"On a certain bright morning a number of Alchemists met together in a
meadow, and consulted as to the best way of preparing the
Philosopher's Stone.... Most of them agreed that Mercury was the first
substance. Others said, no, it was sulphur, or something else.... Just
as the dispute began to run high, there arose a violent wind, which
dispersed the Alchemists into all the different countries of the
world; and as they had arrived at no conclusion, each one went on
seeking the Philosopher's Stone in his own old way, this one expecting
to find it in one substance, and that in another, so that the search
has continued without intermission even unto this day. One of them,
however, had at least got the idea into his head that Mercury was the
substance of the Stone, and determined to concentrate all his efforts
on the chemical preparation of Mercury.... He took common Mercury and
began to work with it. He placed it in a glass vessel over the fire,
when it, of course, evaporated. So in his ignorance he struck his
wife, and said: 'No one but you has entered my laboratory; you must
have taken my Mercury out of the vessel.' The woman, with tears,
protested her innocence. The Alchemist put some more Mercury into the
vessel.... The Mercury rose to the top of the vessel in vaporous
steam. Then the Alchemist was full of joy, because he remembered that
the first substance of the Stone is described by the Sages as
volatile; and he thought that now at last he _must_ be on the right
track. He now began to subject the Mercury to all sorts of chemical
processes, to sublime it, and to calcine it with all manner of things,
with salts, sulphur, metals, minerals, blood, hair, aqua fortis,
herbs, urine, and vinegar.... Everything he could think of was tried;
but without producing the desired effect." The Alchemist then
despaired; after a dream, wherein an old man came and talked with him
about the "Mercury of the Sages," the Alchemist thought he would charm
the Mercury, and so he used a form of incantation. The Mercury