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They conceived that gold was the metallic element, in a state of perfect purity, and that all the other metals differed from it in proportion only to the extent of their individual contamination, and hence the origin of the epithet base, as applied to such metals; this hypothesis explains the origin of alchemy; but, in every history, we are informed that the earlier alchemists expected, by the same means that they hoped to convert the baser metals into gold, to produce a universal remedy, calculated to prolong indefinitely the span of human existence.

It is difficult to imagine what connection could exist in their ideas between the “Philosopher’s Stone,” which was to transmute metals, and a remedy which could arrest the progress of bodily infirmity: upon searching into the writings of these times, it clearly appears that this conceit originated with the alchemists from the application of false analogies, and that the error was subsequently diffused and exaggerated by a misconstruction of alchemical metaphors.^[101]