Secrecy "was an important condition of success, secrecy 

 as respects the ingredients and preparation of the "tincture," 

 its usage and the very possession of it. Injunctions to silence 

 often occur, none are better expressed than the following: 



"Trust not thy friend too much, wheresoever thou goe, 

 For he that thow trustest best sometyme may be thy foe." 



Pater Sapientiae. 



Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, died in the month of 

 February 1586, leaving a fortune of seventeen million thalers, 

 sufficient evidence in RudoTph's eyes of success in transmuta- 

 tion. In the last years of his reign, Augustus had been much 

 interested in the labors of one of his hired alchemists, Sebalcl 

 Schwertzer by name, who appeared at Dresden with a rare 

 manuscript as his certificate of learning and an appeal for an 

 opportunity of exhibiting his proficiency. On the fifth of May, 

 1585, in presence of the Elector and a select company of his 

 friends, three marks of quicksilver were converted into gold, 

 a portion of which the Elector presented to the Countess 

 Hallach. The director of the treasury calculated that the 

 tincture had transmuted 1024 times its weight of metal. 

 Schwertzer, encouraged by this projection, proposed to manu- 

 facture ten marks of gold daily, but the death of Augustus 

 interrupted the undertaking ; the alchemist removed to Prague 

 where he was cordially welcomed by Rudolph, who appointed 

 him Director of the imperial mines at Joachimsthal and raised 

 him to the rank of noble. 



During Doctor Dee's sojourn at the court of Rudolph, 

 news arrived from Rome of a wonderful feat accomplished by 

 Leonhard Thurneisser, son of a Swiss goldsmith and a dis- 

 ciple of Paracelsus. This arrant knave began his adventurous 

 career in his youth by selling to a Jew dealing in silver and 

 gold some gilded bars of lead, a speculation that led to .the 

 flight of the "confidence man" from prosecution in the courts 



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