An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King

Whoever wishes to possess this secret Golden Fleece, which has virtue to transmute metals into gold, should know that our Stone is nothing but gold digested to the highest degree of purity and subtle fixation to which it can be brought by Nature and the highest effort of Art; and this gold thus perfected is called "our gold," no longer vulgar, and is the ultimate goal of Nature.


The medicinal, chemical, and physical arcana in thirty-five chapters. Newton s copy of this work (located at University of Wisconsin-Madison) contains much alchemical marginalia of a sincere and erudite nature.


Eirenaeus Philalethes (the peaceful lover of truth) was a alchemist and the author of many influential works. These works were read by such luminaries as Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Newton's extensive writings on alchemy are heavily indebted to Philalethes, although Newton incorporated significant modifications as well.


The real identity behind the nom de plume of Eireneaus Philalethes was long shrouded in mystery. Recent research, however, has shown that the author was George Starkey, an expatriate American living in London.