feeling mentioned, as ever were held by man. Because once held by other
men, and specially by older Englishmen, these fancies and notions have,
or should have, an interest for all of us; and in this belief, one of
them is presented here.

The loss of my sweet, bright, only child, Eena, and other distress, have
prevented my getting up any cram on the subject of Quintessence to form
a regular Preface. The (translated?) original of the text is attributed
to Hermes--Trismegistus, “or the thrice great Interpreter,” so called as
“having three parts of the Philosophy of the whole world”[1]--to whom
were credited more works than he wrote. The tract appears to be a great
fuss about Alcohol or Spirits of Wine; how to make it, and get more or
less tipsy on it, and what wonders it will work, from making old men
young, and dying men well, to killing lice.

The reading of the proof with the MS. was done by Mr. Edmund Brock, the
Society’s most careful and able helper. To Mr. Cockayne I am indebted
for the identification of some names of plants, &c.; and to Mr. Gill
of University College, London, for some Notes on the Chemistry of the
treatise, made at the request of my friend Mr. Moreshwar Atmaram.[2] The
Sloane MS. I judge to be about, but after, 1460 A.D.[3] The later copy
(Harleian MS. 853, fol. 66) seems late 16th century or early 17th,[3]
and has been only collated for a few passages which require elucidation.
The pause marks of the MS. and text require to be disregarded
occasionally in reading.

EGHAM, _16th May, 1866_.

P.S. The short side-notes in inverted commas on and after p. 16 (save
‘5 M^e’ and the like) are by a later hand in the MS. The ‘Spheres’ on