A Suggestive Inquiry Into The Hermetic Mystery: With A Dissertation On The More Celebrated Of The Alchemical Philosophers : Being An Attempt Towards The Recovery Of The Ancient Experiment Of Nature

Mary Anne wrote A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery. . . at her father’s request, and in parallel with his own composition of a lengthy poem on the same subject. Thomas South (her father) paid for the book to be published anonymously in 1850, but without having read it, trusting his daughter’s judgement. Reading it after publication, he believed Mary Anne had revealed many hermetic secrets that were better left unpublished, and therefore bought up the remaining stock and, with his daughter, burnt them, along with the unfinished manuscript of his poem. Only a few copies of the book survived. Ms Atwood published nothing after A Suggestive Inquiry. . . . Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, in his 1918 introduction to the reissue, laments that the thoughts of her later years did not find fruition in another work. He claims, however, that there is much to be found in her papers, of which he was then in possession. Part I An Exoteric View of the Progress and Theory of Alchemy Chapter I ~ A Preliminary Account of the Hermetic Philosophy, with the more Salient Points of its Public History Chapter II ~ Of the Theory of Transmutation in General, and of the First Matter Chapter III ~ The Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus Concerning the Physical Secret of the Philosophers’ Stone, in Seven Sections Part II A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and its Mysteries Chapter I ~ Of the True Subject of the Hermetic Art and its Concealed Root. Chapter II ~ Of the Mysteries Chapter III ~ The Mysteries Continued Chapter IV ~ The Mysteries Concluded Part III Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment Chapter I ~ Of the Experimental Method and Fermentations of the Philosophic Subject According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and Some Others Chapter II ~ A Further Analysis of the Initial Principle and Its Education into Light Chapter III ~ Of the Manifestations of the Philosophic Matter Chapter IV ~ Of the Mental Requisites and Impediments Incidental to Individuals, Either as Masters or Students, in the Hermetic Art Part IV The Hermetic Practice Chapter I ~ Of the Vital Purification, Commonly Called the Gross Work Chapter II ~ Of the Philosophic or Subtle Work Chapter III ~ The Six Keys of Eudoxus Chapter IV ~ The Conclusion