Now the curious thing is—as we shall see in the sequel—the alchemists were not far out in their opinion. All these ingredients, or rather most of them—the cock’s egg and the dove’s spittle only excepted—are to be found combined in the Philosopher’s Stone, and only recent science has established this fact.
As the possessor of this stone was sure to be the most glorious, powerful, rich, and happy of mortals, as he could at will convert anything into gold, and enjoy all the pleasures of life, it is not surprising that the Philosopher’s Stone was sought with eagerness. It was sought, but, as already said, never found, because the alchemists looked for it in just the place where it was not to be found, in their crucibles. Medals were struck on which were inscribed “Per Sal, Sulphur, Mercurium, Fit Lapis Philosophorum,” which was a simplification of the receipt. On the reverse stood, “Thou Alpha and Omega of Life, Hope and Resurrection after Death.” It was identified with Solomon’s seal; it was called Orphanus, the One and Only. It was thought at one time that the Emperor had it in his crown, this Orphanus, and that it blazed like the sun at night; but the German emperors enjoyed so little prosperity that philosophers came to the conclusion that the stone in the imperial crown was something quite different; it brought ill-luck rather than good-fortune.
Zosimus, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, is one of the first in Europe to describe the powers of this stone, and its capacity for making gold and silver. The alchemists pretended to derive their science from Shem, or Chem, the son of Noah, and that thence came the name alchemy, and chemistry. All writers upon alchemy triumphantly cite the story of the golden calf in the thirty-second chapter of Exodus, to prove that Moses was an adept, and could make or unmake gold at his pleasure. It is recorded that Moses was so wroth with the Israelites for their idolatry, “that he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.” This, say the alchemists, he never could have done had he not been in possession of the Philosopher’s Stone; by no other means could he have made the powder of gold float upon the water.
At Constantinople, in the fourth century, the transmutation of metals was very generally believed in, and many treatises upon the subject appeared. Langlet du Fresnoy, in his History of Hermetic Philosophy, gives some account of these works. The notion of the Greek writers seems to have been that all metals were composed of two ingredients, the one metallic matter, the other a red inflammable matter which they called sulphur. The pure union of these substances formed gold; but other metals were mixed with and contaminated by various foreign ingredients. The object of the Philosopher’s Stone was to dissolve and expel these base ingredients, and so to liberate the two original constituents whose marriage produced gold.
For several centuries after this the pursuit flagged or slept in Europe, but it reappeared in the eighth century among the Arabians, and from them re-extended to Europe. We are not going to trace the history of alchemy downwards, and see one student after another wreck his genius and time on this rock, nor see what use was made of the belief in it by impostors to enrich themselves at the expense of the credulous—we will follow the superstition upwards, and track the stone to the spring of the belief in its supernatural powers. The search for the stone will take us through strange country, give us many scrambles; but, if the reader will condescend to accompany me, I believe I shall be able to bring him to the very real and original stone itself.
The following story I give as it was told to me by some Yorkshire mill lasses, in their own delightful vernacular. I forewarn the reader that the golden ball in the story is the same as the Philosopher’s Stone, as we shall hear presently:
“There were two lasses, daughters of one mother, and as they came home from t’ fair, they saw a right bonny young man stand i’ t’ house-door before them. He had gold on t’ cap, gold on t’ finger, gold on t’ neck, a red gold watch-chain—eh! but he had brass. He had a golden ball in each hand.[24] He gave a ball to each lass, and she was to keep it, and if she lost it, she was to be hanged. One o’ t’ lasses, ’twas t’ youngest, lost her ball. She was by a park-paling, and she tossed the ball, and it went up, up, and up, till it went over t’ paling, and when she climbed to look, t’ ball ran along green grass, and it went raite forward to t’ door of t’ house, and t’ ball went in, and she saw ’t no more.
“So she was taken away to be hanged by t’ neck till she were dead, acause she’d lost her ball.
[“But she had a sweetheart, and he said he would get the ball. So he went to t’ park-gate, but ’twas shut; so he climbed hedge, and when he got to t’ top of hedge, an old woman rose up out o’ t’ dyke afore him, and said, if he would get ball, he must sleep three nights i’ t’ house. He said he would.
“Then he went into t’ house, and looked for t’ ball, but couldna find it. Night came on, and he heard spirits move i’ t’ courtyard; so he looked out o’ t’ window, and t’ yard was full of them, like maggots i’ rotten meat.