, and was made prior of St.
Peter's, at Erfurt, about the year 1414. It was known, during his life,
that he diligently sought the philosopher's stone, and that he had written
some works upon the process of transmutation. They were thought for many
years to be lost, but were, after his death, discovered enclosed in the
stone-work of one of the pillars in the Abbey. They were twenty-one in
number, and are fully set forth in the third volume of Lenglet's _History
of the Hermetic Philosophy_. The alchymists asserted that heaven itself
conspired to bring to light these extraordinary works; and that the pillar
in which they were enclosed was miraculously shattered by a thunderbolt;
and that as soon as the manuscripts were liberated, the pillar closed up
again of its own accord!

BERNARD OF TREVES.

The life of this philosopher is a remarkable instance of talent and
perseverance misapplied. In the search of his chimera nothing could daunt
him. Repeated disappointment never diminished his hopes; and from the age
of fourteen to that of eighty-five he was incessantly employed among the
drugs and furnaces of his laboratory, wasting his life with the view of
prolonging it, and reducing himself to beggary in the hopes of growing
rich.

He was born at either Treves or Padua in the year 1406. His father is said
by some to have been a physician in the latter city, and by others to have
been Count of the Marches of Treves, and one of the most wealthy nobles of
his country. At all events, whether noble or physician, he was a rich man,
and left his son a magnificent estate. At the age of fourteen he first
became enamoured of the science of alchymy, and read the Arabian authors
in their own language. He himself has left a most interesting record of
his labours and wanderings, from which the following particulars are
chiefly extracted. The first book which fell into his hands was that of
the Arabian philosopher Rhazes, from the reading of which he imagined that
he had discovered the means of augmenting gold a hundredfold. For four
years he worked in his laboratory, with the book of Rhazes continually
before him. At the end of that time, he found that he had spent no less
than eight hundred crowns upon his experiment, and had got nothing but
fire and smoke for his pains. He now began to lose confidence in Rhazes,
and turned to the works of Geber. He studied him assiduously for two
years; and being young, rich, and credulous, Was beset by