Note 41 — Chapter III · THE ALCHEMISTS[41] (A. BEFORE PARACELSUS)

It is perhaps advisable to mention here that the lives of the alchemists, for the most part, are enveloped in considerable obscurity, and many points in connection therewith are in dispute. The authorities we have followed will be found, as a rule, specifically mentioned in what follows; but we may here acknowledge our general indebtedness to the following works, though, as the reader will observe, many others have been consulted as well: Thomas Thomson’s The History of Chemistry, Meyer’s A History of Chemistry, the anonymous Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers (1815), the works of Mr. A. E. Waite, the Dictionary of National Biography, and certain articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica. This must not be taken to mean, however, that we have always followed the conclusions reached in these works, for so far as the older of them are concerned, recent researches by various authorities—to whom reference will be found in the following pages, and to whom, also, we are indebted—have shown, in certain cases, that such are not tenable.

[42] Dr. Everard’s translation of this work forms vol. ii. of the Collectanea Hermetica, edited by W. Wynn Westcott, M.B., D.P.H. It is now, however, out of print.