preserved
in a cabinet of curiosities belonging to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. A
monk presented a dagger of similar construction to Queen Elizabeth of
England, the blade of which was half Gold, and half steel, the former
having been alleged to be the product of transmutation. Coins, prepared
in a like manner, one face being made of Gold, and the other of silver,
were also shown to the credulous as proofs of the successful
transmuting art.
By
another such mode of conjuring (under the name of transmutation, but
really by sleight of hand), Gold, or silver, covered with wax, was
conveyed into the crucible, and disclosed when the heat had melted away
the wax. Indeed, this is perhaps one of the oldest tricks ; and finds
its parallel in the pious fraud of the good Spanish monk who produced
an omelette in a frying-pan out of his staff for one of his hungry
flock, having conveyed therein beforehand the materials usually
employed for making that culinary delicacy.
The
chief Alchemists who distinguished themselves in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were Auguretto, Cornelius Agrippa, and
Paracelsus. The latter was a man of undoubted talent and abilities, but
also of the most outrageous vanity, which displayed itself in empty
boasts, and bombastic assertions. His true name was Hohenheim ; to
which appellation were prefixed the baptismal names Aureolus
Theophrastus Bombastes Paracelsus ! He affirmed that he had learnt the
art of transmutation, and was also possessed of the elixir vitse. And
it is said that he died in consequence of drinking too freely of this
last-named remedy, so as to stave off old age,—the said remedy turning
out to be strong distilled alcohol! Last of the Alchemists came Dr.
Dee, who was half crazed by his belief in this so-
