The "stone" or substance obsessively sought by medieval alchemists for the purpose of converting base metals into gold. They never found the philosopher's stone, but in their quest they did lay the foundation of the science of chemistry.
Metaphorically, the philosopher's stone has become the secret answer to the quest for happiness, the cure for spiritual malaise. In one of Jakob Wassermann's novels, the hero discovers the philosopher's stone to be work,work,work to exhaustion and sleep; and then the same tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. In Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Philosopher's Stone", the secret turns out to be faith and it is discovered by a blind girl. |
