From the book
The Golden Chain of Homer
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger) · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAlkali is the relatively fixed, bodily principle and a power of attraction.
- In the Golden ChainIt receives acid and volatile matter, but can itself be made volatile.
- TranslationThe edition preserves an expansive historical use of “alkaline.”
- A place to readB1C20S001: fixed character is distinguished from outward form.
Meaning
Alkali is the third and last principle in the usual order of analysis: volatile, acid, alkali. The author defines its fixedness comparatively, by greater endurance in fire than preceding portions. Its appearance need not be dry or solid; it may be coagulated, spirituous, or liquid. The name follows its action and degree rather than a single visible state (B1C20S001).
The universal alkali is salt, contrasted with nitre as universal acid. Earth, body, female, patient, and magnet are further correspondences. The author’s patient is not inert: it attracts, retains, and transforms what comes to it. Alkali and acid thus name both materials and relational functions. Their range exceeds present chemical classifications, especially where spirit of salt and sal ammoniac are called alkaline within a theory of mineral dissolution (B1C17S004; B2C10S014–017).
Use in the book
The early cosmogony derives alkali from primordial water as it becomes fixed and bodily. The later analysis of putrefied water offers the same sequence in miniature. Volatile water, nitre, and alkaline salt appear as distinguishable parts, while the most fixed earth is recovered through the treatment of the residue. The author regards these separations as evidence of a shared origin and of different degrees within one matter (B1C03S001; B1C18S001; B1C20S002).
Alkali participates in reciprocal conversion. Acid dissolves earth and loses its corrosive sharpness upon it; earth takes up acid and fixes it. Where fixed matter predominates, the acid becomes alkaline and draws further volatile matter through that same route. Where volatile matter predominates, alkali can be led back through acid toward volatility. This makes alkali an end of one movement and a possible beginning of another, not an ultimate matter incapable of further change (B1C19S003–008).
The practical discussions repeatedly expose errors caused by confusing possession of a fixed salt with successful conjunction. Salt of tartar and spirit of wine are extremes; vinegar supplies the missing middle. Elsewhere common table salt compensates for the small yield of fixed salt from animal matter, because universal alkali can become specified toward an individual. Such claims belong to the book’s programme of producing quintessences and historical medicines. They do not establish that substances called alkali here share modern properties or are suitable for consumption (B1C19S015–016; B2C07S013).
Places to read
- Book I · Ch. 17 · §4Earth, body, magnet, female, salt, and alkali as corresponding names.
- Book I · Ch. 19 · §4Predominant earth or volatile matter determines the direction of change.
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §1The formal definition allows liquid and spirituous alkalis.
- Book II · Ch. 7 · §13Universal alkali can supplement the animal kingdom.
- Book II · Ch. 10 · §17The unusually broad range of the term alkali is explicitly acknowledged.
Translation in this edition
The spelling alcali is retained in many Latin and mixed-language phrases; the English normally gives “alkali.” “Alkalized” is equally important: it describes the process by which an acid becomes more earthy and fixed. Thus calling gold an alkalized body says something about the author’s genealogy and dissolution tests, not that metallic gold is an alkali in current chemistry. The book also warns that the name can include both fixed and volatilized alkaline salts (B1C23S037; B2C10S017).