[a] grandiose philosophical system that aimed at penetrating and harmonising the mysteries of creation and of life. It sought to bring the microcosm of man into relation with the macrocosm of the universe. The transmutation of one form of inanimate matter into another, placed in this larger context, was merely an incidental aim of alchemy, designed to afford proof on the material plane of its wider tenets, in particular that of the essential unity of all things.