Tempo:
First comes the broad division which has given the elementals their name—the classification according to the kind of matter which they inhabit. Hefe, as usual, the septenary character of our evolution shows itself ,for there are seven such chief groups, related respectively 'to the seven states of physical matter—to"fa/th, water, air, and fire,” or to translate from medimval symbolism to modern ' accuracy of expression, to the solid, the liquid, the gaseous, and the four etheric conditions.
It has long been the custom to pity and deSpise the ignorance of the alchemists of the lfiiddle ages, because they gave the title of"elements” to substances which modern chemistry has discovered to be compounds ; but in speaking of them thus slightingly we have done them great injustice, for their knowledge on this subject was really wider, not narrower, than ours. They may or may' not have catalogued all the sixty or seventy substances which we now call elements ; but they certainly did not apply that name to them, for their occult studies had taught them that in that sense of the word there
It has long been the custom to pity and deSpise the ignorance of the alchemists of the lfiiddle ages, because they gave the title of"elements” to substances which modern chemistry has discovered to be compounds ; but in speaking of them thus slightingly we have done them great injustice, for their knowledge on this subject was really wider, not narrower, than ours. They may or may' not have catalogued all the sixty or seventy substances which we now call elements ; but they certainly did not apply that name to them, for their occult studies had taught them that in that sense of the word there
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