universally made, to class them among the tricksters and cheats of the day in which they lived.
False views they may have held, but in nearly every instance these views were founded on a substratum of truth, and were, at any rate, held conscientiously.
Of all my guests, one of the most interesting was assuredly Basil Valentine; in answer to my inquiry, he said he had no doubt that the “Philosopher’s Stone” was a compound of mercury, sulphur, and salt; but, he added with emphasis, so pure, that when mixed with the baser metals they were brought to a greater degree of purity, bringing them at last to the state of silver and gold. He strongly urged me to read his great work, “Currus Triumphalis Antimonii,” and I can earnestly recommend it to you all as a most masterly production on the great subject on which it treats.
To tell you of all the minor lights of alchymic science that have obeyed my sum-
