but I am so neglected, and so conspired against, that I am determined it
and all my other discoveries shall die with me."

I now inquired, whether he had been alarmed by the ignorance of the
people in the country, so as to shut himself up in so unusual a manner.

"No," he replied, "not on their account wholly. They are ignorant and
insolent enough; but it was to protect myself against the governments of
Europe, who are determined to get possession of my secret by force. I
have been," he exclaimed, "twice fired at in one day through that window,
and three times attempted to be poisoned. They believed I had written a
book containing my secrets, and to get possession of this book has been
their object. To baffle them, I burnt all that I had ever written, and I
have so guarded the windows with spring-guns, and have such a collection
of combustibles in the range of bottles which stand at your elbow, that I
could destroy a whole regiment of soldiers if sent against me." He then
related, that as a further protection he lived entirely in that room, and
permitted no one to come into the house; while he had locked up every
room except that with patent padlocks, and sealed the key-holes.

It would be tedious and impossible to follow Mr. Kellerman through a
conversation of two or three hours, in which he enlarged upon the merits
of the ancient alchemists, and on the blunders and impertinent
assumptions of the modern chemists, with whose writings and names it is
fair to acknowledge he seemed well acquainted. He quoted the authorities
of Roger and Lord Bacon, Paracelsus, Boyle, Boerhaave, Woolfe, and others,
to justify his pursuits. As to the term philosopher's stone, he alleged
that it was a mere figure, to deceive the vulgar. He appeared also to
give full credit to the silly story about Dee's assistant, Kelly, finding
some of the powder of projection in the tomb of Roger Bacon at