John Baptist Van Helmont was a gentleman of Brabant, and Lord of Merode, of Royenboch, of Oorschot, and of Pellines. He was born in Brussels in 1577, and studied scholastic philosophy in Louvain till the age of seventeen. After having finished his _humanity_ (as it was termed), he ought, according to the usage of the place, to have taken his degree of master of arts; but, having reflected on the futility of these ceremonies, he resolved never to solicit any academical honour. He next associated himself to the Jesuits, who then delivered courses of philosophy at Louvain, to the great displeasure of the professors of that city. One of the most celebrated of the Jesuits, Martin del Rio, even taught him magic. But Van Helmont was disappointed in his expectations: instead of that true wisdom which he hoped to acquire, he met with nothing but scholastic dialectics, with all its usual subtilties. He was no better satisfied with the doctrines of the Stoics, who taught him his own weakness and misery. At last the works of Thomas à Kempis, and John Taulerus fell into his hands. These sacred books of mysticism attracted his attention: he thought that he perceived that wisdom is the gift of the Supreme Being; that it must be obtained by prayer; and that we must renounce our own will, if we wish to participate in the influence of the divine grace. From this moment he imitated Jesus Christ, in his humility. He abandoned all his property to his sister, renouncing the privileges of his birth, and laying aside the rank which he had hitherto occupied in society. It was not long before he reaped the fruit of these abnegations. A genius appeared to him in all the important circumstances of his life. In the year 1633 his own soul appeared to him under the figure of a resplendent crystal.