changes of material things as he employs to express the changes of his
mental states, his hopes, fears, aspirations, and struggles.

The language of the alchemists was, therefore, rich in such
expressions as these; "the elements are to be so conjoined that the
nobler and fuller life may be produced"; "our arcanum is gold exalted
to the highest degree of perfection to which the combined action of
nature and art can develop it."

Such commingling of ethical and physical ideas, such application of
moral conceptions to material phenomena, was characteristic of the
alchemical method of regarding nature. The necessary results were;
great confusion of thought, much mystification of ideas, and a
superabundance of _views_ about natural events.

When the author of _The Metamorphosis of Metals_ was seeking for an
argument in favour of his view, that water is the source and primal
element of all things, he found what he sought in the Biblical text:
"In the beginning the spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters." Similarly, the author of _The Sodic Hydrolith_ clenches his
argument in favour of the existence of the Philosopher's Stone, by the
quotation: "Therefore, thus saith the Lord; behold I lay in Zion for a
foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner Stone, a sure
foundation. He that has it shall not be confounded." This author works
out in detail an analogy between the functions and virtues of the
_Stone_, and the story of man's fall and redemption, as set forth in
the Old and New Testaments. The same author speaks of "Satan, that
grim pseudo-alchemist."

That the attribution, by the alchemists, of moral virtues and vices to