on the subject of the
properties, if not on the appearance of the "essence," they were
voluminous writers. It was supposed to be the only perfect substance
in existence, and to be confined in various substances, in quantities
proportionate to the state of perfection of the substance. Thus, gold
being most nearly perfect would contain more, silver less, lead still
less, and so on. The "essence" contained in the more nearly perfect
metals was thought to be more potent, a very small quantity of it being
capable of creating large quantities of gold and of prolonging life
indefinitely.

It would appear from many of the writings of the alchemists that their
conception of nature and the supernatural was so confused and entangled
in an inexplicable philosophy that they themselves did not really
understand the meaning of what they were attempting to convey. But it
should not be forgotten that alchemy was kept as much as possible from
the ignorant general public, and the alchemists themselves had knowledge
of secret words and expressions which conveyed a definite meaning to
one of their number, but which would appear a meaningless jumble to an
outsider. Some of these writers declared openly that their writings were
intended to convey an entirely erroneous impression, and were sent out
only for that purpose.

However, while it may have been true that the vagaries of their writings
were made purposely, the case is probably more correctly explained
by saying that the very nature of the art made definite statements
impossible. They were dealing with something that did not exist--could
not exist. Their attempted descriptions became, therefore, the language
of romance rather than the language of science.

But if the alchemists themselves were usually silent as to the
appearance of the actual substance of the philosopher's stone, there
were numberless other writers who were less reticent. By some it was
supposed to be a stone, by others a liquid or elixir, but more commonly
it was described as a black powder. It also possessed different degrees
of efficiency according to its degrees of purity, certain forms only
possessing the power of turning base metals into gold, while others
gave eternal youth and life or different degrees of health. Thus an
alchemist, who had made a partial discovery of this substance, could
prolong life a certain number of years only, or, possessing only a small
and inadequate amount of the magic powder, he was