ALCHEMY AND THE ALCHEMISTS
Book Details + Condition: The Philosophical Research Society (Los Angeles, CA). First Edition thus, 1976. Facsimile of the original 1857 edition, in a stated Limited Edition issue. Scarce. Hardcover. 304 pages, with frontis portrait of the author. Includes an Introductory Preface by Manly P. Hall. Volume by American Civil War general and alchemy student Ethan Allen Hitchcock, in which he espouses his interpretation of earlier alchemical writings. Hitchcock argues that alchemists used symbolism for philosophical and religious ideas in their writings. The title page of the original edition reads "Remarks upon alchemy and the alchemists, indicating a method of discovering the true nature of Hermetic philosophy and showing that the search after the Philosopher's Stone had not for its object the discovery of an agent for the transmutation of metal. Being also an attempt to rescue from undeserved opprobrium the reputation of a class of extraordinary thinkers in past ages." A clean and solid copy of a very scarce limited edition, with firm binding; and a clean interior.
