from his opinion, and not from proof; and that subsequent trial had
made manifest to him that they were false and vain. [Fuller's
"Worthies of England."]

BASIL VALENTINE.

Germany also produced many famous alchymists in the fifteenth
century, the chief of whom are Basil Valentine, Bernard of Treves, and
the Abbot Trithemius. Basil Valentine was born at Mayence, and was
made prior of St. Peter's, at Erfurt, about the year 1414. It was
known, during his life, that he diligently sought the philosopher's
stone, and that he had written some works upon the process of
transmutation. They were thought, for many years, to be lost; but
were, after his death, discovered enclosed in the stone work of one of
the pillars in the Abbey. They were twenty-one in number, and are
fully set forth in the third volume of Lenglet's "History of the
Hermetic Philosophy." The alchymists asserted, that Heaven itself
conspired to bring to light these extraordinary works; and that the
pillar in which they were enclosed was miraculously shattered by a
thunderbolt; and that, as soon as the manuscripts were liberated, the
pillar closed up again of its own accord!

BERNARD of TREVES.

The life of this philosopher is a remarkable instance of talent
and perseverance misapplied. In the search of his chimera nothing
could daunt him. Repeated disappointment never diminished his hopes;
and, from the age of fourteen to that of eighty-five, he was
incessantly employed among the drugs and furnaces of his laboratory,
wasting his life with the view of prolonging it, and reducing himself