vogius started on his journey northward, Miillenfels pursued 

 him with armed horsemen, arrested him in the name of the 

 Duke, stripped him of his clothing, bound him naked to a 

 tree and robbed him of his golden box containing the Philo- 

 sophers' stone as well as of Seton's precious manuscript, a 

 diamond-studded cap valued at One hundred thousand rix- 

 dollars, and the golden medal given him by the Emperor 

 Rudolph. The unfortunate man was released by passing 

 travellers and as soon as possible he made a formal complaint 

 to the Emperor, who demanded of Frederick the person of 

 Miillenfels and his booty. The Duke was alarmed and hanged 

 his alchemist on high gallows erected in the court-yard of the 

 palace; he also restored the valuable cap, the manuscript 

 and the medal, but denied all knowledge of the "tincture." 

 These events occurred in 1607. 



Sendi vogius, being now deprived of the material with 

 which he had so long duped the wealthy patrons of alchemy, 

 became a low, roving charlatan, selling a pretended cure-all 

 to the country folk, and imitation silver to the Jews, through- 

 out Poland and Germany. He escaped his deserts, however, 

 and died a natural death at the good old age of eighty, at 

 Cracow in 1646. Several hermetic treatises attributed to the 

 Cosmopolitan and edited by Sendivogius were printed early 

 in the seventeenth century in Latin, German and French. 



The vanity of alchemy has been strongly pictured in verse 

 by Spenser: 



"To lose good days that might be better spent, 

 To waste long nights in pensive discontent; 

 To spend to-day, to put back to-morrow; 

 To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; 

 To fret his soul with crosses and with cares, 

 To eat his heart through comfortless despairs ; 

 Unhappy wight! born to disastrous end, 

 That did his life in tedious tendance spend." 



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