Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/92

 Benedictine monk, arduously applied himself to chemistry and medicine. He discovered many of the best antimonial medicines; and it must be confessed, that in his celebrated treatise on antimony, we find a variety of preparations which have been since announced to the world as new discoveries.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, arose Paracelsus, one of the most extraordinary men that ever existed. He was born in 1493, near Zurich in Switzerland: of a bold and enterprising spirit, he totally despised the common rules of conduct by which men are usually guided in civilized society. This impetuous roan, who, in ostentation, mystery, and palpable falshood, exceeded all preceding alchemists, was supposed to have an evil spirit confined in the pommel of his sword. After having raised his reputation to a great height, he was appointed by the magistrates of Bazil, to give a course of lectures in that city, and thus he became the first public professor of chemistry in Europe: but his restless spirit did not permit him to remain long in this situation. He soon quarrelled with the magistrates from whom he had received his appointment, and left the city. Despising the most salutary principles of the art of healing, after having, by the liberal use of opium and mercury, been successful in the treatment of several serious maladies, he assumed the merit of having discovered the universal medicine, and deceived his followers with the hope of being immortal. But while he made such flattering promises, his own fate was a sad proof of the presumptuous absurdity of his pretentions: for, after an almost uninterrupted course of extravagancies, having wandered a great part of his life from place to place, his premature death, which happened 1541, exposed his vanity and blasted all their hopes: he died at an inn in Saltzbourg, in the 48th year of his age. This man closed the list of the distinguished alchemists, and his death completed the disgrace of the universal medicine. The character of Paracelsus is universally known: he stole many opinions and even facts from others; his arrogance was insupportable, his inflated pretensions ridiculous, and his whole life a continued tissue of absurdity, extravagance, and vice: at the same time it must be acknowledged, that his talents were great, and his labours not entirely useless; by carrying his speculations concerning the philosopher’s stone to the utmost verge of folly, he contributed more than any other to the disgrace and banishment of alchemical pretensions.

It would surpass the limits of our present enquiry, to pursue the detail of chemical science at this period to any considerable length. A great number of medical practitioners, in the course of the sixteenth century, adopted and propagated the principles of Paracelsus. Among the most distinguished of these, was Van Helmont, a man of considerable genius, who was born 1577.

It may be readily conjectured, that owing to the great variety of experiments which were performed by the alchemists, many valuable discoveries must have been made. The alchemists actually collected a rich store of facts, and if they did not succeed in drawing gold from