en this process, as man may hasten
the growth of plants by artificial means. Gold was looked upon as the
most perfect metal, and all other metals imperfect, because not yet
"purified." By some alchemists they were regarded as lepers, who, when
cured of their leprosy, would become gold. And since nature intended
that all things should be perfect, it was the aim of the alchemist to
assist her in this purifying process, and incidentally to gain wealth
and prolong his life.

By other alchemists the process of transition from baser metals into
gold was conceived to be like a process of ripening fruit. The ripened
product was gold, while the green fruit, in various stages of maturity,
was represented by the base metals. Silver, for example, was more nearly
ripe than lead; but the difference was only one of "digestion," and it
was thought that by further "digestion" lead might first become silver
and eventually gold. In other words, Nature had not completed her
work, and was wofully slow at it at best; but man, with his superior
faculties, was to hasten the process in his laboratories--if he could
but hit upon the right method of doing so.

It should not be inferred that the alchemist set about his task of
assisting nature in a haphazard way, and without training in the various
alchemic laboratory methods. On the contrary, he usually served a long
apprenticeship in the rudiments of his calling. He was obliged to learn,
in a general way, many of the same things that must be understood in
either chemical or alchemical laboratories. The general knowledge that
certain liquids vaporize at lower temperatures than others, and that
the melting-points of metals differ greatly, for example, was just
as necessary to alchemy as to chemistry. The knowledge of the gross
structure, or nature, of materials was much the same to the alchemist
as to the chemist, and, for that matter, many of the experiments in
calcining, distilling, etc., were practically identical.

To the alchemist there were three principles--salt, sulphur,
and mercury--and the sources of these principles were the four
elements--earth, water, fire, and air. These four elements were
accountable for every substance in nature. Some of the experiments to
prove this were so illusive, and yet apparently so simple, that one is
not surprised that it took centuries to disprove them. That water was
composed of earth and air seemed easily proven by the simple process of
boiling it in