Chemistry Reference
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( God and the Alchemists ) 30
At first glance, the above epigraph appears to express a strong position in
the medieval debates about alchemy. However, the phrase “false children
of light” reveals that it was really a conservative response to the En-
lightenment, which was linked to contemporary chemistry. Alchemists
continued to be a pejorative term for contemporary chemists in nine-
teenth-century poetry. In fact, it was the German poet Friedrich Haug
(1761-1829), a friend of Schiller, who composed the poem in 1805.
Since the poem summarizes the attitude of many famous later writers,
Haug's lack of poetical fame is probably undeserved.
The story 'Chemists against God' has many chapters, if it is not the
framing theme of nearly all occurrences of 'al-chemists' in nineteenth-
century literature. At its core, however, there are two interrelated issues,
materialism and hubris. Materialism, in the view of writers, included first
of all atheism, and then positivism, nihilism, and the denial of all sorts of
spiritual and mental realms, including morality, free will, and immortal
soul, i.e . everything that the popular meaning of 'metaphysics' has since
come to include. Moreover, since materialism/atheism also means deny-
ing that material nature is God's Creation, any chemical change of matter
is suspected to be against God's will. Hubris, on the other hand, is more
complex. If hubris means comparing or measuring one's own capacities
with God's capacities, then somebody accused of hubris cannot at the
same time, without self-contradiction, be accused of materialism/athe-
ism, i.e. the denial of God. Thus, hubris is only one step towards atheism,
in that God's authority, both as creator and moral legislator, is not ac-
knowledged in the appropriate or desired manner. Moreover, while mate-
rialism is a metaphysical position, in the strict sense, hubris is a property
of somebody's character, which usually makes it easier to employ in lit-
erary plots. Although nineteenth-century writers frequently combined
both themes, despite the risk of self-contradiction, I will deal with them
30 Johann Christoph Friedrich Haug (also: F. Hophthalmos, Frauenlob d. J.), Epi-
gramme und vermischte Gedichte (Berlin: J. F. Unger, 1805), no. 77 “Gott und die
Alchymisten” [repr. in J. C. F. Haug, Gesellige Gedichte , ed. H. Schlaffer (Stuttgart:
Cotta, 1996), 38]: “Gott schuf Alles aus Nichts. / Aber ihr Alchymisten, / Falsche
Kinder des Lichts, / Gottes Antagonisten! / Schaffet aus Allem Nichts.”
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