At mid-day the guests arrived. They consisted of Dr. Cornelius, Vienna's
most learned scholar; Taddeo Mainardi, the painter; a Danish student
from the University of Wittenberg; a young English nobleman, who was
travelling in Italy; and Guido da Siena, philosopher and poet, who was
said to be the handsomest man in Italy. The Doctor set before his guests
a precious wine from Cyprus, in which he toasted them, although as
a rule he drank only water. The meal was served in the cool loggia
overlooking the bay, and the talk, which was of the men and books of
many climes, flowed like a rippling stream on which the sunshine of
laughter lightly played.

The student asked the Doctor whether in Italy men of taste took any
interest in the recent experiments of a French Huguenot, who professed
to be able to send people into a trance. Moreover, the patient when in
the trance, so it was alleged, was able to act as a bridge between the
material and the spiritual worlds, and the dead could be summoned and
made to speak through the unconscious patient.

"We take no thought of such things here," said the Doctor. "In my youth,
when I studied in the North, experiments of that nature exercised a
powerful sway over my mind. I dabbled in alchemy; I tried and indeed
considered that I succeeded in raising spirits and visions; but two
things are necessary for such a study: youth, and the mists of the
Northern country. Here the generous sun kills such phantasies. There are
no phantoms here. Moreover, I am convinced that in all such experiments
success depends on the state of mind of the inquirer, which not only
persuades, but indeed compels itself by a strange magnetic quality to
see the vision it desires. In my youth I considered that I had evoked
visions of Satan and Helen of Troy, and what not--such things are fit
for the young. We greybeards have more serious things to occupy us, and
when a man has one foot in the grave, he has no time to waste."

"To my mind," said the painter, "this world has sufficient beauty and
mystery to satisfy the most ardent inquirer."

"But," said the Englishman, "is not this world a phantom and a dream as
insubstantial as the visions of the ardent mind?"

"Men and women are the only study fit for a man," interrupted Guido,
"and as for the philosopher's stone I have found it. I found it some
months ago in a garden at Sorrento. It is a pearl radiant with all the
hues of the rainbow."

"With regard to that matter