the seventeenth century saw the full flowering of alchemy but also inaugurated its downfall

by separating the mystica more and more clearly from the physica.

chemistry proper began to mark itself off more distinctly. The age of science and technology was dawning

metaphysical values were less able to give expression to psychic experiences.

Only after the lapse of several centuries did it fall to empirical psychology to throw new light on the obscure psychic content of Hermetic experiences.