in the cooking of this mess, which those may see in the book of M.
Harcouet, who are at all interested in the matter; and the chickens
are to be fed upon it for two months. They are then fit for table, and
are to be washed down with moderate quantities of good white wine or
claret. This regimen is to be followed regularly every seven years,
and any one may live to be as old as Methuselah! It is right to state,
that M. Harcouet has but little authority for attributing this
precious composition to Arnold of Villeneuve. It is not to be found in
the collected works of that philosopher; but was first brought to
light by a M. Poirier, at the commencement of the sixteenth century,
who asserted that he had discovered it in MS. in the undoubted writing
of Arnold.

PIETRO D'APONE.

This unlucky sage was born at Apone, near Padua, in the year 1250.
Like his friend Arnold de Villeneuve, he was an eminent physician, and
a pretender to the arts of astrology and alchymy. He practised for
many years in Paris, and made great wealth by killing and curing, and
telling fortunes. In an evil day for him, he returned to his own
country, with the reputation of being a magician of the first order.
It was universally believed that he had drawn seven evil spirits from
the infernal regions, whom he kept enclosed in seven crystal vases,
until he required their services, when he sent them forth to the ends
of the earth to execute his pleasure. One spirit excelled in
philosophy; a second, in alchymy; a third, in astrology; a fourth, in
physic; a fifth, in poetry; a sixth, in music; and the seventh, in
painting: and whenever Pietro wished for information or instruction in
any of these arts, he had only to go to his crystal vase, and liberate
the presiding spirit. Immediately, all the secrets of the art were