The author claims this work to be an apology for alchemy. This book attempts to set forth, with more of system and of sympathy than is usual, the history of alchemy, the doctrines it professed and the results it achieved. It must not be thought that the apologetic intention of the study implies any failure in recognizing the weaknesses and follies which abounded in the development of the art, nor the chimerical nature of the means adopted for solving its Grand Secret.