the spiritual state of
the regenerate man according to mystical theology. There is no reason,
other than their belief in analogy, why the alchemists should have held
such views concerning the metals. "Salt," the principle of solidity
and resistance to fire, corresponding to the body in man, plays a
comparatively unimportant part in alchemical theory, as does its
prototype in mystical theology.

(1) The identification of the god MERCURY with THOTH, the Egyptian god
of learning, is worth noticing in this connection.

(1b) Pseudo-GEBER, whose writings were highly esteemed, for instance.
See R. RUSSEL'S translation of his works (1678), p. 160.

Now, as I have pointed out already, the central theorem of mystical
theology is, in Christian terminology, that of the regeneration of the
soul by the Spirit of CHRIST. The corresponding process in alchemy is
that of the transmutation of the "base" metals into silver and gold by
the agency of the Philosopher's Stone. Merely to remove the evil sulphur
of the "base" metals, thought the alchemists, though necessary, is not
sufficient to transmute them into "noble" metals; a maturing process is
essential, similar to that which they supposed was effected in Nature's
womb. Mystical theology teaches that the powers and life of the soul
are not inherent in it, but are given by the free grace of God. Neither,
according to the alchemists, are the powers and life of nature in
herself, but in that immanent spirit, the Soul of the World, that
animates her. As writes the famous alchemist who adopted the pleasing
pseudonym of "BASIL VALENTINE" (_c_. 1600), "the power of growth... is
imparted not by the earth, but by the life-giving spirit that is in
it. If the earth were deserted by this spirit, it would be dead, and
no longer able to afford nourishment to anything. For its sulphur or
richness would lack the quickening spirit without which there can be
neither life nor growth."(1a) To perfect the metals, therefore, the
alchemists argued, from analogy with mystical theology, which teaches
that men can be regenerated only by the power of CHRIST within the soul,
that it is necessary to subject them to the action of this world-spirit,
this one essence underlying all the varied powers of nature, this One
Thing from which "all things were produced... by adaption, and which
is the cause of all perfection throughout the whole world."(2a) "This,"
writes one alchemist, "is the Spirit of Truth, which t