Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/26

14  of unlimited wealth. But the alchemists beholding man by anticipation possessed of immense riches, saw that something more was requisite, that he might be secured in the uninterrupted enjoyment of them. Experience fatally taught them, that the feeble frame of man was subject to the languor of disease; that gold could neither allay the thirst of fever, assuage the agonies of pain, or purchase for its possessor the blessings of health.

Thus another most desirable object was held up to view, and deluded the visionary enthusiasm of their minds with the false hope of attaining it. This was the universal medicine which was to cure all diseases, and not only to cure, but absolutely to prevent their occurrence.

Thus fortunate in the enjoyment of vast riches, thus blest with unbroken health, the desires of man were yet unsatisfied. Another seeming evil still remained, which was naturally to be dreaded as the destroyer of this fancied scene of enjoyment and felicity. The melancholy reflection, that it was limited by the short space of human life, roused the alchemists again into exertion, and produced new efforts of ingenuity in their labours; and in imagination they had discovered the means of prolonging life at pleasure. But the age of visionary philosophers did not cease with the alchemists. In the last decade of the eighteenth century, the progress of discovery, particularly in chemistry and mineralogy, had become so great, and the reign of art over nature so extensive, that some of the same philosophers who set up for political reformers, believed not only the period was approaching, when men were to be governed by the purity of their own minds, and the moderation of their own desires, without any external coercion, but when the life of man might be prolonged ad infinitum, and philosophers, if they choose it, become immortal.

In Egypt, alchemy attracted the attention of the government. The exact period of the origin of this study is unknown, nor can it now be ascertained what progress it had made, or to what extent it was cultivated among the ancients. Dioclesian, apprehensive that the dreams of the alchemists might be realized, ordered their books to be burnt, and prohibited all chemical operations, that he might subdue them with more facility. After this period, the alchemists were strongly opposed by several able and learned men.

(To be continued.)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REPOSITORY OF ARTS, &c.

Pindar’s celebrated description of the eagle, which must be familiar to your classical readers, after he has described the flagging wing, he adds,

by which I understand, “he gently raised his back,” conveying the idea of breathing softly. In Mr. West’s translation we have the ruffled plumes; and Mr. Gray, in his imitation, has followed Mr. West in preference to the original. Perhaps some of your readers may be able to account for this. By inserting this in your Repository, you will oblige