First, at least some cryptic texts and emblems dealing with making the Philosophers’ Stone do encode real chemical processes that their authors carried out. Second, these bizarre allegories and emblems can be rationally and methodically deciphered, meaning that their authors constructed them carefully, not only to conceal their knowledge, but also to reveal it in a measured way to the most talented and thus the most worthy readers. Third, readers expected such allegorical language and imagery to have a specific, discernible meaning; they labored at understanding it, and at least some of them
...more
