many other less
important operations. We drew quite as much profit from these as from our
great work.

"The whole of the year 1537 passed over without producing any change
whatever; in fact we might have waited till doomsday for the congelation
of our spirits of wine. However, we made a projection with it upon some
heated quicksilver; but all was in vain. Judge of our chagrin, especially
of that of the abbe, who had already boasted to all the monks of his
monastery, that they had only to bring the large pump which stood in a
corner of the cloister, and he would convert it into gold: but this ill
luck did not prevent us from persevering. I once more mortgaged my
paternal lands for four hundred crowns, the whole of which I determined to
devote to a renewal of my search for the great secret. The abbe
contributed the same sum; and with these eight hundred crowns I proceeded
to Paris, a city more abounding with alchymists than any other in the
world, resolved never to leave it until I had either found the
philosopher's stone or spent all my money. This journey gave the greatest
offence to all my relations and friends, who, imagining that I was fitted
to be a great lawyer, were anxious that I should establish myself in that
profession. For the sake of quietness, I pretended, at last, that such was
my object.

"After travelling for fifteen days, I arrived in Paris on the 9th of
January 1539. I remained for a month almost unknown; but I had no sooner
begun to frequent the amateurs of the science, and visited the shops of
the furnace-makers, than I had the acquaintance of more than a hundred
operative alchymists, each of whom had a different theory and a different
mode of working. Some of them preferred cementation; others sought the
universal alkahest or dissolvent; and some of them boasted the great
efficacy of the essence of emery. Some of them endeavoured to extract
mercury from other metals, to fix it afterwards; and, in order that each
of us should be thoroughly acquainted with the proceedings of the others,
we agreed to meet somewhere every night and report progress. We met
sometimes at the house of one, and sometimes in the garret of another; not
only on week days, but on Sundays and the great festivals of the Church.
'Ah!' one used to say, 'if I had the means of recommencing this
experiment, I should do something.' 'Yes,' said another, 'if my crucible
had not cracked, I should have succeeded before now;' while a third