DURING THE MIDDLE AGE. 139 



" noftri omnium, cum titillante admiratione ne- 

 44 gotium in ignc fuccefiit." And in another place 

 he lays, " Dabat ijiilii forte femigranum illius 

 " pulveri-s et inde uncut 9 atque i argenti vivi 

 " tranlmutatcc iunt. lilud autcm aurunv dedit 

 " mihi peregrinus unius vcfperi arnicas *. 



It is related of the Emperor Ferdinand like- 

 wiic, in 1648, and of the Eledor of Mentz, in 

 1658, that they both made trials of the philo- 

 fopher's ilonc with tlie greater! attention, re- 

 moving every tiling that might in the leafl coun- 

 tenance impofition: But the mcafurcs they took 

 ;*re not cxprefsly dcfcribed f : From the nature 

 of the evidence, however, in fupport of this re- 

 lation, there can be no rcafon to fufpect the 

 truth of it. With regard to other accounts of 

 tranfmutations, of -which the liil is fo nume- 

 rous, foine beurfuch ilrong imprcfiions of fraud, 

 as to betray the means even by which they 

 were cfleclcd ; while others have been conduct- 

 ed in fuch a manner, that though their fallacy 

 cannot be inconteflibly proved, yet there is e- 

 vcry reafon to apprehend they are equally 

 doubtful and uncertain. As to the flory of fix 

 drachms of lead changed by one drachm of the 

 philofopher'.s ftone, into a mafs of gold ccjual to 

 the weight of 147 golden ducats, by General 

 Otton Arnoldus Paykull, when in prifon in the 



year 



* DC arborc vit*. 



| Moncony's travels. Sec alfo in 6. uadcr the name 

 Ricblhaufca, 



