A treatise on metallurgy is ascribed to the theosophist himself, and there are several alchemical references in his numerous private epistles. The Holy Ghost is stated to be the key to alchemy; there is no need of hard labour and seeking (presumably among physical substances). “Seek only Christ, _and you will find all things_.” He describes the philosophers’ stone as dark, disesteemed, and grey in colour. It contains the highest tincture. Like Henry Khunrath before him, he deprecates any expenditure beyond that of the time and cost of the operator’s maintenance. “It doth not cost any money, but what is spent upon the time and the maintenance, else it might be prepared with four shillings. The work is easy, the act simple. A boy of sixteen years might make it, but the wisdom therein is great, and it is greatest mystery.” The seal of God is elsewhere declared to be set on the secret of alchemy, “to conceal the true ground of the same upon pain of eternal punishments, unless a man know for certain that it shall not be misused. There is also no power to attain it, no skill or art availeth; unless one give the tincture into the hands of another, he cannot prepare it, except he be certainly in the new birth.” * * * * * The following lines, copied from a manuscript inserted in a volume of his works, are included in the original edition of the “Lives of Alchemysticall Philosophers”:-- “Whate’er the Eastern Magi sought, Or Orpheus sung, or Hermes taught, Whate’er Confucius could inspire, Or Zoroaster’s mystic fire; The symbols that Pythagoras drew, The wisdom God-like Plato knew; What Socrates debating proved, Or Epictetus lived and loved; The sacred fire of saint and sage Through every clime, in every age, In Bohmen’s wondrous page we view Discovered and revealed anew. ‘Aurora’ dawned the coming day: Succeeding books meridian light display. Ten thousand depths his works explore, Ten thousand truths unknown before. Through all his books profound we trace The abyss of nature, GOD, and grace; The seals are broke, the mystery’s past, And all is now revealed at last. The trumpet sounds, the Spirit’s given, And Bohmen is the voice from Heaven.” J. B. VAN HELMONT.