincture, the philosopher's stone; which by
being projected on a large quantity of any of the in-
ferior metals in fusion, should change them into fine
gold; which being laid on a plate of silver, copper, or
iron, and moderately heated, should sink into the met-
al, and change into gold all the parts to which it was
applied; which, on being properly heated with pure
gold, should change the gold into a substance of the
same nature and virtue with itself, so as thus to be
susceptible of perpetual multiplication; and which, by
continued coction, should have its power more and
more exalted, so as to be able to transmute greater
and greater quantities of the inferior metals, according
to its different degrees of perfection.
Alchemists have attempted to arrive at the making
of gold by three methods: the first by separation; for
every metal yet known, it is affirmed, contains some
quantity of gold; only, in most, the quantity is so little
as not to detract the expence of getting it out.
The second is by maturation; for the alchemists
think mercury is the basis and matter of all metals;
that quicksilver purged from all heterogeneous bodies
would be much heavier, denser, and simpler, than the
native quicksilver; and that by subtilizing, purifying,
and digesting it with much labour, and long operations,
it is possible to convert it into pure gold.
This method is only for mercury. With respect to
the other metals, it is ineffectual, 1. Because their mat-
ter is not pure mercury, but has other heterogeneous
bodies adhering to it; and, 2. Because the digestion,
whereby mercury is turned into gold, would not succeed
in other metals, because they had not been long enough
in the mines.
Weight is the inimitable character of gold, &c. Now
mercury, they say, has always some impurities in it, and
these are lighter than mercury. Could they be purged
away, which they think is not impossible, mercury would
be as heavy as gold, and what is as heavy as gold is
gold, or at least might very easily be made gold.
The third method is by transmutation, or by turning
all metals readily into pure gold, by melting them in
the fire, and casting a little quantity of a certain pre-
paration into the fused matter; upon which the faces
retire, are volatilized and burnt, and carried off, and
the rest of the mass is turned into pure gold. That
which works this change in the metals is called the
philosopher's stone.
Whether this third method be possible or not, it is
difficult to say. We have so many testimonies of it
from persons who on all other occasions speak truth,
that it is hard to say they are guilty of direct false-
hood, even when they say that they have been masters
of the secret. We are told, that it is only doing that
by art which nature does in many years and ages.
For as lead and gold differ but little in weight, there-
fore there is not much in lead beside mercury and
gold. Now, if we had any body which would so agi-
tate all the parts of lead as to burn all that is not mer-
cury therein, and had also some sulphur to fix the
mercury, would not the mass remaining be converted
into gold? There is nothing in nature so heavy as
lead except gold, mercury, and platina, which was
not known to these reasoners; it is evident, therefore,
there is something in lead that comes very near to gold.
But in lead there is likewise some heterogeneous mat-
ter different both from mercury and gold. If therefore
19 ounces of lead be dissolved by the fire, and 8 ounces
be destroyed by these means, it is argued that we shall
have the rest good gold; the ratio of lead to gold be-
ing as 11 to 19. If then the philosopher's stone can
purify the mercurial matter in lead, so as that nothing
shall remain but the pure mercurial body, and you can
fix
Philoso-
pher's
Stone.
fix and coagulate this by means of sulphur, out of 19 ounces of lead you will have 11 of gold: or, if you reduce the lead from 18 to 14, you will then have converted it into mercury; and if you farther purify this mercury to the proper standard, you will have gold; provided you have but a sulphur with which to fix and coagulate it. Such is the foundation of the opinion of the philosopher's stone; which the alchemists contend to be a most subtle, fixed, concentrated fire, which, as soon as it melts with any metal, does, by a magnetic virtue, immediately unite itself to the mercurial body of the metal, volatilize and cleanse off all that is impure therein, and leave nothing but a mass of pure gold. Many frauds and artifices have unquestionably been practised in this operation, and there might be political reasons why princes and others should encourage those who pretended to a power of furnishing this inexhaustible source of wealth; but it would be wrong to censure as impostors all those who have declared themselves convinced, from their own experiments, of the transmutability of base metals into gold. There are strong reasons, however, to believe that the authors have been deceived themselves by fallacious appearances. Mr Boyle gives an account of a process by which he imagines part of the substance of gold to have been transmuted into silver. He also relates a very extraordinary experiment, under the title of the degradation of gold by an anti-elixir, which was published in his own life-time, and since reprinted in 1739. Hence many have been led to conclude in favour of the alchemical doctrine of the transmutability of metals. See an account of this experiment, with remarks upon it by Dr Lewis, in his Commerce of Arts, sect. 12. p. 297, &c.
Characters
of the Kings
and Queens
of England.
"The opinion (says Holt) that one metallic or other foreign substance might be changed into another, was, it seems, at this time (reign of Henry VI. of England) propagated by certain chemists, whose observations on the surprising effects and alterations pro-
duced in certain substances by the force of heat carried Philosophic, their imaginations beyond what sound judgement might warrant. The first instance of which on record is in vol. xi. p. 68. of the Fledera; wherein Henry VI. grants a licence to John Cobbe, freely to work in metals; he having, by philosophical art, found out a method of transferring imperfect metals into perfect gold and silver.
"This pretended secret, known afterwards by the name of the Philosopher's stone, or powder, was encouraged by four licences, granted to different projectors during this reign, and at sundry times after, during this century particularly, and in succeeding times, all over Europe. The frenzy has not entirely ceased even to this day, although it meets with neither public encouragement nor countenance from men of sober reason; the projectors having yet found nothing from their airy schemes in this mode of search but certain ruin to their property." See CHEMISTRY.
The same author, when speaking of the commerce of the kingdom, and the wonderful increase and riches of commercial cities, speaks thus: "This is the true philosopher's stone, so much sought after in former ages, the discovery of which has been reserved to genius, when studying to improve the mechanic arts. Hence a pound of raw materials is converted into stuffs of fifty times its original value. And the metals too are not, indeed, transmuted into gold—they are more: for the labour of man has been able to work the baser metal, by the ingenuity of art, so as to become worth more than many times its weight in gold."