time is at the door, I see it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall return from the four corners of the earth, nor shall we fear any snares that are laid against our lives, but we shall give thanks to the Lord our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the whole earth understood this science; then it would only be valued for its wisdom, and virtue only would be had in honour. I know many adepts who have vowed a most secret silence. I am of another judgment because of the hope I have in my God; therefore I consulted not with my brethren, or with flesh and blood, in these my writings: God grant that it be to the glory of His name!” We are told in the preface to “Ripley Revived” the authors to whom he was at any rate chiefly indebted. “For my own part, I have cause to honour Bernard Trévisan, who is very ingenious, especially in the letter to Thomas of Boulogne, where I seriously confess I received the main light in the hidden secret. I do not remember that ever I learned anything from Raymond Lully. Some who are not adepts give more instruction to a beginner than one whom perfect knowledge makes cautious. I learned the secret of the _magnet_ from one, the _chalybs_ from another, the use of _Diana’s Doves_ from a third, the _air_ or _cameleon_ from another, the gross preparation of the dissolvent in another, the number of _eagles_ in another; but for _operations_ on the _true matter_ and signs of the _true mercury_, I know of none like Ripley, though Flamel be eminent. I know what I say, having learned by experience what is truth and what is error. “I have read misleading, sophistical writers, and made many toilsome, laborious experiments, though but young; and having at length, through the undeserved mercy of God, arrived at my haven of rest, I shall stretch out my hand to such as are behind. I have wrote several treatises, one in English, very plain but not perfected--unfortunately, it slipped out of my hand. I shall be sorry if it comes abroad into the world--two in Latin, _Brevis Manuductio ad Rubinem Cœlestem_, and _Fons Chymicæ Philosophiæ_--these, for special reasons, I resolve to suppress. Two others I lately wrote, which, perhaps, you may enjoy, namely, _Ars Metallorum Metamorphoses_, and _Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium_. I wrote two poems in English, which are lost; also, in English, an Enchiridion of experiments, a diurnal of meditations, with many receipts declaring the whole secret, and an Enigma annexed. These also fell into the hands of one who, I conceive, will never restore them.” The delinquent in question was undoubtedly George Starkey, who published the “Marrow of Alchemy” under the name of Eirenæus Philoponos Philalethes; this metrical account of the Hermetic theory and practice is apparently the vanished verse of the adept, but it contains in addition an account of the editor’s own initiation, which is certainly worth transcribing.