friends; and from thence proceeds the 101 By chance however he met with her at Gretabridge, and from that place they fet out for Orton-Lodge, where they were married 267 THE LIFE O.F. JOHN BUNCLE, Esq; Nec Vixit Male, qui Natus Morienfque fefellit. 1 Continuation AZORA Burcot was the daughter of a gentleman, of the history who was once poffeffed of a of Azora. very great fortune, but by a fatal passion 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 reft of the mafs 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 1 various experiments, and at laft, an adept came to his houfe, who was a man of great skill in the labours and operations of fpagyrifts, and perfuaded him it was poffible to find the stone; for he, the adept, had feen it with a brother, who had been so fortunate as to discover it, after much labour and operation. The colour of it was a pale brimftone and tranfparent, and the fize that of a small walnut. He affirmed that he had feen a little of this, fcraped into powder, caft into fome melted lead, and turn it into the beft 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 moft 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 last 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 sudden, and they have nothing before them but cinders and broken crucibles. It is very ftrange then, that a man of Dr. Dickenson'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 closest application, in fearching after the tone, 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 muft 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 defcriptions to deceive the credulous ;--and what Mundanus told Dickenson of B 2 Sir |