Great Thread. Where else can you get alchemy, doubts of faith, and singing horses combined. Art, I heard that there was actually a talking horse (not Mr. Ed). If you asked if he wanted to eat oats, he would utter, from his back end, "just a few" in a fragrant whisper.

On the topic of destroying old alchemy works: I recall reading an account of some 19th century missionaries going to sub-Saharan Africa and getting the new converts to destroy all their sculptures, because they were idols. And, otherwise distrupting their lives. The missionaries were civilized, after all.