aj2 O F THE PROLONGATION 



witnefs, which the celebrated traveller, Paul - Lucas, 

 three hundred years after the generally-believed death 

 of Flamel, raifes up in the midft of Natolia, in confir- 

 mation of the truth of FlameFs ftory, not only in all 

 its main particulars, but even ihereafes and embeLlilhes 

 it by additions, which carry the marvelloufnefs of it 

 to the higheffc pitch of incredibility ? The whole mat- 

 ter is indeed very furprmng. 



Is it not lingular enough, that a learned phytic ian, 



s 



whom Louis XIV. fends to travel about the Levant 

 for the purpofe of picking up old coins and tnanu- 

 fcripts, fhould, on his fecond journey, the 9th of 

 July, 1705, at Burnus Bafchi, near Bruffa, in a kiofk, 

 adjoining to a fmall mofque, meet with a dervife from 

 the country of the Ufbec Tartars, who, without ever 

 having been in France, is as well (and better, as wc 

 fhall prefently fee) informed of the whole wonderful 

 hiftory of a citizen of Paris, that died in the year 141 3, 

 than any admirer of the romantic and fabulous depart- 

 ment of literature can be, in the very heart of Paris ? 



According to the ufual notions we have of the tur- 

 kifh dervifes whom we commonly reprefent to our- 

 felves, as people very little converfant with the lan- 

 guages of Europe, and entirely unacquainted with our 

 hiftory and literature, this tranfaclion muft appear to- 

 tally incredible to us. But ftill all this is nothing ! 

 The ulbec dervife got his knowledge of the perfon and 

 hiftory of the old parilian adept, in the rnoft flmpte 

 and natural way in the world, — for, fhort and fweet, 

 he had it from his own mouth ; he is perfonally ac- 

 quainted with Flamel and his wife Pernelle, they are 

 ftill alive, they are actually in the eaft Indies, Flamel 



k 



