FOR THE PORT FOLIO. THE CHYMIC GLEANER-No. I. "Serene philosophy, Effusive source of evidence and truth! Without thee, what were unenlighten'd man? A savage roaming through the woods and wilds, WHILE the gay votarist of the sportive Muse delights the imaginations of your readers; while the more grave essayist improves their hearts and instructs their minds; while the scrutinizing analysis of the critic, who curiously scans both the lasting and ephemeral productions of the day, affords amusement to your learned, and the amatory strains of some modern Petrarch shall melt the hearts of your sensitive readers; while your page of anecdote and bon mot, promotes the smile of pleasure in some-and the more humorous tale excites the broader grin of pleasantry and mirth in others; while, in fact, each division of your miscellany is a tablet of amusement for the various tastes of your readers, let not the simple unvarnished tales of truth and demonstration, with which a traveller from the walks of Chymical Philosophy, greets ye, be told unheard! The CHYMIC GLEANER approaches the emporium of your miscellany, in which is accumulated the various spoils of many a pilgrim from the walks of literature, not in the self-sufficient garb of a scientific chymist, but in the unaffected guise of an admirer of chymic science, and an enthusiast in its charms. "There dwells in human minds, a strong desire, Impressed with this desire, he would invite the desultory reader, and the man of leisure, to a participation of the delights that await them in the cultivation of this science. His wish is, to indite in the language of truth, devested of the veil of fiction which in ancient times obscured its charms, the many beautiful and surprising phenomena, that are so splendidly exhibited to the student of chymistry. He points to the gorgeous temple of this science, and invites each passing traveller to enter. He tells them that its very portal is illumined by the rays of fascination, and its entrance strewed with flowers. He discovers to them the charms that glisten in the remote apartments of this spacious dome, and tells them of the enjoy ments that will be heaped in gay profusion, on the guest of this beauteous mansion. He comes with a tale of verdure and fair weather, to invite your readers to the fields of Chymical Philosophy. These are extensive, variegated and enchanting. Checkered with the rich and abundant luxuriance of variety, they hold forth the most inviting aspect; and promise delight to every cultivator of the soil, or gleaner from their golden harvests. Every one can enjoy these charms: those familiar with the intricate windings of the walks, and the passing spectator who is unacquainted even with the entrance of the garden, may be equally charmed by the surrounding sweets. The sojourning stranger may regale his delighted senses with many a beauteous flower; for it is not necessary that he should have traversed the wide domain, in order to enjoy the fragrance that assails him from a neighbouring grove; nor is the vestibule of an edifice less attractive to the eye of a stranger, because the symmetrical regularity of its internal structure is invisible to his passing gaze. We will therefore cull those flowrets which bloom equally for the visitor of the garden and the proprietor, and to whose grateful fragrance and beauty, the former is equally as sensitive as the latter. To drop the metaphor-Chymistry comprises many subjects that are understood as well by the tyro, as the proficient in the science; and it is the intention of the CHYMIC GLEANER, to select those themes that will afford entertainment and instruction to the former, while at the same time, they may prove not wholly uninteresting to the latter. He has said that the study of Chy mistry is a fascinating one. That it is so, in an eminent degree, he feels no hesitation in declaring. Let the aspiring youth, eager in his thirst for knowledge, or the listless lounger of a reading-room, who devours the gilded nonsense that flows from modern novel-presses, to beguile the tedious roll of time, open the chymic page; we think it no unwarrantable assertion, that each will be fascinated by the charms it imparts, and both equally inspired with a thirst for further knowledge. The beverage is so delicious, its sweets so nectared, that one sip invites us to quaff the flowing goblet at a draught. Previously to realizing the immediate object of this series of essays, it may not prove uninteresting, to take a cursory survey of the origin and revolutions of Chymistry. With the history of a science, the noviciate ought, if possible, to be as familiar as the adept. During the dark ages, when ignorance, superstition, and credulity, held the reason and judgment of mankind in subjection, whatever soared beyond the degraded sphere of their conceptions, or that wore the semblance of mystery, was accounted for, by the ascription of a divine influence connected with it, and affecting all its operations. Chymistry 1 therefore, though at that time it comprised only a limited knowledge of a few preparations and processes confined to the workshops of mechanics, was supposed to have a divine origin. Thus much is all that can be learned with certainty, respecting the original commencement of this science. But, whether we ascertain the precise epocha of its origin, or not, is a matter so very inconsequent, that it is scarcely worth consideration. Indeed, whatever relates to those ages of ignorance, is so enveloped in superstition and folly, that it is impossible to devest it of these trammels, and discover the precise truth. To know the soil in which the seeds of this science were first sown, would, indeed, be a matter of some curiosity; but neither this circumstance, nor an acquaintance with the names of those who reared the first rude sproutings of the plant, would contribute any thing towards an elucidation of the science. These names, together with the persons they designated, are long since buried in oblivion; and, had they been handed to us by successive traditions, it is not unlikely that each varied tale would have lost a portion of its truth, and a vague history devoid of authentic information, would have been all that could have reached the present day. Egypt was the nurse of Chymistry, and the Arabians were the first people who gave to it any degree of consequence; but their notions were so interwoven with alchymical absurdities, that the present beautiful science at that period, was little else than a collection of mysteries and pretended divine arcana, in which truth and fiction were so intimately combined, that it was impossible to separate the one from the other. From Arabia, Chymistry was introduced into the west of Europe about the close of the eleventh century, by the crusading army of Peter the Hermit. The fanatics composing this army, whose object originally was, to wrest from the possession of infidels, the Holy Land, finding themselves disappointed in the accomplishment of their project, and allured by the prospect of promised wealth that would accrue from the possession of a substance having the power of converting the baser metals into gold, began assiduously to cultivate the study of Chymistry. After the defeat of this army, many of its members returned home, and commenced their operations for the discovery of the philosopher's stone. This effected the first introduction of Chymistry into Europe; but it was so tinged with the obnoxious mysteries of Arabian alchymy, that those who engaged in the study of this science, were sure to invite discredit and disgrace. The obloquy that had been attached to the science of alchymy, in / consequence of the gross impositions that were practised by the spurious alchymists, so happily satirized by Erasmus, still existed as late as the year 1650. This obloquy and disrepute, the mysterious operations of these men, as well as the secret workings of the adept alchymists, were not calculated either to lessen or remove. Mysticism is ever obnoxious to the mass of mankind; and however it may affect the minds of the ignorant vulgar with a superstitious awe-the more enlightened will always view with a jealous eye, operations that are concealed by a veil of secrecy. Witness the opprobrium that has been attached in all ages, to the mystical proceedings of free-masonry, the fundamental principles of which are known to be charitable and beneficent. Even the pretended connexion of the arcana of alchymy, with divine inspiration, did not long serve to screen its professors from the jealousy and suspicion of rational people. They therefore now began to regard them as vain impostors, vaunting the pretended knowledge of secrets they did not possess, wholly absorbed in the sordid views of self-interest and gain, and as the nefarious dealers in mischief and imposition. Their absurd and hypothetical speculations, and their still more preposterous experiments, with a view to discover the philosopher's stone and the alkahest; their idle pursuits after the medicinal elixir, which was not only to cure all diseases, and to convert every lazar into a Hebe, but even to insure immortality with equal certainty to both, though they served for a time to amuse from their novelty, and perhaps to awe by their mysteriousness, the minds of the ignorant; yet were they impositions too outrageous upon the rationality of mankind, to maintain credence long, even in those ages of superstition and credulity. The trammels which a belief in the doctrines of these visionary madmen necessarily imposed on the understanding, were too weighty and awkwardly formed, not to inspire an effort to shake them off. Alchymy however, had now reached its climacteric; the next change was consequently a revolution in its systems, and this revolution necessarily a reform. The death of Paracelsus, whose life and opinions completed the climax of disgrace that was attached to this science, was the commencement of a new epoch in chymistry, which retrieved it in part from the opprobrious degradation into which it had fallen. On the ruins of the chimerical systems of Paracelsus and his contemporaries, there appeared another sect of philosophers, who called themselves " Adept Alchymists." Among them, were James Barner, Bohnius, Tachenius, Kunkel, Boyle, Crollius, Glaser, Glauber, Schroder, &c. These men disclaimed all connexion with the preceding followers of alchymy; and, though their theories and opinions were devested of many of the chimerical absurdities of the disciples of Paracelsus, the sun of truth had as yet but glimmered through the alchymic mists, in which for ages the science of chymistry had been enveloped. It remained for the corruscating flashes of a brighter luminary, to dispel completely, these clouds of ignorance and superstition. This lu minary soon appeared in the genius of Beccher. Like Venus in the starry firmament, who is distinguishable in brilliant conspicuousness amid myriads of scintillating planets, this enlightened man shone in the galaxy of his contemporary philosophers, with lustre unequalled. Beccher achieved the first step towards the erection of the phenix structure, that grew from the ashes of the alchymical system. View the present superb edifice: its splendid vestibule excites our admiration, but the enchantment which to a further glance is exhibited in perspective, arrests the attention of every passing traveller. When we survey its gorgeous magnificence, and reflect that this structure of chymic science owes its permanent foundation to the achievement of an individual, with what respect, I had almost said, adoration, do we not feel inspired, for his memory! Yes-the memory of Beccher shall bring forth the involuntary aspiration of respect and veneration, from every votary of science who becomes a sojourner in the temple he has erected. Joachim Beccher, with more genius than falls to the lot of the generality of men, aided by an ardent zeal for the discovery of truth, completely revolutionized the science of chymistry. He discarded the erroneous and absurd doctrines of his predecessors, and collected the scattered rays of truth which emanated from them, into a focus. He concentrated the crude and unconnected facts of alchymy, and arranged them according to fixed principles. He gave to chymistry, which had hitherto been employed in idle and vain pursuits, a definite and a useful object; and in fact, he laid the corner-stone in the foundation of the magnificent structure, which now affords delight to every eye that views it. About the latter end of the seventeenth century, chymistry began to be studied in France. The wars of Louis XIV, so inimical to the peaceful pursuits of literature, had hitherto afforded an obstacle to the cultivation of this science. When these national troubles were quieted however, and the man of letters was no longer in constant dread of being molested in his closet, by the clangour of arms or the agitations of war, this science attracted the attention of philosophers. A Lemery, a Homberg, and a Geoffroy then appeared, who adorned it by their genius, enlightened it by their discoveries, and diffused a taste for its charms, almost all over France. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, during the reign of Louis XV, Rouelle was almost the only distinguished chymist of that day; but there soon appeared other men of genius, whose discoveries add not a little lustre to the brilliance of chymic science. How grateful is it to an enthusiastic votary of chymical philosophy, to compare the present resplendence of its zenith glory, with the chaotic mass of indigested facts that was found among the ruins of mystic |