Conclusion.
§ 103. We have shown that modern science indicates the essential truth of alchemistic doctrine, and our task is ended. Writing in 1904, Sir William Ramsay said: “If these hypotheses [concerning the possibility of causing the atoms of ordinary elements to absorb energy] are just, then the transmutations of the elements no longer appears an idle dream. The philosopher’s stone will have been discovered, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that it may lead to that other goal of the philosophers of the dark ages—the elixir vitæ. For the action of living cells is also dependent on the nature and direction of the energy which they contain; and who can say that it will be impossible to control their action, when the means of imparting and controlling energy shall have been investigated?”[131] Whatever may be the final verdict concerning his own experiments, those of Sir Ernest Rutherford, referred to in the Preface to the present edition, demonstrate the fact of transmutation; and it is worth noticing how many of the alchemists’ obscure descriptions of their Magistery well apply to that marvellous something which we call Energy, the true “First Matter” of the Universe. And of the other problem, the Elixir Vitæ, who knows?
[131] Sir William Ramsay: “Radium and its Products,” Harper’s Magazine (December 1904), vol. xlix. (European Edition), p. 57.
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Transcriber’s Notes
The text of the original work has been retained, including inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, punctuation, etc., except as mentioned below.
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Page 82, footnote [85]: the original work had a letter missing; “or” seems to fit best (or van Helmont’s Workes).
Page 84, Memnonite: possibly error for Mennonite.
Page 93, fulfull: possibly error for fulfill.
Changes made to the text:
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Some minor obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.
Page xvii: 142 changed to 140 (Table of Contents)
Page 10: quesable changed to questionable
Page 41: Trismegistus changed to Trismegistos as elsewhere
Page 66: Gentlemen changed to Gentleman
Page 120, footnote [104]: Séances l’Académie changed to Séances de l’Académie
Page 140, footnote [130]: modication changed to modification.