develop. He said in effect: "Nature is one, there must be unity in all
the diversity I see. When a grain of corn falls into the earth it
dies, but this dying is the first step towards a new life; the dead
seed is changed into the living plant. So it must be with all other
things in nature: the mineral, or the metal, seems dead when it is
buried in the earth, but, in reality, it is growing, changing, and
becoming more perfect." The perfection of the seed is the plant. What
is the perfection of the common metals? "Evidently," the alchemist
replied, "the perfect metal is gold; the common metals are trying to
become gold." "Gold is the intention of Nature in regard to all
metals," said an alchemical writer. Plants are preserved by the
preservation of their seed. "In like manner," the alchemist's argument
proceeded, "there must be a seed in metals which is their essence; if
I can separate the seed and bring it under the proper conditions, I
can cause it to grow into the perfect metal." "Animal life, and human
life also," we may suppose the alchemist saying, "are continued by the
same method as that whereby the life of plants is continued; all life
springs from seed; the seed is fructified by the union of the male and
the female; in metals also there must be the two characters; the union
of these is needed for the production of new metals; the conjoining of
metals must go before the birth of the perfect metal."

"Now," we may suppose the argument to proceed, "now, the passage from
the imperfect to the more perfect is not easy. It is harder to
practise virtue than to acquiesce in vice; virtue comes not naturally
to man; that he may gain the higher life, he must be helped by grace.
Therefore, the task of exalting the purer metals into the perfect
gold, of developing the lower order into the higher, is not easy. If
Nature does this, she does it slowly and painfully; if the exaltation
of the common metals to a higher plane is to be effected rapidly, it