Christian divines, and of those
painstaking sages who professed the chemical science, and proffered to
guide their students into the most secret recesses of nature, by means
of the Hermetical Philosophy [a system of philosophy ascribed to the
Egyptian Hermes (Thoth) who was reputed to have written certain sacred
books treating of religion and the natural sciences]. Some were written
in the Eastern character, and others concealed their sense or nonsense
under the veil of hieroglyphics and cabalistic characters. The
whole apartment and its furniture of every kind, formed a scene
very impressive on the fancy, considering the general belief then
indisputably entertained concerning the truth of the occult sciences;
and that effect was increased by the manners and appearance of the
individual himself, who, seated in a huge chair, was employed in
curiously examining a specimen, just issued from the Frankfort press, of
the newly invented art of printing.

Galeotti Martivalle was a tall, bulky, yet stately man, considerably
past his prime, and whose youthful habits of exercise, though still
occasionally resumed, had not been able to contend with his natural
tendency to corpulence, increased by sedentary study, and indulgence in
the pleasures of the table. His features, though rather overgrown,
were dignified and noble, and a Santon might have envied the dark and
downward sweep of his long descending beard. His dress was a chamber
robe of the richest Genoa velvet, with ample sleeves, clasped with frogs
of gold, and lined with sables. It was fastened round his middle by a
broad belt of virgin parchment, round which were represented, in crimson
characters, the signs of the Zodiac. He rose and bowed to the King, yet
with the air of one to whom such exalted society was familiar, and who
was not at all likely, even in the royal presence, to compromise the
dignity then especially affected by the pursuers of science.

"You are engaged, father," said the King, "and, as I think, with this
new fashioned art of multiplying manuscripts by the intervention of
machinery. Can things of such mechanical and terrestrial import interest
the thoughts of one before whom Heaven has unrolled her own celestial
volumes?"

"My brother," replied Martivalle, "for so the tenant of this cell
must term even the King of France, when he deigns to visit him as
a disciple--believe me that in considering the consequences of this
invention, I read with as certai