lar
hexameter _Coelestem dominum terrestrem dicite dominum_. There was
also Hebrew jargon, of which Jehan, who as yet knew but little Greek,
understood nothing; and all were traversed in every direction by stars,
by figures of men or animals, and by intersecting triangles; and this
contributed not a little to make the scrawled wall of the cell resemble
a sheet of paper over which a monkey had drawn back and forth a pen
filled with ink.

The whole chamber, moreover, presented a general aspect of abandonment
and dilapidation; and the bad state of the utensils induced the
supposition that their owner had long been distracted from his labors
by other preoccupations. Meanwhile, this master, bent over a vast
manuscript, ornamented with fantastical illustrations, appeared to be
tormented by an idea which incessantly mingled with his meditations.
That at least was Jehan's idea, when he heard him exclaim, with the
thoughtful breaks of a dreamer thinking aloud,--

"Yes, Manou said it, and Zoroaster taught it! the sun is born from fire,
the moon from the sun; fire is the soul of the universe; its elementary
atoms pour forth and flow incessantly upon the world through infinite
channels! At the point where these currents intersect each other in the
heavens, they produce light; at their points of intersection on earth,
they produce gold. Light, gold; the same thing! From fire to the
concrete state. The difference between the visible and the palpable,
between the fluid and the solid in the same substance, between water and
ice, nothing more. These are no dreams; it is the general law of nature.
But what is one to do in order to extract from science the secret of
this general law? What! this light which inundates my hand is gold!
These same atoms dilated in accordance with a certain law need only be
condensed in accordance with another law. How is it to be done?
Some have fancied by burying a ray of sunlight, Averroes,--yes, 'tis
Averroes,--Averroes buried one under the first pillar on the left of the
sanctuary of the Koran, in the great Mahometan mosque of Cordova; but
the vault cannot be opened for the purpose of ascertaining whether the
operation has succeeded, until after the lapse of eight thousand years.

"The devil!" said Jehan, to himself, "'tis a long while to wait for a
crown!"

"Others have thought," continued the dreamy archdeacon, "that it
would be better worth while to operate upon a ray of Sirius. But 'tis
exceeding