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Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

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LSSTEJf to the beginning of a fairy tale! There was once a magic stone las golden as the sun. It glowed in the dark, so beautiful it was. But,

more than that, it conferred upon its lucky owner wealth, power, gold beyond counting, and, best of all, immortality. Sometimes folks called it Elixir of Life, others Water of the Sun. But the name by which it was most famous was Philosopher's Stone.

Until comparatively recent times, in many countries, among all classes of people, there was unshakeable belief in the existence of this stone. It is one of the basic legends of humanity. As well disbelieve in the sun as be incredulous in the Philosopher's Stone. Perhaps belief in it first sprang up in the maze of magic tales that spread over Britain as she emerged from the Stone Age, along with belief in witches, dragons, and cockatrices. Perhaps it was a derivation of sun worship, for to those wondering cavedwellers in a land of swamp and mist, the sun was the origin of life, both literally and metaphorically. By firelight and torchlight its fame grew. Idle story tellers gave it form and colour, and legend was built upon legend until at last it seemed to the people that it was no legend at all, but a most marvellous reality. Imagine a stone that glowed like a star, opened all locks, cured all ills!

Once established, faith in the Philosopher's Stone spread throughout Europe, and there sprang up a body of men who devoted themselves to its discovery. They called themselves alchemists. Some were earnest scientists and astronomers, but most were charlatans dabbling in black magic as well as chemistry. Their main aim was a method for the transmutation of metal, or the secret which turned base metals into gold. Particularly in Italj the alchemists flourished, in dark little apothecary's shops to well appointed laboratories in the courts of gold-greedy kings. Through hundreds of years alchemists stooped over crucibles and peered into retorts, anxiously watching the distillation of outlandish liquids which they believed would turn into gold. Brittle parchments bearing their formulae are extant to-day—mingled science and crazy superstition. Alchemy started out as a true science, but, even as astronomy in medieval times, quickly became tainted with magic and superstition. The scientist and his retort were replaced by the magician with his pentagons and mystic signs, and even the earnest seeker after truth was condemned as a meddler with dark other-worldly things.

Yet in this race to find how to turn dross to gold all, from scientist to wizard, agreed that something was missing—the enchanted Philosopher's Stone. Take lead, antimony, vitriol, water, air and earth, they said, touch the solution with the blessed stone, and, presto! gold. All over Europe they sought for it, following village tales and will-o'-the-wisp stories that never came to anything. Once it was supposed to be hidden in Constantinople, but the Greek chemists, likewise thwarted in their search ior gold, indignantly denied it.

Then arose one of the most extraordinary figures of history—Cagliostro. From a boyhood spent in an Italian monastery he rose to fame and power beyond belief. Accomplished conjurer and hypnotist, he established a reputation for kinship with the devil, and traded on it to such an extent that his power in the Royal courts of Europe was unequalled. Cagliostro claimed that he was ageless and could not be killed, although after hi 3 fall from power he died miserably in poverty and shame. But for a while it was believed that he possessed the Philosopher's Stone, and could turn even dust into gold.

After his failure to prove his sensational claims, there came a belief that the German emperor bore the magic stone in his crown. This jewel was supposed to glow in the dark, and so did the Philosopher's Stone. Spies were dispatched to the German court to watch the emperor, Trat they came sadly home with the news that the German kings had for centuries been the most unlucky of monarchs. and that the gem in the royal crown was-thus something entirely different from the fabulous "Water of the Sun."

So the magic stone was never found, and the alchemists never attained the supreme victory of seeing yellow gold in a crucible that had contained sulphur and mercury. Among them were men of great scientific learning who thus wasted their best years with fruitless experiments. It is sad to think of them, humped in dark corners over dusty volumes of spells, breathing in "noxious fumes from strange concoctions, and spending their intelligence in the pursuit of something which was contrary to all logic and reason. So strong was the belief in the transmutation of metal that Sir Isaac Newton, brilliant scholar and scientist of the first degree, spent far more time in such experiments than he did in those wonderful scientific discoveries of his.

Folk tales and myths still hold traces of the Philosopher's Stone. Do you remember the magic stone that the animals found in Grimms' Tales? Sometimes it appears as a jewel in a ring, turning glass into diamonds, or opening all' doors. Hindu, Arabian and Persian—all tell the same tale. How did this strange belief come? Some explain it this way: The ancients were troubled to account, for the heavenly bodies, so they said that the stars were diamonds,, the moon a pearl, and the sun a luminous stone like the carbuncle or'opal. Under its touch the world came to life. It was the key to all immortality. So came the ' Water of the Sun," fabulous and mysterious, and as irrevocably lost to the world as the sun itself as it daily dips at sunset over the wide rim of the earth.

John Mandeville in his travels tells of the strange beliefs that people held about precious stones in his day. "People believed in those days that upon rocks of crystal grow the good diamonds that are of good colour, and they grow together male and female and they are nourished with the dew of heaven. And they beget offspring and bring forth small children that multiply and grow all the year." This was believed as authentic fact, so it's no wonder that people had so much faith in the Philosopher's Stone.