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Article BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ← Page 9 of 13 →
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Biographical Sketches
nothing to do but to remove into another as soon as they pleased . How soon that might bo ho did not know ; but St . John and the Travelling Jew had stayed in it above 1 , 700 years , and some of his friends perhaps might stay as long . He said the great elixir , of which he had some in his pocket , made him look no older than forty ; that he was afraid of no distemper , for that would cure him immediately ; nor of want , because it ivould make him as much gold as he pleased . He said many other things
as strange and as surprising as what I have told you . " I was talking of him and his gold-making to our minister here , who upon this told me a very odd story , which he had from Marshal ltkebcuder , General of tho King of Sardinia ' s forces at present . The General ( who comes from these parts ) says , that when Gustaf Adolph ivas going to make war with the Emperor , he found himself at a loss for money sufficient for so great an undertaking . He was melanchol itand
very y upon , every thing was at a stand ; when one morning a very old man came to his court , and told the gentleman of the bedchamber in waiting that he wanted to speak to the king . The gentleman desired his name ; ho refused to tell it ; but he said he must speak to the king , and that it was on business of the utmost importance to his majesty ' s affairs . When they were alone , the old man told him that he knew Avhat straits he was in for money , and that he was come to furnish him with as much as he
should ivant . He then desired him . to send for a crucible full of mercury ; he took out a white powder , and put in only about the quantity of a pinch of snuff . He then desired him to set by the crucible till the next morning , and departed . When Gustavus call'd for the crucible , 'twas all full of one solid piece of gold . He coined this into ducats ; and on the coin , in memory of the fact , ivas struck the chemical marks for mercury and sulphur . Rhebender had several of them thus marked , and gave one of them to our minister , who told me the story . "
This statement is curious ; but we do not know if we must not apply the remark made by Sir Walter Scott to a line of a ballad entitled " Christie's Will" ( "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders , " vol . iii . p . 162 ) : — " He thought the warlocks of the holy cross Had fang'd him in their nets sae fast , "
when introducing the account of the rencounter of Mr . Williamson , of Coivper ( too long for insertion ) , with an Adept , from Fountainhall ' s "Decanons , " vol . i . p . 15 : — "With great deference to the learned reporter , this story has all the appearance of a joke upon the poor schoolmaster , calculated at once to operate upon his credulity and his fears , of being left in pawn for the reckoning . " It is difficult , also , to know how far Sir Lytton Bulwer intends the tales of " Zanoni" for compilation or fiction .
In a book , published at Paris , 1623 ( small 4 to . ) , by G . Naude , entitled , "Instruction a la France , sur la Verite de l'Histoire des Freres de la Rose Croix , " of which the views may be sufficiently gathered from the motto , 0 quantum est in rebus inane , from Persius , Satyr 1 ; at page 31 , we have a relation of the travels of Brother Rosencreutz , much as related above , ivith the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographical Sketches
nothing to do but to remove into another as soon as they pleased . How soon that might bo ho did not know ; but St . John and the Travelling Jew had stayed in it above 1 , 700 years , and some of his friends perhaps might stay as long . He said the great elixir , of which he had some in his pocket , made him look no older than forty ; that he was afraid of no distemper , for that would cure him immediately ; nor of want , because it ivould make him as much gold as he pleased . He said many other things
as strange and as surprising as what I have told you . " I was talking of him and his gold-making to our minister here , who upon this told me a very odd story , which he had from Marshal ltkebcuder , General of tho King of Sardinia ' s forces at present . The General ( who comes from these parts ) says , that when Gustaf Adolph ivas going to make war with the Emperor , he found himself at a loss for money sufficient for so great an undertaking . He was melanchol itand
very y upon , every thing was at a stand ; when one morning a very old man came to his court , and told the gentleman of the bedchamber in waiting that he wanted to speak to the king . The gentleman desired his name ; ho refused to tell it ; but he said he must speak to the king , and that it was on business of the utmost importance to his majesty ' s affairs . When they were alone , the old man told him that he knew Avhat straits he was in for money , and that he was come to furnish him with as much as he
should ivant . He then desired him . to send for a crucible full of mercury ; he took out a white powder , and put in only about the quantity of a pinch of snuff . He then desired him to set by the crucible till the next morning , and departed . When Gustavus call'd for the crucible , 'twas all full of one solid piece of gold . He coined this into ducats ; and on the coin , in memory of the fact , ivas struck the chemical marks for mercury and sulphur . Rhebender had several of them thus marked , and gave one of them to our minister , who told me the story . "
This statement is curious ; but we do not know if we must not apply the remark made by Sir Walter Scott to a line of a ballad entitled " Christie's Will" ( "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders , " vol . iii . p . 162 ) : — " He thought the warlocks of the holy cross Had fang'd him in their nets sae fast , "
when introducing the account of the rencounter of Mr . Williamson , of Coivper ( too long for insertion ) , with an Adept , from Fountainhall ' s "Decanons , " vol . i . p . 15 : — "With great deference to the learned reporter , this story has all the appearance of a joke upon the poor schoolmaster , calculated at once to operate upon his credulity and his fears , of being left in pawn for the reckoning . " It is difficult , also , to know how far Sir Lytton Bulwer intends the tales of " Zanoni" for compilation or fiction .
In a book , published at Paris , 1623 ( small 4 to . ) , by G . Naude , entitled , "Instruction a la France , sur la Verite de l'Histoire des Freres de la Rose Croix , " of which the views may be sufficiently gathered from the motto , 0 quantum est in rebus inane , from Persius , Satyr 1 ; at page 31 , we have a relation of the travels of Brother Rosencreutz , much as related above , ivith the