Susie glanced at Oliver Haddo, who sat in silence, his heavy face in shadow, his eyes fixed steadily on the speaker.  The immobility of that vast bulk was peculiar.

‘His name is not so ridiculous as later associations have made it seem,’ proceeded the doctor, ’for he belonged to the celebrated family of Bombast, and they were called Hohenheim after their ancient residence, which was a castle near Stuttgart in Wuertemberg.  The most interesting part of his life is that which the absence of documents makes it impossible accurately to describe.  He travelled in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, in Denmark, Sweden, and Russia.  He went even to India.  He was taken prisoner by the Tartars, and brought to the Great Khan, whose son he afterwards accompanied to Constantinople.  The mind must be dull indeed that is not thrilled by the thought of this wandering genius traversing the lands of the earth at the most eventful date of the world’s history.  It was at Constantinople that, according to a certain aureum vellus printed at Rorschach in the sixteenth century, he received the philosopher’s stone from Solomon Trismosinus.  This person possessed also the Universal Panacea, and it is asserted that he was seen still alive by a French traveller at the end of the seventeenth century.  Paracelsus then passed through the countries that border the Danube, and so reached Italy, where he served as a surgeon in the imperial army.  I see no reason why he should not have been present at the battle of Pavia.  He collected information from physicians, surgeons and alchemists; from executioners, barbers, shepherds, Jews, gipsies, midwives, and fortune-tellers; from high and low, from learned and vulgar.  In the sketch I have given of his career in that volume you hold, I have copied out a few words of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which affect me with a singular emotion.’

Dr Porhoet took his book from Miss Boyd and opened it thoughtfully.  He read out the fine passage from the preface of the Paragranum: 

’I went in search of my art, often incurring danger of life.  I have not been ashamed to learn that which seemed useful to me even from vagabonds, hangmen, and barbers.  We know that a lover will go far to meet the woman he adores; how much more will the lover of Wisdom be tempted to go in search of his divine mistress.’

He turned the page to find a few more lines further on: 

’We should look for knowledge where we may expect to find it, and why should a man be despised who goes in search of it?  Those who remain at home may grow richer and live more comfortably than those who wander; but I desire neither to live comfortably nor to grow rich.’

‘By Jove, those are fine words,’ said Arthur, rising to his feet.

Their brave simplicity moved him as no rhetoric could have done, and they made him more eager still to devote his own life to the difficult acquisition of knowledge.  Dr Porhoet gave him his ironic smile.