OF HUMAN LIFE. 247 



lion of the duke of Orleans, the grand favourite of the 

 queen" Ifabella,) till lie died, at a very advanced age, 

 in the year 141 3, and with the reputation of not only 

 having porleffed, but even of leaving behind him in 

 writing, tlie grand arcanum of the philofophers, which, 

 for feveral thoufand years, fo many poor devils, fo 

 many noble and wealthy fools had feached for in 

 vain. 



A thorough difcuffion and knowledge of the repu- 

 tation he had found means to procure, was not to be 

 expected from the fpirit of the times, nor was it indeed 

 poffible in the prefent circumstances of the court — on 

 the contrary, we may be allured, that, among the al- 

 chymifts of the fifteenth century, there was not want- 

 ing fome one or other, who thought to find his account 

 in publifhing to the gold-hunting world, under FlameFs 

 firm and credit, fuch paltry productions as the Som- 

 maire philofophique, and the Delir delire. For, that 

 Flamel himfelf was the author of them, is nothing lefs 

 than proved. At a time when thefe impoflors had the 

 impudence to foift the fpawn of their fancies upon fuch 

 men as Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas 

 Aquinas, nay even on pope # John xxii. who yet, in 



the 



* This pope, fay the alchymifts, went fo far in the art, under 

 the guidance of the great adept Arnold of Villanova,. that at his 

 death, in the year 1334. he had already made two hundred quin- 

 tals of gold with his own hands : nay, he even held it his duty, as - 

 a true catholic father of the chriftian world, not to carry with him / 

 into the grave fo beneficial a feciet, but to make it publicly 

 known, for the advantage of all chriftendom, in a latin treatife 

 on the art of t ran minting metals, and which was tranflated into 



r 4 French 



1 



