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When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works

of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus.

I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with

delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few besides

myself. I have described myself as always having been imbued with

a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of

the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern

philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and

unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt

like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored

ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural

philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy's

apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.