To THE READER. 



I WISH to deal candidly with you, 

 gentle reader, and I therefore pre- 

 sent to you here the work of Basil 

 Valentine in a Latin garb, in order that it 

 may be widely understood, with a Com- 

 mentary of my own. To me he spoke in 

 German, and without a commentator ; I 

 studied his work carefully, because I be- 

 lieved his promises, practically carried 

 out all his directions, yet incurred much 

 useless expense, made many mistakes, 

 and, though I went through each oper- 

 ation more than ten times, could not 

 succeed, not through the Author's, but, as 

 I will confess honestly, through my own 

 fault. For Basil is the Prince of all 

 chemists, and the most learned, upright, 

 and lucid of all alchemistic writers. He 

 tells the careful student everything that 

 can be known in Alchemy : of this I can 



