And I Helvetius am able to shew some of this Spongeous Lead with part of the Star yet adhering, & besides the pieces of the Star the Silver and Gold made thereof.  Which when this Subtile (and Likewise Foolish) Grill understood, he would not be known to Knottterus, whether he had used the Spirit of Salt, or not; but thenceforth attempted to learn of him the Art how to make it; yet some time being Elapsed, the worthy Knottnerus had for got what Spirit of salt (for he was expert in various kinds thereof) he had given him; not being able to call the same to mind so suddenly:  in the mean while, he and his Family were visited with the Pestilence and dyed:  the other falling into the Water was drowned.  After the death of these two, none could find out the way of either of their Operations.

Certainly here is cause of Admiration, that the Internal Nature of Lead, by the simple maturation of Spirit of Salt, should appear in an external form so noble.  No less admirable and wonderful to the mind is this, viz. that the mirifick Stone of Philosophers can so exceeding swiftly transmute Metals; having virtue potentially insited in it self, so as it is deduced into Art, as in Iron by contact of the Magnet.  But touching These enough for the Sons of Art.

CHAP.  III.

Since promises are so much the better esteemed, by how much the sooner they are fulfilled, I, without any dilation, immediately come to my promised Declaration of the following History, which thus take.

At the Hague, on the sixth Calend of January or the 27th. of December, in the year 1666, a certain man came to my House in the Afternoon, to me indeed planely unknown, but endued with an honest gravity, and serious authority of Countenance, cloathed in a Plebick Habit, like to some Memnonite of a middle Stature, his Visage somewhat long, with some Pock-holes here and there dispersed:  his Hairs were indeed very black, yet not curled, little or no no hair on his Chin, and about three or four and fourty years of Age:  his Countrey (as far as I am able to conjecture) is the Septentrional Batavia, vulgarly called Nord Hollund.

After salutations ended, his new Guest, with great Reverence, asked, whether he might have freedom to come to me; because for the Pyrotechnick Art sake, he could not, nor was he willing to pass by the Door of my house; adding, that he had not only thought to have made use of some Friend to come to me, but had also read some of my little Treaties, especially that, which I published against D. Digbies Sympathetick Powder, in which I discovered my doubt of the true Philosophick Mystery.  Therefore, this occasion being taken, he asked me, whether I could believe, that place was given to such a Mystery in the things of Nature, by the benefit of which a Physician might be able to cure all Diseases universally, unless the Sick already had a defect either of the Lungs,