Newton alchemistry8/5/2023 This article evaluates these distinct modes of divine discourse through a close reading of the chymical content of Newton’s optical writings and his correspondence with Thomas Burnet regarding Genesis. Isaac Newton, like many of his contemporaries, appears to have distinguished between the practice of divinity, founded on divine revelation, and philosophical considerations of God derived from the study of nature. Particularly three influences may be recognized, Ragai suggests in this historical period can be evinced cooperating in the manifestation of alchemical literature and its practical methodology: Greek philosophy, Egyptian craftsmanship and Persian astrology, welded together in the workshops of Alexandria. ![]() Egyptians up until the first century C.E had managed great techniques in extracting and processing metals and had excelled in the preparation of alloys that counterfeited the appearance of silver and gold. Or according to another version of professor of chemistry Jehane Ragai, the word originates from the black Egyptian land of “Chemia” and is referring to Egyptian arts with which is land that provided the practical part and material of alchemy. ![]() The word alchemy possibly derives from Syriac kīmīyā, which in its turn goes back to Greek himia /χημεία: “the art of casting or alloying metals” (see Liddell-Scott, Greek-English lexicon, 2013) scholar of Classical Arabic Philology and Sciences Manfred Ullmann notes. Aspiring to connect historically the scientific process with the natural world may seem something ordinary, but to the extent that this enquiry extents to the probable connections with alchemy, it certainly needs a careful method to follow.
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