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ALCHYMY.

To solemnize this day, the glorious SunStays in his course, and plays the Alchymist,Turning with splendour of his precious eyeThe meagre cloddy earth to glitt'ring gold."

Shakspeake.

" [An explosion within.]Subtle. —God, and all Saints, be good to us ! What's that ?Face. —O, Sir, we are defeated ! All the worksAre flown in fumo: ev'ry glass is burst—Furnace and all, rent down !—As if a boltHad thunder'd thro' the house.Retorts, receivers, pellicans, bolt-heads,All struck in shivers!

[Subtle falls down.]Help, good Sir ! Alas,Coldness and Death invade him !"

Ben Jonson's Alchymist.

Alchymy, the pretended art of prolonging lifeby a panacea, of transmuting the baser metalsinto gold and other wonders, affects also thehighest antiquity ; it is however probably thefruit of ignorance, grafted upon the remains of