Last week I wrote about the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, and I mentioned that one of its translators was actually Sir Isaac Newton. I didn’t include his translation in my post, though, because it goes something like this:

Tis true without lying, certain & most true.

That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like ye which is below to do ye miracles of only one thing . . .

And so on, with more “ye”s and “hath”s and “thou”s. It certainly isn’t bumper sticker material!

By the time Newton came around, alchemy wasn’t in vogue any more in the scientific world. That’s partly why we remember him as a physicist and mathematician rather than an alchemist today. The truth is, though, that he wrote a lot about alchemy, and especially the Philosopher’s Stone. But even though he translated alchemical texts and kept copious notes about the Stone, he never published any of them. As one article points out, Newton was a perfectionist, preferring not to publish anything he hadn’t gone over multiple times. And given that Newton isn’t still around today (Nicolas Flamel-style) and there’s no record of him suddenly having tons of gold, it’s safe to assume that he never succeeded in making the Stone . . . and therefore never felt he had any publishable research.

I can relate to that feeling! And all’s well in the end, because there’s now an online archive with transcriptions of Newton’s research. A cursory glance reveals it’s just as esoteric as you’d imagine (especially judging by the quote above). But there is plenty of it there to explore! 🙂

Selected Resources

Trismegistus, Hermes. The Emerald Tablet of Hermes. Merchant Books 2013, page 14. [Newton’s translation of the Tablet]

“The Chymistry of Isaac Newton.” Indiana University. Website here. [All sorts of articles and explorations, as well as the home for the archive I mentioned above!]

Thomas, Jake. “Isaac Newton’s Alchemy.” History of Yesterday. Here. [This is a more story-oriented than academic resource, and therefore very interesting, although some of the definitions should be taken with a grain of salt.]

Greshko, Michael. “Isaac Newton’s Lost Alchemy Recipe Rediscovered.” National Geographic: April 4, 2016. Find it here. [However, you have to be a subscriber to read very far into the article.]