CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE SECRET SYMBOLS OF PONTANUS' LETTER. 



When fire and water, earth and air 



In love's true bond united are, 



For all diseases then be sure 



You have a safe and certain cure. 



I will affirm it's here alone 



Exists the Philosophic Stone. 



This is fair Nature's virgin root, 



Thrice blest are they who reap the fruit: 



But oh! where one true adept 's found, 



Ten thousand thousand cheats abound. 



[E IMPERIAL laboratory on the Hradschin occu- 

 pied two communicating rooms on the ground 

 floor of an old stone building only one story in 

 height and formerly used for housing the royal 

 coaches ; the rudely paved, uneven floor remained as of yore, 

 but on one side of the larger rooni had been built several 

 flues into which brick furnaces discharged their smoke and 

 soot. These furnaces, great and small, were devoted to 

 diverse uses ; one was constructed for smelting ores and the 

 more refractory metals, another furnished the moderate heat 

 required for a huge water-bath, and a third was arranged 

 for the distillation of volatile liquids. This fuMaee supported 

 a cucurbit capped by five helms, one placed above another, 

 their long necks terminating in recipients for collecting the 

 distillates, the more volatile going to the uppermost. Shelves 



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