Indicadores de troca de alquimia

Comprei seus indicadores e fiquei muito feliz por ter feito. Seu indicador TrendCatcher tem um aspecto semelhante a outro indicador muito popular, mas parece ser muito mais preciso e se ajusta às condições do mercado lindamente. Comprei todos os seus indicadores e use muitos deles todos os dias. Seu trabalho é o melhor que já vi e seus preços são baixos, baixos, baixos. Nunca conheci você e não tenho nenhum benefício de recomendá-lo além do seu trabalho é tão impressionante. Além disso, você é muito receptivo via e-mail. Suas respostas foram muito detalhadas, não apenas uma frase ou duas para se livrar de mim. Quot quot Você faz os sonhos se tornarem verdadeiros A Alchemy produz o quotRolls Roycequot de indicadores que eu tenho trabalhado com sua Estratégia de Entrada-Saída e realmente sinto que esta é uma ferramenta com a qual eu posso ganhar a vida. Eu uso isso todos os dias para administrar todos os meus estoques e trocar com grande conforto e confiança que vou ganhar dinheiro. Tom Richardson - DATA Inc. Nem a TradeStation Technologies, nem nenhuma de suas afiliadas, revisou, certificou, endossou, aprovou, reprovou ou Recomendado, nem faz, nem irá rever, certificar, endossar, aprovar, reprovar ou recomendar, qualquer ferramenta de software de negociação projetada para ser compatível com a Plataforma Aberta da TradeStation. INFORMAÇÕES IMPORTANTES: Os regulamentos governamentais exigem a divulgação do fato de que o desempenho passado, seja real ou indicado por testes históricos de estratégias ou métodos de indicadores, não é garantia de desempenho ou sucesso no futuro. Existe a possibilidade de que você possa sofrer uma perda igual ou superior ao seu investimento inteiro, independentemente da classe de ativos que você troca (ações, futuros de opções ou divisas), portanto, você não deve investir ou arriscar dinheiro que não pode perder. 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Qualquer que seja o que pretenda, sob os nomes especulativos de Geber, Arnold, Lulli ou bombardeio de Hohenheim, cometer milagres na arte e traição contra Natureza Como se o título de filósofo, aquela criatura de glória, fosse levado de uma fornalha, eu sou seu bruto, e seu sublimado, seu precipitado e suas unções, seu macho e sua fêmea, às vezes seu hermafrodita - o que eles listam Para me marcar, eles vão te calcinar uma matrona grave, como pode ser uma mãe das criadas, e criar uma jovem virgem fora de suas cinzas, tão frescas como uma fênix, colocá-lo um velho cortesão nas brasas, como uma salsicha ou Um artratão, e, depois de terem o suficiente amassado, soprar uma alma nele, com um par de fole, vêem que eles começaram a reunir novamente e desencadeiam suas forças contra mim. O gênio do lugar se defende. Ben Jonsons Masque: Mercúrio vindicado dos Alchymists. A insatisfação com o seu lote parece ser a característica do homem em todas as idades e climas. Até agora, no entanto, de ser um maligno, como primeiro poderia ser suposto, foi o grande civilizador da nossa raça e tendeu, mais do que qualquer outra coisa, a elevar-nos acima da condição dos brutos. Mas o mesmo descontentamento que tem sido a fonte de todas as melhorias, tem sido o pai de nenhuma pequena progênie de loucuras e os absurdos para rastrear estes últimos é o objeto do presente volume. Vasta como o assunto aparece, é facilmente redutível dentro de tais limites, o que tornará abrangente sem ser cansativo, e tornar seu estudo tanto instrutivo quanto divertido. Três causas, especialmente, têm excitado nosso descontentamento e, impelindo-nos a buscar remédios para os irremediáveis, nos perplexo em um labirinto de loucura e erro. Estes são a morte, o trabalho e a ignorância do futuro - a destruição do homem nesta esfera, e para o qual ele mostra sua antipatia por seu amor à vida, seu anseio pela abundância e sua curiosidade por penetrar os segredos dos dias vir. O primeiro levou muitos a imaginar que possam encontrar meios para evitar a morte, ou, na sua falta, que, no entanto, possam prolongar a existência para considerá-la por séculos em vez de unidades. A partir desta surgiu a busca, tanto tempo continuada e ainda perseguida, para o elixir vitae. Ou água da vida. O que levou milhares para fingir e milhões para acreditar nisso. A partir do segundo surgiu a busca absurda da pedra dos filósofos, que era criar abundância, mudando todos os metais em ouro e do terceiro, as ciências falsas da astrologia, adivinhação e suas divisões de necromancia, quiromancia, augúrio, com todo o trem De sinais, apresentações e presságios. Ao traçar a carreira dos filósofos erradores, ou as truques voluntárias, que encorajaram ou criticaram a credulidade da humanidade, simplificará e elucidará o assunto, se dividi-lo em três classes: - a primeira composta por alquimistas ou aquelas Em geral, que se dedicaram à descoberta da pedra dos filósofos e à água da vida, a segunda compreendendo astrólogos, necromantes, feiticeiros, geomancers e todos aqueles que pretendiam descobrir o futuro e o terceiro composto pelos comerciantes em encantos, amuletos, filógrafos Moinhos de panacéia universal, toques para o mal, sétimos filhos de um sétimo filho, compostos simpáticos de pó, homeopatas, magnetizadores de animais e toda a tribo heterogênea de charlatães, empíricos e charlatães. Mas, ao narrar a carreira de tais homens, descobrirá que muitos deles uniram várias ou todas as funções que acabamos de mencionar que o alchymist era um adivinho ou um necromante - que ele fingiu curar todas as doenças pelo toque Ou encanto, e para fazer milagres de todos os tipos. Nas épocas obscura e precoce da história européia, isso é mais especialmente o caso. Mesmo quando avançamos para períodos mais recentes, devemos encontrar grande dificuldade em separar os personagens. O alchymist raramente se limitava estritamente a sua ciência fingida - o feiticeiro e o necromante para os deles, ou o charlatão médico para o dele. Começando com alchymy, alguma confusão dessas classes é inevitável, mas o solo será limpo para nós à medida que avançarmos. Não nos deixemos orgulhar do nosso conhecimento superior, desprezando as loucuras dos nossos predecessores. O estudo dos erros em que as grandes mentes caíram na busca da verdade nunca pode ser indestrutível. À medida que o homem olha para os dias de sua infância e sua juventude e lembra suas idéias estranhas e falsas opiniões que influenciaram suas ações naquela época, que ele possa se perguntar sobre elas, então a sociedade, por sua edificação, olhará De volta às opiniões que governaram as idades fugiram. Ele não é senão um pensador superficial que desprezaria e se recusaria a ouvir deles simplesmente porque são absurdos. Nenhum homem é tão sábio, mas que ele pode aprender alguma sabedoria de seus erros passados, seja de pensamento ou ação, e nenhuma sociedade fez avanços que não poderiam ser melhorados da retrospectiva de sua insensatez e credulidade passadas. E não só esse estudo é instrutivo: ele que lê apenas para diversão, não encontrará mais nenhum capítulo nos anais da mente humana mais engraçado do que isso. Ele abre todo o reino da ficção - o selvagem, o fantástico e o maravilhoso, e toda a variedade imensa de coisas que não são, e não podem ser senão que foram imaginadas e acreditadas. HISTÓRIA DA ALCÂMIA DOS PERÍODOS ANTERIORES PARA O SIGLO XVIII. Por mais de mil anos, a arte de Alchymy cativou muitos espíritos nobres e acreditava em milhões. Sua origem está envolvida na obscuridade. Alguns de seus devotos alegaram que era uma antiguidade contemporânea com a criação dos próprios homens, novamente, não o remeteria mais do que o tempo de Noé. Vincent de Beauvais argumenta, de fato, que todos os antediluvianos devem possuir um conhecimento de alchymy e, em particular, cita Noah como tendo conhecido o elixir vitae. Ou ele não poderia ter vivido uma idade tão prodigiosa, e ter filhos gerados quando mais de quinhentos. Lenglet du Fresnoy, em sua História da Filosofia Hermética. Diz que a maioria deles fingiu que Shem, ou Chem, filho de Noé, era um adepto da arte, e achou altamente provável que as palavras química e alquimia fossem derivadas de seu nome. Outros dizem que a arte foi derivada Dos egípcios, entre os quais foi fundado pela primeira vez por Hermes Trismegisto. Moisés, que é considerado um alchymist de primeira classe, ganhou seu conhecimento no Egito, mas ele manteve tudo para si mesmo e não instruiria os filhos de Israel em seus mistérios. Todos os escritores de Alchymy citam triunfalmente a história do bezerro de ouro, no capítulo 32 do Êxodo, para provar que este grande legislador era um adepto, e poderia fazer ou desarmar o ouro em seu prazer. Constata-se que Moisés estava tão irritado com os israelitas quanto à sua idolatria, que tomou o bezerro que fizeram e queimou-o no fogo, e queimou-o em pó e esparramou-o sobre a água e criou os filhos De Israel bebe disso. Isso, diga os alchymists, ele nunca poderia ter feito, se ele não estivesse na posse da pedra dos filósofos por nenhum outro meio, ele poderia ter feito o pó de ouro flutuar sobre a água. Mas devemos deixar este ponto knotty para a consideração dos adeptos na arte, se houver tal, e chegar a períodos mais modernos de sua história. O jesuíta, o padre Martini, em sua Historia Sinica, diz, foi praticado pelos chineses dois mil e quinhentos anos antes do nascimento de Cristo, mas sua afirmação, sem apoio, não vale nada. Parece, no entanto, que os pretendentes da arte de fazer ouro e prata existiram em Roma nos primeiros séculos após a era cristã, e que, quando descobertos, eram passíveis de punição como mordomos e impostores. Em Constantinopla, no século IV, a transmutação de metais foi geralmente acreditada, e muitas eclesiásticas gregas escreveram tratados sobre o assunto. Seus nomes são preservados, e alguns avisos de suas obras dadas, no terceiro volume de Lenglet du Fresnoys History of the Hermetic Philosophy. Sua noção parece ter sido, que todos os metais foram compostos de duas substâncias, a única terra metálica e outra, uma matéria inflamável vermelha, que eles chamavam de enxofre. A união pura dessas substâncias formou ouro, mas outros metais foram misturados e contaminados por vários ingredientes estrangeiros. O objeto da pedra dos filósofos era dissolver ou neutralizar todos esses ingredientes, pelos quais o ferro, o chumbo, o cobre e todos os metais seriam transmutados para o ouro original. Muitos homens inteligentes e inteligentes desperdiçaram seu tempo, sua saúde e suas energias, nesta perseguição inútil, mas durante vários séculos não tomou grande posse sobre a imaginação do povo. A história da ilusão aparece, de certa forma, perdida desta época até o século VIII, quando apareceu entre os árabes. A partir desse período, torna-se mais fácil rastrear seu progresso. Um mestre então apareceu, que era muito considerado como o pai da ciência, e cujo nome está indissoluvelmente ligado a ele. Deste filósofo, que dedicou sua vida ao estudo de Alchymy, mas poucos conhecimentos são conhecidos. Acredita-se que ele tenha vivido no ano de 730. Seu verdadeiro nome era Abou Moussah Djafar, ao qual foi adicionado Al Soft, ou o Wise, e ele nasceu em Hauran, na Mesopotâmia. Biografia Universelle. Alguns pensaram que ele era um grego, outros um espanhol e outros, um príncipe de Hindostan: mas, de todos os erros que foram feitos respeitando-o, o mais ridículo foi o feito pelo tradutor francês de Sprengers na História da Medicina, quot Que pensou, a partir do som de seu nome, que ele era um alemão, e o tornou como o quatorzônio, quot ou Dador. Nenhum detalhe de sua vida é conhecido, mas é afirmado, que ele escreveu mais de quinhentos trabalhos sobre a pedra dos filósofos e a água da vida. Ele era um grande entusiasta em sua arte, e comparou os incrédulos com crianças pequenas caindo em um quarto estreito, sem janelas ou abertura, que, porque não viram nada além, negaram a existência do grande globo em si. Ele pensou que uma preparação de ouro curaria todas as doenças, não só no homem, mas nos animais e plantas inferiores. Ele também imaginou que todos os metais trabalhavam sob a doença, com exceção do ouro, que era o único em saúde perfeita. Ele afirmou que o segredo da pedra dos filósofos havia sido mais do que uma vez descoberto, mas que os antigos e sábios que haviam atingido, nunca, por palavra ou escrita, o comunicariam aos homens, por causa de sua indignidade e incredulidade. Seu quotum de perfeição, quot ou instruções aos alunos para ajudá-los na busca laboriosa da pedra e do elixir, foi traduzido para a maioria das línguas da Europa. Uma tradução em inglês, feita por um grande entusiasta em Alchymy, um Richard Russell, foi publicado em Londres em 1686. O prefácio é datado oito anos antes, da casa do alchymist, quotat the Star, em Newmarket, em Wapping, perto do Dock . Seu design na realização da tradução foi, como ele nos informa, expor os falsos pretextos dos muitos pretendentes ignorantes para a ciência que abundou em seu tempo. Mas a vida de Geber, embora passada na busca dessa quáter vã, não era completamente inútil. Ele tropeçou em descobertas que ele não buscou, e a ciência está em dívida com ele pela primeira menção de sublimação corrosiva, o óxido vermelho de mercúrio, ácido nítrico e o nitrato de prata. Artigo, Geber, Biografia Universelle. Durante mais de duzentos anos após a morte de Geber, os filósofos árabes se dedicaram ao estudo de alchymy, juntando-se a isso de astrologia. Destes, o mais célebre foi Alfarabi floresceu no início do século X e desfrutou a reputação de ser um dos homens mais sábios de sua idade. Ele passou a vida viajando de país para país, para que ele pudesse reunir as opiniões dos filósofos sobre os grandes segredos da natureza. Nenhum perigo o consternou, nenhum trabalho o cansou da perseguição. Muitos soberanos tentaram mantê-lo em seus tribunais, mas recusou-se a descansar até descobrir o grande objetivo de sua vida - a arte de preservá-lo durante séculos e de fazer ouro tanto quanto ele precisasse. Este modo de vida errante finalmente foi fatal para ele. Ele estava em visita a Meca, não tanto por motivos religiosos quanto filosóficos, quando, ao retornar pela Síria, ele parou na quadra do Sultão Seifeddoulet, que era conhecido como o patrão da aprendizagem. Ele se apresentou em sua roupa de viagem, na presença desse monarca e seus cortesãos e, sem convite, sentou-se friamente sobre o sofá, ao lado do Príncipe. Os cortesãos e sábios ficaram indignados e o sultão, que não conhecia o intruso, se inclinou pela primeira vez a seguir seu exemplo. Ele se virou para um de seus oficiais e ordenou que ele expulsasse o estranho presunçoso da sala, mas Alfarabi, sem mover-se, ousou-os a colocar as mãos sobre ele e, voltando-se calmamente para o príncipe, observou que não sabia quem era Seu convidado, ou ele o trataria com honra, não com violência. O Sultão, em vez de ficar ainda mais irritado, como muitos potentados teriam sido, admirava sua frieza e, pedindo-lhe que ficasse mais perto dele no sofá, entrou em uma longa conversa com ele sobre ciência e filosofia divina. Todo o tribunal estava encantado com o estranho. Foram propostas perguntas para discussão, sobre todas as quais ele mostrou conhecimento superior. Ele convenceu a todos que se arriscaram a disputar com ele e falaram tão eloquentemente sobre a ciência de Alchymy, que ele foi imediatamente reconhecido como apenas o segundo do próprio Geber. Um dos médicos presentes perguntou se um homem que conhecia tantas ciências conhecia a música que A1farabi não respondeu, mas simplesmente pediu que lhe fosse levado um alaúde. O alaúde foi trazido e ele tocou melodias tão fascinantes e ternas, que toda a corte estava derretida em lágrimas. Ele então mudou seu tema e jogou ar tão entusiasmado, que ele colocou os filósofos graves, o Sultão e todos, dançando tão rápido quanto suas pernas poderiam levá-los. Ele então os revoltou novamente por uma tensão dolorida, e os fez soluçar e suspirar como se fossem de coração partido. O sultão, muito entusiasmado com seus poderes, pediu-lhe que permaneça, oferecendo-lhe todas as induções que a riqueza, o poder e a dignidade poderiam fornecer, mas o alchymist resolvi-se resolutamente, sendo decretado, ele disse que nunca deveria descansar até descobrir o Pedra filosofal. Ele partiu em conformidade na mesma noite, e foi assassinado por alguns ladrões nos desertos da Síria. Seus biógrafos não dão mais detalhes sobre sua vida além de mencionar, que ele escreveu vários tratados valiosos sobre sua arte, que, no entanto, foram perdidos. Sua morte aconteceu no ano de 954. Avicena, cujo verdadeiro nome era Ebn Cinna, outro grande alchymist, nasceu em Bokhara, em 980. Sua reputação de médico e um especialista em todas as ciências era tão grande que o Sultão Magdal Douleth Resolveu tentar seus poderes na grande ciência do governo. Ele foi, portanto, feito Grand Vizier desse Príncipe, e governou o estado com alguma vantagem: mas, em uma ciência ainda mais difícil, ele falhou completamente. Ele não podia governar suas próprias paixões, mas entregou-se a vinho e às mulheres, e levou uma vida de devastras sem vergonha. Em meio às múltiplas atividades dos negócios e do prazer, ele ainda achou tempo para escrever sete tratados sobre a pedra dos filósofos, que eram para muitas idades consideradas de grande valor pelos pretendentes da arte. É raro que um médico eminente, como Avicena parece ter sido, se abandona a gratificação sensual, mas tão completamente se tornou cautivado ao longo de alguns anos, que ele foi demitido de seu alto cargo e morreu pouco depois, de Velhice prematura e uma complicação de doenças, provocada pela libertinação. Sua morte ocorreu no ano 1036. Após seu tempo, poucos filósofos de qualquer nota na Arábia são ouvidos como se dedicando ao estudo da alquimia, mas logo começou a atrair maior atenção na Europa. Os homens aprendidos na França, Inglaterra, Espanha e Itália expressaram sua crença na ciência, e muitos dedicaram suas energias inteiras a ela. Nos séculos XII e XIII, especialmente, foi amplamente perseguido, e alguns dos nomes mais brilhantes daquela idade estão conectados com ele. Entre os mais eminentes deles estão ALBERTUS MAGNUS e THOMAS AQUINAS. O primeiro desses filósofos nasceu no ano de 1193, de uma família nobre em Lawingen, no ducado de Neuburg, no Danúbio. Nos primeiros trinta anos de sua vida, ele apareceu notavelmente aborrecido e estúpido, e temia-se por todos que nenhum bem poderia vir dele. Ele entrou em um mosteiro dominicano em uma idade adiantada, mas fez tão pouco progresso em seus estudos, que ele estava mais de uma vez no ponto de abandoná-los em desespero, mas ele foi dotado de extraordinária perseverança. À medida que ele avançava para a Idade Média, sua mente aumentou, e ele aprendeu o que ele se aplicava com facilidade extrema. Uma mudança tão notável não era, naquela idade, a ser contabilizada, mas por um milagre. Foi afirmado e acreditava que a Santíssima Virgem, tocada com o seu grande desejo de se tornar conhecida e famosa, teve piedade de sua incapacidade, e apareceu-lhe no claustro onde se sentou, quase desesperado, e perguntou-lhe se desejava se destacar em Filosofia ou divindade. Ele escolheu a filosofia, para o desgosto da Virgem, que lhe reprovava em acentos suaves e dolorosos que ele não tinha feito uma escolha melhor. Ela, no entanto, concedeu seu pedido de que ele se tornasse o mais excelente filósofo da idade, mas estabeleceu essa desvantagem para o seu prazer, que ele deveria recair, quando no auge de sua fama, em sua antiga incapacidade e estupidez. Albertus nunca tomou a dificuldade de contradizer a história, mas processou seus estudos com tão incansável zelo que sua reputação rapidamente se espalhou por toda a Europa. No ano de 1244, o célebre Tomás de Aquino colocou-se sob sua matrícula. Muitas histórias extraordinárias são contadas ao mestre e ao seu aluno. Enquanto eles prestaram toda a atenção a outros ramos da ciência, eles nunca negligenciaram a busca da pedra dos filósofos e do elixir vitae. Embora não tenham descoberto nenhum deles, acreditava-se que Albert havia tomado uma porção do segredo da vida, e achou meios para animar uma estátua de bronze, cuja formação, sob as próprias conjunções dos planetas, tinha ocupado muitos anos de sua vida. vida. Ele e Tomás de Aquino completaram-se juntos, dotaram-no da faculdade de expressão e fizeram com que ele desempenhasse as funções de servo doméstico. Nessa capacidade era extremamente útil, mas, por meio de algum defeito na maquinaria, chateava muito mais do que era aceitável para qualquer filósofo. Vários remédios foram tentados para curá-lo de sua garrulidade, mas em vão e um dia, Tomás de Aquino estava tão irritado com o ruído que ele fazia, quando ele estava no meio de um problema matemático, que agarrou um martelo pesado e quebrou-o . Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes acusa a Magie quot cap. Xviii. Ele desculpou depois o que tinha feito, e foi reprovado por seu mestre por dar lugar à sua raiva, tão inconveniente em um filósofo. Eles não fizeram nenhuma tentativa de reanimar a estátua. Tais histórias mostram o espírito da época. Todo grande homem que tentou estudar os segredos da natureza foi pensado um mágico e não se deve pensar nisso, quando os próprios filósofos fingiram descobrir um elixir para conferir a imortalidade, ou uma pedra vermelha que criasse riqueza ilimitada, essa popular A opinião deveria ter reforçado as suas pretensões, e os dotou de poderes ainda mais milagrosos. Acreditava-se em Albertus Magnus que ele poderia mudar o curso das estações de um feito que os muitos pensavam menos difícil do que a descoberta do grande elixir. Albertus desejava obter um terreno para construir um mosteiro, no bairro de Colônia. O terreno pertencia a William, Conde de Holanda e ao Rei dos Romanos, que, por algum motivo ou por outro, não desejavam se separar disso. É relatado que Albertus ganhou o seguinte método extraordinário: - Ele convidou o Príncipe, enquanto ele estava passando por Colônia, a um magnífico entretenimento preparado para ele e para toda a sua corte. O Príncipe aceitou, e reparou com um séquito de Lord para a residência do sábio. Foi no meio do inverno que o Reno estava congelado, e o frio era tão amargo que os cavaleiros não podiam sentar-se a cavalo sem correr o risco de perder os dedos pela geada. Ótimo, portanto, foi a sua surpresa, ao chegar na casa de Alberts, para descobrir que o repolho estava espalhado em seu jardim, em que a neve tinha mergulhado na profundidade de vários pés. O Earl, com um alto dilema, rematou o corcel, mas Albert finalmente o dominou para se sentar na mesa. Ele não tinha feito mais cedo, do que as nuvens escuras rolavam longe do céu - um sol quente brilhava - o vento frio do vento virou de repente em volta e soprou uma brisa suave do sul - as neves derreteram - o O gelo estava desembaraçado sobre os riachos, e as árvores colocavam suas folhas verdes e suas frutas - surgiram flores sob seus pés, enquanto alambques, rouxinóis, melros, cucos, tordos e cada doce pássaro cantico cantavam hinos de todas as árvores . O Earl e seus atendentes se perguntaram muito, mas eles comeram o jantar e, em recompensa, Albert conseguiu o chão para construir um convento. Ele, no entanto, não havia mostrado a ele todo seu poder. Imediatamente que a refeição acabou, ele deu a palavra, e nuvens escuras obscureciam o sol - a neve caiu em grandes flocos - os pássaros cantores morreram - as folhas caíram das árvores e o vento soprava tão frio, E uivou tão tristemente, que os convidados se envolveram em suas grossas capas e recuaram para a casa para se aquecerem ao fogo ardente na cozinha de Alberts. Lenglet, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique. Veja também, Godwins Lives of the Necromancers. Thomas Aquino também poderia fazer maravilhas, bem como seu mestre. É relacionado dele, que ele hospedou-se em uma rua de Colônia, onde ele estava muito aborrecido com o brilho incessante feito pelos cascos dos cavalos, pois eles eram conduzidos diariamente para exercitar seus noivos. Ele havia pedido a este último que selecionasse algum outro lugar onde eles não perturbassem um filósofo, mas os noivos ouviram ouvidos a todas as suas solicitações. Nessa emergência, ele recorreu à ajuda da magia. Ele construiu um pequeno cavalo de bronze, sobre o qual ele inscreveu certos personagens cabalísticos e enterrou-o à meia-noite no meio da rodovia. Na manhã seguinte, uma tropa de noivos veio andando como de costume, mas os cavalos, quando chegaram ao local onde o cavalo mágico foi enterrado, erguido e mergulhado violentamente - suas narinas distendidas de terror - as manas cresceram e as A transpiração correu por seus lados em córregos. Em vão, os pilotos aplicaram o esporão - em vão eles persuadiram ou ameaçaram, os animais não passariam no local. No dia seguinte, o sucesso deles não era melhor. Eles foram finalmente obrigados a buscar outro lugar para seu exercício, e Tomás de Aquino foi deixado em paz. Naude, Apologie des Grands Hommes acusa o Magie cap. Xvii. Albertus Magnus foi feito bispo de Ratisbona em 1259, mas ocupou o Ver apenas quatro anos, quando renunciou, com o argumento de que seus deveres ocuparam o tempo demais que ele estava ansioso para dedicar à filosofia. Ele morreu em Colônia em 1280, na idade avançada de oitenta e sete. Os escritores dominicanos negam que ele tenha procurado a pedra dos filósofos, mas o seu tratado sobre os minerais prova o que ele fez. Artephius, um nome conhecido nos anais de Alchymy, nasceu no início do século XII. Ele escreveu dois tratados famosos sobre a pedra dos filósofos e o outro sobre a arte de prolongar a vida humana. No último, ele vomita suas excelentes qualificações para instruir a humanidade em tal assunto, como ele era naquele momento no mil e vinte e cinco anos de sua idade. Ele tinha muitos discípulos que acreditavam em sua idade extrema e que tentaram provar isso Ele era Apolônio de Tyana, que viveu logo após o advento de Jesus Cristo, e os detalhes de cuja vida e fingidos milagres foram descritos tão completamente por Philostratus. Ele tomou muito cuidado em nunca contrariar uma história, que aumentou tanto o poder que ele desejava exercer sobre seus companheiros mortais. Em todas as ocasiões convenientes, ele se gabava disso e tinha uma excelente memória, uma imaginação fértil e um profundo conhecimento de toda a história existente, ele nunca perdeu uma resposta quando questionado sobre a aparência pessoal, as maneiras ou a Caráter dos grandes homens da antiguidade. Ele também fingiu ter encontrado a pedra dos filósofos e disse que, em busca disso, desceu ao inferno e viu o diabo sentado num trono de ouro, com uma legião de imps e demônios ao seu redor. Suas obras em alchymy foram traduzidas para o francês e foram publicadas em Paris em 1609 ou 1610. Contemporâneo com Albertus Magnus foi Alain de Lisle, da Flandres, que foi nomeado, por sua grande aprendizagem, o médico universitário. Foi pensado em Possuir um conhecimento de todas as ciências e, como Artephius, ter descoberto o elixir vitae. Ele se tornou um dos frades da abadia de Citeaux e morreu em 1298, com cerca de cento e dez anos. Foi dito dele, que ele estava no ponto da morte quando em seu quinquagésimo ano, mas que a descoberta afortunada do elixir permitiu-lhe adicionar sessenta anos a sua existência. Ele escreveu um comentário sobre as profecias de Merlin. ARNOLD DE VILLENEUVE. Este filósofo deixou uma reputação muito maior. Nasceu no ano de 1245 e estudou medicina com grande sucesso na Universidade de Paris. Depois viajou por vinte anos na Itália e na Alemanha, onde conheceu Pietro dApone, um homem de caráter semelhante ao dele e adicto às mesmas perseguições. Como médico, pensou, em sua própria vida, ser o mais capaz possível do mundo. Como todos os homens cultos daquele dia, ele tomou a astrologia e a alquimia, e foi pensado para ter feito quantidades imensas de ouro de chumbo e cobre. Quando Pietro dApone foi preso na Itália e foi julgado como um feiticeiro, uma acusação semelhante foi feita contra Arnold, mas ele conseguiu deixar o país a tempo e escapar do destino de seu infeliz amigo. Ele perdeu algum crédito ao prever o fim do mundo, mas depois o recuperou. O tempo de sua morte não é exatamente conhecido, mas deve ter sido anterior ao ano de 1311, quando o Papa Clemente V. escreveu uma carta circular a todo o clero da Europa que vivia sob sua obediência, pedindo-lhes que esforçassem para descobrir O famoso tratado de Arnold sobre a Prática da Medicina. O autor prometeu, durante sua vida, fazer um presente do trabalho para a Santa Sé, mas morreu sem cumprê-lo. Em um trabalho muito curioso de Monsieur Longeville Harcouet, intitulado "A História das Pessoas que viveram vários séculos, e depois cresceu jovem novamente, há um recibo, dito ter sido dado por Arnold de Villeneuve, por meio do qual qualquer um Poderia prolongar sua vida por alguns centenas de anos ou mais. Em primeiro lugar, diga Arnold e Monsieur Harcouet, que a pessoa que pretende prolongar sua vida deve esfregar-se bem, duas ou três vezes por semana, com o suco ou a medula da cassia (moelle de la casse). Todas as noites, ao ir para a cama, ele deve colocar sobre o seu coração um gesso, composto de uma certa quantidade de açafrão oriental, folhas de rosas vermelhas, sandal-wood, aloes e âmbar, liquidos em óleo de rosas e a melhor cera branca . Na parte da manhã, ele deve retirá-lo e coloque-o cuidadosamente em uma caixa de chumbo até a próxima noite, quando deve ser novamente aplicado. Se ele for de um temperamento sanguíneo, ele tomará dezesseis galinhas - se flemáticos, vinte e cinco - e, se melancólicos, trinta, que ele colocará em um pátio onde o ar e a água são puros. Sobre isso, ele deve se alimentar, comer um por dia, mas antes as galinhas devem ser engordadas por um método peculiar, que impregnará sua carne com as qualidades que devem produzir longevidade no comedor. Sendo privados de todos os outros alimentos até que quase morram de fome, eles devem ser alimentados com caldo feito de serpentes e vinagre, cujo caldo deve ser engrossado com trigo e farelo. Várias cerimônias devem ser realizadas na culinária deste mess, which those may see in the book of M. Harcouet, who are at all interested in the matter and the chickens are to be fed upon it for two months. They are then fit for table, and are to be washed down with moderate quantities of good white wine or claret. This regimen is to be followed regularly every seven years, and any one may live to be as old as Methuselah It is right to state, that M. Harcouet has but little authority for attributing this precious composition to Arnold of Villeneuve. It is not to be found in the collected works of that philosopher but was first brought to light by a M. Poirier, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, who asserted that he had discovered it in MS. in the undoubted writing of Arnold. This unlucky sage was born at Apone, near Padua, in the year 1250. Like his friend Arnold de Villeneuve, he was an eminent physician, and a pretender to the arts of astrology and alchymy. He practised for many years in Paris, and made great wealth by killing and curing, and telling fortunes. In an evil day for him, he returned to his own country, with the reputation of being a magician of the first order. It was universally believed that he had drawn seven evil spirits from the infernal regions, whom he kept enclosed in seven crystal vases, until he required their services, when he sent them forth to the ends of the earth to execute his pleasure. One spirit excelled in philosophy a second, in alchymy a third, in astrology a fourth, in physic a fifth, in poetry a sixth, in music and the seventh, in painting: and whenever Pietro wished for information or instruction in any of these arts, he had only to go to his crystal vase, and liberate the presiding spirit. Immediately, all the secrets of the art were revealed to him and he might, if it pleased him, excel Homer in poetry, Apelles in painting, or Pythagoras himself in philosophy. Although he could make gold out of brass, it was said of him, that he was very sparing of his powers in that respect, and kept himself constantly supplied with money by other and less creditable means. Whenever he disbursed gold, he muttered a certain charm, known only to himself and next morning the gold was safe again in his own possession. The trader to whom he gave it, might lock it in his strong box, and have it guarded by a troop of soldiers but the charmed metal flew back to its old master. Even if it were buried in the earth, or thrown into the sea, the dawn of the next morning would behold it in the pockets of Pietro. Few people, in consequence, liked to have dealings with such a personage, especially for gold. Some, bolder than the rest, thought that his power did not extend over silver but, when they made the experiment, they found themselves mistaken. Bolts and bars could not restrain it, and it sometimes became invisible in their very hands, and was whisked through the air to the purse of the magician. He necessarily acquired a very bad character and, having given utterance to some sentiments regarding religion which were the very reverse of orthodox, he was summoned before the tribunals of the Inquisition to answer for his crimes as a heretic and a sorcerer. He loudly protested his innocence, even upon the rack, where he suffered more torture than nature could support. He died in prison ere his trial was concluded, but was afterwards found guilty. His bones were ordered to be dug up, and publicly burned. He was also burned in effigy in the streets of Padua. While Arnold de Villeneuve and Pietro dApone flourished in France and Italy, a more celebrated adept than either appeared in Spain. This was Raymond Lulli, a name which stands in the first rank among the alchymists. Unlike many of his predecessors, he made no pretensions to astrology or necromancy but, taking Geber for his model, studied intently the nature and composition of metals, without reference to charms, incantations, or any foolish ceremonies. It was not, however, till late in life that he commenced his study of the art. His early and middle age were spent in a different manner, and his whole history is romantic in the extreme. He was born of an illustrious family, in Majorca, in the year 1235. When that island was taken from the Saracens by James I, King of Aragon, in 1230, the father of Raymond, who was originally of Catalonia, settled there, and received a considerable appointment from the Crown. Raymond married at an early age and, being fond of pleasure, he left the solitudes of his native isle, and passed over with his bride into Spain. He was made Grand Seneschal at the court of King James, and led a gay life for several years. Faithless to his wife, he was always in the pursuit of some new beauty, till his heart was fixed at last by the lovely, but unkind Ambrosia de Castello. This lady, like her admirer, was married but, unlike him, was faithful to her vows, and treated all his solicitations with disdain. Raymond was so enamoured, that repulse only increased his flame he lingered all night under her windows, wrote passionate verses in her praise, neglected his affairs, and made himself the butt of all the courtiers. One day, while watching under her lattice, he by chance caught sight of her bosom, as her neckerchief was blown aside by the wind. The fit of inspiration came over him, and he sat down and composed some tender stanzas upon the subject, and sent them to the lady. The fair Ambrosia had never before condescended to answer his letters but she replied to this. She told him, that she could never listen to his suit that it was unbecoming in a wise man to fix his thoughts, as he had done, on any other than his God and entreated him to devote himself to a religious life, and conquer the unworthy passion which he had suffered to consume him. She, however, offered, if he wished it, to show him the fair bosom which had so captivated him. Raymond was delighted. He thought the latter part of this epistle but ill corresponded with the former, and that Ambrosia, in spite of the good advice she gave him, had, at last, relented, and would make him as happy as he desired. He followed her about from place to place, entreating her to fulfil her promise: but still Ambrosia was cold, and implored him with tears to importune her no longer for that she never could be his, and never would, if she were free to-morrow. quotWhat means your letter, thenquot said the despairing lover. quotI will show youquot replied Ambrosia, who immediately uncovered her bosom, and exposed to the eyes of her horror-stricken admirer, a large cancer, which had extended to both breasts. She saw that he was shocked and, extending her hand to him, she prayed him once more to lead a religious life, and set his heart upon the Creator, and not upon the creature. He went home an altered man. He threw up, on the morrow, his valuable appointment at the court, separated from his wife, and took a farewell of his children, after dividing one-half of his ample fortune among them. The other half he shared among the poor. He then threw himself at the foot of a crucifix, and devoted himself to the service of God, vowing, as the most acceptable atonement for his errors, that he would employ the remainder of his days in the task of converting the Mussulmans to the Christian religion. In his dreams he saw Jesus Christ, who said to him, quotRaymond Raymond follow mequot The vision was three times repeated, and Raymond was convinced that it was an intimation direct from Heaven. Having put his affairs in order, he set out on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostello, and afterwards lived for ten years in solitude amid the mountains of Aranda. Here he learned the Arabic, to qualify himself for his mission of converting the Mahometans. He also studied various sciences, as taught in the works of the learned men of the East, and first made acquaintance with the writings of Geber, which were destined to exercise so much influence over his future life. At the end of this probation, and when he had entered his fortieth year, he emerged from his solitude into more active life. With some remains of his fortune, which had accumulated during his retirement, he founded a college for the study of Arabic, which was approved of by the Pope, with many commendations upon his zeal and piety. At this time he narrowly escaped assassination from an Arabian youth whom he had taken into his service. Raymond had prayed to God, in some of his accesses of fanaticism, that he might suffer martyrdom in his holy cause. His servant had overheard him and, being as great a fanatic as his master, he resolved to gratify his wish, and punish him, at the same time, for the curses which he incessantly launched against Mahomet and all who believed in him, by stabbing him to the heart. He, therefore, aimed a blow at his master, as he sat one day at table but the instinct of self-preservation being stronger than the desire of martyrdom, Raymond grappled with his antagonist, and overthrew him. He scorned to take his life himself but handed him over to the authorities of the town, by whom he was afterwards found dead in his prison. After this adventure Raymond travelled to Paris, where he resided for some time, and made the acquaintance of Arnold de Villeneuve. From him he probably received some encouragement to search for the philosophers stone, as he began from that time forth to devote less of his attention to religious matters, and more to the study of alchymy. Still he never lost sight of the great object for which he lived -- the conversion of the Mahometans -- and proceeded to Rome, to communicate personally with Pope John XXI, on the best measures to be adopted for that end. The Pope gave him encouragement in words, but failed to associate any other persons with him in the enterprise which he meditated. Raymond, therefore, set out for Tunis alone, and was kindly received by many Arabian philosophers, who had heard of his fame as a professor of alchymy. If he had stuck to alchymy while in their country, it would have been well for him but he began cursing Mahomet, and got himself into trouble. While preaching the doctrines of Christianity in the great bazaar of Tunis, he was arrested and thrown into prison. He was shortly afterwards brought to trial, and sentenced to death. Some of his philosophic friends interceded hard for him, and he was pardoned, upon condition that he left Africa immediately, and never again set foot in it. If he was found there again, no matter what his object might be, or whatever length of time might intervene, his original sentence would be carried into execution. Raymond was not at all solicitous of martyrdom when it came to the point, whatever he might have been when there was no danger, and he gladly accepted his life upon these conditions, and left Tunis with the intention of proceeding to Rome. He afterwards changed his plan, and established himself at Milan, where, for a length of time, he practised alchymy, and some say astrology, with great success. Most writers who believed in the secrets of alchymy, and who have noticed the life of Raymond Lulli, assert, that while in Milan, he received letters from Edward King of England, inviting him to settle in his states. They add, that Lulli gladly accepted the invitation, and had apartments assigned for his use in the Tower of London, where he refined much gold superintended the coinage of quotrose-noblesquot and made gold out of iron, quicksilver, lead, and pewter, to the amount of six millions. The writers in the Biographie Universelle . an excellent authority in general, deny that Raymond was ever in England, and say, that in all these stories of his wondrous powers as an alchymist, he has been mistaken for another Raymond, a Jew, of Tarragona. Naude, in his Apologie . says, simply, quotthat six millions were given by Raymond Lulli to King Edward, to make war against the Turks and other infidels:quot not that he transmuted so much metal into gold but, as he afterwards adds, that he advised Edward to lay a tax upon wool, which produced that amount. To show that Raymond went to England, his admirers quote a work attributed to him, quotDe Transmutatione Animae Metallorum, quot in which he expressly says, that he was in England at the intercession of the King. Vidimus omnia ista dum ad Angliam transiimus, propter intercessionem Domini Regis Edoardi illustrissimi . The hermetic writers are not agreed whether it was Edward I, or Edward II, who invited him over but, by fixing the date of his journey in 1312, they make it appear that it was Edward II. Edmond Dickenson, in his work on the quotQuintessences of the Philosophers, quot says, that Raymond worked in Westminster Abbey, where, a long time after his departure, there was found in the cell which he had occupied, a great quantity of golden dust, of which the architects made a great profit. In the biographical sketch of John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster, given by Lenglet, it is said, that it was chiefly through his instrumentality that Raymond came to England. Cremer had been himself for thirty years occupied in the vain search for the philosophers stone, when he accidentally met Raymond in Italy, and endeavoured to induce him to communicate his grand secret. Raymond told him that he must find it for himself, as all great alchymists had done before him. Cremer, on his return to England, spoke to King Edward in high terms of the wonderful attainments of the philosopher, and a letter of invitation was forthwith sent him. Robert Constantinus, in the Nomenclatore Scriptorum Medicorum . published in 1515, says, that after a great deal of research, be found that Raymond Lulli resided for some time in London, and that he actually made gold, by means of the philosophers stone, in the Tower that he had seen the golden pieces of his coinage, which were still named in England the nobles of Raymond, or rose-nobles. Lulli himself appears to have boasted that he made gold for, in his well-known Testamentum . he states, that he converted no less than fifty thousand pounds weight of quicksilver, lead, and pewter into that metal. Converti una vice in aurum ad L millia pondo argenti vivi, plumbi, et stanni. -- Lullii Testamentum. It seems highly probable that the English King, believing in the extraordinary powers of the alchymist, invited him to England to make test of them, and that he was employed in refining gold and in coining. Camden, who is not credulous in matters like these, affords his countenance to the story of his coinage of nobles and there is nothing at all wonderful in the fact of a man famous for his knowledge of metals being employed in such a capacity. Raymond was, at this time, an old man, in his seventy-seventh year, and somewhat in his dotage. He was willing enough to have it believed that he had discovered the grand secret, and supported the rumour rather than contradicted it. He did not long remain in England but returned to Rome, to carry out the projects which were nearer to his heart than the profession of alchymy. He had proposed them to several successive Popes with little or no success. The first was a plan for the introduction of the Oriental languages into all the monasteries of Europe the second, for the reduction into one of all the military orders, that, being united, they might move more efficaciously against the Saracens and, the third, that the Sovereign Pontiff should forbid the works of Averroes to be read in the schools, as being more favourable to Mahometanism than to Christianity. The Pope did not receive the old man with much cordiality and, after remaining for about two years in Rome, he proceeded once more to Africa, alone and unprotected, to preach the Gospel of Jesus. He landed at Bona in 1314 and so irritated the Mahometans by cursing their prophet, that they stoned him, and left him for dead on the sea-shore. He was found some hours afterwards by a party of Genoese merchants, who conveyed him on board their vessel, and sailed towards Majorca. The unfortunate man still breathed, but could not articulate. He lingered in this state for some days, and expired just as the vessel arrived within sight of his native shores. His body was conveyed with great pomp to the church of St. Eulalia, at Palma, where a public funeral was instituted in his honour. Miracles were afterwards said to have been worked at his tomb. Thus ended the career of Raymond Lulli, one of the most extraordinary men of his age and, with the exception of his last boast about the six millions of gold, the least inclined to quackery of any of the professors of alchymy. His writings were very numerous, and include nearly five hundred volumes, upon grammar, rhetoric, morals, theology, politics, civil and canon law, physics, metaphysics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. The powerful delusion of alchymy seized upon a mind still greater than that of Raymond Lulli. Roger Bacon firmly believed in the philosophers stone, and spent much of his time in search of it. His example helped to render all the learned men of the time more convinced of its practicability, and more eager in the pursuit. He was born at Ilchester, in the county of Somerset, in the year 1214. He studied for some time in the University of Oxford, and afterwards in that of Paris, in which he received the degree of doctor of divinity. Returning to England in 1240, he became a monk of the order of St. Francis. He was by far the most learned man of his age and his acquirements were so much above the comprehension of his contemporaries, that they could only account for them by supposing that he was indebted for them to the devil. Voltaire has not inaptly designated him quot De lor encroute de toutes les ordures de son siecle quot but the crust of superstition that enveloped his powerful mind, though it may have dimmed, could not obscure the brightness of his genius. To him, and apparently to him only, among all the inquiring spirits of the time, were known the properties of the concave and convex lens. He also invented the magic-lantern that pretty plaything of modern days, which acquired for him a reputation that embittered his life. In a history of alchymy, the name of this great man cannot be omitted, although, unlike many others of whom we shall have occasion to speak, he only made it secondary to other pursuits. The love of universal knowledge that filled his mind, would not allow him to neglect one branch of science, of which neither he nor the world could yet see the absurdity. He made ample amends for his time lost in this pursuit by his knowledge in physics and his acquaintance with astronomy. The telescope, burning-glasses, and gunpowder, are discoveries which may well carry his fame to the remotest time, and make the world blind to the one spot of folly -- the diagnosis of the age in which he lived, and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. His treatise on the quotAdmirable Power of Art and Nature in the Production of the Philosophers Stonequot was translated into French by Girard de Tormes, and published at Lyons in 1557. His quotMirror of Alchymyquot was also published in French in the same year, and in Paris in 1612, with some additions from the works of Raymond Lulli. A complete list of all the published treatises upon the subject may be seen in Lenglet du Fresnoy. This Prelate is said to have been the friend and pupil of Arnold de Villeneuve, by whom he was instructed in all the secrets of alchymy. Tradition asserts of him, that he made great quantities of gold, and died as rich as Croesus. He was born at Cahors, in the province of Guienne, in the year 1244. He was a very eloquent preacher, and soon reached high dignity in the Church. He wrote a work on the transmutation of metals, and had a famous laboratory at Avignon. He issued two Bulls against the numerous pretenders to the art, who had sprung up in every part of Christendom from which it might be inferred that he was himself free from the delusion. The alchymists claim him, however, as one of the most distinguished and successful professors of their art, and say that his Bulls were not directed against the real adepts, but the false pretenders. They lay particular stress upon these words in his Bull, quotSpondent, quas non exhibent, divitias, pauperes alchymistae. quot These, it is clear, they say, relate only to poor alchymists, and therefore false ones. He died in the year 1344, leaving in his coffers a sum of eighteen millions of florins. Popular belief alleged that he had made, and not amassed, this treasure and alchymists complacently cite this as a proof that the philosophers stone was not such a chimera as the incredulous pretended. They take it for granted that John really left this money, and ask by what possible means he could have accumulated it. Replying to their own question, they say triumphantly, quotHis book shows it was by alchymy, the secrets of which he learned from Arnold de Villeneuve and Raymond Lulli. But he was as prudent as all other hermetic philosophers. Whoever would read his book to find out his secret, would employ all his labour in vain the Pope took good care not to divulge it. quot Unluckily for their own credit, all these gold-makers are in the same predicament their great secret loses its worth most wonderfully in the telling, and therefore they keep it snugly to themselves. Perhaps they thought that, if everybody could transmute metals, gold would be so plentiful that it would be no longer valuable, and that some new art would be requisite to transmute it back again into steel and iron. If so, society is much indebted to them for their forbearance. All classes of men dabbled in the art at this time the last mentioned was a Pope, the one of whom we now speak was a poet. Jean de Meung, the celebrated author of the quotRoman de la Rose, quot was born in the year 1279 or 1280, and was a great personage at the courts of Louis X, Philip the Long, Charles IV, and Philip de Valois. His famous poem of the quotRoman de la Rose, quot which treats of every subject in vogue at that day, necessarily makes great mention of alchymy. Jean was a firm believer in the art, and wrote, besides his, quotRoman, quot two shorter poems, the one entitled, quotThe Remonstrance of Nature to the wandering Alchymist, quot and quotThe Reply of the Alchymist to Nature. quot Poetry and alchymy were his delight, and priests and women were his abomination. A pleasant story is related of him and the ladies of the court of Charles IV. He had written the following libellous couplet upon the fair sex :-- quotToutes etes, serez, ou futes De fait ou de volonte, putains, Et qui, tres bien vous chercherait Toutes putains, vous trouverait. quot These verses are but a coarser expression of the slanderous line of Pope, that quotevery woman is at heart a rake. quot This naturally gave great offence and being perceived one day, in the Kings antechamber, by some ladies who were waiting for an audience, they resolved to punish him. To the number of ten or twelve, they armed themselves with canes and rods and surrounding the unlucky poet, called upon the gentlemen present to strip him naked, that they might wreak just vengeance upon him, and lash him through the streets of the town. Some of the lords present were in no wise loth, and promised themselves great sport from his punishment. But Jean de Meung was unmoved by their threats, and stood up calmly in the midst of them, begging them to hear him first, and then, if not satisfied, they might do as they liked with him. Silence being restored, he stood upon a chair, and entered on his defence. He acknowledged that he was the author of the obnoxious verses, but denied that they bore reference to all womankind. He only meant to speak of the vicious and abandoned, whereas those whom he saw around him, were patterns of virtue, loveliness, and modesty. If, however, any lady present thought herself aggrieved, he would consent to be stripped, and she might lash him till her arms were wearied. It is added, that by this means Jean escaped his flogging, and that the wrath of the fair ones immediately subsided. The gentlemen present were, however, of opinion, that if every lady in the room, whose character corresponded with the verses, had taken him at his word, the poet would, in all probability, have been beaten to death. All his life long he evinced a great animosity towards the priesthood, and his famous poem abounds with passages reflecting upon their avarice, cruelty, and immorality. At his death he left a large box, filled with some weighty material, which he bequeathed to the Cordeliers, as a peace-offering, for the abuse he had lavished upon them. As his practice of alchymy was well-known, it was thought the box was filled with gold and silver, and the Cordeliers congratulated each other on their rich acquisition. When it came to be opened, they found to their horror that it was filled only with slates, scratched with hieroglyphic and cabalistic characters. Indignant at the insult, they determined to refuse him Christian burial, on pretence that he was a sorcerer. He was, however, honourably buried in Paris, the whole court attending his funeral. The story of this alchymist, as handed down by tradition, and enshrined in the pages of Lenglet du Fresnoy, is not a little marvellous. He was born at Pontoise of a poor but respectable family, at the end of the thirteenth, or beginning of the fourteenth, century. Having no patrimony, he set out for Paris at an early age, to try his fortune as a public scribe. He had received a good education, was well skilled in the learned languages, and was an excellent penman. He soon procured occupation as a letter-writer and copyist, and used to sit at the corner of the Rue de Marivaux, and practise his calling: but he hardly made profits enough to keep body and soul together. To mend his fortunes he tried poetry but this was a more wretched occupation still. As a transcriber he had at least gained bread and cheese but his rhymes were not worth a crust. He then tried painting with as little success and as a last resource, began to search for the philosophers stone, and tell fortunes. This was a happier idea he soon increased in substance, and had wherewithal to live comfortably. He, therefore, took unto himself his wife Petronella, and began to save money but continued to all outward appearance as poor and miserable as before. In the course of a few years, he became desperately addicted to the study of alchymy, and thought of nothing but the philosophers stone, the elixir of life, and the universal alkahest. In the year 1257, he bought by chance an old book for two florins, which soon became the sole study and object of his life. It was written with a steel instrument upon the bark of trees, and contained twenty-one, or as he himself always expressed it, three times seven, leaves. The writing was very elegant and in the Latin language. Each seventh leaf contained a picture and no writing. On the first of these was a serpent swallowing rods on the second, a cross with a serpent crucified and on the third, the representation of a desert, in the midst of which was a fountain with serpents crawling from side to side. It purported to be written by no less a personage than quotAbraham, patriarch, Jew, prince, philosopher, priest, Levite, and astrologerquot and invoked curses upon any one who should cast eyes upon it, without being a sacrificer or a scribe. Nicholas Flamel never thought it extraordinary that Abraham should have known Latin, and was convinced that the characters on his book had been traced by the hands of that great patriarch himself. He was at first afraid to read it, after he became aware of the curse it contained but he got over that difficulty by recollecting that, although he was not a sacrificer, he had practised as a scribe. As he read he was filled with admiration, and found that it was a perfect treatise upon the transmutation of metals. All the process was clearly explained the vessels, the retorts, the mixtures, and the proper times and seasons for the experiment. But as ill-luck would have it, the possession of the philosophers stone or prime agent in the work was presupposed. This was a difficulty which was not to be got over. It was like telling a starving man how to cook a beefsteak, instead of giving him the money to buy one. But Nicholas did not despair and set about studying the hieroglyphics and allegorical representations with which the book abounded. He soon convinced himself that it had been one of the sacred books of the Jews, and that it was taken from the temple of Jerusalem on its destruction by Titus. The process of reasoning by which he arrived at this conclusion is not stated. From some expression in the treatise, he learned that the allegorical drawings on the fourth and fifth leaves, enshrined the secret of the philosophers stone, without which all the fine Latin of the directions was utterly unavailing. He invited all the alchymists and learned men of Paris to come and examine them, but they all departed as wise as they came. Nobody could make anything either of Nicholas or his pictures and some even went so far as to say that his invaluable book was not worth a farthing. This was not to be borne and Nicholas resolved to discover the great secret by himself, without troubling the philosophers. He found on the first page, of the fourth leaf, the picture of Mercury, attacked by an old man resembling Saturn or Time. The latter had an hourglass on his head, and in his hand a scythe, with which he aimed a blow at Mercurys feet. The reverse of the leaf represented a flower growing on a mountain top, shaken rudely by the wind, with a blue stalk, red and white blossoms, and leaves of pure gold. Around it were a great number of dragons and griffins. On the first page of the fifth leaf was a fine garden, in the midst of which was a rose tree in full bloom, supported against the trunk of a gigantic oak. At the foot of this there bubbled up a fountain of milk-white water, which forming a small stream, flowed through the garden, and was afterwards lost in the sands. On the second page was a King, with a sword in his hand, superintending a number of soldiers, who, in execution of his orders, were killing a great multitude of young children, spurning the prayers and tears of their mothers, who tried to save them from destruction. The blood of the children was carefully collected by another party of soldiers, and put into a large vessel, in which two allegorical figures of the Sun and Moon were bathing themselves. For twenty-one years poor Nicholas wearied himself with the study of these pictures, but still he could make nothing of them. His wife Petronella at last persuaded him to find out some learned Rabbi but there was no Rabbi in Paris learned enough to be of any service to him. The Jews met but small encouragement to fix their abode in France, and all the chiefs of that people were located in Spain. To Spain accordingly Nicholas Flamel repaired. He left his book in Paris for fear, perhaps, that he might be robbed of it on the road and telling his neighbours that he was going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostello, he trudged on foot towards Madrid in search of a Rabbi. He was absent two years in that country, and made himself known to a great number of Jews, descendants of those who had been expelled from France in the reign of Philip Augustus. The believers in the philosophers stone give the following account of his adventures: -- They say that at Leon he made the acquaintance of a converted Jew, named Cauches, a very learned physician, to whom he explained the title and the nature of his little book. The Doctor was transported with joy as soon as he heard it named, and immediately resolved to accompany Nicholas to Paris, that he might have a sight of it. The two set out together the Doctor on the way entertaining his companion with the history of his book, which, if the genuine book he thought it to be, from the description he had heard of it, was in the handwriting of Abraham himself, and had been in the possession of personages no less distinguished than Moses, Joshua, Solomon, and Esdras. It contained all the secrets of alchymy and of many other sciences, and was the most valuable book that had ever existed in this world. The Doctor was himself no mean adept, and Nicholas profited greatly by his discourse, as in the garb of poor pilgrims they wended their way to Paris, convinced of their power to turn every old shovel in that capital into pure gold. But, unfortunately, when they reached Orleans, the Doctor was taken dangerously ill. Nicholas watched by his bedside, and acted the double part of a physician and nurse to him but he died after a few days, lamenting with his last breath that he had not lived long enough to see the precious volume. Nicholas rendered the last honours to his body and with a sorrowful heart, and not one sous in his pocket, proceeded home to his wife Petronella. He immediately recommenced the study of his pictures but for two whole years he was as far from understanding them as ever. At last, in the third year, a glimmer of light stole over his understanding. He recalled some expression of his friend, the Doctor, which had hitherto escaped his memory, and he found that all his previous experiments had been conducted on a wrong basis. He recommenced them now with renewed energy, and at the end of the year had the satisfaction to see all his toils rewarded. On the 13th January 1382, says Lenglet, he made a projection on mercury, and had some very excellent silver. On the 25th April following, he converted a large quantity of mercury into gold, and the great secret was his. Nicholas was now about eighty years of age, and still a hale and stout old man. His friends say that, by the simultaneous discovery of the elixir of life, he found means to keep death at a distance for another quarter of a century and that he died in 1415, at the age of 116. In this interval he had made immense quantities of gold, though to all outward appearance he was as poor as a mouse. At an early period of his changed fortune, he had, like a worthy man, taken counsel with his old wife Petronella, as to the best use he could make of his wealth. Petronella replied, that as unfortunately they had no children, the best thing he could do, was to build hospitals and endow churches. Nicholas thought so too, especially when he began to find that his elixir could not keep off death, and that the grim foe was making rapid advances upon him. He richly endowed the church of St. Jacques de la Boucherie, near the Rue de Marivaux, where he had all his life resided, besides seven others in different parts of the kingdom. He also endowed fourteen hospitals, and built three chapels. The fame of his great wealth and his munificent benefactions soon spread over all the country, and he was visited, among others, by the celebrated Doctors of that day, Jean Gerson, Jean de Courtecuisse, and Pierre dAilli. They found him in his humble apartment, meanly clad, and eating porridge out of an earthen vessel and with regard to his secret, as impenetrable as all his predecessors in alchymy. His fame reached the ears of the King, Charles VI, who sent M. de Cramoisi, the Master of Requests, to find out whether Nicholas had indeed discovered the philosophers stone. But M. de Cramoisi took nothing by his visit all his attempts to sound the alchymist were unavailing, and he returned to his royal master no wiser than he came. It was in this year, 1414, that he lost his faithful Petronella. He did not long survive her but died in the following year, and was buried with great pomp by the grateful priests of St. Jacques de la Boucherie. The great wealth of Nicholas Flamel is undoubted, as the records of several churches and hospitals in France can testify. That he practised alchymy is equally certain, as he left behind several works upon the subject. Those who knew him well, and who were incredulous about the philosophers stone, give a very satisfactory solution of the secret of his wealth. They say that he was always a miser and a usurer that his journey to Spain was undertaken with very different motives from those pretended by the alchymists that, in fact, he went to collect debts due from Jews in that country to their brethren in Paris, and that he charged a commission of fully cent. per cent. in consideration of the difficulty of collecting and the dangers of the road that when he possessed thousands, he lived upon almost nothing and was the general money-lender, at enormous profits, of all the dissipated young men at the French court. Among the works written by Nicholas Flamel on the subject of alchymy, is quotThe Philosophic Summary, quot a poem, reprinted in 1735, as an appendix to the third volume of the quotRoman de la Rose. quot He also wrote three treatises upon natural philosophy, and an alchymic allegory, entitled quotLe Desir desire. quot Specimens of his writing, and a fac-simile of the drawings in his book of Abraham, may be seen in Salmons quotBibliotheque des Philosophes Chimiques. quot The writer of the article, quotFlamel, quot in the quotBiographie Universelle, quot says that, for a hundred years after the death of Flamel, many of the adepts believed that he was still alive, and that he would live for upwards of six hundred years. The house he formerly occupied, at the corner of the Rue de Marivaux, has been often taken by credulous speculators, and ransacked from top to bottom, in the hopes that gold might be found. A report was current in Paris, not long previous to the year 1816, that some lodgers had found in the cellars several jars filled with a dark-coloured ponderous matter. Upon the strength of the rumour, a believer in all the wondrous tales told of Nicholas Flamel bought the house, and nearly pulled it to pieces in ransacking the walls and wainscotting for hidden gold. He got nothing for his pains, however, and had a heavy bill to pay to restore his dilapidations. While alchymy was thus cultivated on the continent of Europe, it was not neglected in the isles of Britain. Since the time of Roger Bacon, it had fascinated the imagination of many ardent men in England. In the year 1404, an act of parliament was passed, declaring the making of gold and silver to be felony. Great alarm was felt at that time lest any alchymist should succeed in his projects, and perhaps bring ruin upon the state, by furnishing boundless wealth to some designing tyrant, who would make use of it to enslave his country. This alarm appears to have soon subsided for, in the year 1455, King Henry VI, by advice of his council and parliament, granted four successive patents and commissions to several knights, citizens of London, chemists, monks, mass-priests, and others, to find out the philosophers stone and elixir, quotto the great benefit, quot said the patent, quotof the realm, and the enabling of the King to pay all the debts of the Crown in real gold and silver. quot Prinn, in his quotAurum Reginae, quot observes, as a note to this passage, that the Kings reason for granting this patent to ecclesiastics was, that they were such good artists in transubstantiating bread and wine in the Eucharist, and therefore the more likely to be able to effect the transmutation of baser metals into better. No gold, of course, was ever made and, next year, the King, doubting very much of the practicability of the thing, took further advice, and appointed a commission of ten learned men, and persons of eminence, to judge and certify to him whether the transmutation of metals were a thing practicable or no. It does not appear whether the commission ever made any report upon the subject. In the succeeding reign, an alchymist appeared who pretended to have discovered the secret. This was George Ripley, the canon of Bridlington, in Yorkshire. He studied for twenty years in the universities of Italy, and was a great favourite with Pope Innocent VIII, who made him one of his domestic chaplains, and master of the ceremonies in his household. Returning to England in 1477, he dedicated to King Edward IV. his famous work, quotThe Compound of Alchymy or, the Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the Philosophers Stone. quot These gates he described to be calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefaction, congelation, cibation, sublimation, fermentation, exaltation, multiplication, and projection to which he might have added botheration, the most important process of all. He was very rich, and allowed it to be believed that he could make gold out of iron. Fuller, in his quotWorthies of England, quot says that an English gentleman of good credit reported that, in his travels abroad, he saw a record in the island of Malta, which declared that Ripley gave yearly to the knights of that island, and of Rhodes, the enormous sum of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, to enable them to carry on the war against the Turks. In his old age, he became an anchorite near Boston, and wrote twenty-five volumes upon the subject of alchymy, the most important of which is the quotDuodecim Portarum, quot already mentioned. Before he died, he seems to have acknowledged that he had misspent his life in this vain study, and requested that all men, when they met with any of his books, would burn them, or afford them no credit, as they had been written merely from his opinion, and not from proof and that subsequent trial had made manifest to him that they were false and vain. Fullers quotWorthies of England. quot Germany also produced many famous alchymists in the fifteenth century, the chief of whom are Basil Valentine, Bernard of Treves, and the Abbot Trithemius. Basil Valentine was born at Mayence, and was made prior of St. Peters, at Erfurt, about the year 1414. It was known, during his life, that he diligently sought the philosophers stone, and that he had written some works upon the process of transmutation. They were thought, for many years, to be lost but were, after his death, discovered enclosed in the stone work of one of the pillars in the Abbey. They were twenty-one in number, and are fully set forth in the third volume of Lenglets quotHistory of the Hermetic Philosophy. quot The alchymists asserted, that Heaven itself conspired to bring to light these extraordinary works and that the pillar in which they were enclosed was miraculously shattered by a thunderbolt and that, as soon as the manuscripts were liberated, the pillar closed up again of its own accord BERNARD of TREVES. The life of this philosopher is a remarkable instance of talent and perseverance misapplied. In the search of his chimera nothing could daunt him. Repeated disappointment never diminished his hopes and, from the age of fourteen to that of eighty-five, he was incessantly employed among the drugs and furnaces of his laboratory, wasting his life with the view of prolonging it, and reducing himself to beggary in the hopes of growing rich. He was born at either Treves or Padua, in the year 1406. His father is said by some to have been a physician in the latter city and by others, to have been Count of the Marches of Treves, and one of the most wealthy nobles of his country. At all events, whether noble or physician, he was a rich man, and left his son a magnificent estate. At the age of fourteen he first became enamoured of the science of alchymy, and read the Arabian authors in their own language. He himself has left a most interesting record of his labours and wanderings, from which the following particulars are chiefly extracted: -- The first book which fell into his hands, was that of the Arabian philosopher, Rhazes, from the reading of which he imagined that he had discovered the means of augmenting gold a hundred fold. For four years he worked in his laboratory, with the book of Rhazes continually before him. At the end of that time, he found that he had spent no less than eight hundred crowns upon his experiment, and had got nothing but fire and smoke for his pains. He now began to lose confidence in Rhazes, and turned to the works of Geber. He studied him assiduously for two years and, being young, rich, and credulous, was beset by all the chymists of the town, who kindly assisted him in spending his money. He did not lose his faith in Geber, or patience with his hungry assistants, until he had lost two thousand crowns - a very considerable sum in those days. Among all the crowd of pretended men of science who surrounded him, there was but one as enthusiastic and as disinterested as himself. With this man, who was a monk of the order of St. Francis, he contracted an intimate friendship, and spent nearly all his time. Some obscure treatises of Rupecissa and Sacrobosco having fallen into their hands, they were persuaded, from reading them, that highly rectified spirits of wine was the universal alkahest, or dissolvent, which would aid them greatly in the process of transmutation. They rectified the alcohol thirty times, till they made it so strong as to burst the vessels which contained it. After they had worked three years, and spent three hundred crowns in the liquor, they discovered that they were on the wrong track. They next tried alum and copperas but the great secret still escaped them. They afterwards imagined that there was a marvellous virtue in all excrement, especially the human, and actually employed more than two years in experimentalizing upon it, with mercury, salt, and molten lead Again the adepts flocked around him from far and near, to aid him with their counsels. He received them all hospitably, and divided his wealth among them so generously and unhesitatingly, that they gave him the name of the quotgood Trevisan, quot by which he is still often mentioned in works that treat on alchymy. For twelve years he led this life, making experiments every day upon some new substance, and praying to God night and morning that he might discover the secret of transmutation. In this interval he lost his friend the monk, and was joined by a magistrate of the city of Treves, as ardent as himself in the search. His new acquaintance imagined that the ocean was the mother of gold, and that sea-salt would change lead or iron into the precious metals. Bernard resolved to try and, transporting his laboratory to a house on the coast of the Baltic, he worked upon salt for more than a year, melting it, sublimating it, crystalizing it, and occasionally drinking it, for the sake of other experiments. Still the strange enthusiast was not wholly discouraged, and his failure in one trial only made him the more anxious to attempt another. He was now approaching the age of fifty, and had as yet seen nothing of the world. He, therefore, determined to travel through Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. Wherever he stopped he made inquiries whether there were any alchymists in the neighbourhood. He invariably sought them out and, if they were poor, relieved, and, if affluent, encouraged them. At Citeaux he became acquainted with one Geoffrey Leuvier, a monk of that place, who persuaded him that the essence of egg-shells was a valuable ingredient. He tried, therefore, what could be done and was only prevented from wasting a year or two on the experiment by the opinions of an attorney, at Berghem, in Flanders, who said that the great secret resided in vinegar and copperas. He was not convinced of the absurdity of this idea until he had nearly poisoned himself. He resided in France for about five years, when, hearing accidentally that one Master Henry, confessor to the Emperor Frederic III, had discovered the philosophers stone, he set out for Germany to pay him a visit. He had, as usual, surrounded himself with a set of hungry dependants, several of whom determined to accompany him. He had not heart to refuse them, and he arrived at Vienna with five of them. Bernard sent a polite invitation to the confessor, and gave him a sumptuous entertainment, at which were present nearly all the alchymists of Vienna. Master Henry frankly confessed that he had not discovered the philosophers stone, but that he had all his life been employed in searching for it, and would so continue, till he found it -- or died. This was a man after Bernards own heart, and they vowed with each other an eternal friendship. It was resolved, at supper, that each alchymist present should contribute a certain sum towards raising forty-two marks of gold, which, in five days, it was confidently asserted by Master Henry, would increase, in his furnace, five fold. Bernard, being the richest man, contributed the lions share, ten marks of gold, Master Henry five, and the others one or two a piece, except the dependants of Bernard, who were obliged to borrow their quota from their patron. The grand experiment was duly made the golden marks were put into a crucible, with a quantity of salt, copperas, aquafortis, egg-shells, mercury, lead, and dung. The alchymists watched this precious mess with intense interest, expecting that it would agglomerate into one lump of pure gold. At the end of three weeks they gave up the trial, upon some excuse that the crucible was not strong enough, or that some necessary ingredient was wanting. Whether any thief had put his hands into the crucible is not known, but it is certain that the gold found therein at the close of the experiment was worth only sixteen marks, instead of the forty-two, which were put there at the beginning. Bernard, though he made no gold at Vienna, made away with a very considerable quantity. He felt the loss so acutely, that he vowed to think no more of the philosophers stone. This wise resolution he kept for two months but he was miserable. He was in the condition of the gambler, who cannot resist the fascination of the game while he has a coin remaining, but plays on with the hope of retrieving former losses, till hope forsakes him, and he can live no longer. He returned once more to his beloved crucibles, and resolved to prosecute his journey in search of a philosopher who had discovered the secret, and would communicate it to so zealous and persevering an adept as himself. From Vienna he travelled to Rome, and from Rome to Madrid. Taking ship at Gibraltar, he proceeded to Messina from Messina to Cyprus from Cyprus to Greece from Greece to Constantinople and thence into Egypt, Palestine, and Persia. These wanderings occupied him about eight years. From Persia he made his way back to Messina, and from thence into France. He afterwards passed over into England, still in search of his great chimera and this occupied four years more of his life. He was now growing both old and poor for he was sixty-two years of age, and had been obliged to sell a great portion of his patrimony to provide for his expenses. His journey to Persia had cost upwards of thirteen thousand crowns, about one-half of which had been fairly melted in his all-devouring furnaces: the other half was lavished upon the sycophants that he made it his business to search out in every town he stopped at. On his return to Treves he found, to his sorrow, that, if not an actual beggar, he was not much better. His relatives looked upon him as a madman, and refused even to see him. Too proud to ask for favours from any one, and still confident that, some day or other, he would be the possessor of unbounded wealth, he made up his mind to retire to the island of Rhodes, where he might, in the mean time, hide his poverty from the eyes of all the world. Here he might have lived unknown and happy but, as ill luck would have it, he fell in with a monk as mad as himself upon the subject of transmutation. They were, however, both so poor that they could not afford to buy the proper materials to work with. They kept up each others spirits by learned discourses on the Hermetic Philosophy, and in the reading of all the great authors who had written upon the subject. Thus did they nurse their folly, as the good wife of Tam OShanter did her wrath, quotto keep it warm. quot After Bernard had resided about a year in Rhodes, a merchant, who knew his family, advanced him the sum of eight thousand florins, upon the security of the last-remaining acres of his formerly large estate. Once more provided with funds, he recommenced his labours with all the zeal and enthusiasm of a young man. For three years he hardly stepped out of his laboratory: he ate there, and slept there, and did not even give himself time to wash his hands and clean his beard, so intense was his application. It is melancholy to think that such wonderful perseverance should have been wasted in so vain a pursuit, and that energies so unconquerable should have had no worthier field to strive in. Even when he had fumed away his last coin, and had nothing left in prospective to keep his old age from starvation, hope never forsook him. He still dreamed of ultimate success, and sat down a greyheaded man of eighty, to read over all the authors on the hermetic mysteries, from Geber to his own day, lest he should have misunderstood some process, which it was not yet too late to recommence. The alchymists say, that he succeeded at last, and discovered the secret of transmutation in his eighty-second year. They add, that he lived three years afterwards to enjoy his wealth. He lived, it is true, to this great age, and made a valuable discovery - more valuable than gold or gems. He learned, as he himself informs us, just before he had attained his eighty-third year, that the great secret of philosophy was contentment with our lot. Happy would it have been for him if he had discovered it sooner, and before he became decrepit, a beggar, and an exile He died at Rhodes, in the year 1490, and all the alchymists of Europe sang elegies over him, and sounded his praise as the quotgood Trevisan. quot He wrote several treatises upon his chimera, the chief of which are, the quotBook of Chemistry, quot the quotVerbum dimissum, quot and an essay quotDe Natura Ovi. quot The name of this eminent man has become famous in the annals of alchymy, although he did but little to gain so questionable an honour. He was born in the year 1462, at the village of Trittheim, in the electorate of Treves. His father was John Heidenberg, a vine-grower, in easy circumstances, who, dying when his son was but seven years old, left him to the care of his mother. The latter married again very shortly afterwards, and neglected the poor boy, the offspring of her first marriage. At the age of fifteen he did not even know his letters, and was, besides, half starved, and otherwise ill-treated by his step-father but the love of knowledge germinated in the breast of the unfortunate youth, and he learned to read at the house of a neighbour. His father-in-law set him to work in the vineyards, and thus occupied all his days but the nights were his own. He often stole out unheeded, when all the household were fast asleep, poring over his studies in the fields, by the light of the moon and thus taught himself Latin and the rudiments of Greek. He was subjected to so much ill-usage at home, in consequence of this love of study, that he determined to leave it. Demanding the patrimony which his father had left him, he proceeded to Treves and, assuming the name of Trithemius, from that of his native village of Trittheim, lived there for some months, under the tuition of eminent masters, by whom he was prepared for the university. At the age of twenty, he took it into his head that he should like to see his mother once more and he set out on foot from the distant university for that purpose. On his arrival near Spannheim, late in the evening of a gloomy winters day, it came on to snow so thickly, that he could not proceed onwards to the town. He, therefore, took refuge for the night in a neighbouring monastery but the storm continued several days, the roads became impassable, and the hospitable monks would not hear of his departure. He was so pleased with them and their manner of life, that he suddenly resolved to fix his abode among them, and renounce the world. They were no less pleased with him, and gladly received him as a brother. In the course of two years, although still so young, he was unanimously elected their Abbot. The financial affairs of the establishment had been greatly neglected, the walls of the building were falling into ruin, and everything was in disorder. Trithemius, by his good management and regularity, introduced a reform in every branch of expenditure. The monastery was repaired, and a yearly surplus, instead of a deficiency, rewarded him for his pains. He did not like to see the monks idle, or occupied solely between prayers for their business, and chess for their relaxation. He, therefore, set them to work to copy the writings of eminent authors. They laboured so assiduously, that, in the course of a few years, their library, which had contained only about forty volumes, was enriched with several hundred valuable manuscripts, comprising many of the classical Latin authors, besides the works of the early fathers, and the principal historians and philosophers of more modern date. He retained the dignity of Abbot of Spannheim for twenty-one years, when the monks, tired of the severe discipline he maintained, revolted against him, and chose another abbot in his place. He was afterwards made Abbot of St. James, in Wurtzburg, where he died in 1516. During his learned leisure at Spannheim, he wrote several works upon the occult sciences, the chief of which are an essay on geomancy, or divination by means of lines and circles on the ground another upon sorcery a third upon alchymy and a fourth upon the government of the world by its presiding angels, which was translated into English, and published by the famous William Lilly in 1647. It has been alleged by the believers in the possibility of transmutation, that the prosperity of the abbey of Spannheim, while under his superintendence, was owing more to the philosophers stone than to wise economy. Trithemius, in common with many other learned men, has been accused of magic and a marvellous story is told of his having raised from the grave the form of Mary of Burgundy, at the intercession of her widowed husband, the Emperor Maximilian. His work on steganographia, or cabalistic writing, was denounced to the Count Palatine, Frederic II, as magical and devilish and it was by him taken from the shelves of his library and thrown into the fire. Trithemius is said to be the first writer who makes mention of the wonderful story of the devil and Dr. Faustus, the truth of which he firmly believed. He also recounts the freaks of a spirit, named Hudekin, by whom he was at times tormented. Biographie Universelle THE MARECHAL DE RAYS. One of the greatest encouragers of alchymy in the fifteenth century was Gilles de Laval, Lord of Rays and a Marshal of France. His name and deeds are little known but in the annals of crime and folly, they might claim the highest and worst pro-eminence. Fiction has never invented anything wilder or more horrible than his career and were not the details but too well authenticated by legal and other documents which admit no doubt, the lover of romance might easily imagine they were drawn to please him from the stores of the prolific brain, and not from the page of history. He was born about the year 1420, of one of the noblest families of Brittany. His father dying when Gilles had attained his twentieth year, he came into uncontrolled possession, at that early age, of a fortune which the monarchs of France might have envied him. He was a near kinsman of the Montmorencys, the Roncys, and the Craons possessed fifteen princely domains, and had an annual revenue of about three hundred thousand livres. Besides this, he was handsome, learned, and brave. He distinguished himself greatly in the wars of Charles VII, and was rewarded by that monarch with the dignity of a marshal of France. But he was extravagant and magnificent in his style of living, and accustomed from his earliest years to the gratification of every wish and passion and this, at last, led him from vice to vice, and from crime to crime, till a blacker name than his is not to be found in any record of human iniquity. In his castle of Champtoce, he lived with all the splendour of an Eastern Caliph. He kept up a troop of two hundred horsemen to accompany him wherever he went and his excursions for the purposes of hawking and hunting were the wonder of all the country around, so magnificent were the caparisons of his steeds and the dresses of his retainers. Day and night, his castle was open all the year round to comers of every degree. He made it a rule to regale even the poorest beggar with wine and hippocrass. Every day an ox was roasted whole in his spacious kitchens, besides sheep, pigs, and poultry sufficient to feed five hundred persons. He was equally magnificent in his devotions. His private chapel at Champtoce was the most beautiful in France, and far surpassed any of those in the richly-endowed cathedrals of Notre Dame in Paris, of Amiens, of Beauvais, or of Rouen. It was hung with cloth of gold and rich velvet. All the chandeliers were of pure gold, curiously inlaid with silver. The great crucifix over the altar was of solid silver, and the chalices and incense-burners were of pure gold. He had, besides, a fine organ, which he caused to be carried from one castle to another, on the shoulders of six men, whenever he changed his residence. He kept up a choir of twenty-five young children of both sexes, who were instructed in singing by the first musicians of the day. The master of his chapel he called a bishop, who had under him his deans, archdeacons, and vicars, each receiving great salaries the bishop four hundred crowns a year, and the rest in proportion. He also maintained a whole troop of players, including ten dancing-girls and as many ballad-singers, besides morris-dancers, jugglers, and mountebanks of every description. The theatre on which they performed was fitted up without any regard to expense and they played mysteries, or danced the morris-dance, every evening, for the amusement of himself and household, and such strangers as were sharing his prodigal hospitality. At the age of twenty-three, he married Catherine, the wealthy heiress of the house of Touars, for whom he refurnished his castle at an expense of a hundred thousand crowns. His marriage was the signal for new extravagance, and he launched out more madly than ever he had done before sending for fine singers or celebrated dancers from foreign countries to amuse him and his spouse, and instituting tilts and tournaments in his great court-yard almost every week for all the knights and nobles of the province of Brittany. The Duke of Brittanys court was not half so splendid as that of the Marechal de Rays. His utter disregard of wealth was so well known that he was made to pay three times its value for everything he purchased. His castle was filled with needy parasites and panderers to his pleasures, amongst whom he lavished rewards with an unsparing hand. But the ordinary round of sensual gratification ceased at last to afford him delight: he was observed to be more abstemious in the pleasures of the table, and to neglect the beauteous dancing-girls who used formerly to occupy so much of his attention. He was sometimes gloomy and reserved and there was an unnatural wildness in his eye which gave indications of incipient madness. Still, his discourse was as reasonable as ever his urbanity to the guests that flocked from far and near to Champtoce suffered no diminution and learned priests, when they conversed with him, thought to themselves that few of the nobles of France were so well-informed as Gilles de Laval. But dark rumours spread gradually over the country murder, and, if possible, still more atrocious deeds were hinted at and it was remarked that many young children, of both sexes, suddenly disappeared, and were never afterwards heard of. One or two had been traced to the castle of Champtoce, and had never been seen to leave it but no one dared to accuse openly so powerful a man as the Marechal de Rays. Whenever the subject of the lost children was mentioned in his presence, he manifested the greatest astonishment at the mystery which involved their fate, and indignation against those who might be guilty of kidnapping them. Still the world was not wholly deceived his name became as formidable to young children as that of the devouring ogre in fairy tales and they were taught to go miles round, rather than pass under the turrets of Champtoce. In the course of a very few years, the reckless extravagance of the Marshal drained him of all his funds, and he was obliged to put up some of his estates for sale. The Duke of Brittany entered into a treaty with him for the valuable seignory of Ingrande but the heirs of Gilles implored the interference of Charles VII. to stay the sale. Charles immediately issued an edict, which was confirmed by the Provincial Parliament of Brittany, forbidding him to alienate his paternal estates. Gilles had no alternative but to submit. He had nothing to support his extravagance but his allowance as a Marshal of France, which did not cover the one-tenth of his expenses. A man of his habits and character could not retrench his wasteful expenditure and live reasonably he could not dismiss without a pang his horsemen, his jesters, his morris-dancers, his choristers, and his parasites, or confine his hospitality to those who really needed it. Notwithstanding his diminished resources, he resolved to live as he had lived before, and turn alchymist, that he might make gold out of iron, and be still the wealthiest and most magnificent among the nobles of Brittany. In pursuance of this determination he sent to Paris, Italy, Germany, and Spain, inviting all the adepts in the science to visit him at Champtoce. The messengers he despatched on this mission were two of his most needy and unprincipled dependants, Gilles de Sille and Roger de Bricqueville. The latter, the obsequious panderer to his most secret and abominable pleasures, he had intrusted with the education of his motherless daughter, a child but five years of age, with permission, that he might marry her at the proper time to any person he chose, or to himself if he liked it better. This man entered into the new plans of his master with great zeal, and introduced to him one Prelati, an alchymist of Padua, and a physician of Poitou, who was addicted to the same pursuits. The Marshal caused a splendid laboratory to be fitted up for them, and the three commenced the search for the philosophers stone. They were soon afterwards joined by another pretended philosopher, named Anthony of Palermo, who aided in their operations for upwards of a year. They all fared sumptuously at the Marshals expense, draining him of the ready money he possessed, and leading him on from day to day with the hope that they would succeed in the object of their search. From time to time new aspirants from the remotest parts of Europe arrived at his castle, and for months he had upwards of twenty alchymists at work - trying to transmute copper into gold, and wasting the gold, which was still his own, in drugs and elixirs. But the Lord of Rays was not a man to abide patiently their lingering processes. Pleased with their comfortable quarters, they jogged on from day to day, and would have done so for years, had they been permitted. But he suddenly dismissed them all, with the exception of the Italian Prelati, and the physician of Poitou. These he retained to aid him to discover the secret of the philosophers stone by a bolder method. The Poitousan had persuaded him that the devil was the great depositary of that and all other secrets, and that he would raise him before Gilles, who might enter into any contract he pleased with him. Gilles expressed his readiness, and promised to give the devil anything but his soul, or do any deed that the arch-enemy might impose upon him. Attended solely by the physician, he proceeded at midnight to a wild-looking place in a neighbouring forest the physician drew a magic circle around them on the sward, and muttered for half an hour an invocation to the Evil Spirit to arise at his bidding, and disclose the secrets of alchymy. Gilles looked on with intense interest, and expected every moment to see the earth open, and deliver to his gaze the great enemy of mankind. At last the eyes of the physician became fixed, his hair stood on end, and he spoke, as if addressing the fiend. But Gilles saw nothing except his companion. At last the physician fell down on the sward as if insensible. Gilles looked calmly on to see the end. After a few minutes the physician arose, and asked him if he had not seen how angry the devil looked Gilles replied, that he had seen nothing upon which his companion informed him that Beelzebub had appeared in the form of a wild leopard, growled at him savagely, and said nothing and that the reason why the Marshal had neither seen nor heard him, was that he hesitated in his own mind as to devoting himself entirely to the service. De Rays owned that he had indeed misgivings, and inquired what was to be done to make the devil speak out, and unfold his secret The physician replied, that some person must go to Spain and Africa to collect certain herbs which only grew in those countries, and offered to go himself, if De Rays would provide the necessary funds. De Rays at once consented and the physician set out on the following day with all the gold that his dupe could spare him. The Marshal never saw his face again. But the eager Lord of Champtoce could not rest. Gold was necessary for his pleasures and unless, by supernatural aid, he had no means of procuring many further supplies. The physician was hardly twenty leagues on his journey, before Gilles resolved to make another effort to force the devil to divulge the art of gold making. He went out alone for that purpose, but all his conjurations were of no effect. Beelzebub was obstinate, and would not appear. Determined to conquer him if he could, he unbosomed himself to the Italian alchymist, Prelati. The latter offered to undertake the business, upon condition that De Rays did not interfere in the conjurations, and consented besides to furnish him with all the charms and talismans that might be required. He was further to open a vein in his arm, and sign with his blood a contract that he would work the devils will in all things, and offer up to him a sacrifice of the heart, lungs, hands, eyes, and blood of a young child. The grasping monomaniac made no hesitation but agreed at once to the disgusting terms proposed to him. On the following night, Prelati went out alone and after having been absent for three or four hours, returned to Gilles, who sat anxiously awaiting him. Prelati then informed him that he had seen the devil in the shape of a handsome youth of twenty. He further said, that the devil desired to be called Barron in all future invocations and had shown him a great number of ingots of pure gold, buried under a large oak in the neighbouring forest, all of which, and as many more as he desired, should become the property of the Marechal de Rays if he remained firm, and broke no condition of the contract. Prelati further showed him a small casket of black dust, which would turn iron into gold but as the process was very troublesome, he advised that they should be contented with the ingots they found under the oak tree, and which would more than supply all the wants that the most extravagant imagination could desire. They were not, however, to attempt to look for the gold till a period of seven times seven weeks, or they would find nothing but slates and stones for their pains. Gilles expressed the utmost chagrin and disappointment, and at once said that he could not wait for so long a period if the devil were not more prompt, Prelati might tell him, that the Marechal de Rays was not to be trifled with, and would decline all further communication with him. Prelati at last persuaded him to wait seven times seven days. They then went at midnight with picks and shovels to dig up the ground under the oak, where they found nothing to reward them but a great quantity of slates, marked with hieroglyphics. It was now Prelatis turn to be angry and he loudly swore that the devil was nothing but a liar and a cheat. The Marshal joined cordially in the opinion, but was easily persuaded by the cunning Italian to make one more trial. He promised at the same time that he would endeavour, on the following night, to discover the reason why the devil had broken his word. He went out alone accordingly, and on his return informed his patron that he had seen Barron, who was exceedingly angry that they had not waited the proper time ere they looked for the ingots. Barron had also said, that the Marechal de Rays could hardly expect any favours from him, at a time when he must know that he had been meditating a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to make atonement for his sins. The Italian had doubtless surmised this, from some incautious expression of his patron, for De Rays frankly confessed that there were times when, sick of the world and all its pomps and vanities, he thought of devoting himself to the service of God. In this manner the Italian lured on from month to month his credulous and guilty patron, extracting from him all the valuables he possessed, and only waiting a favourable opportunity to decamp with his plunder. But the day of retribution was at hand for both. Young girls and boys continued to disappear in the most mysterious manner and the rumours against the owner of Champtoce grew so loud and distinct, that the Church was compelled to interfere. Representations were made by the Bishop of Nantes to the Duke of Brittany, that it would be a public scandal if the accusations against the Marechal de Rays were not inquired into. He was arrested accordingly in his own castle, along with his accomplice Prelati, and thrown into a dungeon at Nantes to await his trial. The judges appointed to try him were the Bishop of Nantes Chancellor of Brittany, the Vicar of the Inquisition in France, and the celebrated Pierre lHopital, the President of the Provincial Parliament. The offences laid to his charge were sorcery, sodomy, and murder. Gilles, on the first day of his trial, conducted himself with the utmost insolence. He braved the judges on the judgment seat, calling them simoniacs and persons of impure life, and said he would rather be hanged by the neck like a dog without trial, than plead either guilty or not guilty to such contemptible miscreants. But his confidence forsook him as the trial proceeded, and he was found guilty on the clearest evidence of all the crimes laid to his charge. It was proved that he took insane pleasure in stabbing the victims of his lust, and in observing the quivering of their flesh, and the fading lustre of their eyes as they expired. The confession of Prelati first made the judges acquainted with this horrid madness, and Gilles himself confirmed it before his death. Nearly a hundred children of the villagers around his two castles of Champtoce and Machecoue, had been missed within three years the greater part, if not all, of whom were immolated to the lust or the cupidity of this monster. He imagined that he thus made the devil his friend, and that his recompence would be the secret of the philosophers stone. Gilles and Prelati were both condemned to be burned alive. At the place of execution they assumed the air of penitence and religion. Gilles tenderly embraced Prelati, saying, quotFarewell, friend Francis In this world we shall never meet again but let us place our hopes in God we shall see each other in Paradise. quot Out of consideration for his high rank and connections, the punishment of the Marshal was so far mitigated, that he was not burned alive like Prelati. He was first strangled, and then thrown into the flames: his body, when half consumed, was given over to his relatives for interment while that of the Italian was burned to ashes, and then scattered in the winds. For full details of this extraordinary trial, see quotLobineaus Nouvelle Histoire de Bretagnequot and DArgentres work on the same subject. This remarkable pretender to the secret of the philosophers stone, was contemporary with the last mentioned. He was a great personage at the court of Charles VII, and in the events of his reign played a prominent part. From a very humble origin he rose to the highest honours of the state, and amassed enormous wealth, by peculation and the plunder of the country which he should have served. It was to hide his delinquencies in this respect, and to divert attention from the real source of his riches, that he boasted of having discovered the art of transmuting the inferior metals into gold and silver. His father was a goldsmith in the city of Bourges but so reduced in circumstances towards the latter years of his life, that he was unable to pay the necessary fees to procure his sons admission into the guild. Young Jacques became, however, a workman in the Royal Mint of Bourges, in 1428, and behaved himself so well, and showed so much knowledge of metallurgy, that he attained rapid promotion in that establishment. He had also the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the fair Agnes Sorel, by whom he was patronized and much esteemed. Jacques had now three things in his favour - ability, perseverance, and the countenance of the Kings mistress. Many a man succeeds with but one of these to help him forward: and it would have been strange indeed, if Jacques Coeur, who had them all, should have languished in obscurity. While still a young man he was made Master of the Mint, in which he had been a journeyman, and installed at the same time into the vacant office of Grand Treasurer of the royal household. He possessed an extensive knowledge of finance, and turned it wonderfully to his own advantage as soon as he became intrusted with extensive funds. He speculated in articles of the first necessity, and made himself very unpopular by buying up grain, honey, wines, and other produce, till there was a scarcity, when he sold it again at enormous profit. Strong in the royal favour, he did not hesitate to oppress the poor by continual acts of forestalling and monopoly. As there is no enemy so bitter as the estranged friend, so of all the tyrants and tramplers upon the poor, there is none so fierce and reckless as the upstart that sprang from their ranks. The offensive pride of Jacques Coeur to his inferiors was the theme of indignant reproach in his own city, and his cringing humility to those above him was as much an object of contempt to the aristocrats into whose society he thrust himself. But Jacques did not care for the former, and to the latter he was blind. He continued his career till he became the richest man in France, and so useful to the King that no important enterprise was set on foot until he had been consulted. He was sent in 1446 on an embassy to Genoa, and in the following year to Pope Nicholas V. In both these missions he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his sovereign, and was rewarded with a lucrative appointment, in addition to those which he already held. In the year 1449, the English in Normandy, deprived of their great general, the Duke of Bedford, broke the truce with the French King, and took possession of a small town belonging to the Duke of Brittany. This was the signal for the recommencemerit of a war, in which the French regained possession of nearly the whole province. The money for this war was advanced, for the most part, by Jacques Coeur. When Rouen yielded to the French, and Charles made his triumphal entry into that city, accompanied by Dunois and his most famous generals, Jacques was among the most brilliant of his cortege. His chariot and horses vied with those of the King in the magnificence of their trappings and his enemies said of him that he publicly boasted that he alone had driven out the English, and that the valour of the troops would would have been nothing without his gold. Dunois appears, also, to have been partly of the same opinion. Without disparaging the courage of the army, he acknowledged the utility of the able financier, by whose means they had been fed and paid, and constantly afforded him his powerful protection. When peace returned, Jacques again devoted himself to commerce, and fitted up several galleys to trade with the Genoese. He also bought large estates in various parts of France the chief of which were the baronies of St. Fargeau, Meneton, Salone, Maubranche, Meaune, St. Gerant de Vaux, and St. Aon de Boissy the earldoms or counties of La Palisse, Champignelle, Beaumont, and Villeneuve la Genet, and the marquisate of Toucy. He also procured for his son, Jean Coeur, who had chosen the Church for his profession, a post no less distinguished than that of Archbishop of Bourges. Everybody said that so much wealth could not have been honestly acquired and both rich and poor longed for the day that should humble the pride of the man, whom the one class regarded as an upstart and the other as an oppressor. Jacques was somewhat alarmed at the rumours that were afloat respecting him, and of dark hints that he had debased the coin of the realm and forged the Kings seal to an important document, by which he had defrauded the state of very considerable sums. To silence these rumours, he invited many alchymists from foreign countries to reside with him, and circulated a counter-rumour, that he had discovered the secret of the philosophers stone. He also built a magnificent house in his native city, over the entrance of which he caused to be sculptured the emblems of that science. Some time afterwards, he built another, no less splendid, at Montpellier, which he inscribed in a similar manner. He also wrote a treatise upon the hermetic philosophy, in which he pretended that he knew the secret of transmuting metals. But all these attempts to disguise his numerous acts of peculation proved unavailing and he was arrested in 1452, and brought to trial on several charges. Upon one only, which the malice of his enemies invented to ruin him, was he acquitted which was, that he had been accessory to the death, by poison, of his kind patroness, Agnes Sorel. Upon the others, he was found guilty and sentenced to be banished the kingdom, and to pay the enormous fine of four hundred thousand crowns. It was proved that he had forged the Kings seal that, in his capacity of Master of the Mint of Bourges, he had debased, to a very great extent, the gold and silver coin of the realm and that he had not hesitated to supply the Turks with arms and money to enable them to carry on war against their Christian neighbours, for which service he had received the most munificent recompences. Charles VII. was deeply grieved at his condemnation, and believed to the last that he was innocent. By his means the fine was reduced within a sum which Jacques Coeur could pay. After remaining for some time in prison, he was liberated, and left France with a large sum of money, part of which, it was alleged, was secretly paid him by Charles out of the produce of his confiscated estates. He retired to Cyprus, where he died about 1460, the richest and most conspicuous personage of the island. The writers upon alchymy all claim Jacques Coeur as a member of their fraternity, and treat as false and libellous the more rational explanation of his wealth which the records of his trial afford. Pierre Borel, in his quotAntiquites Gauloises, quot maintains the opinion that Jacques was an honest man, and that he made his gold out of lead and copper by means of the philosophers stone. The alchymic adepts in general were of the same opinion but they found it difficult to persuade even his contemporaries of the fact. Posterity is still less likely to believe it. The commentaryopinions offered by all guests at this venue are expressly their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the management or staff of USAGOLD - Centennial Precious Metals.