THE LI FE O.F JOHN BUNCLE, Efq; Nec Vixit Male, qui Natus Morienfque fefellit. Continuation of the history of Azora. AZORA Burcot was the daughter of a gentleman, who was once poffeffed of a very great fortune, but by a fatal paffion for the grand operation, and an opinion of the poffibility of finding the philofopher's Stone, he wafted immenfe fums in operations to difcover that preparation, which forces the faces of infufed metals to retire immediately on its approach, and fo turns the rest of the mass into pure gold; communicating the malleability and great ductility of that metal, and giving it true fpecific gravity, that is, to water, as eighteen and one half is to one. His love of that fine, antient art, called chymistry, brought him into this misfortune. For improvement and pleasure, he had been long engaged in VOL. II. B various various experiments, and at laft, an adept came to his houfe, who was a man of great skill in the labours and operations of spagyrifts, and perfuaded him it was poffible to find the stone; for he, the adept, had feen it with a brother, who had been fo fortunate as to discover it, after much labour and operation. The colour of it was a pale brimstone and transparent, and the fize that of a small walnut. He affirmed that he had feen a little of this, fcraped into powder, caft into some melted lead, and turn it into the best and fineft gold. This had the effect the adept defired, and from chymistry brought Mr. Burcot to Alchymy. Heaps of money he wafted in operations of the most noble elixir by mineral and falt; but the Stone after all he could not find: and then, by the adept's advice, he proceeded in a fecond method, by maturation, to fubtilize, (20) There is a third way to make gold, to wit, by Jeparation, for every metal contains fome quantity of gold; but the quantity is fo fmall that it bears no proportion to the expence of getting it out: this laft way the Spagyrifts never attempt; and as for the two other methods, maturation, and tranfmuting by the grand elixir, the happy hour will never come, tho' fo many ingenious men have often thought it drawing nigh. To confole them for the lofs of their fortunes they have had fome comfortable moments of reflection, that they have been within some minutes of fuccefs, when, purify, and digeft quickfilver, and thereby convert it into gold (20.) This likewife came to nothing, and inftead of the gold he expected, he had only heaps of Mercury fixed with verdegreafe, (which gives it a when, crack! all is gone and vanished on a fudden, and they have nothing before them but cinders and broken crucibles. It is very ftrange then, that a man of Dr. Dickenfon's great veracity and skill in chymiftry, fhould affirm the thing was actually done in his prefence by an adept. (Epiftola ad Mundanum de quinteffentia philofophorum, etc. Oxon. 1686.) and the more fo, as his friend, the great Mr. Boyle, told him the thing was an impoffibility. Dickenfon's words are, Nec potui fane quantacunque mihi fuerit opinio de ifta re, quin aliquoties animi penderem donec illuftris ea demonftratio quam veftra excellentia, biennio jam elapfo, coram exhibuit, omnem anfam dubitandi mihi præcidiffet-Placuit dominationi veftræ claro experimento ante oculos facto animum meum ad opus accendere etiam quæftionum mearum folutiones (quantum licerat) promittere.This is very furprifing; and the more fo, as the greatest watchings and clofeft application, in fearching after the ftone, are all in vain, unless the ftars fhed a propitious influence on the labours of the Spagyrift: the work must be begun and advance in proper planetary hours, and depends as much on judicial aftrology, as on fire, camphire, falt, labour, and patience: but judicial aftrology is no fcience. It is a mere farce. I must conclude then, that the hands of Mundanus the adept, were too quick for the doctor's eyes, and he deceived him by legerdemain that all the books on the fubject are fraudulent descriptions to deceive the credulous; -and what Mundanus told Dickenson of B 2 Sir yellow tinge), and more deeply coloured with turmeric. Gold it feemed, but, on trial in the coppel, it flew away in fumes, and the adept made off. Too late this good and learned man faw he had been Sir George Ripley, canon of Bridlington, in Yorkshire, in the reign of Edward the Fourth, and of Raymund Lully, was mere invention. He affirmed, that Ripley fent the knights of Rhodes an hundred thousand pounds to fupport them in their wars against the Turks; and that Lully affifted Edward I. king of England, with fix millions of gold, towards carrying on the cruifade. This piece of fecret hiftory he affures us he found in an antient manufcript of indifputable authority, quod * inculpatæ fidei regiftris innotefcit: A M. S. that no one ever faw except Mundanus. Penes me indeed. It was to be found only in his own head. Ripley is in great repute among the adepts to this day, and his famous unintelligible and myfterious book is called a compound of alchymie conteyning twelve gates. He infcribed the manufcript to Edvard IV. but the editor of it dedicated it to Q. Elizabeth, and fays, it contained the right method of making the philofopher's Stone and aurum potabile. Lully was a very learned man for the latter end of the 13th century, and writ several books in Latin ;-Generales artium libri.-Libri logicales, philofophici et metaphifici.-Variarum artium libri.-Libri fpirituales prædicabiles-and the vade mecum Lulli; which is a Latin piece on the philofopher's ftone. As to the aurum potabile mentioned by Ripley, which then, and long after, was esteemed a panacea, or univerfal medicine, it is now a question if there can be a tincture of gold; for if it be only a divifion of the lefts, or minims of gold, by the Spicula of aqua regia, 40 impofed on, and that the Spagyrifts are what Dr. Dickenson calls them Enigmatiftinubigavi. Chymistry, reader, is a fine and ancient art. The analyfing of fenfible bodies by fire, to discover their real powers and virtues, is highly praife-worthy, and the furprifing experiments we make, fill the mind of an inquirer after truth, with the greatest veneration for the wonderful author of nature; but more than this is a fad romance regia, and thefe minims thrown into oil of rosemary where they fwim, it is no radical tincture of gold, and the fole virtue, lies in the oil of rofemary. The oil may be evaporated; the gold duft remains; and that by melting is reduced to a lump of gold again. This I have experimented. But the alchymifts fay, gold may be reduced into a gum of fubftance like honey, without any corrofive, and that gum fteeped in fpirit of wine acquires a ruby colour. An ounce of this is to be mixed with 16 ounces of another liquor, and we have aurum potabile, fovereign in all diftempers. This feems to me to be a fecond part of the romance.. The making of this golden gum is a fecret we can no more come at than the philofophers ftone. The adepts however affirm it, and affure us, that Mofes could make, aurum potabile, as is evident from his pulverifing the golden calf, and giving it to the children of Ifrael to drink. This great man, who wrote 540 years before Homer, 200 before Sanchoniatho, and 350 before the Trojan war, was, as they inform us, an adept. B 3 that |