of the
seventeenth century their number had dwindled to a mere handful, and
henceforth they exerted little influence.

Another and earlier religious sect was the Aureacrucians, founded by
Jacob Bohme, a shoemaker, born in Prussia in 1575. According to his
teachings the philosopher's stone could be discovered by a diligent
search of the Old and the New Testaments, and more particularly the
Apocalypse, which contained all the secrets of alchemy. This sect found
quite a number of followers during the life of Bohme, but gradually died
out after his death; not, however, until many of its members had been
tortured for heresy, and one at least, Kuhlmann, of Moscow, burned as a
sorcerer.

The names of the different substances that at various times were
thought to contain the large quantities of the "essence" during the many
centuries of searching for it, form a list of practically all substances
that were known, discovered, or invented during the period. Some
believed that acids contained the substance; others sought it in
minerals or in animal or vegetable products; while still others looked
to find it among the distilled "spirits"--the alcoholic liquors and
distilled products. On the introduction of alcohol by the Arabs that
substance became of all-absorbing interest, and for a long time allured
the alchemist into believing that through it they were soon to be
rewarded. They rectified and refined it until "sometimes it was so
strong that it broke the vessels containing it," but still it failed in
its magic power. Later, brandy was substituted for it, and this in turn
discarded for more recent discoveries.

There were always, of course, two classes of alchemists: serious
investigators whose honesty could not be questioned, and clever
impostors whose legerdemain was probably largely responsible for the
extended belief in the existence of the philosopher's stone. Sometimes
an alchemist practised both, using the profits of his sleight-of-hand to
procure the means of carrying on his serious alchemical researches. The
impostures of some of these jugglers deceived even the most intelligent
and learned men of the time, and so kept the flame of hope constantly
burning. The age of cold investigation had not arrived, and it is easy
to understand how an unscrupulous mediaeval Hermann or Kellar might
completely deceive even the most intelligent and thoughtful scholars.
In scoffing at the credulity of such an age, it should not be forg