Dr Alexander Wilder: New Platonism and Alchemy

[Paul Ferguson]

"The opinion has become almost universal that Alchemy was a pretended science, by which gold and silver were to be produced by transmutation of the elements of the baser metals; and its professors are at this day regarded as the dupes of imposture, and as having been themselves impostors and charlatans. In these classes they are placed by the writers of books; and the prejudice has been so long cherished, that, for the present, there is small ground for hope of its uprooting. The peculiar language employed by the alchemists is now commonly denominated "jargon," and this epithet appears to be conclusive logic with those whose convictions are chiefly produced by the employment of opprobrious names. Yet a candid and critical examination of the Hermetic writers, we think, will entirely disabuse the mind of any intelligent person. It is plain enough, that their directions in relation to transmuting metals are scarcely at all to be connected with any known manipulations now known as chemical. Yet it would be presumptuous to vilify such men as Roger Bacon, Boerhave, and Van Helmont, as ignorant, or to accuse them of imposture. We propose, therefore in this essay, to direct inquiry in another quarter for the purpose of indicating what was really the scope of the science or philosophy, formerly extant under the name of Alchemy."

https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/boo...npa-hp.htm

Essay on Wilder by John S. Haller, Jr.: https://lloydlibrary.org/wp-content/uplo...al_.11.pdf

https://theosophy.wiki/en/Alexander_Wilder