Note 114 — Chapter VII · MODERN ALCHEMY

See Professor H. C. Jones: The Electrical Nature of Matter and Radioactivity (1906), pp. 125-126.

[115] It has been definitely proved, for example, that the common element potassium is radioactive, though very feebly so (it emits β-rays). It is also interesting to note that many common substances emit corpuscles at high temperatures.

[116] Says Peter Bonus, however, “. . . we know that the generation of metals occupies thousands of years . . . in Nature’s workshop. . . .” (see The New Pearl of Great Price, Mr. A. E. Waite’s translation, p. 55), and certain others of the alchemists expressed a similar view.

[117] Sir William A. Tilden: The Elements: Speculations as to their Nature and Origin (1910), pp. 108, 109, 133 and 134. With regard to Sir William Tilden’s remarks, it is very interesting to note that Swedenborg (who was born when Newton was between forty and fifty years old) not only differed from that great philosopher on those very points on which modern scientific philosophy is at variance with Newton, but, as is now recognised by scientific men, anticipated many modern discoveries and scientific theories. It would be a most interesting task to set forth the agreement existing between Swedenborg’s theories and the latest products of scientific thought concerning the nature of the physical universe. Such, however, would lie without the confines of the present work.