OF HUMAN LIFE. 267 



compofed in quite a different fpirit, and directed to a 

 quite different purpofe, from that of Flamel. ' The ci- 

 tizen of Paris wants only to help himfelf out of a di- 

 lemma (as I have expreffiy fhewn before) by his ftory. 

 He was fo far from being anxious left the detection of 

 his fecret art which he had fo wonderfully acquired, 

 fhould draw upon him any ill-treatment, that, on the 

 contrary, he was rather in hopes of putting himfelf in 

 greater fafety by it. Whereas, in the tale of the der^ 

 vife it has quite another turn. He begins his Iliad at 

 Leda's egg, and relates Flamel' s hiftory, which in fact 

 he only treats as an epiiode, 10 as to make it fuit with 

 his fyftem and his purpofe, totally unconcerned whe- 

 ther it is conformable to the antient documents that 

 were depofited at Paris, and probably were as much 

 unknown to him as to Paul Lucas, or not. 



All that the ufbec dervife thought proper to fay, in 

 this fecond converfation with our author, of himfelf, 

 of his brethren, of Flamel, and of the true philofophy 

 in general, feems to me fo framed, that even an un- 

 initiated perfon like me may become tolerably well ac- 

 quainted with the rnyfrery of his perfon by it. — He is 

 very intimately connected with iix other adepts. Yet 

 the living Flamel is not one of thefe lix, notwithftand- 

 kg he is one of his moft familiar friends. 



May not this be very craftily imagined by the der- 

 vife, that it might not occur to Lucas, as otherwife it 

 naturally would, to wait for his arrival? — Be this, 

 however, as it may, there are alfo feveral more fuch 

 fages under all religious denominations, they keep up, 

 as is very natural, a dole correfpondence together, 

 they are brethren. What renders them the extraordi ~ 



