15. Alchemists have always been ridiculed
…… Statistical Significance ………
Supporting sources: 5 Contradicting sources: 0
Statistical significance: 0.9990234
This premise is statistically significant
…… Supporting Quotations ………
[416] permit me to transcribe a passage from the works of Helmontius (Arbor Vitæ, folio 630): "I cannot but believe that there is such a thing as a gold and silver making Stone. At the same time, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that hundreds of painstaking Alchemists are daily being led astray by impostors or ignorant professors of the Spagyric Art." For this reason I shall not be astonished if—immediately upon perusing my book—multitudes of these deluded victims start up, and contradict the assertion which I have made in regard to the truth of this Art. One of these gentry denounces Alchemy as a work of the Devil; another describes it as sheer nonsense and humbug; a third admits the possibility of transmuting metals into gold, but maintains that the whole process costs more money than it is worth. But I do not wonder at these opinions. It is a hackneyed saying of human nature that we gape at those things whose purpose we do not understand, but we investigate things pleasurable to know. The Sages should therefore remember the words of Seneca (De Moribus): "You are not yet blessed, if the multitude does not laugh at you."
But I do not care whether they believe or contradict my teaching about the transmutation of metals; I rest calmly satisfied in the knowledge that I have seen it with my own eyes, and performed it with my own hands. Even in our degenerate age these wonders are still possible; even now the Medicine is prepared which is worth twenty tons of gold, nay, more, for it has virtue to bestow that which all the gold of the world cannot buy, viz., health. Blessed is that physician who knows our soothing medicinal Potion of Mercury, the great panacea of death and disease. But God does not reveal this glorious knowledge to all men indiscriminately; and some men are so obtuse (with a judicial blindness) that they wonder at the activity of the simplest forces of Nature, as, for instance, the attractive power which the magnet exercises upon the steel. But (whether they believe it or not) there is a corresponding magnetic force in gold which attracts Mercury, in silver which attracts copper, and so with all other metals, minerals, stones, herbs, plants, etc. [...] We must not be surprised at this persistent opposition to truth: the light of the sun pains the eyes of owls.
p.56 15. Alchemists have always been ridiculed
~ Helvetius, John Frederick. Golden Calf. 17th Cen. Alchemical Tract
[32] Lacinius -- I fear most that this book may make the matter too clear to the vulgar herd, thus bestowing God's most precious earthly gift upon the wicked and undeserving, in defiance of the ancient precept. Bonus -- That rule was more applicable to men of old than to our present state of Christian liberty. Heathen Sages might be fearful of spreading this knowledge too commonly, but Christ has taught us the true use of riches to relieve the wants of the poor and needy. Lacinius -- Why, then, do our masters follow in the footsteps of the ancients, and predict ruin to mankind from the "profanation"
of this mystery? John de Rupescissa conjures his readers not to make the Art known to the wicked and unbelieving, as such a course would ruin the Christian faith. Bonus -- Do you imagine that the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can be overthrown by these means? Has it not always grown most rapidly, precisely where it has been most severely opposed? But Christ Himself has given us a sovereign rule for our guidance in this matter: "Freely ye have received, freely give." What is the use of concealed diamonds, or a hidden treasure, to the world? What is the use of a lighted candle if it be placed under a bushel? It is the innate selfishness of the human heart which makes these persons seek a pious pretext for keeping this knowledge from mankind.
Lacinius -- I know some men who are so jealous of the preservation of this secret that they will hardly read their own books, and would not for all the world allow any one else to look at them, just as if they feared that the Stone would at once leap forth from the book, if it were only opened, and that it would soon lie about in every gutter. These persons are such skinflints withal that they would rather remain in ignorance than spend a single penny in search of the Stone. I suppose they expect the knowledge to be showered down upon them from heaven. Surely we have reason to pray that such people may be delivered from their own blinding meanness and illiberality. Bonus -- Would that a ray of Divine light might illumine the gross darkness of their understandings! But I am afraid that their folly is past praying for. If indeed they could be brought to see that this world is under Divine rule and governance, that no mortal can approach God but by God, that even the light cannot be perceived without light, they might come to understand that, without the special grace of God, this ineffable gift is not bestowed on any man.
Lacinius -- How can those harpies reply to that argument? Bonus -- They are in a state of frenzied ignorance, which prevents them from perceiving the difficulties of the task; and so the Stone which they find is the Stone of Sisyphus.
For "they are few whom Jupiter loves, or whom their manly perfection exalts to the stars." When, indeed, the Stone is found, our friends, who now laugh and sneer at us, will be at a loss how to express their love.
~ Lacinius, Janus. Nuncupatory Discourse. 14-5th Cen. (?). Alchemical Tract [354] Of the numerous things in the world, the Art and the Tao are the most difficult to comprehend. How then can people of ordinary endowment pass the judgement that there cannot possibly be a way to immortality? If one
15. Alchemists have always been ridiculed p.57
harbors doubts about the Tao merely because of popular disbelief, then he is assuming the mass to be wise people. How numerous then will the wise ones in this world be! Furthermore, those who understand the Tao and work for its attainment -- are they not the most stupid, even more stupid than the common people? Many fear to attempt to seek for immortality, lest they should fail and expose themselves to ridicule as victims of folly and deception. But supposing that the common people are not infallible and that their idea about the Tao is one mistake they make among ten thousand sound judgements, will not those who have laughed by laughed at by the ones who succeed despite discouragement and ridicule? Even the sun and moon cannot shine of everything; how can the people’s mind be so omniscient as to be entirely trustworthy?
[357] In compounding the medicine the chief thing to be guarded against is the ridicule of the disbeliever.
~ Hung, Ko. On The Gold Medicine and On The Yellow and The White. 4th Cen.
Alchemical Tract
[689] In the first place, let him carry on his operations with great secrecy in order that no scornful or scurrilous person may know of them; for nothing discourages the beginner so much as the mockery, taunts, and well-meant advice of foolish outsiders. Moreover, if he does not succeed, secrecy will save him from derision; if he does succeed, it will safeguard him against the persecution of greedy and cruel tyrants.
~ Philalethes, Eirenaeus. The Metamorphosis of Metals. 1694 AD. Alchemical Tract [402] When, indeed, the Stone is found, our friends, who now laugh and sneer at us, will be at a loss how to express their love.
~ Bonus, Peter. The New Pearl of Great Price. 1338 AD. Alchemical Tract
…… Commentary ………
It seems that alchemy has never been an academically credible field for study. Then and now it is ridiculed by those who have never even attempted to understand it.