senting a rod, with serpents swallowing each other | up. At the second division was seen a cross, on which a serpent was crucified; and at the end was painted a desert, with many beautiful fountains, from whence issued numerous serpents, disporting here and there. On the first leaf was written, in large golden capitals, as follows: Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher. To the Nation of the Jews, by the wrath of God, dispersed through Gaul, Health.' Then followed often-repeated and severe denunciations and maledictions, in which the word Maranatha' was frequently used against any who might presume to attempt to read the book, unless he were sacrificer or scribe." This work contained the prima materia of the alchemical science; but, in spite of his being a scribe and able to read Latin, it was perfectly hieroglyphical to poor Flamel, and also, as may believed, to the partner of his bosom, his wife Pernelle, to whom he showed it. Despairing, after much study, to arrive at the real secret without further assistance, Flamel made a vow to perform a pilgrimage into Spain, to endeavor to find some Jew who, he imagined, might be able to enlighten him on the subject. He accordingly caused his manuscript to be copied, and took the copy with him on his pilgrimage. At Leon, returning after a fruitless search, he fell in with a learned Jew named Canches, (or Sanchez,) to whom he showed it, who immediately professed such anxiety to see the original that he resolved to join Flamel on his journey home. On the way he interpreted much of the hidden mystery of the volume, but did not live to reach Paris, being taken ill at Orleans, where he died, and Flamel persued his journey alone. He says: "He that would see the manner of my arrival and the joy of Pernelle, let him look upon us two in the city of Paris, upon the door of the chapel of Saint Jacques la Boucherie, close by the one side of my house, where we are both painted kneeling and giving thanks to God." It is very possible that Nicholas was himself the artist, for he is known to have been a proficient in painting, as far as proficiency went in those days. Husband and wife made a good use of the discovery, devoting the riches they thus acquired to charitable purposes, endowing no less than fourteen hospitals, three chapels, and seven churches, all of which were new built, besides innumerable acts of charity in Paris and the village of Boulogne. In addition to his piety, Flamel was anxious to leave written proofs of his knowledge, and composed his "Summary of Philosophy," after the model of Jehan de Meung's work, and subsequently wrote a commentary on the hieroglyphics which he had erected in the public street, near the Cimetière des Innocens. According to certain biographers, he died in 1419, outliving his wife Pernelle seven years; but they who wrote his epitaph knew nothing of the real state of the case. It was not for one who had discovered the elixir vitæ quietly to render up the ghost, even at the advanced age of ninety-one, which he had reached at the above date; but that no scandal might be rife against him in his native city, where he had done so much good, by confounding him with the Wandering Jew, he took himself off to the East, accompanied by the faithful partner of all his toils, and the sharer in all his fortunes. They feigned sickness and disappeared, two logs of wood being interred in their stead; and that no doubt of the truth of the story may remain on anybody's mind, Paul Lucas, a most conscientious and trustworthy traveller, whose only fault, perhaps, was that of having too large a belief, and who labored under the impression that he had himself seen the Devil Asmodeus in Upper Egypt, declares that he met with a dervise who was intimately acquainted with Nicholas Flamel and his wife; and, moreover, assured Lucas that they were at that time in the enjoyment of perfect health. We have been thus particular in treating of Nicholas Flamel, because his is the most circumstantial case of hermetic projection on record, which may reconcile those to the possibility of making money who would not believe in the fact without a well authenti Although through the assistance of the Jew Canches he had now acquired some insight into the prima materia, he was several years before he attained the perfect knowledge necessary for the completion of the great work. But at length he succeeded in project-cated precedent. ing upon mercury, and converted about a pound weight into pure silver. "This," he declares, was done in the year 1382, on January 17th, about noon, being Monday, in The other side of the picture exhibits failures enough, and we shall advert to a few, for the simple purpose of showing what the difficulties were which the most successful adepts had to encounter. One of these hunters after the Green Lion, as the stone was sometimes called, describes them in the following lines: "I asked Philosophy how I should These were serious obstacles certainly, but modern chemistry has overcome greater, and the old alchemists, nothing daunted, fought on untiringly. Ripley, who wrote what he called a "Compound of Alchymie," was not one of the least assiduous; though all his labors disappeared in fumo, thus describes his experiences: Many amalgame did I make, Wenyng to fix these to grett avayle, Tarter, eggs whyts, and the oyl of the snayle, For what for the more and what for the lesse, He then gives a long list of ingredients, and sums up by saying: "Thus I rostyd and boylyd, as one of Geber's cooks, And oft tymes my wynning in the asks I sought; For I was discevyd wyth many false books, Sir Edward Kelley, another unsuccessful neophyte, appears to have been completely disgusted with his constant failures. He exclaims: Mr. Jericho is a city gentleman, to whom the widow of a certain Captain Pennibacker confided herself and three children, in the (who got the brevet after his death) has belief that her second husband is a man of fabulous wealth, as indeed he is when it comes to be fairly examined. "She was a woman of naturally a lively fancy -a quality haply cultivated in her sojourn in the East, where rajahs framed in gold and jewels upon elephants were common pictures; hence, Jericho, of the city of London, was instantaneously rendered by the widow a man of prodigious tive translation of the words-City gentleman.. wealth. She gave the freest, the most imaginaWhat a picture to the imagination, the-City gentleman. All the bullion of the Bank of England makes background details; the India House dawns in the distance; and a hundred pennants from masts in India Docks tremble in the far-off sky." Mr. Jericho has also called in the aid of imagination to heighten the Indian widow's attractions, as every one does, says our author, when money is the theme. "The common brain will bubble to the golden wand." cho, that the widow had many relations, many "It was whispered, sharply whispered to Jerihopes in India. Immediately Jericho flung about the lady all the treasures of the East. | thinnest slice of a man, Jericho slides between Immediately she stood in a shower-bath of diamonds; elephant's teeth lay heaped about her; and rice and cotton-grounds and fields of opium, many thousands of acres of the prodigal East, stretched out on all sides of her, and on all sides called her mistress. All his life had Jericho trod upon firm earth; but widow Pennibacker whipped him off his leaden feet, and carried him away into the fairy-ground of Mammon; and there his eyes twinkled at imaginary wealth, and his ears turned and stood erect at the sound of shaken money-bags." As it commonly chances when the imagination has been allowed too much play, both parties are deceived. Mr. Jericho's means barely sufficed for his own necessities, and Mrs. Pennibacker's connection with the monied world was to her disadvantage; she was literally criblée de dettes. The lady, however, had more reason for her belief than her husband, as Mr. Jericho, "with all the simplicity of real worth," had spoken "calmly, but withal hopefully, of the vast increase of profit arising from his platina mines." These mines are ever present to Mrs. Jericho's mental vision, and hence a constant tendency on her part, after her marriage, to ask for money. This is Jericho's difficulty, for he is compelled to refuse to give that which he has not got. But his wife has an unbounded belief in his capabilities, and like the daughters of the horseleech in Scripture, her cry ever is, "Give, give." On a certain day, when this customary demand had been made, and the customary answer had been returned, with, perhaps, a little more vehemence than usual, Mr. and Mrs. Jericho separated-she, to raise her spirits by a little shopping, and he, to solace his at a quiet little dinner party with a few chosen friends. They both fulfil their missions, Mr. Jericho returning from his in a very rosy, harmonious frame of mind, "full of meat and wine, and his brain singing with fantastic humors.' To his exceeding satisfaction he finds, on his arrival at home, that his wife has gone to bed. "Mr. Jericho breathed a little lighter. Such a load was taken off him, that he mounted the staircase tenderly, as though he trod upon flowers; as though every woollen blossom in the carpet, from the stair to the bed itself, was living heart'sease; which it was not." Noiselessly he enters the bed-chamber, and silently he retires to rest beside his spouse, believing her to be sound asleep. the sheets. And there he lies, feloniously still; and he thinks to himself-being asleep, she cannot tell how late I came to bed. At all events, it is open to a dispute, and that is something. "Mr. Jericho, when can you let me have some money?" With open eyes, and clearly ringing every word upon the morning air, did Mrs. Jericho repeat this primal question. And what said Jericho ? With a sudden qualm at the heart, and with a thick stammering tongue, he answered, Why, my dear, I thought you were sound asleep.'" Not all and evidence of the fact is given in terms unpleasing enough to Jericho's ears; a regular quarrel ensues, in the course of which he experiences every kind of torture which that sharpest of all weapons, an angry woman's tongue, can inflict; and ever and anon, at every pause in her invective strain, she asks the hateful question, "When will you let me have some money?" "At last, Jericho-as though a dagger had been suddenly struck up through the bed-bounced bolt upright. There was a supernatural horror in with his violence, almost squealed. his look; even his own wife, familiar as she was However, silently eyeing him through the small murderous loopholes of her lace border, Mrs. Jericho saw her pale-faced husband snatch off his cap, holding it away at arm's length; then, breathing hard, and casting back his head, he cried, in tones so deep and so unnaturally grating, that the poor at the first sound-I WISH TO HEAVEN I WAS woman, like a night-flower, shrank within herself MADE OF MONEY!' Mrs. Jericho, considerably relieved that it was no worse, added, in a low, deep, earnest voice, 'I wish to Heaven you were!" " The accomplishment of this wish is the alchemy of Mr. Solomon Jericho. "Audivere Di mea vota!" may he now exclaim; the gods have heard his prayers, but in an evil hour; for the fulfilment of his desire is attained at the cost of his own existence. Not by a direct compact with the Evil One, but by a gradual wasting away of his person his money-making faculty. The fact is, his on every occasion when he avails himself of heart has been suddenly converted into a mass of bank-paper, every one of its tissues representing a hundred pounds. He makes the discovery by accident, and having once made it, soon repeats it. 1849.] THOU ART LIKE A CALM AND STARRY SUMMER'S NIGHT. Such is the process by which the mystery of money-making is solved by Mr. Jerrold in the person of his hero. The consequences which result from it may be imagined at the hands of a writer so deeply skilled in laying bare the worst imperfections of our nature. Misery, of course, is the portion of the modern Midas, who literally "drops his blood for drachmas," as he yields to every fresh demand upon his purse; and in the development of his career are well portrayed, by a thousand keen, satiric touches, the subserviency of the world to full-blown wealth, no matter whence its source. The story itself is of the slightest texture. The chief actors in it, after Mr. and Mrs. Jericho, are Basil Pennibacker and his sisters Monica and Agatha; the respective lovers of these young ladiesthe Honorable Mr. Candytuft and Sir Arthur Hodmadod-who jilt them; the family of the Carraways, whose pretty daughter Bessy has won the heart of Basil, for, unlike his step-father, he has a heart, though his manners are no more polished than the butcher who damned Mr. Fox's politics; Colonel Bones, who will proclaim his poverty to the world, and is disbelieved, and honored in consequence; Dr. Mizzlemist, the surgeon, who is ruined by being too candid; and a few minor personages, who serve as contrasts and makeweights. All these characters are well described after Mr. Jerrold's peculiar fashion; which means, not exactly as we should wish to be described ourselves; for, like Iago, Mr. Jerrold is nothing if not critical. The Honorable Mr. Candytuft, the man-tamer, is a fine specimen of the genus whose creed is un 211 bounded benevolence for all the world; and Sir Arthur Hodmadod is equally great as the representative of the numerous class who are at a loss to understand their own meaning. They contrast admirably, agreeing only in selfishness. But, unflatteringly as Mr. Jerrold may paint the individuals in whom he satirizes society, we confess that we like them better than those he tries to render amiable. They seem to us as if they were only maskers, ready at any moment to lay aside their assumed characters, and show their plainness unpainted and ungilded. Basil Pennibacker-the young man with the heart-is the most notable example of this sort; and whatever fortune awaits him in Australia, we are not sorry, at the close of the book, to find that he has emigrated. Others, however, may think differently, and give this young gentleman a good reception; but whether they welcome or wish him at a distance, they must admit that there is quite enough of the devil in his composition to redeem him from being indifferent to any. And so of the rest: our likes or dislikes may be marked forcibly enough, but, agreeing or not with the philosophy, there is no doubt of our having to do with a philosopher-one who takes his particular view of human nature, has courage enough to express, and full ability to sustain it. Examples multiplied to infinite quotation might prove this; but there is no necessity for making the appeal. The "Man Made of Money" is one more identification with the genius of its author. And so ends our homily on alchemy, which, whether ancient or modern, ends like matrimony-according to the rubric, in amazement; or-according to the experience of some-in disappointment. "THOU ART LIKE A CALM AND STARRY SUMMER'S NIGHT." THOU art like a calm and starry summer's night; Thou art like a calm and starry summer's night; Thine eye is weary of the glare of day; And like a stranger timidly I stray 'Mid varied forms too dazzling and too bright. Thou art like a calm and starry summer's night; Oh, wouldst thou in those arms the wanderer hold, The blossoms of this heart thou couldst unfold; They close by day, but open to the night. KUGLER From Fraser's Magazine. AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. I COULD Scarcely at first believe that they were all dead-that I was never more to hear the voice of parent, brother, or sister-that I was utterly alone in the world. But so it was within the space of eight months, as the worthy curate told me, the grave had closed over the whole of my family. It was some consolation that my mother had died blessing me; but, nevertheless, I now bitterly repented that I had gone to sea, instead of remaining, as I might have done, to stay and comfort her in her old age. Yet she had approved of the step I took, and after all I acted for the best. Mr. Jones told me that she had said to him, "that I had always been a good and dutiful son to her, and that she hoped, though she was not to live to see it, that I would some day find something to my taste, so that I might settle down contentedly." She was always such a kind soul. It was now necessary for me to shape my course anew. If I had been unable before to turn the education I had received to any good account, I thought it very unlikely I should succeed in doing so now. The only thing in that way which seemed to me possible of attainment at the time was a re-engagement as an usher in some school; but I instantly dismissed the idea, for I had had enough of that drudgery at Little Hampton. So being now a tolerable seaman, and seeing nothing else to do, I made up my mind to stick to the only profession I had acquired, and to seek another ship. But as the Neptune had digusted me with the merchant service, I set off for Plymouth, with the intention of volunteering for the navy, where, besides other advantages, I thought that my natural good qualities and abilities had a better chance of getting fair play. On reaching Devonport I found there was no ship fitting out for sea just then; but as I had still some money left, and could afford to be idle for a week or two, I resolved to wait a short time and see what might turn up. I lodged at a tavern called the Rodney, and the time went by quickly enough, for I had never been in that neighborhood before, and there is a good deal to be seen there. I spent almost all my time walking about the Mount Edgecumbe grounds and other places with some acquaintances I had made-it is not difficult to make such in Plymouth-and I enjoyed myself much, for the weather was beautiful: it was the month of August, near its close. However, at the end of a fortnight my reckoning at the Rodney was presented; and when I had paid it, I found I had not money enough left to keep me afloat much longer. I told my situation to the landlord, a very honest man, who said it was not probable that any king's ship would be commissioned at Plymouth for some time, and that my best plan would be to go to Bristol immediately, as there I would have a better chance of finding a good berth in a merchant vessel. Just as we were talking about it over a glass of grog, a man came in and said— "Here's a rum go, Jem, (that was the landlord's name ;) that other chap has left the Stone, too! I'm blessed if it isn't the third within the last eight weeks!" "Why, now,' said the landlord to me, "that's the very thing for you, my manthat's to say, always supposing you don't dislike a little confinement and regular hours!" What is it?" said I. 66 "It's one of the keepers of the Stone Light," replied he, "who has given up the job. What do you say to it? It's the very thing for a man like you, who seem to be a bit of a scholar, and not to like work overmuch." Nothing at the time could have been more to my mind, for I little imagined what the nature of the situation was. I lost no time in applying for the post, and my certificates being good, and besides-most unaccountably, as I then thought-no one else offering, I was almost immediately accepted. They said I must engage for six months, as they |