OF HUMAN LIFE, S51 



ixoufe, which might have lain buried in the cellar ever 

 iince the reign of Philip Augufhis ? Might not this 

 houfe have been inhabited at that time by rich jews ? 

 Might they not, on being forced to take a hafty flight, 

 have buried the greatefl part of their hard cam, as the 

 beft means of fecunng it left them ; and might they 

 not afterwards, by a thoufand accidents^ be difap- 

 pointed in their hopes of fome favourable moment for 

 railing this treafure again ? - — In all this I fee nothing 

 impoffible, But were there at laH no other alternative 

 left than to accufe the devout and beneficent Fiamel, 

 at the diftance of four hundred years after his bleffed 

 departure, of the fecret murder of fome rich hebrew, 

 or of any other crime by which a man may become 

 rich : I lliould, without the leaft heii ration, and with- 

 out making any breach in my charity, much rather 

 take that refolutiqn, than fufrer myfelf to be impofed 

 on by fuch a ftory 3s Flamels. A man may be an 

 impoflor, a hypocrite, an unhappy compound of de- 

 votion, avarice, and vcluptuoufnefs, a thief or an af- 

 faffin ; of this we have undoubted examples without 

 number; but, that a man, by the affiftance of a pow- 

 der or a tincture, has turned mercury into filver, and 

 filver into gold, is what we have not one undoubted 

 example of; and therefore, it can be no queftion, 

 with people who judge after the laws of reafon, whether 

 a perfon who gives himfelf out for an adepts be an im- 

 pollor or not, 



From this tide then the good Nicholas Fiamel 

 (whom may God keep in biifs, together with his dear 

 and difcreet wife Pernelie) can gain no advantage. 

 But what fhall we fay to the modern and aftoniming 

 5 witnefs, 



