&4° OP THE PROLONGATION 



this man, to his pretended enormous riches, and to 

 his pious foundations. 



For the firft, therefore, Nicholas Flamel was not 

 merely a fcrivener, but at the fame time likewife a mi- 

 niature painter ; a profeffion by which in thofe times 

 much money was to be earned. 



For the fecond, it appears, that our Author, 

 by the way in which he fpeaks of Flamel's foundations, 

 would raife in us a much greater idea of them, than, 

 according to the accounts of hiliorians, lexicographers, 

 See. we ought to have. Flamel, fays he, founded in 

 Paris fourteen hofpital§, built three new churches, and 

 endowed feven old ones with large fums of money* 

 The fame is indeed faid by the author of Melanges 

 tires d'une grande bibliotheque, vol. xxv. p. 365. 

 But that he does not intend that the word 6 founded* 

 fhould be fo underftood here, as if Flamel had lingly 

 and wholly endowed thefe fpitals and churches, is ap- 

 parent from hence, that, for example, he expreffly 

 fays, vol. xliii. p. 338. of the church of S. Jaques de 

 la Boucherie : that Flamel was a contributor to its erec- 

 tion, and endowed it with fome foundations. In the 

 fame, volume of the faid work, p. 397, it is mentioned, 

 of the parim church des SS. Innocens: "we know 

 *' that Nicholas Flamel had a fhare in the building of 

 fi this church." It is therefore highly probable that 

 this was the cafe with the reft. 



But, though in the account of Flamel's foundations, 

 much is exaggerated, yet thus far is incontrovertible, 

 that they were fo numerous and conliderable, as at- 

 any rate, far to exceed the means of a parilian fcrive- 

 ner and miniature painter, at the time of king Charles 

 % VI. 



