Somerset maughan

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 Porhoët 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 Porhoët gave him his ironic 
smile. 
'Yet the man who could write that was in many ways a mere 
buffoon, who praised his wares with the vulgar glibness of a quack. 
He was vain and ostentatious, intemperate and boastful. Listen: 
'After me, O Avicenna, Galen, Rhases and Montagnana! After me, 
not I after you, ye men of Paris, Montpellier, Meissen, and Cologne; 
all you that come from the countries along the Danube and the 
Rhine, and you that come from the islands of the sea. It is not for me 
to follow you, because mine is the lordship. The time will come 
when none of you shall remain in his dark corner who will not be an 
object of contempt to the world, because I shall be the King, and the 
Monarchy will be mine.' 

---

Dr Porhoët closed the book. 
'Did you ever hear such gibberish in your life? Yet he did a bold 
thing. He wrote in German instead of in Latin, and so, by weakening 
the old belief in authority, brought about the beginning of free 
thought in science. He continued to travel from place to place, 
followed by a crowd of disciples, some times attracted to a wealthy 
city by hope of gain, sometimes journeying to a petty court at the 
invitation of a prince. His folly and the malice of his rivals 
prevented him from remaining anywhere for long. He wrought 
many wonderful cures. The physicians of Nuremberg denounced 
him as a quack, a charlatan, and an impostor. To refute them he 
asked the city council to put under his care patients that had been 
pronounced incurable. They sent him several cases of elephantiasis, 
and he cured them: testimonials to that effect may still be found in 
the archives of Nuremberg. He died as the result of a tavern brawl 
and was buried at Salzburg. Tradition says that, his astral body 
having already during physical existence become self-conscious, he 
is now a living adept, residing with others of his sort in a certain 
place in Asia. From there he still influences the minds of his 
followers and at times even appears to them in visible and tangible 
substance.' 
'But look here,' said Arthur, 'didn't Paracelsus, like most of these old 
fellows, in the course of his researches make any practical 
discoveries?' 
'I prefer those which were not practical,' confessed the doctor, with a 
smile. 'Consider for example the