Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/81

 is the case with alchemy. We have already seen how the Atharva-veda deals almost exclusively in charms, sorcery, exorcism of diseases by means of amulets and so on. It is sometimes supposed that the A.V. represents the latest of the Vedas. This is evidently a misimpression. The truth seems to be that human frailty has always fought shy of the tedious and laborious methods of gaining an object. The spiritual hankering as foreshadowed in the prayers of the Rik, and later on so fully developed