Physic. pt. II. c
27.
[68] By aspect is to be understood an angle formed by the rays of two
planets meeting on the earth, able to execute some natural power or
influence.
[69] Those who wish to read a curious monument of the follies of the
alchymists, may consult the diary of Elias Ashmole, who is rather the
historian of this vain science, than an adept. It may amuse literary
leisure to turn over his quarto volume, in which he has collected the
works of several English alchymists, to which he has subjoined his
commentary. It affords curious specimens of Rosicrucian mysteries; and
he relates stories, which vie for the miraculous, with the wildest
fancies of Arabian invention.
[70] Alcahest, in chemistry, (an obsolete term,) means a most pure and
universal menstruum or dissolvent, with which some chemists have
pretended to resolve all bodies into their first elements, and perform
other extraordinary and unaccountable operations.
[71] In this writer we find the following passage: "Such as are skilled
in the ways of nature, can take; silver and tin, and changing their
nature, can turn them into gold.
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