With what rapture would
he elevate his voice at a triumphant passage, announcing the grand
discovery! "Thou shalt see," would he exclaim, in the words of Henry
Kuhnrade,[8] "the stone of the philosophers (our king) go forth of the
bed-chamber of his glassy sepulchre into the theatre of this world;
that is to say, regenerated and made perfect, a shining carbuncle, a
most temperate splendour, whose most subtle and depurated parts are
inseparable, united into one with a concordial mixture, exceeding
equal, transparent as chrystal, shining red like a ruby, permanently
colouring or ringing, fixt in all temptations or tryals; yea, in the
examination of the burning sulphur itself, and the devouring waters,
and in the most vehement persecution of the fire, always incombustible
and permanent as a salamander!"
[Footnote 8: Amphitheatre of the Eternal Wisdom.]
The student had a high veneration for the fathers of alchymy, and a
profound respect for his instructor; but what was Henry Kuhnrade,
Geber, Lully, or even Albertus Magnus himself, compared to the
countenance of Inez, which presented such a page of beauty to his
perusal? While, therefore, the good alchymist was doling out knowledge
by the hour, his disciple would forget books, alchymy, every thing but
the lovely object before him.
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