The New Chemical Light

TO THE READER.

...I speak of the curses of the Philosophers) he greatly fears to come forward into the public. I could bring forth witnesses of this Chemical truth, namely the most serious authors, according to the unanimous consensus of venerable Antiquity across so many different nations: But, those things which are seen by ocular experience That is, things witnessed with one's own eyes. do not require proof. They have seen Diana without her clothing A classical metaphor for seeing the naked, unadorned truth of Nature.. In these past years (I speak knowingly) many men of both the highest and lowest rank have seen it: And although certain idle men are found, who—either out of envy, or malice, or fear of their impostures being detected—cry out that the soul can be extracted from gold, and by a pompous and vain delusion of ostentation be returned to another body, not without the loss and detriment of time, labor, and expense: let the sons of Hermes A traditional term for true alchemists or followers of the "Hermetic" arts. know for certain that the extraction of such souls (as they call them) whether from gold or from the Moon In alchemical shorthand, "the Moon" refers to silver. by any common Alchemical way, is mere persuasion. This is indeed not believed by many, but at last, through experience—the one and only Mistress of truth—it is verified with great loss. On the contrary, he who (by the Philosophical way) can perform this without fraud or deceit, so that he might really color even the smallest Metal, whether with profit or without profit...

A 3