In a conversation of two or three hours with the narrator, Kellerman enlarged upon the merits of the ancient alchemists, and on the blunders and impertinent assumptions of modern chemists. He quoted Roger and Lord Bacon, Paracelsus, Boyle, Boerhaave, Woolfe, and others, to justify his pursuits. As to the term philosopher's stone, he alleged that it was a mere figure to deceive the vulgar. He appeared to give full credit to the silly story of Dee's assistant, Kelly, finding some of the powder of projection in the tomb of Roger Bacon, at Glastonbury, by means of which, as he said, Kelly for a length of time supported himself in princely splendour. Kellerman added, that he had discovered the blacker than black of Appolonius Tyanus: it was itself "the powder of projection for producing gold." It further appeared he had lived in the premises at Lilley for twenty-three years, during fourteen of which he had pursued his alchemical studies with unremitting ardour; keeping eight assistants for the purpose of superintending his crucibles, two at a time, relieving each other every six hours: that he had exposed some preparations to intense heat for many months at a time, but that all except one crucible had burst--and that, Kellerman said, contained the true "blacker than black." One of his assistants, however, protested that no gold had ever been found, and that no mercury had ever been fixed, for he was quite sure Kellerman could not have concealed it from his assistants; while, on the contrary, they witnessed his severe disappointment at the result of his most elaborate experiments. By the way, in the introduction to _Zanoni_, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton has given a clever sketch of an eccentric antiquarian bookseller, in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, who is said to have assembled "the most notable collection ever amassed by an enthusiast, of the works of alchemist, cabalist, and astrologer." The "vindictive glare and uneasy vigilance," and the frowning and groaning of the anti-bookseller (for it absolutely went to his heart when a customer entered his shop), are all very characteristic and life-like in this sketch. When free from such annoyance, he might be seen gloating over his musty, unsaleable treasures, on which he had, it was said, spent a fortune. ------------------ CELEBRATED DIAMONDS.