Leer Alchemy: Ancient and Modern: Being a Brief Account of the Alchemistic Doctrines, and Their Relations, to Mysticism on the One Hand, and to Recent Discoveries in Physical Science on the Other Hand; Together with Some Particulars Regarding the Lives and Teachings of the Most Noted Alchemists online gratis (en inglés)

"Alchemy: Ancient and Modern" by H. Stanley Redgrove is a historical account written in the early 20th century. This work discusses the philosophical and experimental aspects of alchemy, examining its relationship with mysticism and recent developments in physical science. Redgrove seeks to reframe the outdated perception of alchemy as mere superstition, presenting it instead as an important precursor to modern chemistry, with valuable insights into humanity's understanding of the physical universe. The opening of the book introduces the concept of alchemy, emphasizing its dual nature as both a physical practice and a spiritual philosophy. Redgrove explains that while alchemy is often simplistically viewed as the quest to transform base metals into gold through the Philosopher's Stone, it actually represents a deeper investigation into the nature of reality. He highlights the alchemists' belief in a cosmic unity and their attempts to realize this through experimental methods, while al

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The number of books in the English language dealing with the interesting
subject of Alchemy is not sufficiently great to render an apology
necessary for adding thereto. Indeed, at the present time there is an
actual need for a further contribution on this subject. The time is gone
when it was regarded as perfectly legitimate to point to Alchemy as an
instance of the aberrations of the human mind. Recent experimental
research has brought about profound modifications in the scientific
notions regarding the chemical elements, and, indeed, in the scientific
concept of the physical universe itself; and a certain resemblance can
be traced between these later views and the theories of bygone Alchemy.
The spontaneous change of one “element” into another has been witnessed,
and the recent work of Sir William Ramsay suggests the possibility of
realising the old alchemistic dream--the transmutation of the “base”
metals into gold.

The basic idea permeating all the alchemistic theories appears to have
been this: All the metals (and, indeed, all forms of matter) are one in
origin, and are produced by an evolutionary process. The Soul of them
all is one and the same; it is only the Soul that is permanent; the
body or outward form, i.e., the mode of manifestation of the Soul, is
transitory, and one form may be transmuted into another. The similarity,
indeed it might be said, the identity, between this view and the modern
etheric theory of matter is at once apparent.

The old alchemists reached the above conclusion by a theoretical method,
and attempted to demonstrate the validity of their theory by means of
experiment; in which, it appears, they failed. Modern science, adopting
the reverse process, for a time lost hold of the idea of the unity of
the physical universe, to gain it once

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