e miners, making
various experiments in alchymy while deep in the bowels of the earth. He
acquired a great knowledge of metals, and gradually got rid of his
extravagant notions about the philosopher's stone. The miners had no faith
in alchymy; and they converted him to their way of thinking, not only in
that but in other respects. From their legends, he became firmly convinced
that the bowels of the earth were inhabited by good and evil spirits, and
that firedamp and other explosions sprang from no other causes than the
mischievous propensities of the latter. He died in the year 1555, leaving
behind him the reputation of a very able and intelligent man.

DENIS ZACHAIRE.

Autobiography, written by a wise man who was once a fool, is not only the
most instructive, but the most delightful of reading. Denis Zachaire, an
alchymist of the sixteenth century, has performed this task, and left a
record of his folly and infatuation in pursuit of the philosopher's stone,
which well repays perusal. He was born in the year 1510, of an ancient
family in Guienne, and was early sent to the university of Bordeaux, under
the care of a tutor to direct his studies. Unfortunately his tutor was a
searcher for the grand elixir, and soon rendered his pupil as mad as
himself upon the subject. With this introduction, we will allow Denis
Zachaire to speak for himself, and continue his narrative in his own
words: "I received from home," says he, "the sum of two hundred crowns for
the expenses of myself and master; but before the end of the year, all our
money went away in the smoke of our furnaces. My master, at the same time,
died of a fever, brought on by the parching heat of our laboratory, from
which he seldom or never stirred, and which was scarcely less hot than the
arsenal of Venice. His death was the more unfortunate for me, as my
parents took the opportunity of reducing my allowance, and sending me only
sufficient for my board and lodging, instead of the sum I required to
continue my operations in alchymy.

"To meet this difficulty and get out of leading-strings, I returned home
at the age of twenty-five, and mortgaged part of my property for four
hundred crowns. This sum was necessary to perform an operation of the
science, which had been communicated to me by an Italian at Toulouse, and
who, as he said, had proved its efficacy. I retained this man in my
service, that we might see the end of the experiment. I then, by means of
strong