work on the transmutation of metals, and
had a famous laboratory at Avignon. He issued two bulls against the
numerous pretenders to the art, who had sprung up in every part of
Christendom; from which it might be inferred that he was himself free from
the delusion. The alchymists claim him, however, as one of the most
distinguished and successful professors of their art, and say that his
bulls were not directed against the real adepts, but the false pretenders.
They lay particular stress upon these words in his bull, "Spondent, quas
non exhibent, divitias, _pauperes_ alchymistae." These, it is clear, they
say, relate only to _poor_ alchymists, and therefore false ones. He died
in the year 1344, leaving in his coffers a sum of eighteen millions of
florins. Popular belief alleged that he had made, and not amassed, this
treasure; and alchymists complacently cite this as a proof that the
philosopher's stone was not such a chimera as the incredulous pretended.
They take it for granted that John really left this money, and ask by what
possible means he could have accumulated it. Replying to their own
question, they say triumphantly, "His book shews it was by alchymy, the
secrets of which he learned from Arnold de Villeneuve and Raymond Lulli.
But he was as prudent as all other hermetic philosophers. Whoever would
read his book to find out his secret, would employ all his labour in vain;
the pope took good care not to divulge it." Unluckily for their own
credit, all these gold-makers are in the same predicament; their great
secret loses its worth most wonderfully in the telling, and therefore they
keep it snugly to themselves. Perhaps they thought that, if everybody
could transmute metals, gold would be so plentiful that it would be no
longer valuable, and that some new art would be requisite to transmute it
back again into steel and iron. If so, society is much indebted to them
for their forbearance.

JEAN DE MEUNG.

All classes of men dabbled in the art at this time; the last mentioned was
a pope, the one of whom we now speak was a poet. Jean de Meung, the
celebrated author of the _Roman de la Rose_, was born in the year 1279 or
1280, and was a great personage at the courts of Louis X., Philip the
Long, Charles IV., and Philip de Valois. His famous poem of the _Roman de
la Rose_, which treats of every subject in vogue at that day, necessarily
makes great mention of alchymy. Jean was a firm believer in the art, and
wrote, b