be consigned to the flames. This edict however necessarily presumes a
certain antiquity to the pursuit; and fabulous history has recorded
Solomon, Pythagoras and Hermes among its distinguished votaries. From
this period the study seems to have slept, till it was revived among
the Arabians after a lapse of five or six hundred years.

It is well known however how eagerly it was cultivated in various
countries of the world for many centuries after it was divulged by
Geber. Men of the most wonderful talents devoted their lives to the
investigation; and in multiplied instances the discovery was said to
have been completed. Vast sums of money were consumed in the fruitless
endeavour; and in a later period it seems to have furnished an
excellent handle to vain and specious projectors, to extort money from
those more amply provided with the goods of fortune than themselves.

The art no doubt is in itself sufficiently mystical, having been
pursued by multitudes, who seemed to themselves ever on the eve of
consummation, but as constantly baffled when to their own apprehension
most on the verge of success. The discovery indeed appears upon the
face of it to be of the most delicate nature, as the benefit must
wholly depend upon its being reserved to one or a very few, the object
being unbounded wealth, which is nothing unless confined. If the power
of creating gold is diffused, wealth by such diffusion becomes
poverty, and every thing after a short time would but return to what
it had been. Add to which, that the nature of discovery has ordinarily
been, that, when once the clue has been found, it reveals itself to
several about the same period of time.

The art, as we have said, is in its own nature sufficiently mystical,
depending on nice combinations and proportions of ingredients, and