Hermes Trismegistos.
§ 29. Having now considered the chief points in the theory of Physical Alchemy, we must turn our attention to the lives and individual teachings of the alchemists themselves. The first name which is found in the history of Alchemy is that of Hermes Trismegistos. We have already mentioned the high esteem in which the works ascribed to this personage were held by the alchemists ([§ 6]). He has been regarded as the father of Alchemy; his name has supplied a synonym for the Art—the Hermetic Art—and even to-day we speak of hermetically sealing flasks and the like. But who Hermes actually was, or even if there were such a personage, is a matter of conjecture. The alchemists themselves supposed him to have been an Egyptian living about the time of Moses. He is now generally regarded as purely mythical—a personification of Thoth, the Egyptian God of learning; but, of course, some person or persons must have written the works attributed to him, and the first of such writers (if, as seems not unlikely, there were more than one) may be considered to have a right to the name. Of these works, the Divine Pymander,[42] a mystical-religious treatise, is the most important. The Golden Tractate, also attributed to Hermes, which is an exceedingly obscure alchemistic work, is now regarded as having been written at a comparatively late date.
[41] It is perhaps advisable to mention here that the lives of the alchemists, for the most part, are enveloped in considerable obscurity, and many points in connection therewith are in dispute. The authorities we have followed will be found, as a rule, specifically mentioned in what follows; but we may here acknowledge our general indebtedness to the following works, though, as the reader will observe, many others have been consulted as well: Thomas Thomson’s The History of Chemistry, Meyer’s A History of Chemistry, the anonymous Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers (1815), the works of Mr. A. E. Waite, the Dictionary of National Biography, and certain articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica. This must not be taken to mean, however, that we have always followed the conclusions reached in these works, for so far as the older of them are concerned, recent researches by various authorities—to whom reference will be found in the following pages, and to whom, also, we are indebted—have shown, in certain cases, that such are not tenable.
[42] Dr. Everard’s translation of this work forms vol. ii. of the Collectanea Hermetica, edited by W. Wynn Westcott, M.B., D.P.H. It is now, however, out of print.