will be thy lot, and no gain nor profit."
This is literally the first sentence; we fold
our hands humbly, and follow the advice
contained therein. Having thus cunningly
locked up the secret, the master has no
further scruple about becoming communicative—
but always in emblematic language,
and at great, indeed almost interminable
length. We fear the reader would not
derive any other profit than the trial of his
patience, which, however, was the cardinal
virtue called forth in alchemy. The Substance
passed through various colours on its progress
towards perfection; and these colours
were the indications whether the workers
were in the right track, and also whether the
fires and furnaces were of the proper
temperature. The first process was called
Putrefaction "—the engendering of the crow,"—
and the matter became " black, blacker than
black itself." Sometimes it appeared dry,
but at the end of forty days it boiled like
melted pitch; but it was essential to keep
the vessel tightly closed. After this, for the
space of three weeks there appeared all the
colours that can possibly be imagined in the
world; these at last gave place, and a whiteness
showed itself at the sides of the vessel,
most beautiful to behold— " like unto rays or
hairs;" this w^as the second stage of the
work. At the end of the fourth month the
matter again assumed many beautiful colours,
but momentary, and soon vanishing, and
more akin to white than black. This stage
of the process endured for about three weeks,
during which, the matter began to change
into many forms; it melted and grew hard
again many times a day; " sometimes," says
one of the masters, " it will appear like to
the eyes of a fish,— sometimes like a pure
silver tree, shining with branches and leaves;
in a word, about this season the hourly
marvels shall overwhelm the sight, and at
the last thou shalt have most pure and
sparkling grains, like unto atoms of the sun,
more glorious than which human eyes never
saw." This, however, was not the end. The
congealed mass—the White Stone, as it was
called—was then taken out of the vessel, and
put into a fresh one, an operation very difficult,
and " only to be done by the will of
God; " the least error would spoil the whole
work, and to regulate the fire at this critical
period required something like inspiration.
This critical period—the progress from the
White Stone to the Red—endured forty days,
during every instant of which the philosopher
was liable to see all his work spoiled. The
white gradually assumed many transitory
colours—green, at first, which was looked
on as the sign of the animation and germinating
virtue of the substance; purple, yellow,
brown, successively followed; at length it
assumed " the colours of the rainbow and the
peacock's tail, which show most gloriously."
At this period, the substance assumed many
strange shapes. At the end of thirty days a
citrine or golden colour began to tinge the
mass within the vessel. The work was now
near the close. "Now," says the master,
"to God, the giver of all good, you must
render immortal thanks, who hath brought
on this work so far, and beg earnestly of him
that thy counsel may be so governed that
thou mayest not endeavour to hasten thy
work so as to lose all." After about fourteen
days' further expectation, the golden colour
was tinged with violet, and the substance,
after taking various forms, and being congealed
and liquefied again many times a day
for the space of another month— the end
came—within the space of three days the
matter became converted into fine grains,
"as fine as the atoms of the sun," and the
colour the highest RED imaginable, like the
soundest blood when it is congealed." This
was the crown of the work— the " king that
had triumphed over the horrors of the
tomb." There still remained some further
manipulation before projection, or the act
of transmutation could be accomplished, but
having attained thus far, the remainder was
comparatively easy, and we conclude this
portion of our chapter with the counsel of
one of the masters: " Whosoever enjoyeth
this talent, let him be sure to employ it for
the glory of God, and the good of his neighbours,
lest he be found ungrateful to God
his creditor, who has blest him with so great
a talent, and so be in the last day found
guilty of misproving of it, and so
condemned."

Amongst the hieroglyphics with which
Nicholas Flamel adorned the fourth arch of
the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris,
and which, as he declared, indicated both the
truths of religion and the secrets of alchemy,
there was the figure of a black man kneeling
with a scroll coming from his mouth, upon
which was written, " Take away my
blackness." The true philosophers were
recognised by the matter which they employed
for the work of the magistry. They spoke of
their matter as " one, although it was found
everywhere and in every thing, and it could
only be drawn thence by its own virtue." It
was the quintessence which contained the
principle out of which all things are made.
A modern German physiologist has declared
that if we could understand the process of
Nutrition, we should have seized upon the
secret of Life. The alchemists worked in this
idea. The aim they professed was to discover
the seed or germinating principle of metals, and
to discover the conditions under which this
seed grew in the bowels of the earth, and
became lead, silver, gold, &c.—and the different
influences by which one metal became
more precious and perfect than another;
weary work they had with their meltings,
and distillations, and coagulations, and fixations,
and evaporations, and precipitations.
It is quite in vain for any one to hope by
following the directions left in the writings