The Parable of the Alchemist

And if again he descend to the consideration of those arts which are deemed curious rather than safe, and look more closely into the works of the alchemists or the magicians, he will be in doubt perhaps whether he ought rather to laugh over them or to weep. For the alchemist nurses eternal hope and when the thing fails, lays the blame upon some error of his own; fearing either that he has not sufficiently understood the words of his art or of his authors (whereupon he turns to tradition and auricular whispers), or else that in his manipulations he has made some slip of a scruple in weight or a moment in time (whereupon he repeats his trials to infinity). And when, meanwhile, among the chances of experiment he lights upon some conclusions either in aspect new or for utility not contemptible, he takes these for earnest of what is to come, and feeds his mind upon them, and magnifies them to the most, and supplies the rest in hope. Not but that the alchemists have made a good many discoveries and presented men with useful inventions. But their case may be well compared to the fable of the old man who bequeathed to his sons gold buried in a vineyard, pretending not to know the exact spot; whereupon the sons applied themselves diligently to the digging of the vineyard, and though no gold was found there, yet the vintage by that digging was made more plentiful.

Notes:

Alchemists blame themselves when their experiments bare no fruit, but in the effort, they explore the natural world.

Folksonomies: pseudoscience alchemy exploration

Taxonomies:
/hobbies and interests/inventors and patents (0.303753)
/travel/specialty travel/vineyards (0.264186)
/art and entertainment/books and literature (0.204239)

Keywords:
Alchemist Alchemists (0.910253 (negative:-0.421996)), auricular whispers (0.779482 (neutral:0.000000)), alchemist nurses (0.772972 (negative:-0.776546)), natural world (0.754734 (positive:0.431063)), eternal hope (0.699402 (negative:-0.776546)), exact spot (0.698303 (negative:-0.219421)), useful inventions (0.686020 (positive:0.405488)), good many discoveries (0.683246 (positive:0.405488)), old man (0.683152 (neutral:0.000000)), sons gold (0.676794 (neutral:0.000000)), digging (0.491047 (positive:0.362899)), blame (0.436524 (negative:-0.687292)), scruple (0.433507 (negative:-0.536123)), vineyard (0.422030 (positive:0.231810)), Parable (0.419397 (negative:-0.421996)), earnest (0.401644 (negative:-0.275886)), consideration (0.396860 (neutral:0.000000)), manipulations (0.396002 (negative:-0.536123)), magicians (0.394757 (positive:0.327485)), chances (0.394536 (neutral:0.000000)), doubt (0.392932 (negative:-0.232664)), conclusions (0.391734 (neutral:0.000000)), slip (0.388996 (negative:-0.536123)), moment (0.387876 (negative:-0.536123)), effort (0.386347 (neutral:0.000000)), infinity (0.385362 (negative:-0.364916)), experiments (0.384885 (negative:-0.421996)), error (0.383981 (negative:-0.687292)), fruit (0.382391 (negative:-0.421996)), thing (0.381659 (negative:-0.776546))

Entities:
Alchemist Alchemists:Company (0.927038 (positive:0.064009))

Concepts:
Alchemy (0.940177): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Chemistry (0.830107): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Gold (0.824906): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Science (0.762900): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Philosopher's stone (0.713953): dbpedia | freebase
Thing (0.708280): dbpedia
Natural World (0.707992): dbpedia | yago
Experiment (0.707881): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc

 The Novum Organon, or a True Guide to the Interpretation of Nature
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Bacon , Francis (2005-11-30), The Novum Organon, or a True Guide to the Interpretation of Nature, Adamant Media Corporation, Retrieved on 2011-05-17
  • Source Material [www.constitution.org]
  • Folksonomies: todo nature naturalism observation