s
abhor them as the productions of magic, regarding them as unworthy of a
Christian." But it was in vain. His writings were condemned as
containing dangerous and suspected novelties, and he was committed to
prison. There he remained for ten years, until, broken in health, he was
released from punishment by the intercession of some powerful and
commiserating personages. He died at the age of seventy-eight. On his
death-bed he uttered the melancholy complaint, "I repent now that I have
given myself so much trouble for the love of science." If there be found
in his works sentiments that are more agreeable to the age in which he
lived than to ours, let us recollect what he says in his third letter to
Pope Clement: "It is on account of the ignorance of those with whom I
have had to deal that I have not been able to accomplish more."

[Sidenote: Minor alchemists of England, France, and Germany.] A number
of less conspicuous though not unknown names succeed to Bacon. There is
Raymond Lully, who was said to have been shut up in the Tower of London
and compelled to make gold for Edward II.; Guidon de Montanor, the
inventor of the philosopher's balm; Clopinel, the author of the "Romance
of the Rose;" Richard the Englishman, who makes the sensible remark that
he who does not join theory to practice is like an ass eating hay and
not reflecting on what he is doing; Master Ortholan, who describes very
prettily the making of nitric acid, and approaches to the preparation of
absolute alcohol under the title of the quintessence of wine; Bernard de
Treves, who obtained much reputation for the love-philters he prepared
for Charles V. of France, their efficacy having been ascertained by
experiments made on servant-girls; Bartholomew, the Englishman who first
described the method of crystallizing and purifying sugar; Eck de
Sulzbach, who teaches how metallic crystallizations, such as the tree of
Diana, a beautiful silvery vegetation, may be produced. He proved
experimentally that metals, when they oxidize, increase in weight; and
says that in the month of November, A.D. 1489, he found that six pounds
of an amalgam of silver heated for eight days augmented in weight three
pounds. The number is, of course, erroneous, but his explanation is very
surprising. "This augmentation of weight comes from this, that a spirit
is united with the metal; and what proves it is that this artificial
cinnabar, submitted to distillation, disengages that spirit."