FOOTNOTES:

[A] There is no need to suppose a metonymy. The conscience is a guide which education easily perverts. Therefore, supposing it to be really the instrument of the alchemists, it may eminently stand in need of purification, and, except in the most general matters, is at best an uncertain guide.

[B] “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” p. 93.