“Body, Soul and Spirit.”
§ 12. In accordance with our primary object as stated in the preface, we shall confine our attention mainly to the physical aspect of Alchemy; but in order to understand its theories, it appears to us to be essential to realise the fact that Alchemy was an attempted application of the principles of Mysticism to the things of the physical world. The supposed analogy between man and the metals sheds light on what otherwise would be very difficult to understand. It helps to make plain why the alchemists attributed moral qualities to the metals—some are called “imperfect,” “base”; others are said to be “perfect,” “noble.” And especially does it help to explain the alchemistic notions regarding the nature of the metals. The alchemists believed that the metals were constructed after the manner of man, into whose constitution three factors were regarded as entering: body, soul, and spirit. As regards man, mystical philosophers generally use these terms as follows: “body” is the outward manifestation and form; “soul” is the inward individual spirit[18]; and “spirit” is the universal Soul in all men. And likewise, according to the alchemists, in the metals, there is the “body” or outward form and properties, “metalline soul” or spirit,[19] and finally, the all-pervading essence of all metals. As writes the author of the exceedingly curious tract entitled The Book of Lambspring: “Be warned and understand truly that two fishes are swimming in our sea,” illustrating his remark by the symbolical picture reproduced in [plate 2], and adding in elucidation thereof, “The Sea is the Body, the two Fishes are Soul and Spirit.”[20] The alchemists, however, were not always consistent in their use of the term “spirit.” Sometimes (indeed frequently) they employed it to denote merely the more volatile portions of a chemical substance; at other times it had a more interior significance.
[18] Which, in virtue of man’s self-consciousness, is, by the grace of God, immortal.
[19] See the work Of Natural and Supernatural Things, attributed to “Basil Valentine,” for a description of the “spirits” of the metals in particular.
[20] The Book of Lambspring, translated by Nicholas Barnaud Delphinas (see the Hermetic Museum, vol. i. p. 277). This work contains many other fantastic alchemistic symbolical pictures, amongst the most curious series in alchemistic literature.