Michael Maier declares that he received from the disciples of St Dominic the secret of the philosophical stone, and that he communicated it in turn to St Thomas Aquinas; that he was in possession of a stone naturally marked with a serpent, and endowed with so admirable a virtue that on being set down in a place infested with such reptiles, it would attract them from their hiding places; that for the space of thirty years he employed all his knowledge as a magician and astrologer to construct, out of metals carefully chosen under appropriate planetary influences, an automaton endowed with the power of speech, and which served him as an infallible oracle, replying plainly to every kind of question which could possibly be proposed to it. This was the celebrated Androïd, which was destroyed by St Thomas under the impression that it was a diabolical contrivance. The most marvellous story of his magical abilities is extant in the history of the University of Paris. He invited William II., Count of Holland and King of the Romans, to a supper in his monastic house at Cologne. Although it was midwinter Albertus had tables prepared in the garden of the convent; the earth was covered with snow, and the courtiers who accompanied William murmured at the imprudence and folly of the philosopher in exposing the prince to the severity of such weather. As they sat down, however, the snow suddenly disappeared, and they felt not only the softness of spring, but the garden was filled with odoriferous flowers; the birds flew about as in summer, singing their most delightful notes, and the trees appeared in blossom. Their surprise at this metamorphosis of nature was considerably heightened when, at the end of the repast, these wonders disappeared in a moment, and the cold wind began to blow with its accustomed rigour. The life of Albertus belongs to the history of theology. He was born in Suabia, at Larvigen, on the Danube, in 1205. He is accredited with excessive stupidity in his youth, but his devotion to the Virgin was rewarded by a vision, which was accompanied by an intellectual illumination, and he became one of the greatest doctors of his time. He was made provincial of the Dominicans, and was appointed to the bishopric of Ratisbon, which he subsequently resigned to pursue his scientific and philosophic studies in a delightful conventual retreat at Cologne. In his old age he relapsed into the mediocrity of his earlier years, which gave rise to the saying that from an ass he was transformed into a philosopher, and from a philosopher he returned into an ass. The term Magnus, which has been applied to him, is not the consequence of his reputation. It is the Latin equivalent of his family name, Albert de Groot.