This sulphur again was not ordinary sulphur, but some principle derived from it, which constituted the philosopher's stone or elixir - white for silver and yellow or 1 " Some traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience might have been acquired in the practice of arts and manufactures, but the science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the industry of the Saracens.
It is really not extraordinary that Isaac Hollandus was able to indicate the method of the preparation of the " philosopher's stone " from " adamic " or " virgin " earth, and its action when medicinally employed; that in the writings assigned to Roger Bacon, Raimon Lull, Basil Valentine and others are to be found the exact quantities of it to be used in transmutation; and that George Ripley, in the 15th century, had grounds for regarding its action as similar to that of a ferment.
Perhaps this, as well as his meddling with astrology, caused him to be charged with practising magic, the particular accusations being that he brought back into his purse, by the aid of the devil, all the money he paid away, and that he possessed the philosopher's stone.
In consequence, his lecture-room was thronged with people of all sorts, anxious to hear a man who shunned the barren obscurities of the alchemists, and did not regard the quest of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life as the sole end of his science.
Forman also practiced alchemy, for Lilly found among his papers several horaries asking whether he would ever attain the Philosopher's Stone.
