ound to
build a convent on. He had not, however, shewn them all his power.
Immediately that the repast was over, he gave the word, and dark clouds
obscured the sun--the snow fell in large flakes--the singing-birds fell
dead--the leaves dropped from the trees, and the winds blew so cold and
howled so mournfully, that the guests wrapped themselves up in their thick
cloaks, and retreated into the house to warm themselves at the blazing
fire in Albert's kitchen.[32]

[32] Lenglet, _Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique_. See also
Godwin's _Lives of the Necromancers_.

Thomas Aquinas also could work wonders as well as his master. It is
related of him that he lodged in a street at Cologne, where he was much
annoyed by the incessant clatter made by the horses' hoofs, as they were
led through it daily to exercise by their grooms. He had entreated the
latter to select some other spot, where they might not disturb a
philosopher; but the grooms turned a deaf ear to all his solicitations. In
this emergency he had recourse to the aid of magic. He constructed a small
horse of bronze, upon which he inscribed certain cabalistic characters,
and buried it at midnight in the midst of the highway. The next morning a
troop of grooms came riding along as usual; but the horses, as they
arrived at the spot where the magic horse was buried, reared and plunged
violently--their nostrils distended with terror--their manes grew erect,
and the perspiration ran down their sides in streams. In vain the riders
applied the spur--in vain they coaxed or threatened, the animals would not
pass the spot. On the following day their success was no better. They were
at length compelled to seek another spot for their exercise, and Thomas
Aquinas was left in peace.[33]

[33] Naude, _Apologie des Grands Hommes accuses de Magie_,
chap. xvii.

Albertus Magnus was made Bishop of Ratisbon in 1259; but he occupied the
see only four years, when he resigned, on the ground that its duties
occupied too much of the time which he was anxious to devote to
philosophy. He died in Cologne in 1280, at the advanced age of
eighty-seven. The Dominican writers deny that he ever sought the
philosopher's stone, but his treatise upon minerals sufficiently proves
that he did.

ARTEPHIUS.

Artephius, a name noted in the annals of alchymy, was born in the early
part of the twelfth century. He wrote two famous treatises; the one upon
the philosopher's sto