His mind was tinctured with the Rosicrucian doctrines. He
believed in elementary beings; some favourable, others adverse to his
pursuits; and, in the exaltation of his fancy, had often imagined that
he held communion with them in his solitary walks, about the
whispering groves and echoing walls of this old garden.
When accompanied by Antonio, he would prolong these evening
recreations. Indeed, he sometimes did it out of consideration for his
disciple, for he feared lest his too close application, and his
incessant seclusion in the tower, should be injurious to his health.
He was delighted and surprised by this extraordinary zeal and
perseverance in so young a tyro, and looked upon him as destined to be
one of the great luminaries of the art. Lest the student should repine
at the time lost in these relaxations, the good alchymist would fill
them up with wholesome knowledge, in matters connected with their
pursuits; and would walk up and down the alleys with his disciple,
imparting oral instruction, like an ancient philosopher. In all his
visionary schemes, these breathed a spirit of lofty, though chimerical
philanthropy, that won the admiration of the scholar. Nothing sordid
nor sensual, nothing petty nor selfish, seemed to enter into his
views, in respect to the grand discoveries he was anticipating.
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