The Earliest Porcelain of China

LAURENCE BINYON, a great authority on Oriental art, and a great poet, once wrote these words on Nature:“Still, like an artist, she her meaning hides,Silent, while thousand tongues proclaim it clear;Ungrudging, her large feast for all provides;Tender, exultant, savage, blithe, austere,In each man's hand she sets its proper tool,For the wise, wisdom, folly for the fool.“For thousands of years, those children of Nature, the Taoist hermits were engaged in experiments with the object of discovering the Elixir of Life. In many ways their activities corresponded to those of the mediaeval alchemists of Europe. Though they never discovered a way of making gold the experiments of these Western alchemists sometimes resulted in discoveries which were of value in the advancement of scientific knowledge. Sometimes, also, these discoveries assisted the artist and craftsman in improving the materials with which he worked. Is it not then even more probable that the industry of the Taoist alchemists of China was sometimes rewarded by the discovery of processes and new combinations of materials which fortuitously helped their fellow experimenters, the potters and the other craftsmen in man-made materials?