The Philosopher's Stone,

be the phoenix himself . There is no rule , no sign , no data , for looking for this key ; we must seek it blindfold , and chance alone will ever place it within our reach . Hence it is that the philosopher ' s stone has been described as ars sine arte , cujns prinoipium laborare , medium mentiri , et finis tnendkare .

It is then in a vast collection of rhapsodies , in manuscript or printed , and all written in mysterious and most obscure language ; it is in a crucible , incessantly heated by a continuous fire , that man , already unhappy enough in being troubled by a mad longing after vain illusions , is obliged to

labour , with ail a madman ' s strength , in order to pursue a shadow which is always moving further and further off , which escapes him when his life , spent in sorrow and anguish , passes away , and which ends usuall y in the indolence of misery , if it does press forward to seek b y rascally means a disgraceful and ephemeral support .

As it is necessary to call m the aid of examples , in ordei to sustain patience in a career in which people are only nourished with vain hopes , the mystagogues have been

careful to announce as possessing the philosopher ' s stone , men who , at their death , left behind them the remembrance of some peculiarity , or of something ambiguous . All the works of the alchemists are filled with wonders and fables

of this kind , which , from constant repetition , have acquired a certain degree of credit with the credulous . It were too hazardous an undertaking to sketch here the history of all the people of this class . More than one biographer has made them known to us , and to him I refer

those who have a desire to study such curious legends . But among those whom the seekers after the philosopher ' s stone hold up to themselves as leading models , I cannot

forbear lingering for a brief time over N . Flamel , as much because he enjoys a wonderful reputation among the hermetic philosophers , and because the world attributes to him certain much vaunted monuments of his skill . This Flamel

was , towards the year 1409 , a scribe , at the mortuary Des Innocents , at Paris , and the alchemists maintain that he discovered the philosopher ' s stone , and they announce with emphasis that he died extremely rich , the grand art having produced him , they say , a fortune of one hundred and fifty

thousand crowns , a very large sum at the beginning of the fifteenth century , and starting from this text , so attractive to all lovers of the marvellous , the different pretended hieoglyphic figures attributed to this individual are set forth as veritable documents , which seekers after the truth must follow , in order to arrive at its happy discovery .

As the question is to disabuse men ' s minds of this ideal , in order to do so , and to throw some light on the matter , be it our business to communicate the result of certain researches

of ours regarding this Flamel . Monsieur Salomon , in his library of Chemical Philosophers , adopts , as well authenticated truths , all the marvels which are credited to Flamel , as well as the cause of his rapid fortune , and the proofs which he invokes in support of his opinion ; these he finds

in the pretended hieroglyphic figures which may be still seen in the Cemetery of the Innocents . But these figures , so extolled b y enthusiasts , do not present a type sufficiently suggestive of any character that is reconcilable with hermetic science , still less do they strike those who weigh

them well , with that overwhelming force which has enlisted the support of M . Salomon . Those figures which may be applied to religion , even more directly than to the purpose of the philosopher ' s stone , seem to have been traced rather as ornaments , and not as the expression of an idea foreign

to the spot where they placed . Other monuments of the same kind bear figures nearly similar , and thus the proof of M . Salomon are not sufficient evidence to give rise even to a simple presumption . It would be necessary , indeed ,

to have a considerable amount of imagination in order to suspect that the author of these figures had been anxious to hand down to posterity ideas relating to the philosopher ' s stone , or indeed , to any other similar science .

Naude , librarian to Cardinal Marazin , does not hesitate to describe Flamel as a mere rascal , who being in correspondence with the Jews and Lombards after their expulsion from France , and having robbed them ri ght and left , in order ! to conceal the true source of his wealth , and to

preserve an outward decency , pretended to have discovered the philosopher ' s stone . "But , " judiciously remarks the president Henaut , "would he not have kept secret his discovery quite as much as his treasures which , after all , had only been filched from the Jews , whose condition was such as to cause him no further embarrassment . " If Flamel had reall y found in his discovery of the philosopher ' s stone

The Philosopher's Stone,

a secret source of wealth , what need was there for him to announce it to the public and to posterity ? And assuming that some motive impenetrable to ordinary sagacity had induced him to make itthuspublic , why should hehave chosen the obscure medium of a hieroglyphic style in preference

to that of writing , which he followed professionally ? Borel , author of Le Tresor des Antiquites ganfoises , who is one of the most zealous believers in the philosopher ' s stone , without assigning any other reason for the rapid rise to fortune of

Flamel , maintains that ho was indebted for his great wealth , neither to the Jews , the Templars , nor to the hospitals , " seeing that ' says he , ' he administered the property of none of them . "

We cannot , in justice , share the opinion of Naude , for it rests on facts of sufficient gravity to require proofs , but we must doubt the view of Borel , for it attributes the fortune of Flamel to the philosopher ' s stone . It is wise to distrust that spirit of enthusiasm which is a veritable blindness , and which seems to influence this latter author .

The marvellous always finds people ready to believe , and thus Flamel has found believers aud apologists . The Abbe Villain , in his Essai sur Vliistoire de saint Jaeqties de la Boucherie , not having been favourably impressed with the sentiments of credulity in speaking of N . Flamel as an

alchemist , the critics attacked the views to which he had given expression in his work , and defended the believers in the philosopher ' s stone discovered by Flamel , and in reply , and in order to justify his statement , Villain published , in 1761 , a critical history of N . Flamel , and of Pernelle , his

wife , in which he destroyed all the assertions of the alchemists in relation to Flamel , proving , by authentic documents , and even by the will of Pernelle , that the

property of this scribe of Les Charniers , at the time of his death , only amounted to the small sum of £ 3 , 398 14 s 2 d of our money . This , then , is what all these magnificent facts come to ! but" L'homme est de glace aux viritis , 11 est de feu pour le mensonge . "

Grand Lodge Of Mark Master Masons.

GRAND LODGE OF MARK MASTER MASONS .

THE Benevolent Fund Festival was held at the Alexandra Palace , on Wednesday , 21 st July , under the presidency of the R . W . Bro . Wm . Romaine Callender , M . P ., Dep . G . M . M . M . The banquet was served b y Bros . Bertram and Roberts in a very satisfactory manner . On the removal of the cloth the following list of toasts was duly proposed and responded to : —

1 . —The Qneen and Mark Masonry . 2 . —H . R . H . the Prince of Wales , the Princess of Wales , and the rest of the Royal Family . 3 . —The Right Honourable the Earl of Limerick , M . W . G . M . M . M ., and the Past Grand Masters , viz .:

—The Right Hon . the Lord Leigh . The Right Hon . the Earl of Carnarvon . The Viscount Holmesdale , M . P . W . W . B . Beach , Esq ., M . P . Rev . George Raymond Portal , M . A .

The Right Hon . the Earl Percy , M . P . 4 . —The R . W . Deputy G . Master , Chairman of the day , and the Grand Officers present and past . 5 — Success to the Mark Benevolent Fund and the Masonic Insti « tutions .

6 . —The Board of Stewards . 7 . —The Ladies . In the course of the evening the following lists were an * nounced as having been received : — NAME OF STEWABD . LODGE . DONATION . Roebuck Wm . . . . Old Kent . . . £ 8 17 6 Verry G . W . . . . Temple No . 173 11 8 0 Attwood J . G . . . . Macdonald „ 104 12 12 0 Richards Wm . . . . Carnarvon „ 119 6 6 0 WellstedW . H . . . . Hnmber „ 182 12 6 6 DuffieldJno . . . . Union ,, 32 5 5 0

Lancashire T . J . . . . Skelmersdale „ 141 5 5 0 Handley Joseph . . . Alfred „ 136 10 0 0 Chambers Richard ) . ., n . „ 10 10 0 Horrocks Nathaniel j . mK 0 " 1 M 10 10 0 Robberds H . T . . . . St . Andrew's „ 34 10 0 0 Sntcliffe Jack . . . Remigias „ 117 10 10 0 Griffiths Francis M . D . } 5 5 0 CollinsonThos I . Bpitaimj a g 3 5 5 0 Bedford Henry Hale l " 5 5 0 White Wm . J Run

Trollope Thos . Jno . . . East Sussex „ 166 15 8 0 Callender , R . W . Bro . W . Romaine , M . P ., Chairman 25 0 0 174 17 ' 0 One more liat has yet to come in .