he mould, they found a very great and lovely oriental pearl in it,
which they sold for about two hundred crowns, although it was a great
deal more worth. The same baron, throwing a little powder he had with
him into a pitcher of water, and letting it stand about four hours,
made the best wine that a man can drink.' Thus far the truly hopeful
young gentleman, whereby he hath hugely obliged me. I wish he had the
forementioned powder, that we might try whether we could make the
like pearls and wine." From a subsequent letter of Hartlib's, dated
Nov. 29, 1659, it appears that Oldenburg and Jones were both much
interested in the optical instruments of a certain Bressieux, then in
Paris, who had for two years been chief workman in that line for
Descartes. They were anxious to make him a present of some good glass
from London, because he was rather secretive about his workmanship,
and such a present would go a great way towards mollifying him.[1]

[Footnote 1: Letters of Oldenburg and Hartlib to Boyle in Boyle's
Works (1744), V. 280-296 and 300-302.]

Very possibly with this last letter of Oldenburg's to Hartlib there
had been enclosed a letter from Oldenburg, and another from young
Ranelagh, to Milton. Two such letters, at all events, Milton had
received, and undoubtedly through Hartlib, who was still the
universal foreign postman for his friends. We can guess the substance
of the two letters. Young Ranelagh does not seem to have troubled
Milton with his speculations on the generation of pearls, or his
story of the German baron and his alchemic powders, but only to have
sent his dutiful regards, with excuses for long neglect of
correspondence. Oldenburg had also sent his excuses for the same, but
with certain pieces of news from abroad, and certain references to
the state of affairs at home. Among the pieces of news were two of
some personal interest to Milton. One was that the unfinished reply
to his _Defensio Prima_, which Salmasius had left in manuscript
at his death six years ago, was about to appear as a posthumous
publication. The other was that there was to be a great Synod of the
French Protestant Church, at which the case of Morus was to be again
discussed. For, though it was more than two years since Morus had
received his call to the collegiate pastorship of the Protestant
Church of Paris or Charenton, the question of his admissibility to
the charge had hung all that while between the Walloon Synods of the
United