great to be gathered by one man in his lifetime and put in a book, 

 but we find several less ambitious authors dealing with different 

 kinds of secrets, some of nature, others of arts. 



First among those whose works I have here comes Levinus 

 Lemnius, who was born at Zirickzee in Holland, in the year 1505, 

 and after studying at various places became a physician in 

 his native town. Between the years 1559-64 he published a 

 work entitled "D^ Miraculis Occultis Naturce, Libvi IV." Of 

 this book several editions appeared, of which I have here two, 

 Franckfurt lGO-4, and 1611, both in IGmo. It was translated into 

 English under the title of " I'he Secret Miracles of Nature, in 

 four books," London, 1658, in small folio, of which there is a 

 copy here. It was translated into French by the alchemist 

 Gohorry, and published at Paris in 1568, and it was translated 

 also into Italian. 



It is a most heterogeneous collection, heterogeneousl}^ piled 

 together, of notions on physiological, physical, medical, religious, 

 and moral topics, with attempts to explain phenomena in nature 

 which subsecpient enquiry has shown do not exist at all. The 

 collection is a very curious one, notwithstanding, and furnishes 

 good instances of popular ideas about natural things current three 

 hundred years ago. It would be difficult to bring this collection 

 under any of the classes above mentioned — the only thing toler- 

 ably certain is that it contains hardly any practical receipts. 



Contemporary with Lemnius, but ten years his junior, was 

 Conrad Gesner, who flourished from 1516 to 1565. One might 

 spend much time over the works of this really distinguished 

 man, who was called the German Pliny, on account of 

 his comi)rehensive learning. Besides his writings on animals, 

 l)lants, and minerals, on languages, pharnuicy, natural philosophy, 

 and so on, he was one of the first bibliogra])hers and book cata- 

 loguers, his " Bibliotheca Universalis " being the best and most 

 complete catalogue which appeared in the sixteenth century, and 

 being still a valuable book of reference. 



Under the pseudonym of Evonymus Philiatros, he publislicd a 

 book entitled " Thesaurus de remediis secretis " — a treasury of 

 secret remedies. It appeared at Zurich in 1554, and in the course 

 of a few yeai's went through numerous editions, and was translated 

 into English, French, and German. 



I have here examples of all these :— 



