Chambers Papers For The People Vol 9 1856 Alchemy And The Alchemist

Chambers Papers for The People Vol 9 1856 "Borrichius’s own private opinion is clearly to the effect, that the hermetic art descended from Tubal-Cam or Vulcan ; but he allows that there is much to be said in favor of Trismegistus, who has been supposed by some to have been Canaan, the. son of Ham, whose son Mizraim first occupied Egypt. It has to be mentioned, in fact, that the word Thoth, the Egyptian name for Hermes Trismegistus, means a pillar, according to Josephus and Manetho ; in which, it seems, they are corroborated by Jablonski. The truth of the matter appears to be, that pillar were early used by the Egyptians for the same purposes as parchment and paper have been employed by the literary men of more modern nations. These pillars were their books and standard body of literature. It further appears that there were three successive Thoths or schemes of inscription; that is to say, three dispensations or epochs of pillared literature. The first set, are said to have reached down to the time of the Flood ; the second contained all that was discovered or thought during the infancy of the scientific knowledge Of these ancient people ; and the third was the embodiment or publication of the full-grown science of Egypt. Hence the whole system of pillars was readily impersonated under the mythical appellation of Hermes Trismegistus, the thrice-greatest interpreter, as the name , implies. It is, accordingly, easy to understand how that illustrious and encyclopeodical author was subsequently represented as having composed thirty thousand volumes. It must be confessed that all this looks very satisfactory, not only as explaining the traditionary story of Trismegistus, but also as con- fenatory of the historic hint that the word chemistry is of Egyptian as has already been shewn to be not unlikely. , ^ the other hand, it has been customary among more recent critics "than these medieval speculators* to make the root of alchemy a Greek word. It has been supposed to be derived from which signifies juice , or momentum; and to refer to the acids, leys, and other solvents in use by chemists and alchemists. This was the favourite etymology among the very latest of the European adepts ; and it gave rise to the spelling of the word y with alchymy."