ess, with many thanks; saying, that if there was any thing in his
kingdom which he could give me--such as the produce of confiscations or
the like--he should be most happy. I thought I might stay long enough for
these prospective confiscations, and never get them at last; and I
therefore determined to go back to my friend the abbe.

"I learned that, on the road between Pau and Toulouse, there resided a
monk who was very skilful in all matters of natural philosophy. On my
return, I paid him a visit. He. pitied me very much, and advised me, with
much warmth and kindness of expression, not to amuse myself any longer
with such experiments as these, which were all false and sophistical; but
that I should read the good books of the old philosophers, where I might
not only find the true matter of the science of alchymy, but learn also
the exact order of operations which ought to be followed. I very much
approved of this wise advice; but before I acted upon it, I went back to
my abbe of Toulouse, to give him ail account of the eight hundred crowns
which we had had in common, and, at the same time, share with him such
reward as I had received from the king of Navarre. If he was little
satisfied with the relation of my adventures since our first separation,
he appeared still less satisfied when I told him I had formed a resolution
to renounce the search for the philosopher's stone. The reason was that he
thought me a good artist. Of our eight hundred crowns, there remained but
one hundred and seventy-six. When I quitted the abbe, I went to my own
house with the intention of remaining there, till I had read all the old
philosophers, and of then proceeding to Paris.

"I arrived in Paris on the day after All Saints, of the year 1546, and
devoted another year to the assiduous study of great authors. Among
others, the _Turba Philosophorum_ of the Good Trevisan, the _Remonstrance
of Nature to the Wandering Alchymist_, by Jean de Meung, and several
others of the best books; but, as I had no right principles, I did not
well know what course to follow.

"At last I left my solitude, not to see my former acquaintances, the
adepts and operators, but to frequent the society of true philosophers.
Among them I fell into still greater uncertainties; being, in fact,
completely bewildered by the variety of operations which they shewed me.
Spurred on, nevertheless, by a sort of frenzy or inspiration, I threw
myself into the works of Raymond Lulli