The alchemists went a step further in their classification of things. They asserted that there is One Thing present in all things; that everything is a vehicle for the more or less perfect exhibition of the properties of the One Thing, that there is a Primal Element common to all substances. The final aim of alchemy was to obtain the One Thing, the Primal Element, the Soul of all Things, so purified, not only from specific substances, but also from all admixture of the four Elements and the three Principles, so as to make possible the accomplishment of any transmutation by the use of it.
– Matthew Moncrieff Pattison Muir
Art: 
Alchemy woodcut Omnia Unus Est by dashinvaine
Cosmic Flotsam 