ERRATA. The reader is desired to correct the following errors, involving principles of importance :—

Page 217, line 16.-For "separated partially," read "acted partially or incompatibly."

Page 292, line 2 from bottom-For " one, carbonic acid gas, has," read "eight, besides carbonic acid gas, have."

altogether to our gaze, would fade into the misty streak of some faint galaxy-it is an attribute of chemistry to raise up within us sentiments of another kind.

Less stupendous in its first aspect than astronomy though it be, the science which teaches us to contemplate the immensity of space, and the grandeur of its orbs; less tangible than astronomy in its first manifestations-chemistry, nevertheless, by the wonder

B

which are merely to be considered as very unworthily taking the place of other sources of information with which Professor Faraday assumed his audience to be acquainted, and to portions of which he referred.

In conclusion, I have now to add, that although the contents of the following pages will be recoo

CHEMISTRY OF THE NON-METALLIC

ELEMENTS.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

I.

IN

THE QUALITY AND TENDENCIES OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY -FIRST CHEMICAL EPOCH-ALCHEMY-BELIEF OCCULT

AGENCIES-PARACELSUS-THE INFLUENCE OF

HIS CHARACTER AND WRITINGS.

WHILST it is the peculiar attribute of astronomy to awaken our minds to an appreciation of those stupendous orbs which revolve in space, to waft us ideally into those far-off regions where the bright luminary of our system would pale into the feeble twinkling of some distant star, and this turbulent world of ours, if not lost altogether to our gaze, would fade into the misty streak of some faint galaxy-it is an attribute of chemistry to raise up within us sentiments of another kind.

Less stupendous in its first aspect than astronomy though it be, the science which teaches us to contemplate the immensity of space, and the grandeur of its orbs; less tangible than astronomy in its first manifestations-chemistry, nevertheless, by the wonder

B

ful metamorphoses which it discloses, by the protean display of physical changes which it brings before our eyes, by the demonstration it affords of the indestructibility of matter under the agency of existing laws, is perhaps more calculated than any other science to awaken within us the most ennobling sentiment the mind can contemplate-the sentiment of immortality. If the grosser parts of our earth and its inhabitants pass thus undestroyed through all the vicissitudes of death, fire, and decay, how impossible is it to assume a destruction of a spiritual essence! Totally irreconcilable with the genius of chemical science is the idea of destruction.

Chemistry is essentially a science of experiment ;— most of the conditions under which its phenomena are developed requiring the disposing agency of man: yet there occur naturally a sufficient number of chemical phenomena to rivet the attention of a reflective mind, and lead it to some acquaintance with that mutation of form apart from destruction which is so striking an attribute of chemistry.

Many a reflective sage must have speculated ere now during the very infancy of the world, and long before chemistry had invoked the aid of experiment, on the cause and consequence of such ever-recurring phenomena as combustion and evaporation. The circumstance must have been noticed that the waters of lakes and streams, although exhausted in vapour by the agency of the sun's rays, and dispersed, were not dis

persed to be destroyed; but that, entering into clouds, the aqueous vapours remained hovering above until the operation of some natural cause should effect their descent to earth once more in hail or snow, dew or rain. Many a reflective sage in ancient times must have speculated on the results of combustion; more subtle, less amenable to scrutiny than those of evaporation though they be; and although neither the priests of Isis nor the sages of Greece knew the means of collecting, as does the chemist of our own times, the fleeting gaseous elements which are scattered by combustion, yet the spiritual intuition of these philosophers anticipated in a poetic myth the slower evidence of induction. In the fabled rising of the Phoenix from her ashes is displayed a credence in the non-destructibility of matter under the operation of existing laws; and the many changing aspects of Proteus seem but the expression of a belief in the occurrence of chemical transformations.

No sooner were the manifestations of chemical action displayed by experiment, than the wonderful mutations of form as evidenced by combination and decomposition gave rise to hopes that the baser metals might be transmuted into gold; a credence which, when we come to investigate the period of its first origin, carries us back into the furthest recesses of antiquity.

Viewed under the aspect of a prevailing chemical furor, the belief in alchemy may be said to belong to