PLATE 6.
ALCHEMISTIC APPARATUS. A.—An Athanor. B.—A Pelican.
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[CHAPTER III]
THE ALCHEMISTS[41]
(A. BEFORE PARACELSUS)
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.