x. The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 



departments of experimental and medi- 

 cal chemistry, and, perhaps, as a bizarre 

 speculator in the cloudy borderlands of 

 physical science ; but such biographical 

 data as can be gathered concerning him 

 from his writings, he would naturally 

 accept without question, because there 

 would be no ground for assuming any 

 reason to doubt them. Yet even as 

 such a person would be mistaken in his 

 estimate of Valentine the alchemist, as 

 distinguished from Valentine the inves- 

 tigator of antimonial therapeutics, so it 

 is just possible that he would be astray 

 in his estimate of the man, being misled 

 by a veil of simplicity which skilfully 

 conceals the adept under the unpre- 

 tending mask of a monastic canon. 

 " When I had emptied to the dregs the 

 cup of human suffering, I was led to con- 

 sider the wretchedness of this world," so 

 Valentine tells us in his preface to " The 

 Great Stone of the Sages," "and the 

 fearful consequences of our first parents' 

 disobedience. Then I saw that there 

 was no hope of repentance for mankind, 



