and
other works, and Eirenaeus Philoponos Philalethes, author of _The Marrow
of Alchemy_ (1654-5).[18]

A few facts, from well-known sources, may be added to Anthony a Wood's
account. The University Registers show that "Thos. Vaughan, son of
Thomas of Llansanfraid, co. Brecon, pleb., matriculated from Jesus
College on 14 Dec, 1638, aged 16." He took his B.A. on 18 Feb., 1641/2,
but does not appear to have taken his M.A., though he became Fellow of
his College (Foster, _Alumni Oxon._). John Walker (_Sufferings of the
Clergy_ (1714), p. 389) states that he was ejected from his living on
the charges of "drunkenness, immorality, and bearing arms for the
King."[19] This must have been in 1649, under the Act for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Wales. There exists a letter from Thomas
Vaughan to a friend in London, dated from "Newtown, Ash Wednesday,
1653;"[20] and it appears from Jones' _History of Brecknockshire_ (ii.,
542), that at one time he lived with his brother Henry there. The
allusions to Henry More, to Murray, and to the Isis and Thames seem to
show that he is the Daphnis of his brother's _Eclogue_ (vol. ii., p.
278). No trace of his death or burial can however be now found at
Albury. Mr. Gordon Goodwin points out to me that Dr. Samuel Kem was a
somewhat notorious character (_Dict. Nat. Biog._, s.v. _Kem_): perhaps
this friendship, together with the personal confession quoted below,
throws light on the charges which lost Vaughan his living. On the other
hand Anthony a Wood speaks well of him, and the tone of his writings
bears out this more kindly judgment, at any rate so far as his later
years are concerned.

What has been said fairly well exhausted the available information on
Thomas Vaughan until a few years ago, when Mr. A. E. Waite discovered in
Sloane MS. 1741 a valuable manuscript of his, containing amongst other
things a number of autobiographical memoranda. He printed some extracts
from this in the preface to an edition of some of _The Magical Writings
of Thomas Vaughan_ (Redway, 1888), and has been kind enough to furnish
me with a reference to the MS. itself, which I have carefully examined.
It bears the title _Aqua Vitae non Vitis_, and the inscription "Ex
libris Thomas et Rebecca Vaughan, 1651, Sept. 28. Quos Deus coniunxit
quis separabit?" The contents are partly personal jottings and records
of dreams, partly alchemical formulae. They appear to cover the period
1658-1662. We learn from them the foll