Note 221 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Every reader of Ben Jonson must recal the Alchemical process of "Exaltation":—
"Son, be not hasty, I exalt our med'cine, By hanging him in balneo vaporoso, And giving him solution; then congeal him; And then dissolve him; then again congeal him." The Alchemist, Act II. Scene i.
But who would wish the congelation of our Moral sense? If indeed it could possibly survive the rest of the process.
Reading these lines, can any one wonder at the celebrated chemical analysis of bygone days, which ended in discovering an undetermined residuum of dirt?