Solomon's Secret Arts (77 page)

88.
More had written in favour of the pre-existence of souls, and his friend Joseph Glanvill had anonymously authored
Lux Orientalis, or The Opinion of the Eastern Sages, Concerning the Praeexistence of Souls
(London, 1662). For a recent discussion and a letter by Glanvill on the subject, see Rhodri Lewis, “Of ‘Origenian Platonism’: Joseph Glanvill on the Pre-Existence of Souls,”
Huntington Library Quarterly
, 69, 2 (2006), pp. 267–300.

89.
Francis Mercury van Helmont,
The Paradoxal Discourses of F.M. van Helmont, Concerning the Macrocosm and Microcosm
(London, 1685), pp. 105, 137.

90.
“A Lover of Philalethes,”
A Short Enquiry Concerning the Hermetick Art … To Which Is Annexed a Collection from Kabbala Denudata, and Translation of the Chymical-Kabbalistical Treatise, Intituled Aesch Mezereph
(London, 1714).

91.
Kabbalah Denudata
(1677–8), vol. 2, p. 183.

92.
[Anne Conway],
The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy
(London, 1692). A Latin version was printed at Amsterdam in 1690. The best treatment of Conway's life and work is Sarah Hutton,
Anne Conway: A Woman Philosopher
(Cambridge, 2004).

93.
Bodl. Lib., Ms. Locke c.27, ff. 75–7. I am grateful to Victor Nuovo for giving me a transcription of this manuscript, and for allowing me to read chapter 6 of his book
Christianity, Antiquity and Enlightenment: Interpretations of Locke
(Dordrecht, 2011) prior to its publication. See also Allison Coudert, “Leibniz, Locke, Newton and the Kabbalah,” in Dan, ed.,
Christian Kabbalah
, pp. 149–79.

94.
A debate arose in the 1980s over the possible influence of the Kabbala on Newton's concepts of time and space, but the most reliable summary of his stated views on the subject remains Frank Manuel,
The Religion of Isaac Newton
(Oxford, 1974), pp. 68–71.

95.
[Francis Mercury van Helmont],
One Hundred Fifty Three Chymical Aphorisms Briefly Containing Whatsoever Belongs to the Chymical Science
(London, 1688), pp. 3–4.

96.
[Nicolas de Montfaucon, Abbé de Villars],
The Count of Gabalis, or, The Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists Exposed
, trans. “P.A.” [Philip Ayres] (London, 1680). Another version, published in the same year but translated by “A.L.” (A. Lovell), was more ambiguously subtitled
Conferences about Secret Sciences
, which may have deceived the curious into thinking it was a genuine Kabbalist text.

97.
Pierre's first letter to Boyle, dated 13/23 Dec. 1677, is in
Correspondence of Boyle
, vol. 4, pp. 470–4. Nineteen other letters followed, with the last on 10/20 Aug. 1678, which is in
Correspondence of Boyle
, vol. 5, pp. 112–14. See Principe,
Aspiring Adept
, pp. 115–32; Hunter,
Boyle
, pp. 183–5.

98.
The first letter from the “Patriarch of Antioch,” Georges du Mesnillet, is dated 14/24 Dec. 1677 and is in
Correspondence of Boyle
, vol. 4, pp. 475–6; a further letter of 28 Jan./8 Feb. 1678 is found in
ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 17–19. The letter of appointment from “the Asterism” is in
ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 38–42, and one from the monk “Sephrozimez” (a play on
Sephiroth
?) is in
ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 59–61.

99.
Ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 121–6. As late as 1680, Boyle was still interested in Pierre's experiments and his movements, and mentioned him again in 1682:
ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 186, 194, 295–6.

100.
Ibid.
, vol. 5, pp. 1, 131. Boyle's copy was sent from Amsterdam by the Quaker Benjamin Furly, an associate of Van Helmont.

101.
D. Knoop and G.P. Jones,
The Genesis of Freemasonry
(Manchester, 1947); David Stevenson,
The Origins of Freemasonry
(Cambridge, 1988), chs 3, 5; Frances Yates,
The Art of Memory
(London, 1966).

102.
Stevenson,
Origins of Freemasonry
, ch. 7; David Stevenson, ed.,
Letters of Sir Robert Moray to the Earl of Kincardine, 1657–73
(Aldershot, Hants, and Burlington, Vt., 2007), pp. 62, 63, 66, 67, 80, 125, 128, 140, 263, 280. In explaining the pentacle mark, Moray referred to Egyptian and Greek sources, but he cannot have been unaware of its use in ritual magic.

103.
Josten, ed.,
Elias Ashmole
, vol. 2, pp. 395–6; also Norman Rogers, “The Lodge of Elias Ashmole, 1646,” in
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum
, 45 (1953), pp. 35–53.

104.
Reprinted in Douglas Knoop, G.P. Jones and Douglas Hamer, eds,
Early Masonic Pamphlets
(Manchester, 1945), pp. 30–1. The short-lived
Poor Robin's Intelligencer
may have been the work of William Winstanley. A royalist in politics, he made fun of occult philosophy in
Poor Robin's Almanac
.

105.
J.R. Jones, “The Green-Ribbon Club,”
Durham University Journal
, 49, 1 (1956), pp. 17–20; David Allen, “Political Clubs in Restoration London,”
Historical Journal
, 19, 3 (1976), pp. 561–80.

106.
For coffee-houses and politics, see Brian Cowan,
The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse
(New Haven, Conn., 2007), ch. 7; Steven Pincus, “‘Coffee Politicians Does Create’: Coffeehouses and Restoration Political Culture,”
Journal of Modern History
, 67 (1995), pp. 807–34.

107.
Andrew Wear,
Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine, 1550–1680
(Cambridge, 2000), chs 8–9. Wear writes of the failure of a “Helmontian Revolution” after 1660, referring to the writings of J.B. van Helmont, whose anti-Galenic theories relied heavily on Paracelsus.

Chapter Four: A Fading Flame

1.
These generalizations are based on the charts of alchemy books made by Adam MacLean, which can be accessed at
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/statists.html
.

2.
Because figures for the total number of almanacs sold are lacking, this has to be judged from the total yearly receipts, which remained at about the same level, about £3,000, until 1712, when they went up to £3,700. In subsequent years, they exceeded £4,000, due to the effects of the Stamp Act, which raised the price of each almanac. RSC, reel 84, Books in the Treasurers’ Warehouse, accounts for 1688–1715.

3.
When the medical doctor and astrologer John Case, a devotee of Thomas Tryon, published a study of astrology as “Divine Magick” in 1697, he may not have realized how old-fashioned his approach seemed. John Case,
The Angelical Guide Shewing Men or Women their Lott or Chance in This Elementary Life
(London, 1697).

4.
Patrick Curry,
Prophecy and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England
(Princeton, 1989), pp. 78–91; Patrick Curry, “Saving Astrology in Restoration England: ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’ Reforms,” in Patrick Curry, ed.,
Astrology, Science and Society: Historical Essays
(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1987), pp. 245–60.

5.
Michael Hunter, “‘Aikenhead the Atheist’: The Context and Consequences of Articulate Irreligion in the Late Seventeenth Century,” in his
Science and the Shape of Orthodoxy: Intellectual Change in Late Seventeenth-Century Britain
(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1995), pp. 308–32; Ian Bostridge,
Witchcraft and its Transformations, c. 1650–c. 1750
(Oxford, 1997), pp. 24–8, 30–2. For the Second Book of Esdras, see Alastair Hamilton,
The Apocryphal Apocalypse: The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Ezra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
(Oxford, 1999). Aikenhead's father was an apothecary who sold love potions (Hunter, “Aikenhead,” p. 309), so a taste for alchemy may have run in the family.

6.
See Michael Hunter, “The Crown, the Public and the New Science, 1689–1702,” in his
Science and the Shape of Orthodoxy
, pp. 151–66.

7.
The Athenian Mercury
, vol. 16, no. 24, 9 March 1695. For a discussion of the social views of the periodical, see Helen Berry,
Gender, Society and Print Culture in Late Stuart England: The Cultural World of the Athenian Mercury
(Aldershot, Hants, and Burlington, Vt., 2003).

8.
Athenian Mercury
, vol. 10, no. 11, 2 May 1693; Michael Hunter and Annabel Gregory, eds.,
An Astrological Diary of the Seventeenth Century: Samuel Jeake of Rye, 1652–1699
(Oxford, 1988), pp. 49–50, 221.

9.
Athenian Mercury
, vol. 3, no. 13, 8 Sept. 1691.

10.
Athenian Mercury
, vol. 4, no. 7, 20 Oct. 1691; vol. 4, no. 10, 31 Oct. 1691 (Halloween issue). See also Peter Marshall,
Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost Story
(Oxford, 2007), pp. 182–5; Sasha Handley,
Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England
(London, 2007), pp. 41–3.

11.
Athenian Mercury
, vol. 7, no. 11, 3 May 1692.

12.
Richard Baxter,
The Certainty of the World of Spirits, Fully Evinced by Unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts, Operations, Voices &c.
(London, 1691), p. 236. For Baxter, see William Lamont,
Richard Baxter and the Millennium: Protestant Imperialism and the English Revolution
(London, 1979).

13.
J.R. Glauber,
The Works of the Highly Experienced and Famous Chymist, John Rudolph Glauber
, trans. Christopher Packe (London, 1689), sig. A
₂
. Packe was the author of the
Chymical Aphorisms
, also published by William Cooper.

14.
Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzio and Lawrence M. Principe, eds,
The Correspondence of Robert Boyle
(6 vols, London, 2001), vol. 6, pp. 288–9.

15.
Michael Hunter,
Boyle: Between God and Science
(New Haven, 2009), p. 234; Michael Hunter,
Robert Boyle (1627–91): Scrupulosity and Science
(Woodridge, Suffolk, 2000), pp. 111–12.

16.
Owen Ruffhead, ed.,
The Statutes at Large
(8 vols, London, 1763), vol. 3, pp. 436.

17.
H.W. Turnbull et al, eds,
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton
(Cambidge, 1959–77), vol. 3, p. 218.

18.
Richard S. Westfall,
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
(Cambridge, 1980), pp. 524–31; Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs,
The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought
(Cambridge, 1991), pp. 171–2, 293–305 (a printed edition of “Praxis”). The original is now in the Grace K. Babson Collection at the Huntington Library, Babson Ms. 420,
M&P
, reel 42; the quotation is from p. 18a.

19.
For his career at the Mint, see Westfall,
Never at Rest
, ch. 12; also, Ming-Hsun Li,
The Great Recoinage of 1696 to 1699
(London, 1963).

20.
“Baro Urbigerus,”
Aphorismi Urbigerani, or Certain Rules, Clearly Demonstrating the Three Infallible Ways of Preparing the Great Elixir or Circulatum Majus of the Philosophers
(London, 1690), pp. 5–6, 84.

21.
“Eirenaeus Philiponos Philalethes,”
A True Light of Alchemy
(London, 1709); “A Lover of Philalethes,”
A Short Enquiry Concerning the Hermetick Art … To Which Is Annexed a Collection from Kabbala Denudata, and Translation of the Chymical-Cabbalistical Treatise, Intituled Aesch Mezereph
(London, 1714).

22.
W. Yworth,
Chymica Rationalis: or, The Fundamental Grounds of the Chymical Art, Rationally Stated and Demonstrated
(London, 1692), illustration facing p. 10; W.Y. [William Yworth],
The Britannia Magazine: or A New Art of Making above Twenty Sorts of English Wines
(London, 1694), “To the Reader”
ODNB
; Karin Figala and Ulrich Petzold, “Alchemy in the Newtonian Circle: Personal Acquaintances and the Problem of the Late Phase of Newton's Alchemy,” in J.V. Field and F.A.J.L. James, eds,
Renaissance and Revolution: Humanists, Scholars, Craftsmen and Natural Philosophers in Early Modern Europe
(Cambridge, 1993), pp. 173–92. Yworth's career makes an interesting contrast with that of another Dutch immigrant, the medical doctor Joannes Groenevelt, as related in Harold J. Cook,
Trials of an Ordinary Doctor: Joannes Groenevelt in Seventeenth-Century London
(Baltimore and London, 1994).

23.
Westfall,
Never at Rest
, pp. 526, 531 n. 215. Newton owned three manuscript copies of Yworth's testament to his children, which includes an alchemical process: KCL, Keynes Ms. 65,
M&P
, reel 18; Hampshire Record Office, NC 17,
M&P
, reel 32; Beinecke Library, Mellon Ms. 80 (not in
M&P
).

24.
“Cleidophorus Mystagogus” [WilliamYworth],
Mercury's Caducean Rod: or, The Great and Wonderful Office of the Universal Mercury, or God's Vicegerent, Display'd
(2nd ed., London, 1704), pp. 72–6, “Philosophical Epistle,” p. 2.

25.
Ibid.
, pp. 63–4.

26.
“Cleidophorus Mystagogus” [William Yworth],
Trifertes Sagani, or Immortal Dissolvent
(London, 1705), pp. 27–8.

27.
Ibid.
, pp. 43–4.

28.
“The Methods and Materials Pointed At, Composing the Sophick Mercury, and Transmuting Elixir,” in
True Light of Alchemy
, p. 97.

29.
Raymond Astbury, “The Renewal of the Licensing Act in 1693 and its Suspension in 1695,”
The Library
, 23, 4 (1978), pp. 296–322; R.B. Walker, “Advertising in London Newspapers, 1650–1750,”
Business History
, 15, 1 (1973), p. 117.

30.
J.C. [Anne Conway],
The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy
(Amsterdam, 1690; London, 1692), inside cover. Conway might have approved of the
advertisement, as her husband, Edward, viscount Conway, had defended unlicensed medical practitioners against the wrath of the Royal College of Physicians in the early 1680s: see Cook,
Trials of an Ordinary Doctor
, p. 129.