Pagina 43 de 483

"The ancient teachers of this science," said he, "promised

impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise

very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that

the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose

hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore

over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles.

They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works

in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have

discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we

breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they

can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and

even mock the invisible world with its own shadows."