A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c33.s1.10

v2.c33.s1.10

There are those who sneer at the attempts of the alchemists to convert the baser metals into gold and are at the pains to insinuate that the motives of the adepts were sordid. It may be that there have been here and there men—vulgar charlatans—who have pursued the art merely from worldly considerations. The high priests of alchemy, however, have in every age and clime been honest seekers after truth. Had there been no desire implanted in the human breast to pry into the hidden and occult mysteries of nature there would have been no science. Whence come we and whither are we destined to go? What is this substance made up of, and what are its ultimate constituents, and what will its combination with this or that lead to? These are queries, the solution of which or rather the very attempts to solve which mark the birth of philosophy. Patañjali and Nāgārjuna in India and Paracelsus in Europe stand forth as the prominent representatives of this spirit of inquiry. They have been dreamers, mystics and naturalists all combined in one. Such geniuses have always chafed at the restraints and limitations imposed on frail man and hence their fervid yearnings to peep into regions beyond the ken of our gross senses. As Emerson puts it:—