This brings us at once close upon the great
Ternary of the ancients and of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, whom
we do wrong to scorn. Modern chemistry is nothing more than that. It
is much, and yet little,--much, because the science has never recoiled
before difficulty; little, in comparison with what remains to be done.
Chance has served her well, my noble Science! Is not that tear of
crystallized pure carbon, the diamond, seemingly the last substance
possible to create? The old alchemists, who thought that gold was
decomposable and therefore creatable, shrank from the idea of
producing the diamond. Yet we have discovered the nature and the law
of its composition.
"'As for me,' he continued, 'I have gone farther still. An experiment
proved to me that the mysterious Ternary, which has occupied the human
mind from time immemorial, will not be found by physical analyses,
which lack direction to a fixed point. I will relate, in the first
place, the experiment itself.
"'Sow cress-seed (to take one among the many substances of organic
nature) in flour of brimstone (to take another simple substance).
Sprinkle the seed with distilled water, that no unknown element may
reach the product of the germination. The seed germinates, and sprouts
from a known environment, and feeds only on elements known by
analysis. Cut off the stalks from time to time, till you get a
sufficient quantity to produce after burning them enough ashes for the
experiment.
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