BOOK REVIEWS 451I

goes the credit of having been the world's later alchemists,if not in the exact ideas, at
first photographer... least in the general view of Nature as a
Valuable as these books are (and their divine powerand a "SacredMother."
valueis not to be denied),interestingas they In the next chapteron Greekalchemy,the
are to read, and pleasingas they are to the authorwrites, "It is clear from the writings
eye, they leave a gap to be filled. It is cer- of Zosimosthat, in the interval which had
tainly to be hopedthat The History of Pho- elapsed since Bolos Democritos wrote his
tography may be expanded,corrected,and Physika,alchemicalspeculationran riot. We
revised,so as to become the majorwork on now find it in a bewilderingconfusion of
this subject in the Englishlanguage. Egyptian magic, Greek philosophy,Gnosti-
Harvard University I. BERNARD COHEN cism, Neo-Platonism,Babylonianastrology,
Christian theology . . . ." There is no doubt
as to the complicationof alchemy in the
late Greek period, but again, one may ask
whethersuchideas as the weddingof the sun
E. J. HOLMYARD:Alchemy. The story and moon, or of gold and silver, which sym-
of the fascination of gold and the attempts bolizethe masteryof the spiritover the soul,
of chemists, mystics, and charlatans to instead of being late accretions,were not
find the Philosophers' Stone. 28I PP., 36 presentin a "primitive"formfromthe begin-
p1., io text fig. Harmondsworth,Middle- ning; such diverse sources as the Vedas
sex: Penguin Books, 1957. Paper, $.85. and ancientLithuaniansongspresentus with
such symbolsas the weddingof the sun and
M. ELIADE: Forgerons et Alchimistes. moon, and attest to the primordialityof
209 pp., 8 pl. Paris: Flammarion,"Homo many of the ideas whichlater becameunified
sapiens," 1956. and systematizedunderAlexandrianHerme-
These two volumes on alchemy, which tism.
have appearedalmost simultaneously,pre- A chapteron Chinesealchemy,its goal of
sent two diversebut complementary views on longevity and immortalityand its relation
the subject by authors of quite different with Taoism is followedby a well illustrated
backgrounds. Mr. Holmyard has done much section on alchemical apparatus,Greek, Is-
valuablework on Occidentaland Islamic al- lamic, and Latin.
chemy dealing with the subject primarily In a long chapteron Islamicalchemy,the
from the view of a modem westernscholar. authorgives a brief surveyof the rise of Is-
M. Eliade, as his works on Shamanismand lam, attributingthe Arab conquest to the
Yoga amply illustrate,has spent a lifetime fact that "hungerandpovertywerebecoming
on the study of the religionsof the world, unbearable,and war was the only way out."
particularlythose whichhave a mythological One wonderswhy hungerand poverty have
character,and writes as one who is very not ever produceda singlephenomenonwith
familiar not only with the pre-Cartesian consequencessimilar to that of the Islamic
world view but with the pre-Aristotelianas expansion. An informative historical sur-
well. His aim is to present the spiritual vey of Islamic alchemyis given, with most
milieu which was at one time shared uni- attention paid to Jabir ibn Hayyan. Mr.
versally by the peoples of the world and Holmyardtakes the intermediateposition of
which gave birth to what later came to be neitherdenyingthe "existence"of Jabir, as
called alchemy. Mr. Holmyard'sapproach did Ruska,nor consideringevery singlework
is basicallyhistoricalrather than doctrinal, allegedlywrittenby Jabiras being genuinely
and it is throughthe passageof time rather his. The author also discusses the Turba
than a unity of ideas that the book is or- Philosophorumand the remarkableresearch
ganizedand held together. of MartinPlessnerin identifyingthe author
In a brief chapter on the origin of al- of the work as 'Uthmin ibn Suwaid. It is
chemy and its cosmologicalperspective,in- unfortunate that the general significance
cludingsuch basic ideas as the four qualities, of alchemyin Islam is not mentioned. Not
the four elements, and the correspondence only did alchemy play a major role in the
between microcosm and macrocosm, Mr. Islamic guilds and art, but alchemicalsym-
Holmyardlinks the beginningof the sub- bolismcannotbe divorcedfrommany of the
ject to the Hellenisticperiod in Alexandria, Sufi writings, such as the Matknaui of
creditingthe Egyptiansonly with techniques MaulanaJalal ed-Din Rfimi. One has only
of metallurgy.As pointedout by M. Eliade, to recall that a title of al-Shaikhal-Akbar
one wonders whether the ancient metal- Muhiy ed-Din ibn 'Arabi is al-kibrit al-
lurgicalguilds of Babyloniaand Egypt did ahmar(the red sulphur),or that one of the
not share a common perspectivewith the great metaphysiciansof Persia, Mozaffar

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4q2 BOOK REVIEWS
Ali-Shah, who died only one hundredand the inner transformation is emphasized
throughout;at no point does the authortend
fifty years ago, claimedto be the discipleof
Jabir. to make alchemy a purely "materialactiv-
ity." "Bref,l'alchimisteoccidental,dans son
The latter half of the book is devoted to
western alchemy. After a brief account oflaboratoire,tout comme son collegueindien
the transmissionof Islamic alchemy,mainly ou chinois,op6raitsur lui-meme,sur sa vie
psychophysiologique
through Spain and Sicily, the author turns aussi bien que sur son
to an account of Albertus Magnus, Roger experiencemorale et spirituelle."
Bacon,Arnoldof Villanova,RamonLullyand The originsof alchemyare attributednot
to Greek philosophy or even Alexandrian
other early Latin authors. It is of interest
to note that the authorhas now changedhisHermetism but to "les traditions 6rudites
earlierview in attributingthe works of thederivantde la M6sopotamie" on the onehand,
Latin Gebernot to the MuslimJabirbut to and "les mythologies et les id6ologies ar-
chaiques"on the other. The soteriological
a Latinauthor. A brief accountof alchemical
symbolism,whichseemsmoreperipheralthan aspect of alchemy is clearly indicated,and
the contrastbetweenthe alchemicalview of
centralto the point of view of this book, is
followedby novel-likeaccountsof the livesNatureand the Aristotelianand Stoic shown.
of the later alchemistslike Paracelsus,Chau-In a provocativeand debatablefinal chap-
cer, Ripley,Dee, Setonand Flamel,arrangedter - which unlike the other parts of the
accordingto nationality. Some of the ac- book is based mostly on the author's own
countslike that of Seton have every quality
opinions- M. Eliade suggeststhat the real
of a first-rateartistic narrative. inheritorsof the alchemistswerenot so much
the modem chemistsbut writerslike Victor
M. Eliade outlines in a clear fashion the
spiritualuniverseof "primitive"man, show-Hugo and Balzac,the championsof progress
in the nineteenthcentury,who took the al-
ing that the earliest type of iron used by
"primitive"manwas meteoriciron,whichdid chemical idea of transformingNature and
not belongto the normal"Adamiccondition" quickeningthe tempo of time and appliedit
andwas thereforeconnectedwith forcesboth on a purelysecularlevel. "Pourla premiere
beneficentand maleficent,lying outside the
fois dans son histoire,l'hommea assum6ce
normalcadreof Nature. For prehistoricman tres dur travail'pourfaire mieuxet plus vite
Nature was alive, and everythingincludingque la Nature,' sans plus disposerde la di-
the mineralkingdompossessedlife and there-
mension liturigique qui, dans d'autres so-
fore the sexualdivisionwhichis so character-
cietes, rendaitle travail supportable."
istic of the animalworld. The earthwas the This reviewercannotdo justice to the pro-
SacredMother,the mine its womb, and the fundityof some aspectsof M. Eliade'swork
mineralits embryo,so that metallurgywas in such a short space. The book gives a new
"gynecological."As the author states, "Les
dimensionto the study of alchemyby pre-
mineraisextraits des mines sont en quelque
senting the readerwith the view of Nature
sorte des embryons;ils croissentlentement,
as seen by the alchemiststhemselves,not as
comme s'ils obeissaienta un autre rythme seen by post-Cartesians,for whom Nature
temporelque la vie des organismesvegetauxhas lost all sanctity and become a pure "it"
et animaux-Us ne croissentpas moins, ils or "matter."
'murissent'dans les tenebrestelluriques. Mr. Holmyard'swork, despite the unfor-
Drawingon a vast erudition,includinga tunate lack of any referencesor a bibliog-
knowledgeof the folk civilizationsof Africa
raphy and without any chapters on Indian
and North Americaas well as the high cul-alchemy, is perhaps the best introduction
tures of Asia, such as the Babylonian,Egyp-
availableto the subjectof alchemyfor those
tian, Chineseand Indian, M. Eliade shows who must of necessitybeginwith the modem
the universalityof the rites of initiationheld
conceptionof Nature. His attitude is ad-
in relation to metallurgicpractices in the
mirablysincerewithoutthe air of superiority
guilds,the conceptof Natureas a sacreddo-found among many writers on the subject.
main possessingits own life, and the partic-
M. Eliadeon the otherhandprovidesin this
ipationby alchemistsin the work of Naturework-which is aided by an excellent bib-
in "speedingup" the processesof Natureandliographydividedaccordingto particularsub-
transformingNature in the alchemicalwork.jects - a deeper understandingof the field
He drawsparticularlyfrom Chineseand In- thanmost of the ordinarybookson alchemy.
dian alchemy, showing the relation of this
For those who are interestedin the Weltan-
subject to the metallurgicrites on the one
schauungof "primitiveman" as well as the
hand, and to Tantarismand Taoism on the concept of Nature of the "esotericalchem-
other. ists," he is an admirableguide. Both books
The relationbetweenthe externalact and are majorcontributionsto the extremelyim-

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 BOOK REVIEWS 453
portant studies of alchemy,Hermetismand They are rich in historical insights, they
the pre-modemphilosophyof Nature. contain much information about obscure
figuresin the science of the day, they pre-
HarvardUniversity SEWEDHOSSEINNASR sent interesting and challenging opinions
concerningthe well establishedgreat men
of the century and-as always in Thorn-
dike's writings-much new information
LrNN THORNDIKE. A History of Magic based largely on manuscriptsources. Above
and Experimental Science. Volumes VII all, these volumesmay serve as a corrective
and VIII: The seventeenth century. x + to the unfortunatetendency to distort the
695 pp., viii + 8o8 pp. New York: Co- I7th centuryby ignoringthe "magical"and
lumbia University Press, I958. $Io.oo "unreasonable"tendencies, the apparently
per volume. "unscientific"aspects of the science of that
The completionof this history,which has time. While one may arguefor the existence
occupiedthe authorfor more than So years, of a steady progress in the x7th century
toward reason in all things,thereis the ever-
is an event of major importance. All too
many long-termprojects in the history of present current of magic, witchcraft, as-
science remain incomplete. One thinks of trology, belief in omens of all sorts con-
such examplesas Sigerist'ssingle volume of nected with scientific phenomena (as new
his projected History of Medicine, of the stars, conjunctions, eclipses, etc.). While
two volumes of Sarton'sHistory of Science almost everyoneis awareof the existenceof
and the three volumes of his Introduction, some of these beliefs, scholarsnevertheless
and of the Systamedu MondewhichDuhem often fail to be cognizantof their extent.
left 6/ioths completein print and which is Thorndikenot only emphasizesthe degreeto
only now- some thirty years later- be- whichthe centurycannotbe understoodwith-
ing published in its entirety. Professor out its "magic,"and the degree to which
Thorndike'smagnumopus is all the more "magic"is apt to be linkedto "experiment";
remarkablein that it representsthe work of he also shows the continuity between the
a single man, who is not the directorof a "magic"of the 17th century and the irra-
"researchteam" (as is the case with the tional elements associatedwith "scientific"
Singer and Holmyard History of Tech- thought in the precedingcenturies.In fact,
nology). In his eight volumes he presents one of the special virtues of these volumes
the results of his personal research and derives from the circumstancethat Thorn-
readingand he illuminatesevery topic from dike has studied for So years or more the
his own personal point of view, his own backgroundof experimentalscience and of
characteristicenthusiasms, prejudices and "magic,"and can show the continuity that
limitations. exists on the irrationaledges of science just
Since it may be presumedthat all scholars as it exists in its rationalheart or center.
are familiarwith one or more of the earlier Thus although Kepler held "the erroneous
volumes,* no detailed description of the view, but one all too commonthen and since,
generalplan is neededhere. It is interesting that the world had been asleep for a
to note in this regardthat Thorndikehim- thousand years after the fall of Rome,"
self takes it for grantedthat no explanatory Thorndikepoints out "that the slur on the
preface is necessarynow and so limits him- periodbefore I450 camewith especiallybad
self in the front matter only to listing his grace from Kepler, since he had made the
articles in which further material or cor- thirteenth-century work of Witelo on optics
rectionshave been published,and the usual the foundationand starting point for his
acknowledgments.In reviews of previous own Ad Vitellionem paralipomenaquibus
volumesin Isis the strengthsand weaknesses astronomiaepars optica traditur." Further-
of Thorndike'smethodshave been discussed more, "if Kepler had turned to the com-
at such length that the present review may mentary on the Sphere of Sacrobosco. . .
confineitself to three major aspects of the which was printed in . . . I53I. . . , he
books underreview: (i) theirspecialvirtues could have read that Campanusof Novara
and excellences;(2) the use they may serve in the thirteenth century . . . told that cer-
for those teaching, studying, or doing re- tain disciplesof Plato said that the sky or
search in the history of science; and (3) the whole mass of the heavens and each of
some of the limitationsthat result from the the elementswas angularand not spherical,
nature of the methodused by Thorndike. and that the numberof essencescorrespond-
No one who is in any way concernedwith ed to the number of regular solids: the
the science or thought of the I7th century pyramidto fire,hexahedronor cube to earth,
can afford to ignore these two volumes. icosahedronto water, octahedronto air, and

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