"The greatest effect of magic--at the same time its triumph, and the criterion of its truth--is a successful incantation. Shall we perform one? If we go through all the necessary preparations, we shall have a bird's-eye view of the whole secret science. Only certain alchemists have a still greater end in view; they aspire to produce in the retort man himself,--nay, the whole world. You men of the nineteenth century know only by reputation of our attempts to produce an _homunculus_, and _a perpetuum mobile naturæ_. Could you only count the drops of perspiration these efforts have wrung from us! There is something enchanting, something overpowering, in alchemy. It is gigantic in its aims, and in its depths dwells a thought which is terrible, because it threatens to crush that very cosmic philosophy on which our faith is founded. We occupy ourselves with the elements, until the idea steals upon us that every thing is dependent on them; that every thing, Creator and created, is included in them; that every thing arises by necessity and passes away by necessity. If you can only collect in the crucible those elements and life-germs which were stirring in chaos, then you can also produce, in the crucible, the six days of creation, and find the spirit which formed the universe. I have abandoned alchemy only to escape this thought; but a parchment will, sealed with seven seals, and hidden in the most secret corner of my vaults, contains the remarkable experiences I have had when experimenting for the _perpetuum mobile_ and _homunculus_.[32]