HACIA UN ESQUEMA DE COOPERACIÓN REGIONAL EN CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO

4. Some alchemical tracts are forgeries and do

not contain any genuine alchemical knowledge

…… Statistical Significance ……… Supporting sources: 6

Contradicting sources: 0

Statistical significance: 0.9997559

This premise is statistically significant

…… Supporting Quotations ……… [120] I considered in my mind the great number of deceitful books and

forged Alchemistic "receipts", which have been put in circulation by heartless impostors, though they do not contain even a spark of truth --- and how many persons have been and are still daily led astray by them? ~ Sendivogius, Michael. The New Chemical Light. 17th Cen. Alchemical Tract

[264] under the name of this glorious Art there is to be found much

false teaching which is put forward by pseudo-alchemists, whose writings are nothing but imposture and deceit, and are yet highly esteemed by people of the simpler sort. These charlatans induce their dupes to waste much money and time on that which can profit them nothing; for unless a thing be well begun, it can never be brought to a good end. Yet most men, who, nowadays, have devoted themselves to this exalted art of chemistry, are pursuing a wrong course, and are deceivers or deceived. The deceivers are conscious of their own ignorance, and try to veil it under an obscure and allegorical style. The less they really know, the more pompous and the more unintelligible do their speculations become. But the reader, who is puzzled by their perplexing style, may at least comfort himself with the assurance that he knows as much about the matter as the authors. That assurance must serve for a kind of clue to the endless labyrinth of their false sublimations, calcinations, distillations, solutions, coagulations, putrefactions, and corruptions. Nevertheless, we may almost every day see foolish persons spend their whole substance on those absurd experiments, being induced to do so by the aforesaid pseudo-alchemists, who impose on them with a false process, and fanciful perversions of Nature.

[270] For if there were not so many books put forward by ignorant

writers, many thousands of persons who at the present moment are hopelessly floundering about in a sea of specious book-learning would have been led by the light of their own unaided intellects to the knowledge of this precious secret; they are prevented, these many years, from seeing

p.26 4. Some alchemical tracts are forgeries and do not contain any genuine alchemical knowledge

the plain truth by a vast mass of printed nonsense which commands their reverence, because they do not understand it.

~ Anonymous. The Only True Way. 1677 AD. Alchemical Tract

[418] Because many have written of the Philosopher's Stone without

any knowledge of the art; and the few books extent, written by our learned predecessors and true masters hereupon, are either lost or concealed in the collections of such (however despised) as are lovers and seekers of natural secrets, we have taken a resolution to communicate our knowledge in this matter, to the intent that those who are convinced the Philosophical Work is no fiction, but grounded in the possibility of Nature, may be faithfully directed in their studies, and have an undoubted criterion to distinguish between such authors as are genuine sons of science and those who are spurious, as writing by hearsay only.

~ Anonymous. On the Philosophers’ Stone. 17th Cen. (?). Alchemical Tract [616] We have further to complain of those who mutilate and falsify

the works of true seekers after natural Wisdom and Art, for I have clearly discovered defects, alterations, and foreign matter in the Triumphal Chariot of Fr. Basilius, and also in the writings of A. von Suchten and Theophrastus. More especially, dear Friends, have we to complain of the devilish cunning way in which the works of Theophrastus have hitherto been suppressed, only a few of which (and those to be reckoned the very worst) having appeared in print.

~ Figulus, Benedictus. A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature’s Marvels. 1607 AD. Alchemical Tract

[611] for those writers, however many they be, are either themselves

in error, or else they write falsely out of sheer envy, and put forth receipts whilst not ignorant of the truth.

~ Paracelsus, Theophrastus. The Aurora of the Philosophers. 1575 AD. Alchemical Tract

[625] Throw away your volumes of "Recipes," for they are full of

falsehood and fraud. Do not believe them, but give diligent heed to the maxim, that nothing is wrought without its own proper cause. This is the mistake into which those self-styled "Practical Sages" fall. They do not place knowledge on a firm foundation by enquiring into the cause of things. You should therefore constantly bear this momentous rule in mind: never to set about an experiment until you fully comprehend the why and the how. He who would make good progress in this Art should also diligently eschew all falsehood.

~ Norton, Thomas. The Chemical Treatise, Or, The Ordinal of Alchemy. 1477 AD. Alchemical Tract

4. Some alchemical tracts are forgeries and do not contain any genuine alchemical knowledge p.27

It must not be thought that all alchemical tracts are equal. One of the greatest difficulties in deciphering the alchemical writings is identifying the authentic from the fraudulent tracts. Fortunately this issue is no obstacle for this study.