Another text on alchemy, this time rather short (only 26 pages) but well worth a read anyways. Written by some unknown "German sage" many centuries ago, and like the Chemical Art, it is partly philosophical, ascribing natural forces, especially the action of the sun on mountains, deep-earth vapors, and other movements and forces, to the creation of gold and silver within the planet's crust- indeed, the basic premise spoken of here is astonishingly not unlike modern explanations of volcanism and plate tectonics.
I believe that the tract is steganographic, and that the underlying but veiled meaning of the entire treatise is that alchemy, as physically described by quack alchemists in the Renaissance, does not indeed work and can only create a similitude of naturally occurring substances, almost literally begging the reader to go into the mountains to mine veins of ore which may be revealed by the presence of rifts and holes where hollow areas have become uncovered. Either way, philosophically it is an extremely important if vastly underrated work.
No comments:
Post a Comment