Newton's Copy of Secrets Reveal'd... by B J T Dobbs

Text source: AMBIX, Vol. 26, Part 3, November 1979

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AMBIX, Vol. 26, Part 3, November 1979

NEWTON'S COpy' OF "SECRETS REVEAL'D"AND

THE REGIMENS OF THE WORK

ByB.l. T. DOBBS*

INTRODUCTION

RESTING in its box in the vault of the History of Science Collection in Memorial Library atthe University of Wisconsin there is a unique volume: Isaac Newton'scopy of EirenaeusPhilalethes' Secrets Reveal'd, a work of esoteric -alchemy. 1 Used almost to the point ofextinction by its seventeenth-century owner, the book has now deteriorated to such anextent that, when it is handled, little bits are apt to flake away and some of Newton's workbe lost, for his annotations are on virtually every page. One purpose' of the -presentarticle is to preserve the most important of these annotations and tomake them generallyavailable to the scholarly world. An additional purpose is to place the notes in context,setting them against the background of Newton's early alchemical study,2 and probing themand the book itself for what they may tell us about the middle and late periods of hisalchemical interests.

The annotations may be divided into four series: A, B, C, and D.They 'will be morefully described below, but a preliminary sketch of their characteristics is in order. SeriesA and B seem to date from the first years of Newton's ownership of the book, Series C fromthe early 1680s, and Series D from the late 1680s or early 1690s. Thus the notes showthat Newton went through the book with meticulous care at least four times over a period oftwenty-five or thirty years. But the most lengthy and most significant of the annotationsare those from the early 1680s in Series C, where each note really comprises a little polishedessay on the regimens of the'great work of alchemy.

The special importance of Secrets Reveal'd to Newton immediately became apparentwhen his effects were examined after his death in 1727. Because of the annotations it bore,this book was reserved by the family and withheld from the sale of the general library, aswere a few others. It then remained with Newton's "non-scientific", manuscripts untilthat collection was scattered by the Sotheby auction of 1936.3 Secrets Reveal'dwas Sothebylot no. 121, the last item in the alchemical section of the sale.4Purchased by Denis 1.Duveen, it passed in 1955 to the University of Wisconsin, where it remains as part of theDuveen Collection.5

Despite Newton's obvious interest in the book, very few people looked seriously at itbetween 1727 and 1936. One who did was David Brewster, who, when he was composingthe first major biography of Newton, had access to the family papers. Brewster wasduly horrified. How could Ne-wton have so wasted his time, Brewster asked:

.•.. we cannot understand how a mind of such power, and so nobly occupied with theabstractions of geometry, and the study of the material world, could stoop to beeven ... the annotator of a work, the obvious production of a fool and a knave.6

* Department of History, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60201, USA. Research for thispaper has received support from the following sources: NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship in History ofScience, University of Cambridge (1974-75); Northwestern University Research Council Grant-in-Aid(Summer 1976); ACLS Travel Grant (Summer 1977); Northwestern University Center for the Inter-disciplinary Study of Science and Technology Grant-in-Aid (Summer 1977); National Humanities Center(1978-79), all of which are gratefully acknowledged.

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- . ,- .~--.-. .-,

B. J~~T. DOBBS

Br~~ste(s' 'bewilderment and hlsnegativejudgffie~t h~ve echaedand re~echaeddawntheyears. He reflect~of'caurse the strengths andwea.knesses af thenineteenth-centurymau()fscience-so. proud af the positive. achievements af -his 'scientific hero, so. narrawin' hiscam,prehensian af an ather age.

H()w~ver, if Newtan "stoaped"to annotate his copy af Secrets Reveal'd as Brewsterthaught, he evidentlystaopedwith a strong and singleminded intent. to.'canquer., TheSctheby sale catalague reveals that the Series C notes iIi this book--abautI,2aa'words~areonly a small pcrticn af Newton's work on alchemical regimens. There are abouf 23,00.0.words on theregimel1s iJ:} S()thebyJot no..84,7more than 5,0.00.in lat no..85,8 a:nather 3,0.0.0.in lot no..86,9'and about '2,00.0.in, lot no. 87.10, ,'"Thetotal numberaf surviving wards an thissubject is almost 35,00.0.,and there is much callateralmaterial, the significance of whichmay became apparent as the regimen series af papers is mare fully analysed.

THE-BooK.

Much af Newtan's effart on the regimens centred on-Secrets Reveal'd, althaugp. he cer-tainly used other warks by EirenaeusPhilalethes, and ather authors as welL Why didNewtan choase this particular warkfarsuch intensive study? Prabably there were a num-ber,af reasons. " -

Newtan had anly recently begun his studyaf alchemy when the English versicn of theboak was published in166g.11 At the time, Eirenaeus Philalethes was 'attracting muchinterest. His cammentary cn Gearge Ripley's' HEpistle to. King Edward" had been pub-lishedin 1655,12 and that and ather works were circulating in manuscript. 13 Newtanhimself had labariausly capied aut faur af tl1esecirculating manuscripts, prabably in 1668,14and he apparently had access later to. an English manuscript versianof Secrets Reveal'd(and perhaps a Latin one as well), as we shall see belaw. '

A Latin versian af Secrets Reveal'd had appeared in Amsterdam in 1667 as Introitusapertus ad occlusum'regis palatium,15 but so.far as is known Newtan never awned a capyaf it. Actually, there is no. reasan to. suppose that he had begun his alchemical studiesas early as 1667, and he may nat have knawn of the existence af that editian until theEnglish ane appeared. He did, hawever, buy a capy af the three Philalethestracts thatwere published by the same Amsterdam firm in 1668,16and he then praceeded to. make de-tailed summaries af them.17 That meant that by 166g'he had already studied seven af thePhilalethes tracts, and given Newtan's prapensity far scholarly tharaughness, it wauldindeed have been out af character far him not to. have purchased a copy of Secrets Reveal'dwhen it appeared.

The Londan publisher af Secrets Reveal'd, William Caaper, claimed that his new Englishversion was more accurate and much claser to. the authar's ariginal than the Latinversianaf Langius, and he was, mareaver, filled with praise for Philalethes' candar and charity.No.author had ever been mare free fram "envy" ar clearer in his descriptions.l8 EirenaeusPhilalethes made large claims too far the value af his writings. He said he had "attained"the philasapher's stane at the early age of twenty-three, and he told his readers that hewas giving them much more explicit guidance through the mysteries and perils of the artthan any af the alder sages had ever dane. 19 And there is in~fact a superficial air of ration-ality abcut thisbaok that tantalizes the reader and almast convinces him that he is havingthp true secrets revealed.

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NEWTON'S COpy OF fI~ECRETS REVEAL'n" 147.The l?o9k is divided into thirty-five short chapters~ and it is partly this thatlendsto it its

mi?leading air of rationality. There is an architectonic structure to the book that is usuallylacking., 'in alch~mical literat~re. The auth()f offers definitions and explains principles';he even includes a chapter on the historical evolutIon of the correct theory. He'then pro-ceeds· to pr.actical. matters, describing the construction of the furnace and the appearanceof the material atv~rious stages of the work, and finally gives fairly precise advice on mu1ti-plicatign. and projection. .A glance at~he following. ch~pter headings will make this notunreasonable form of the book clear. 20 '

I. Of the necessity of the SophickMercury for theWork of the Elixir.2.' Of the Principles Composing the Mercury Sophical.·

. 3. -Of the' Chalybs of the Sophists.4. Of the Magnet of the Sophists.5. The Chaos of the Sophie6. The Air of the Sophie7. Of the first Operation, of the Preparation of the SophicalMercury by the Flying

Eagles.8. Of the labour and tediousness of the first Preparation.9. Of the ·virtue' afour Mercury upon all the Metals.

Io.,Ofthe Sulphur whichis in the SophicalMercury.II. Of the Invention of the perfect Magistery.12. Of the manner of the perfect Magistery in generaL13. Of the Use of the ripe Sulphur in the Work of the Elixir.'14. Of the requisite Circumstances in general belonging to this Work.IS. Of the accidental Purgation of Gold.i6. Of the Amalgamation of the Mercury and, Gold, and of the due weight of both.17.Of th~ Preparation, Form, Matter and Closing of the Vessel.18. Of the PhilosQphical Furnace or Athanor.19. Of the Progress of,the Work iIi the first Forty Dayes.20. Of the appearing of Blackness in the Work of Gold and Silver.21. Of the burning of the Flowers and how to prevent it.22. The Regimen of Saturn, what it is, and whence it is dominated.23. Of the various Regimens of this Work.24. Of the first Regimen of the Work, which is of Mercury ..25. Of the second Regimen of the Work, which is of Saturn.26. Of the Regimen of Jupiter.27 .Of the Regimen of Luna.28. Of the Regimen of Venus.29. Of the Regimen of Mars.30...Of the Regimen of Sol.31. The Fermentation of the Stone. '32. The Imbibition of the Stone.33. The Multiplication of the Stone.34. Of the manner of Proj ection.35. Of the many Uses of this Medicine.

Upon closer examination, however, the surface appearance of a logical progression in thepresentation of the materia11argelydisappears. The "definitions" leave one as ignorantas before: the merely vague is defined in terms of the wholly unknown, and paradox ispiled upon paradox until the mind staggers. As for the "signs" that distinguish thestages of the work, colours and forms are described so repetitiously that the modern readersuspects finally that Eirenaeus Philalethes had simply exhausted his imagination.

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There were nevertheless aspects of Secrets Reveal'd that would have held great appeal forNewton. Two of these aspects are closely related to each other: (I) an explicit statementthat the alchemical work mirrored the labours of the Deity at the time of creation, and (2)vitalistic descriptions of the operations of a secret animating spirit. We now know fromother sources (to be discussed in a later section) that Newton thought these to be mattersof first rank importance. Let us examine each of these aspects in turn.

The first comes at the beginning of Chapter 5, on tiThe Chaos of the Sophi".

Let the Son of the Philosophers hearken to the Sophi unanimously concluding, thatthis Work is to be likened to the Creation of the Universe. Therefore, In theBebinning God Created the Heaven and the Earth, and the Earth was void and empty,and Darkness were upon the face of the Deep; and the Spirit of the Lord was carriedupon the face of the Waters, and God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light.21

Eirenaeus Philalethes then advises the operator in effect to return his material to a similarstarting point, confounding his "Earth" and tlHeaven" together to make a ClChaos", fromwhich a new ClKing" is to be born.22 In case the reader has not fully absorbed the point,Phllalethes says in the next chapter, HOur Work is therefore verily a System of the greaterWorld .... "23

We will meet the chaos and the king again, but let us now consider the operations of thesecret spirit. Philalethes discusses it, for example, in Chapter 3, as Hour Chalybs".

Our Chalybs is the true Key of our Work, without which the Fire of the Lamp couldnot be, by any Art, kindled; it is the M inera of Gold, a Spirit, very pure beyondothers; it is an infernal Fire, secret in its kind, most highly volatile, the Miracle of theWorld, a Systeme of the superior virtues in the inferiors .... 24

This spirit is (presumably) to be used first to enliven mercury, as in a passage fromChapter I, "On the necessity of the Sophick Mercury for the Work of the Elixir", wherePhilalethes characterizes two mercuries: tI. . . every vulgar ~ is a Male that is corporeal,specificate and dead: but ours is spiritual, feminine, living, and vivifying .... "25 Then Hourmercury" transfers its vitality to gold and is itself killed in the process .

. . . In· Gold (which is the 0 of the SoPhi) the tincture of Goldness lies hid. Thisthough it be a most digested body, yet is it incrudated and made raw, in one onlything, viz. Our Mercury, and receiveth from ~ the multiplication of its own seed ....[The Sophists] tell us that common Gol.d is dead, but that theirs is alive; so in likemanner a grain of Wheat is dead, that is, the germinating activity therein liessupprest, and would eternally remain so, should it be kept in a dry ambient Air:but let it be but cast into earth, and it presently receives a fermentallife, it swellsup, is mollified and buddeth .... [EJven so it is with Gold, as long as it is in the formof a Ring, a Vessel or Mony [sic], 'tis the vulgar Gold, but as concerning its beingcast into our water, 'tis. Philosophical; In the former respect it is called Dead,because it would remain unchanged even to the Worlds end; in the latter respect itis said to be living, because it is so potentially; which power is capable of beingbrought into Act in a few daies, but then Gdld will be no longer Gold, but theChaos of the Sophie . .. Thence, 'tis evident, That their Gold is to be taken deadand their water living; and by compounding these together, the seed-Gold, will (by ashort decoction) vivifie or quicken, and the live ~ will be killed .... 26

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NEWTON'S COPY OF "SECRETS REVEAL'D" I49In a very real sense, these are theoretical considerations on the nature of the alchemical

work, and not uncommon ones at that. Much, probably most, alchemical thought is pre-dicated on an assumption of organic process in what we now consider inorganic mOatter.The seventeenth century sees a transition, of course, from the pervasive use of organicmetaphors to the use of mechanical ones. But recent studies have shown that Newton,himself a key figure in the rise of mechanical thought, still utilized organic models in some ofhis \vork.27 Indeed, his thinking on the vivification of metals and their "fermentallife"'was quite in line with Philalethes', and we will examine this point more extensively below.

Yet a third aspect of Secrets Reveal'd that would have made the book appealing in theseventeenth century was the relatively thin veil of symbolism that Philalethes threw overone of the critical materials in his process, the star regulus of antimony. Antimoniacalcompounds had been known since antiquity, and perhaps the metal had as well, though if soit was at first confused with lead, which it greatly resembles. But antimony became thefocus of intense interest only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the subtleand complex interactions among medical, alchemical, and metallurgical interests led to aconsiderable elaboration of its chemistry.28 The best discovery of all as far as the alchemistswere concerned was that the pure metal could crystallize in a stellate pattern, and TheTriumphant Chariot of A ntimony by Basilius Valentinus is only the most famous of a longseries of publications responding to the supposed significance of the star.29 Philalethesdemonstrates his awareness of this open secret of contemporary occultists, calling hismaterial the child of Saturn (for its similarity to lead) ° or magnet (for its pattern of raysmeeting in an "attractive" centre), and mentioning the "Royal Seal" (a sign or signature)with which God had adorned the matter to emphasize its importance. 30

Then finally there are the nine chapters of Secrets Reveal'd that are explicitly devoted tothe regimens of the work, chapters 22 through 30. Although the modern reader is notlikely to find these chapters really enlightening, they may have conlprised for theseventeenth-century reader a very attractive feature of the book. Certainly Newton spenta vast amount of time on them.

THE PLACE OF THE BOOK IN NEWTON'S EARLY ALCHEMY

As noted above, Newton was already deeply engaged in a study of the works of EirenaeusPhilalethes when he purchased Secrets Reveal'd. The first two sets of annotations that heentered in the book, A and B, demonstrate his continued absorption in that effort. Thenotes in Series A appear on almost every page of the book. Most are keyed to the text by"x"s and give variant readings, apparently from an English manuscript version, for one ofthem says: "[Tis' therefore manifest-or circuit] omittitur in Charta Anglica."31 SeriesA is very early, for all the notes are in that tiny, unmistakable, early handwriting ofNewton's. Also, one note32 contains one of his early uncrossed symbols for lead. Newtonmodified his first way of writing the symbol for lead and adopted the more conventionalcrossed symbol sometime early in the I670s.33 Series A includes interlineated variationsand textual deletions as well as the keyed marginal notes, but it contains no Newtonianmaterial. In short, it is only textual emendation, but incredibly painstaking. Newtonseems·literally to have checked every word.

Series B is quite similar to Series A in nature: marginal notes keyed with "a"s, "b"s,and "*"s, but in this case the comparison is evidently with a Latin text for the notes are

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in Latin. There are no Latin interlinea~ionsJ however, and only nine pages bear notes ofthis sort. . Two of the notes contain references to It] ohn Sawtre p. 25",34 but these areprobably later additions and actually belong to SeriesD, where there are other references toSawtre. . Except .for those two references, .the notes all record variant readings. Thehandwriting1n Series B is indistinguishable from that of SeriesA,so the work of B mustalso have been done very early inNewton's~ar~er. ..... . .

Probably Newton entered t~e Series B notes in his book from aborrowed Latin manu-. script. .:N0 such manuscript h~s survived with his other alchemical papers, but his emenda-tions,in Series B do not come from the.printed Latin version of 1678.35. Furthermore, theLatin version that he used was defective, for on,the r'ecto of the back flyleaf of llis.bookNewtonsays, UNoteytall yOpassages concerning ~he illumination of yC~ & preparing itotherwise forO vulgar <then> for 0sophic are wanting inyc Latin."3G But tliose passageson illumination are present in the Latin of' 1678"andalni()stcertainly are in the Latin of

.'IQ67also.· We have already noted abovethat Newton hadearly access to circulating manu-scripts, which implies that he was in touch ·with Restora~ion alchemical circles ...•.Both SeriesA and:Bsuggest that he continuedtom(liritain,alchemicalcontacts in' the 16705, whichremforces the evidence· for sucll conta~t~hat'we alrea~yhave. 37..

.' Assuming that Newton entered all these textual variants in his hook as s'oonas:possibleafter'he purchased it, let us tum then to.his' more. suhstantiveuses bfthe·corrected text.,:Thetheme of the a.nimatingspiritwhich ntntp.roughout secrets"-Reveal' dwas of-primary.concernto him, as was thestar regulusQfan.timoriy~ The pJ:esent \Vriterhas developed

.these ideas in detail elsewhere,38 so tl1ey need be only briefly. summarized here.' ,The star,in its Umagnetic" capacity, .was. held .tobethe,most sensitive agent for. attracting tne'vivifying or ufermerital" spirit.· '.Newton spent some time at first perfecting his techniques·for preparing good star reguli; then, attempting··various combinations of the .regulus withother materials, he' found·what he thought to be a~flivi.ng"·mercury that was capable ofconveying its flfermental" spiri~togold.t twas aproces's very simil~r to that described by

.Philalethes in the p~sag~ quoted apove ... '.This a.lchemical success occurred" probably inthe second half of the 1670s. previously, I had suggested that it wasabout 1675 or a littlelater, but almost certainly before I680 ..39. New manuscript evidence substantiatesa datingshortly before or duringlhe period 1678-80.40

Thereis little orno evidence to sugg~st thatNewton focused on thecosmogonic aspectsof the alchemical "vork until the ,early 16805,but,he certainly.began msstruggleto definethe regimens in the 1670s, and from theoeginning Eirenaeus Philalethes contributed to histhinking. Asbackground to the Senese notes in Secrets Reveal'd, let us now look at aregimen manuscript from the 1670s. .

The earliest of the regimen series of lllanuscriptsis:that now in the Francis A. CountwayLibrary of Medicine in Boston, Sotheby lot no~87. In Section A of the manuscript, en-titled· "The regimens destribed,wth ye times ·&signes", .Newton draws heavily on'Philalethes.Theeitations come" from Secrets Reveal'd, from Philalethes' work ClOnRipley's Vision", from URipley's Epistle td King Edward. Unfolded", and from four: ofPhilalethes' commentaries-on-Ripley's Gates.· The-ouly·other authon:; quoted·are Flamel,Arnald of Villanova, and George Ripley himself.

A reference in another section of the Boston manuscript to the Golden.Caljof 167341helps to date ·Sotheby'87 as a·whole~and Section'·Aon the· regimens' probably was compiledat about that same time. It cannot have been done as late as 1678, for the references to

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NEWTON'S cqpy O~ "SECR~TS REVEAL'n"

,.the various ..Philalethes tracts arenotJo the _printed versions of .1678,42 which Newton~alwaysused aft.er they appeared. It issignificant e.videnceforan early date also that such a-s~all pumber of authors is cited. As Newton later added writer after writer to his al-,.chemical repertory, his papers on the regimens became almost hopelessly complex.. -."The regimens described, wthyc times & sigries"_is neither very long nor very complex..This section of Sotheby lot no.' 87 consists of a single small" quarto booklet, Newton'sfavourite format for his early alchemical papers, formed by folding afolio sheet into quartersand cutting the fold between the ~rst two pages but .leaving the third and fourth' pagesattached at thetop as well as at the side.. In this particular bo()klet Newton's notes fromdifferent alchemical works are entered on five of the eight sides (ff. rr-3r) ~..two' sides areblank (ff.3v-4~), and the last side (f. 4v).bears his reflections on the compiled notes .. Thereseems little to be ga:ined in reproducing the notes, but an intrinsic interest adh~res toNewton's reflectIons, s<?they are' here reproduced in full.43 .

fforye work in 0 vulgar ye ~must:first bee illuminated, yO0 well purged:, bothvery justly proportioned· & elabratly'Amalgamed together, then put in a fire as hotas ones hand can endure it soe that wthin a day or two if begin to boyle. And thoushalt wth a due regimensee <all ye, deleted> art emblem of the great work-vii blackwhite /' citrine /' & redWch will bee done in '150or 140'days, viz 90 _days will givethe white & 50·more the red Which is not-Elixir but 0° Q).·onIy,.noris it all·0 butonly wt·is.·uppermostwch·(being ye middle substance of.0 & ~, the juice of ]).ariasublimed) must b~ tak~n & faecesr.ejectecI.,thisthe 2d time joyned wth oe ~.(yt ....~web-wee call oe virgins milk) in yOsame )' gentle /, degree of heat wch wee wee<sic> use in oe propper work, viz of Ba1neu~ raris at the highest, will give you allthe signes of ye Philosophers &in 8 or 9 inonthsbecome oe~ wCh<be, deleted>'mustbee decocted againwth ferment to becomeoeElixir teyning. Butits much inferiorto ytmadeye other way & must be incerated wth his red oyle to make itfluxiblejasyewhite must·bee incerated wth its ~hite water.,

Ofthe <second, deleted> work wth commop. 0 J find not yOparticular signes ,/anywhere /described. <onely, deleted> J guesse they are for ye,most part thesamewth those .of the maine work but of much-lesse lustre .... ff()r<when, deleted>where boyling is premised to yOsignes that argues ·notye· ~eatnesse of externaU butinternal1 heat, because it begins not of a day or two till the intern all heat is stirredup And therefore' those ./ signes/' maY"nay must .agree to ·the maine work·because of their time. As for the signes where that <gold a, deleted> of yefirstwhite skin is intermixed they <may, deleted> ./ may ~( al$o agree tothe mainework because ye<dissolution of, deleted> either 0 as it dissolves may arrise in such·a skin. <Norh~ve J any, deleted> Lastly where there is /' mention of Amalgam.or of/' a degree of fire so'big as one can touch, J find noe signes annexed ..

In oework oe..0 needs noe labourto Amalgrn it because itdissohTes in oe ~likeice in warm water it needs a heat ten times lesse then ye other .&yet in that heat~illboyle viz the heat at the highest need bee but like yt of balneum roris,.& towardsthe end a little ~ore tp.en double perhaps.44

In this manuscript we can see that as aresu1t of his early reading in alchemy Newton hasdistinguished two processes that lead to the accomplishment of the great work: the workin vulgar or common gold and the "maine" work in ct our" gold. Certain signs of progresswill occur at different stages of the work, .which will reassure the operator that he is on theright track. In the process with common g()ld,he will see "an emblem" of the great work,i.e., he will see the colours change from black to white to citrineto red. Yet what is achieved:with common goldis not the elixir but only ct ~Ut;" gold, '.lnd more work must be dope for,·full.success. ., .

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The most· interesting and curious passages in this initial essay are those in the secondparagraph in which Newton attempts to infer the Hparticular signes" for the work incommon gold from the signs from the main work: HJ guesse they are for ye most partthe same wth those of the maine work but of much lesse lustre." Newton assumes a pro-portionality between the two processes, the work in Hour" gold being quite similar to thework in common gold but more intense in some way. It is a simplifying assumption that herepeats in various forms for several years, even as he describes differentiated Hmembers"for each stage of the work. His overall conception almost certainly comes· from SecretsReveal'd, where Philalethes says the follovving:

~now then, that our Regimen, from the beginning to the end, is only lineal, and thatis to decoct and to digest, and yet this one Regimen in its self comprehends manyothers, which the envious have concealed, by giving them divers names, and de-scribing as so many several Operations .... 45

Not only does Newton seem to accept Philalethes' Hlineal" characterization of the pro-cess and the idea that one overall regimen comprehends many, but he strives constantly toweave together into one unified scheme the disparate descriptions of the several authors hereads. Yet it is by no means a search for an abstract definition of the process: he remainsintensely interested in "particular signes", and he seems to. pluck· the most picturesqueones from the alchemical literature. The startling, the bizarre catch his eye; and thosesame dramatic phrases, culled from many sources, appear again and again in his papers eventhough his interpretation of their meaning may change.

THE SERIES C ESSAYS ON THE REGIMENS

By the end of the 1670S Newton must have committed most of Philalethes to memory,at least those passages that he found significant. Not only had he combed. manuscriptversions of some of the tracts and read, re-read, and emended his copy of Secrets Reveal'd,but he probably had already purchased the 1678 edition of the Philalethes tracts on Ripleythat appeared as Ripley Reviv'd46 and also the Hreformed and amplified" M usaeumHermeticum of that same year that contained a Latin version of Introitus apertus.47 We findhim then sometime shortly after 1678 attempting again to pull Philalethes' statements onthe regimens into a coherent pattern. These attempts survive as Burndy MS IS, SectionsA and C.48 Burndy MS ISA is entitled simply "The Regimen", and Burndy 1\'ISISC, "Ofye Regimen". The latter seems to be comprised entirely of abstracts from Philalethes,whereas the former, although consisting mostly of notes and abstracts from Philalethes,has material from Flamel and HManna"49 included as well. Burndy MS ISA seems to bean almost immediate precursor of the essays on the regimens in Newton's copy of SecretsReveal'd that comprise Series C.

Without Burndy MS ISA, or without a high degree of familiarity with alchemical litera-ture, one might be tempted to attribute much originality to the content of these essaysin Series C, for in them most references to the literature have been eliminated. However,the originality in them lies not so much in the content but in the structure Newton hasimposed upon a formless mass of reading material. He has created order where none existedand planted signposts in the wilderness.

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NEWTON'S COPY OF ttSECRETS REVEAL'D" 153

The essays, three in number, are written around the chapter headings and in themargins of three of Philalethes' chapters on the regimens. In places the writing skirts thenotes from Series A that had already been entered. For reasons to be discussed below(at note 64), these essays were almost certainly written before 1686, and a date in theearly 1680s is consistent with the handwriting. They clearly refer to the three Philaletheanregimens to which they are attached: Mercury (Chapter 24), Jupiter (Chapter 26), andLuna(Chapter 27). Probably Newton copied them into his book from drafts that are no longerextant, for there are very few corrections in them, and he even includes catch WOldsat thebottom of two pages-a formality that is not common with him except when he is copyingover fairly polished work. Let us now look at each essay in turn.

The essay on the regimen of Mercury is the most extensive, being a little longer than theother two together. It is as follows.5o

NB. This regimen has thre members solution, sublimation, & <congelation,deleted>. /' putrefaction. / Solution or liquefaction continues about 17 /' or 20/days vizt till colours begin to. <appear>. fior so long <the> .~ circulates alone/' in· a white colour / & grows more thin subtil & volatile. <vizt> ye matter<flows>, & within <two> or thre days <or> wthin a day or 'even 12 hours if yoube a good Artist, it begins to boile & yt like a pot over ye fire or as a stormy seaswelleth in a mighty wind, & from this time you must date ye Regimen's. Then yeGold dissolving rises by little & little to ye top of ye water like a white skin or creamscarce distinguishable from ye water. This skim <Artefius> teaches to gather witha feather & after ye ~ is evaporated there will remain a sweet white oyle wch is goodfor mitigating the pain of wounds, &in wchPhers have placed their great secrets [formedicine] especially if it be made wth ye virgins milk of ye 0 fior then it is a red-fragrant <swee, deleted> sweet oyle /' or balsam / permiscible in all things, yehighest medicine

Sublimation (called also destillation <&, deleted> /' or' / ascention & descen-tion) begins wth ye /' change from white to / yellow <colour, deleted> & continuesall ye time of colours tillye matter <lack breath, deleted> beginto lack breath, forso long /' as / ye matter continues fluid & volatile & circulates freely, suppose ye30th day. fior after yt ye matter begins to thicken The yellow colour wch <first>appears <arises> yt <sic> ye seeds <begin> to mix & ye body soul & spirit ofye matters to be <loosed> from one another. fior yecolours arise from ye soul ofye Gold extracted & sublimed by ye spirit of ye ~. Whence this period is calledseparation & division of Elements & extraction of natures. The yellow sooninclines to blue: & when ye glass appears gilded over & ye fumes ascend wth ablueness know yt ye kingly child is conceived & from that time clouds arise & mistyvapours blue black & yellow. fior ye blew wch followed ye yellow changes intogreen & the Green appears aboutye· end of ye 4th month & lasts about 10 days~About ye 30th day when ye Elements are separated & ye matter appears green & isready to thicken ye <vegetable, deleted> /' first / menstruum or ~ of Riply, yebath /' & caducean <rod> / is to be destilled.

The soul being separated from the body its necessary that death & putrefactionensue. The symptoms of death are the thickening ofyematter & rise of foulervapors & darker mists then before & soon <after> ye ceasing of breath. When themoisture <has> done circulating there will remain some dropsin ye concave of thevessel above & the matter will boil wthout fumes below & shew dark obscure reddishyellowish bluish grey & blackish colours, & daily grow drier & darker swelling about.ye 40th or 46th day like pufi past & about the 50th becoming /' after bluish black,/ a discontinued calx of the blackest black & then it draws down its <soul & spiritas, deleted> water again from above & by a new liquefaction becomes like meltedpitch: & /' thus /' the body soul & spirit by means of the strongly attractive power

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154 B. I., T. DOBBS'

ofye soul (wchas a medium attracts & uIiites.theother two) becoITlereconjoyned inorder to a resurrection. ,And note that your gold is not ,totally lost. before thisperiod of <bla,deleted> total·.blackness, tho some of it will be-lost in a sport de-coction&most of it· in thirty days. 51

.Newton's synt~etic sketch o.fthe first part of the great work bears little resemblance to"the chapter 'of Secrets Reveal'd to which-it is attached. Even though much of it is indeedbased_on Philalethes,Newton has drawn ideas and hints •from many other places in thePhilalethean corpus, as well as from Artephius and perhaps other writers. But what he has-produced is-his own: a statement of three explicit "members" or processes,-with their signsand times, and not a little of the theory behind them.

There is first a liquid stage-Newton still uses solution and liquefaction as.equivalent,though of course those terJ;l1swere differentiated in later chemistry. The matter is ,vhite,and the 'circulating ('mercury" (i.e., a liquid that might or might not have been closelyrelated to'the modern element) isatte~uated. The turbulence in the material;- thoughNewton does not makethisexpli.cil, would have been considered asasign ofHfe (spontaneousacti,vity), and it is from that sign, Newtonsays, that one should date the regimens.

.•Thesec.9nd "member" of the regimenofmercurybegi~s when thecolour changes fromwhite to yellow. 'The yello\v,and the other colours that follow, arise because of a funda-mental. dissolution that is occurring:· essential. constituents of eacll material become dis-engaged, and the body, soul, and spirit of each are separated. The result is eventually a'uchaos, "with the matter returnedto a disorganized fonn.But the dissolution occurs only'by degrees.. The spirit of mercury acts on the soul of gold to generate the colours, and theblue that followshard upon the yellow is a sign of the for:mationof a diffetentstateof matter,labelled Uyekingly child". The "child" is matter organized in a "younger" way, relativelysimple when compared to the "mature" materials at the beginning: The blue of the youngking gives way to green, asymbol of vegetability, when a green menstruuni is to be distilled(and presumably reserved ,for later ~se).But we move on to the ultimate disintegrati?nand death in the material, necessary because the soul has been separated from the body. ItsHsymptoms" are foulness, thickening, and a loss of breath and movement; as the matter isreduced taUa discontinued calx of the blackest black", it is seen as wholly lacking in life andorganization.

The utter desolation of the dead material is soon relieved. The soul acts as an attractive"medium" or mediator, and it begins to attract and unite the body and spirit to itself. Thethree essential principles of the matenal are 'thusUreconjoynedin ordeTto a resurrection" I

and in the next essay we find colour and movement returning, though~ as we shall see in the~hird essay, the new union is not completed until the end of this phase of the work. ..Let usnow look at Newton's second essay, attached to Philalethes' Chapter 26, "Of the Regimenofjupiter".52

Jts last 22 or 24 daysNB.This Reginien begins when ye matter changes from black to a dark blew &

,beginstocirculateanew. <Jthath,deleted> /' Jts most ;/lasting colour is green.Flammel chap 5, 6,7. . .

. Jthath. two members Solution & separation or ablution. Solution makesyeblack matter relent & circulate /' in vapors arising like a smoke ;/ & <illegibleword, deleted> divides between /' Jupiter & Juno or /Azoth &- Laton & bringsAzoth to yehighestdegre of volatility & fluidity, <separation, deleted>- & wears

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NEWTON'S COpy OF "SECRETS REVEAL'n" ISS, away blackness. Separation or' ablution ,washes <A, deleted> Laton by Azothcirculated upon 'it. Jn the common period of these two members; suppose about ye·middle of yeRegimen of lJ. fflammel teaches to. draw of <sic> Azoth (weh will be ofa citrine white colour) & imbibe Laton therewithseventimes &this he callswasbingof Laton, Putting ye mother in the belly of her infant, sowing the Dragon's teeth inye earth<& pouring the broth of Medea on ye, deleted> to make armed men springup, & pouring the broth of Medea on ye Dragons of Cholchos ./ to get the hom ofAmalthea / , & overcoming ye enchanted Bulls W~h cast fire & smoke out of theirnostrills. These imbibitions are for drying up y6 moisture so yt you'may conie·tocongelation~ Jn yemiddle of this Regimen you may also get ye three principles formultiplication. ·ffor they are now most at .liberty, tho Manna teach to do it whenye matter appears like melted pitch.53 " ., .

Once the signs of. life-colour and mobility-have been reinstated in the· matter,,Newton's,second essay, like the first, diverges sharply from the text of Philalethes' chapter·,The main thrust 6fNewton's essay"is the formation of two new materials from the "dis-continued", dead, 'blac1{calx of chaos. The two are characterized as Jupiter and Juno.or as Azoth and Laton; 'they are formed by the first "member"bf this regimen, solution.In the' second Itmember", separation or ablution, Laton is \vashed by Azoth. ,ThenAzoth, known by its yellowish whiteness, is used to imbibe Laton with a view to'drying

.uP the moisture and preparing the material forco~gelationin the next regimeI1~Newton might have :usedalarge variety of paired ~YIllb61sto name the two m~terials,

fo~ similar duos are frequently encountered in the alchemical literat.ure.· It is possibleto give a psychological explanation of their prevalence,54yet wehavenoreal evidence thatNewton. was engaging.himself in the· psychic· progression of Inystical·alchen1Y or·"spiritualchemistry". He was interested in the structure of matter and in what alchemy could teachhim about its forms and changes and about the universal spirit that animated the changesand moulded· the forms. .. . .

One is tempted, therefore, to relate Azoth a.nd'Laton to the.generic mercury and sulphurthat Newton discussed a decade or so later (in De natura acidorutit) asthe basic constituentsof all·matter. There he said:

Note that what is said by chemists, that everythirigis'made from' sulphur andmercury, is true, because by sulphur they mean acid, and by mercury they meanearth.55

It may indeed be possible to make this identification of Azoth and l.aton with sulphur and.mercury, but only with some qualifications .. ' ".,

Newton himself sharply .distinguished between common or vulgar chemistry and"vegetable" chemistry.56 The former comprised all ordinary reactions and took place bymechanical interactions of the corpuscles. The latter required the action of the vital spirit,God's universal agent for effecting the maturation of matter. If we relate these ideas toNewton's hierarchical structure of matter, we see that vulgar chemistry involves the largestand most complex corpuscles only. He himself says this in several places;57 .Yet in thealchemical essay on: the regimen of Jupiter,' Newton is talking about 'materials that have

.i,ust arisen from disintegrated matter, from a totally "discontinued" state. The vital.princi.pleis acting on ehaotic.inattel\ rebuildipg it, but it 'has only just begun to act. Itseemst.hen:that ifwe·wis4 to treat Azoth and L~tonin,terrilsofNewton's hierarchies, we

'should consider.them.as representative. oftbe, very first ley~lof the.,oJganizatj()n 9f. matter,

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as unions of the velY smallest, ultimate, uncuttable corpuscles. If the two substances are a"sulphur" and a "mercury" -and there is some evidence for this from a collateral manuscriptthat also seems to date from the early 1680'S 58-then they must be composed of complexparticles much sn1aller than the relatively large corpuscles of the sulphur and mercury ofvulgar chemistry. Yet~ven that characterization of Azoth and Laton is too simplistic,for it ignores the vegetability of the two substances. They are in some sense alive, for theyplaya transient but necessary part in the "generation" of the philosopher's stone. They areactors and participants in a vital process of growth and maturation, as Newton makesperfectl y clear in his third essay.

The third essay, on the regimen of Luna or silver, attached to Philalethes' Chapter 27,is the shortest one of all. Yet in some ways it is the most interesting of the three essays.In it Newton includes some "particular signes", but fewer of them than in the other tworegimens, and more of the essay is given over to interpretative remarks. As in previouscases, the content of Newton's essay is only tenuously related to Philalethes' chapter on thesame subject.

Jt lasts 20 or 22This- Regimen consists also of two members conjunction & Congelation. Jn y8

:first appear ye colours of ye Peacocks taile ye harbinger of Juno, & the elementsbody soul & spirit unite inseparably. This union becomes complete in ye hour of y8stones nativity when / ye colours are past & / all appears like a glorious argentvive· /' weh is 30 days after putrefaction complete /. fior the generation of y8stone is likened to that of a man Tis conceived in ye Regimen of ~ when <all,deleted> colours begin to appear & born now. And thence the white spirit in y8regimen o£.4 /' &. this ~ in ye regimen of })/ are called virgins milk. <illegibleword, deleted> Jn ye last you may either decoct yoe stone for multiplication /' orcommon 0·/. The proportion is·about 3 to I. But common 0must be added inye hour of ye ~leBnativity while it is yet warm & at work. The addition of 0 isto dry up ye ~ & bring it to congelation & red attoms. And note that Ripley's 3mentruums or ~leB.are those in ye regimens of ~.}.f. & D .59

Again, there are two "members" of the regimen. In the first-conjunction-body,soul, and spirit complete their union. They are now "inseparably" joined, which seems tomean this matter could never again undergo complete dissolution and putrefaction. Theirunion marks the end of conjunction and the onset of the final "member" of the regimen,congelation. It is "yC hour of yCstones nativity when yCcolours are past & all appears likea glorious argent vive". The vital, even animal, nature of the process is emphasized:"fior the generation of yCstone is likened to that of a man Tis conceived in yCRegimen of ~when colours begin to appear & born now".

The stone seems to be equated here, however, ,vith the "mercury" of the regimen ofLuna, for Newton adds that:

common 0.must be added in ye hour of ye ~les nativity while it is yet warm & atwork. The addition of 0 is to dry up ye ~ & bring it to congelation & red attoms.

We find also that Philalethes designates the product of the regimen of Luna as only thewhite stone; some of the processes must be reiterated and intensified to produce the ultimatematurity of the red stone. So we are by no means to consider the regimen of Luna as theend of the work.

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NEWTON'S COPY OF "SECRETS REVEAL'n" 157It does seem nevertheless to mark the end of Newton's synthesis in the early 1680s. The

rest of the notes in Series C are sparse. Opposite the title of Philalethes' Chapter 28,"Of the Regimen of Venus", Newton wrote: "Jt lasts 4°/ or 42/ days."6o Next to thetitle for Chapter 29, "Of the Regimen of Mars", he wrote: "Jt last 42 days AEyren onRipleys vision p."61 Then the final note in Series C, by Chapter 30, "Of the Regimen ofSol", is as follows: "Jt lasts 40 or 42 days more AEyren on ye <illegible word, deleted>Ripleys vision."62

THE LATER REGIMEN PAPERS

We have seen that Newton set out to describe the regimens uwth ye times & signes" inthe 1670s, and that in the early 1680s he recorded in his copy of Secrets Reveal'd a syntheticdescription of the work (up to the white stone) drawn from several authors, but based largelyon Philalethes.. It was of course traditional for students of alchemy to comb the literatureas Newton did. What was hidden by one author might be revealed by another; what hadbeen lost or garbled in transmission might be discovered in its correct form in a manuscriptcloser to the original. Though there were some who thought that an essential fragmentpassed only from adept to adept in an oral tradition, most would-be alchemists madethe following assumption: successful practitioners had all spoken -about a real process,and, when errors were corrected and omissions rectified and the various parts of the secret'were disinterred and recombined, the true way of working would stand revealed. Newtonmay have been more thorough than anyone else who ever attacked the alchemical mystery,but his approach to the literature was not qualitatively different from that of the traditionalalchemist. He outstripped his predecessors in mental agility and flexibility, however. Ashe proceeds to master book after book, the regimen papers change, sometimes shrinkingas he refines and omits extraneous material, sometimes swelling as he works towards a newsynthesis that will include new authors.

Keynes MS 49,63 entitled "The Regimen", is one of the shorter ones if one takes onlythe synthetic part and omits the annotations, for· here the synthesis is cast in the· formof seven brief aphorisms. It was probably written after the regimens essays in Series Cabove 'and before r686, both from the appearance of the handwriting and from the factthat it does not mention Mundanus. The later manuscripts abound with references to thatadept, for Newton thought highly of him, and all those references stem from a book pub-lished in r686 by Edmund Dickinson, physician to the King.64 But in Keynes MS 49,Mundanus has not yet made his appearance, even though Newton has expanded his readingto the point that he now includes fourteen of "the best".

This process J take to be ye work of the best Authors, Hermes, Turba, Morien,Artephius, Abraham ye Jew & Flammel, Scala, Ripley, Maier, the great Rosary,Charnock, Trevisan, Philaletha, Despagnet.65 .

Newton's conception of the work has been amplified also, though hestill conceives of itas one "linear" process, as is explicitly stated in the first two aphorisms. The first "grosswork" seems to be comparable to the work in conlmon gold of the r670s and early1680s, though now there is no mention of gold, either common or sophic. The. secondwork is given-no nanle at all, and in Aphorisms 6 and 7 yet a third \vork appears. Thoughthere is continuity with the essays in Secrets Reveal'd, especially in the treatment of· the

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UyoungkingH iri:Aphorisms -4-and 6, there has been a considerable evolution in :Newton'sthinking, as the aphorisms themselves will make apparent.

The Regimen.Aphorism .~. .

, _The work consists9f two parts the first of wchiscalled the gross work &. by man:yimbibitions & putrefactions purges the matter fromits gross f~ces & exalts in highlyin vertue & then whitens it.

Apli2The second part also putrifies the matter by severall imbibitions &, thereb-y

purges it from y' few remaining feces & exalts it much higher in vertue & thenwhitens. it. '. fior the two parts of the work resemble one another & have the samelin~ar process. ..... . . .

Aph 366

The putrefaction' of y6 second.work' lasts about five months & is done by sevenimbibitions or at most by gor 10,& for promoting the putrefaction the spirit is drawnof at the end of eyery imbibition·& digestion.

. Aph4In both works the Sun & Moon are joyned & bathed & putrefied in their proper:

menstruum and in thesecolld work:by this conjunction they beget the young king.whose birth is in a white colour & ends the second work unless you shall think fit.todecoct one half of it to. y6 red.

AphSThe feces wch in the second work are separated' byye putrefactions when the

putrefactions are over & the matter relents into white water, fall to the bottom ofthe water & must be separated.

. .' . Aph6. ._ . 'The young new born king is nourished iil a bigger heat with milk drawn by

4estil1ation from the putrefied matter of the second'work. With this milk he must beimbibed seven times to' putrefy him sufficiently & then decocted to the white & red,& in passing to ye red he must he imbibed once or twicewth a little red oyle tofortify yesolary nature & make the red stone more fluxible. And. this may be.called the third work. The first work goes on no further then to putrefaction thesecond goes on to ye white & ye third to ye red.

. Aph 7The white & red sulphurs are multiplied by their proper mercuries (white & red)

of the second or third work, wherein a little ofthe fixt salt is dissolved.67

Keynes MS49 is the last reasonably simple regimen manuscript. ··After1686 and an intothe 1690S Newton tries again and again. We may mention here Keynes MS 48,68 thelongest of all the surviving manuscripts directly on the regimens. It defiessuccinct analysis.Although most of its 24,000 words are notes and abstracts, there are synthetic spots in it.In addition to sections on the regimens of Mercury and Jupiter, there is one on the regimenof Saturn and another on the regimen of fire. There are notes on the composition of thestone and notes on the conversion, conjunction, and decoction of the elements in thesecond work. The range of authors cited is very llluch greater than in the earlier papers,

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NEWTON'S COPY OF "SECRETS REVEAL'n" 159and now Mundanus is quoted~(placing this .manuscript after 1686),but Philalethes is· stillprominent. .

Keynes MS 48 was probably the detail work for Newton's next major synthesis: "TheRegimen" in Bumdy MS ISB.69 Rougher"'than' the essays in Secrets Reveal'd and KeynesMS 49, this manuscript bears many deletions and inter1ineations. Yet it is polisheden9ughto be ariimport,cint source·for Ne'Wton'sthought 6ilthe alcnemi¢al work; and it con-tains6ver3,ooo'words. ' 'Itdate~ after t686,for:Muridanus'is'cited~, J~ut 'pro~~bly before1689. In 1689 there appeared Le triomphe hermetique,70 a bookthaf impressed Newton asstrongly as Dickinson's work had in 16a6~ The lack of any reference to Le triomphehermetique irtButndyMS ISB thus seems to place the manuscript in .aperiod before Newtonread t~e la~er work~ '. , . '

In Burn'dy MS ISB Newton has modified his earlier-descriptions somewhat and has begunto speak of a via sicca and a via humida, either one of which will lead to the'stone, though thevia sicca is longer and more tedious.7!. The via sicca, however, seems to be at least roughlyequivalent to the old work in common gold"and <a collateraL manuscript makes thatexplicit. ,The latter· is a short· paper of. about 1,000 words, entitled ."The Thre'e Fires" .It was Sotheby lot no. 77 and now is Keynes MS'46;· Kil1g"s"College,'Cambridge. Thehandwriting in this manuscript is identical ~th that of Bumdy MS ISB, and the last sectionof it, entitl~d "The. several ",orks" , gives,a brief recapitulation of the essential features ofBumdy MS ISB. In it, the work with vulgarg()Jdisi4elltifie.dwith-the'via siica and thework with philosophic gold with the viahumida,and Newton.adds thatPontanus andArte-phius suggest yet a third way that is supposed to be easier,thaneither.72

Newton's alchemical work reached a peak in the late 1680s and in the I690s, both in theprodpction of alchemi~al papersandin laboratory ,work. Although there are many relatedpapers from this periodJspac~ does not .permit useyen to -list.thern allh~,re,ir!uch less todemonstrate their relationships. Suffice it now to say that' the climactic _manuscript isBabson MS420, entit1edPraxis, dating from the middle to late 1690s.73 In it we meet manyold fri~nds-the variousreguli_(living and dead), the different ways to do th~ work, thethree fires, Laton, the chaos, the king,' theregirp.en of Luna-and .new' ollesas well.... BabsonMS420 seems to re~ect NewtoIlJ~own'experimental results als.o,and it may firiaiIy give usthat much needed key for-opening the secrets of Newton.'s ba .HJnglaboratory record. Thepresent writer is analysing all of these later manuscripts' wit h' a view to publication, butin the meantime let us return once more to Secrets Reveal'd and consider Newton's last setof notes in the book, Series D.

THE SERIES D.NoTES

The Series D notes aremostly quite brief. Not all of them have key signs relating themto the text, though a few are keyed with "ex," "d," or a small cross. One may neverthelessinfer their relation to the text by their marginal positions.

Probably they were·notaIl written at one·time:.·no significant variation occurs in thehandwriting from one note to the next in this series, but there are changes of ink. But theymay be grouped together because of a common characteristic that sets them apart fromSeries A, B, and C,which is, that they all.bear citations to other alchemical literature orcross-references to other places in SectetsReveal'd.

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160 B·I·T.DOBBS

It 1s of some interest that this class of notes is concentrated towards the end of the bookand is especially heavy in the pages immediately following the regimen' essays in' Series C.The notes seem to belong to a period after that of Series C, where' Newton tooktheprocessas far asthe white stone, and to represent a time in which he was asking, ((,What comes next?"In turn, that means that the series should reflect thefocus of his probing just then. The latestof the references in the series isto Le triomphehermetique"which indicates that he was stillworking on these notes in 1689 or early in the 1690s.

There is a total of nineteen notes in the series, nine of which contain nothing but refer-ence~. The other ten contain short phrases or sentences designed apparently to explicatea physical sign or to elucidate a part of the process. There, is nothing particularly. note-worthy in most of them, but two examples will serve to demonstrate their nature.

The first example comes from the margins of the last page ofPhilalethes' Chapter 27,"Of the Regimen of Luna". Newton left a blank space of approximately one inch afterhis e~;sayon the regimen of Luna, which also ends on this page, and then began his note.The note is keyed with a slnalLcross to the following text .

. . . In a word, about this season the hourly marvels that shall appear, shall overwhelmthe sight, and at the last, thou shalt have" most pure sparkling grains like untoAtomes of the Sun+, more glorious than which hu:t;nane eyes never saw.74

Newton apparently wants to know a little more precisely what ((Atomes of the' Sun"might look like in the real world, so he lists descriptions that he thinks.are comparablefrom no less than eleven other spots in the alchemical literature.

+ or like the most pure <Lilly> 75 or <illegible, word, deleted> /' most, white /Sublimed salt. Ph on Ripl.Gat. p 335, John Sawtre p 35 Or like snow or orientalGemms. Jsaac apud Lagneum in Th. Ch.V. 4. p. 773. Transparent & clear ascrystal. Ripl. Bosom book p. 114 Luna plena stadeoclara quasi margaritaepellucidaeetfrustulatim contusi Adamantes; Grassaeus in' Arca p. 336. J. 18.Nivis instar aut salis floris <Dionys Zach,deleted> Trevisan. p. 708 <illegiblewords, deleted> ad modum marmoris relucentis & salis albissimi Laurent. Venturap. 287, 292 cum' splendore crystallirio ib p 224. lin. 40. Est enim Sal argentusalbi coloris Faber Hydrogr. p. 201, 20276

This is typical of the Series D notes. In this note Newton may be seen still trying to definethe ((signes", and it is a good exemplar of the thoroughness of his search.

In our second example Newton is comparing the different uses that some of his favouriteauthors make of a certain substance, which he assumes to be identical for them all. Hisnote is keyed to the following text with an" a" .

Now art thou drawing near to the end of thy Work, and hast almost made an endof this business; now all appears like unto pure Gold and o:the Virgins Milk, withwhich thou imbibest this Matter, is now very Citrine .... 77

The note is in the right margin of the first page of Philalethes' Chapter 30, ((Of the Regi-men of Sol" .

ex With this ~ ,<Flammel imbibes, deleted> D'Espagnet multiples & Philaletha,Grass & perhaps Artephius dissolve ye red '~'"to make the highest <aurum potabile,

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NEWTON'S COPY OF uSECRETS REVEAL'D" 161

deleted> medicine in nature / an oyle /. most sweet to tast & fragrant to <smell>wherewth Artephius Lully & others prolonged their lives. See Philal. on Ripl. Pre£.p 80, 84, 85, 86. & on 3d Gat p. 24878

Newton's assumption that all of the best writers are talking about the same true process isapparent here. Implicit also is another common assumption, that, as the materials areexalted in virtue, they provide medicine not only for metals but for man as well.

By far the most curious discovery to arise from a study of Series D, however, is that ofNewton's interest in a process called "illumination". Three of the nineteen notes in thisseries focus on it. Then there is the note on the recto of the back flyleaf (discussed above inconnection with Series B), in which Newton seems to have gone through his entire Latinmanuscript of Secrets Reveal'd looking for passages on illumination, for he observes that theyare all "wanting" in the Latin.

There appear to be two different places in the alchemical work where, according toPhilalethes, the process of .illumination is important. In the work with common goldan illuminated mercury is an early necessity, but on the other hand there is a spontaneous(or perhaps miraculous) illumination of the material almost at the end of the total process.Newton took note of both.

His first note on illumination in Series D comes in Philalethes' Chapter 19, teOf theProgress of the Work in the first Forty Dayes". It is not keyed to the text but appears inthe right margin, by the line in which the word "illuminate" appears in the following passage.

If then thou know how to illuminate our ~ as it ought to be, thou mayest for wantof our 0 joyn with Gold vulgar, but yet know that the acuation of the ~ ought tobe different for the one, and for the other, and in a true Regimen of them, in anhundred and fifty dayes, thou shalt have our· 0, for our 0 naturally comes out ofour ~ .... 79

By which passage Newton writes, uVide p. 67, 72."80 His first reference does indeed speakabout illumination, whereas the second tells a little more about "our 0".

The second type of illumination first appears in Newton's note on the final passage ofPhilalethes' Chapter 29, uOf the Regimen of Mars", where Philalethes says:

... therefore continue a good heat, and thou shalt see for certain about thirty dayesoff this Regimen a Citrine colour shall appear, which shall in two weeks offer its firstappearing Tincture, all with a true Citrine colour.81

Newton's note is unkeyed, but is written in the left and bottom margins around thatpassage.

NB This citrine colour lasts 46 days vizt till ye heavenly fire descend & illuminateye earth wth inconceivable glory, that is till wthin 3 days of ye very end. Philal onRipl. st Gate p 353.82

All but the last phrase of this note has been drawn from the reference Newton cites.s3The last note in Series D concerned with illumination is found in Philalethes' Chapter 30,

uOf the Regimen of Sol". It pinpoints the other text that Newton drew on for his notabene, for there Philalethes writes:

... at the last, by the will of God, a light shall be sent upon thy Matter, which thoucanst not imagine; then expect a sudden end, within three dayes .... 84

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162 B. J. T. DOBBS

In the left margin by that passage Newton merely says cryptically, "Jllumination. SeePhilal on Rip!. P 45, 181, 353".85

ILLUMINATION

No evidence has yet appeared to show that Newton concerned himself very much withPhilalethes' second type of illumination. Probably he did not, for the simple reasonthat he never got far enough in the alchemical work for it to become a practical issue withhim. But with the initial type Newton was concerned.

Illumination was apparently a process of activation. Philalethes called it "acuation",a procedure in which matter was made more sharp, pungent, acute.86 The word "illumin-ation" itself suggests that light was involved in the process, but it would be a mistake· tothink of alchemical illumination as limited to situations in which matter was activated bylight. Though, as we shall see, Newton considered the possibility that the activating prin-ciple might be "the body of light", the alchemical concept is really broader than that."Acuation" might be effected by light, it is true-and Newton finally carried that notioninto his Opticks87:"'-but it might be effected also by an invisible agent that Newton some-times called a vegetative principle or spirit. There were perhaps hundreds of alchemicalnames for it. Newton discusses nearly thirty of them in a chapter of his Praxis entitledtiDe agento primo". It is called, he says, Mercury's caducean rod, a saline spirit, the salt ofnature, the waterbearer, the winged dragon, a water, a moist fire, or our Cupid-to give a fewexamples. But however it is named, it is the first agent, that without which nothing isdone and with which "vulgar ~ must be acuate and sol putrefied".88

As noted above, the Praxis of Babson MS 420 probably is the last major synthetic state-ment of Newton's on the great work of alchemy, and it almost certainly dates from the lasthalf of the I690s. On the matter of illumination, however, it shows much continuity withhis earlier papers. The very first regimen paper, quoted above, in fact begins with thestatement that for the work in common gold the mercury must first be illuminated, and wecan find some sort of process of "acuation" in all of the papers on regimens, whether theterm "illumination" is used or not. There is also explicit continuity between the Praxisand the process for making an activated, living mercury described by Newton in his "ClavisH

,

for one of the names of the first agent in the Praxis is "The first ens of mineral salts .... wtb

weh ye Reg. of Mars abounds .... "89 That is that same star regulus of al1timony(preparedby the use of iron) that Newton thought in the "Clavis" had drawn in a celestial "fermentalvirtue" and transferred it to the mercury.

We cannot stress the vital nature of this process of activation too strongly, and we mustalso insist that the activating agent in illumination was broadly conceived and not neces-sarily limited to visible light. It was the animating spirit that Newton had searched for allalong in his alchemy. But Newton saw that the alchemical agent had many analogieswith light, and he elaborated these in a fascinating manuscript that probably dates from1674. In it Ne\vton is attempting to define the nature of the active spirit, to the action ofwhich the vegetation of metals is due. There he says:

This spirit perhaps is the body of light because both have a prodigious active prin-ciple, both are perpetual workers. 2 Because all things may be made to emitlight by heat. 3 The same cause (heat) banishes also the vital principle. 4 'Tissuitable with infinite wisdom not to multiply causes without necessity. 5 No heatis so pleasant and bright as the sun's. 6 Light and heat have a mutual dependence

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NEWTON'S COPY OF "SECRETS REVEAL'D"

on each other, and no generation without heat. Heat is a necessary condition tolight ·and vegetation. [Heat excites light and light excites heat; heat excites thevegetable principle and that increases heat.] 6 <sic> No substance so indif-ferently, subtly, and swiftly pervades all things as light, and no spirit searches bodiesso subtly, piercingly, and quickly as the vegetable spirit.90

Such an identification of light with the vegetative principle in turn had implications forcosmogony, especially for a cosmogonist weaned on Genesis. We have seen already thatPhilalethes compared the alchemical work to creation, quoting the critical passages fromGenes1:s.91 Philalethes says the tlSophi" agree unanimously on this point, and he was pro-bably correct in that, or nearly so. In any case Newton agreed, and he wrote a paper sometime in the early 1680s in vvhichhe made the linkage explicit and spoke about the illumina-tion of matter in th{3alchemical \vork as comparable to God's use of light in the creation.

Newton's ,york on that aspect of alchemy was perhaps stimulated by Thomas Burnetlate in 1680. Burnet had completed a manuscript of his T elluris theoria sacra92 and hadsent it to Ne,vton for comment. There followed an exchange of letters, in one of whichNewton offers Burnet several suggestions concerning the "generation of hills" and otherirregularities out of the originally uniform chaos of creation.93 The problenl was todescribe what had happened in a plausible and "Philosophical" ,yay without conflictingwith the l\10saicdescription, and Newton decides that Moses had simply left out some stepsso as not to make his account tedious and laughable to the vulgar. l\tIoseshad not botheredto describe the separation of the chaos into the several parcels of sun and planets, for ex-ample, but Newton finds that to have been the \vork of the first day. Moses had dealt withthe important "divisions" and "separations" within the earthly chaos, on the other hand,and as Ne\vton discusses the stages in the generation of our globe, his terminology takeson a distinctly chemical cast. The analogies Newton offers for the formation of hills are alsochemical-the coagulation of dissolved saltpetre into irregular bars, the congelation ofmelted tin in non-uniform lumps, and the curdling of milk. Newton' thus shows himselfto have been in the mainstream of "the chemical philosophy" of the sixteenth and seven-teenth centuries, where creation was viewed as a chemical (or alchemical) separation.94

That aspect of the chemical philosophy derived ultimately from the Emerald Tabletof Hermes Trismegistus. Because of its supposed antiquity, and the quasi-divinity attribu-ted to Hermes himself, this mysterious text had acquired a lustrous patina of authority.In it Hermes concludes his' description of the alchemical process with tlSic mundus creatusest"-"Thus was the world created",95 and it is in a comment on that passage that we findNewton's amplification of the parallels between creation and alchemy.

Newton's comments survive in Keynes MS 28, King's College, Cambridge. The manu-script contains two versions of the Emerald Tablet in Newton's hand, one English and oneLatin, with the "Commentarium" by Newton following the Latin version. Probably theEnglish version is one that Newton later translated from the French, and inkstains showthat what is now Keynes MS 27 (Newton's English translation of Hermes' Seven Chaptersfrom the French) was also at one time a part of this packet of papers. I(eynes MS 28also has two elaborately prepared title pages, each bearing the single word "Hermes", sothat these papers taken as a whole seem to reflect Ne\vton's syste~Ettic study of HermesTrismegistus. However, as noted above, the "Com nentarium" probably Calles OJ.t of allne of thought prompted by the correspondence with Burnet on his T elt'ltris theor£a sacra,and it is ,vith the "Commentarium" that we are immediately concerned.

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The HCommentariurh" is an immensely significant document for any study of Newton'sthought during the period just before he began to compose the Principia, and as such itdeserves full publication. 96 However, we are here restricted to-the section that relatesdirectly to our inquiry into the concept of illumination, where Newton sets out the explicitanalogy he sees between God's creativity and that of the alchemist.

And just asthe world \vascreated from dark Chaos through the bringing forth of thelight and through the separation of the aery firmament and of the waters from the

, earth, so our work brings forth the beginning out of black chaos and its first matterthrough the separation of the elements and the illumination of matter. Whencearise the marvellous adaptations and arrangements in our work, the mode of whichhere was prefigured in the creation of the world.97

In this p1anuscript, N ewton ~ad. previouslyske~ched 'out 'the alchemic process in a man-ner highly reminiscent of the more detailed descriptioris in the r~gimen seiiesof papers.The· two basic .forms of matter are there, called sulphur and· mercury as in De naturaacidorum. which he says act on each other like male and female and beget "a more nobleoffspril1:g'~, theUyoung king" of the other papers, whose "generation ... is similar to thehuman .... "98 It is simply impossible to mistake the organic nature of the process asNewton describes it, and it all depends on the vivification effected by the universal alchemi-cal agent that was perhaps Hthe body of light" but. was certainly Hvegetable" in nature.

CONCLUSION

Starting with an obscu~e and esoteric book and some equally obscure and esoteric noteson it, we have folIowedsomethingof the development of Newton's thought on the regimensof the great work of alchemy .. Despite the archaic concepts and the shifting terminologyin the papers examined here, the basic thrust is undeniable. AsNe\vtbn continued hispowerful drive towards an understanding of cosmic processes, he had always a sense ofsome active principle at work behind the scenes. Perhaps it was light, perhaps not, but itwas certainly God's agent. It was what God had-used in the beginning to create the ,vorld,and it continued to act at His discretion, intinlately linking God with His creation.

Whoever understood the operations of this "spirit" through the alchemical work wouldbetter understand the Deity. The motivation behind Newton's study of alchemy wasundoubtedly theologica1.99 No static, mechanical universe, detached from the constantlymoulding hand of the Creator (or of his immediate agent) was acceptable. Though Newtoncast his public arguments in terms of providential design and an immaterial First Cause, at-the root of those arguments lay the evidence he thought he had gathered from alchemy.

It wpuld be anachronistic to say that Newton had some rudimentary conception of theevolution of matter as it has been delineated by modern physics: the very application of theword "evolution" to Newton's concept would be amiss. Though the alchemical vision doescome closer to modern views than do the ideas on matter of most eighteenth-and nineteenth-century 'chemists, yet Newton's thought had organic and teleological components thatmake it irremediably non-modern. We must,no( continue to read him through glassestinged by the Enlightenment. Yet when all that is said, there remains one thing more.If one is willing to re-read Newton's passages on the interaction ofJight and matter in thesepost··Einsteiniandays 'and tore-cast them iIi terms'of.the electro-Il1agnetictheoryof light

Text source: AMBIX, Vol. 26, Part 3, November 1979