The Case of Charles Dexter Ward · Chapter
Epigraph explained
The epigraph presents a quote from Borellus describing the alchemical preservation of essential salts, suggesting that from the ashes of the dead one might reconstruct the shape of any ancestor without necromancy.
What happens
The epigraph presents a quote from Borellus describing the alchemical preservation of essential salts, suggesting that from the ashes of the dead one might reconstruct the shape of any ancestor without necromancy.
Themes in this chapter
Necromancy and Resurrection
The quote directly addresses the possibility of raising the shape of a dead ancestor from its ashes, a form of resurrection.
Forbidden Knowledge
The passage describes a secret method of preserving and reconstituting life, implying hidden or arcane knowledge.
Characters to notice
- Borellus
Author of the quoted passage on preserving essential salts and raising shapes from ashes.
Key passages
“The essential Saltes of Animals may be so prepared and preserved, that an ingenious Man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his owne Studie and raise the fine Shape of an Animal out of its Ashes at his Pleasure; and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any dead Ancestour from the Dust whereinto his Bodie has been incinerated.”
An ingenious person can preserve the essential salts of animals and, from those salts, recreate the form of any animal, just as from the salts of human remains one could summon the shape of any ancestor without committing necromancy.
Summarizes the alchemical claim that life forms can be reconstituted from their preserved essential salts.