at his command, called "Azoth," whom he kept imprisoned in a
jewel; and in many of the old portraits he is represented with a jewel,
inscribed with the word "Azoth, in his hand."

If a sober prophet has little honour in his own country, a drunken one has
still less. Paracelsus found it at last convenient to quit Basle, and
establish himself at Strasbourg. The immediate cause of this change of
residence was as follows. A citizen lay at the point of death, and was
given over by all the physicians of the town. As a last resource
Paracelsus was called in, to whom the sick man promised a magnificent
recompense, if, by his means, he were cured. Paracelsus gave him two small
pills, which the man took, and rapidly recovered. When he was quite well,
Paracelsus sent for his fee; but the citizen had no great opinion of the
value of a cure which had been so speedily effected. He had no notion of
paying a handful of gold for two pills, although they had saved his life,
and he refused to pay more than the usual fee for a single visit.
Paracelsus brought an action against him, and lost it. This result so
exasperated him, that he left Basle in high dudgeon. He resumed his
wandering life, and travelled in Germany and Hungary, supporting himself
as he went on the credulity and infatuation of all classes of society. He
cast nativities--told fortunes--aided those who had money to throw away
upon the experiment, to find the philosopher's stone--prescribed remedies
for cows and pigs, and aided in the recovery of stolen goods. After
residing successively at Nuremburg, Augsburg, Vienna, and Mindelheim, he
retired in the year 1541 to Saltzbourg, and died in a state of abject
poverty in the hospital of that town.

If this strange charlatan found hundreds of admirers during his life, he
found thousands after his death. A sect of Paracelsists sprang up in
France and Germany, to perpetuate the extravagant doctrines of their
founder upon all the sciences, and upon alchymy in particular. The chief
leaders were Bodenstein and Dorneus. The following is a summary of his
doctrine, founded upon the supposed existence of the philosopher's stone;
it is worth preserving from its very absurdity, and is altogether
unparalleled in the history of philosophy. First of all, he maintained
that the contemplation of the perfection of the Deity sufficed to procure
all wisdom and knowledge; that the Bible was the key to the theory of all
diseases, and that it was neces