Epistolary Form of Chemical Matters

have attained the highest praise for erudition while alive, and have not lost it after death. How many families of Kings, Princes, and heroes, and how many republics have embraced it? There is hardly a nation among the whole nobility that does not cherish some part of chemical science, and enjoy certain formulas of precious operations as if they were a paternal treasure. Thus, the honor and breadth of this art is widely evident. Indeed, there are found in the ranks of natural philosophers and physicians some of lesser skill, who, because they cannot attain what they wish on account of their own weakness or fortune, do not blush to condemn it with the ignorant judgment of the common people. But the most serious judgment of Jacobus Sylvius Ambianus, a supreme philosopher, physician, and chemist, touches them, by which they are held among the idiots and compilers of prescriptions, as those to whom it has been denied to know anything excellent. There occur also everywhere lizards and beetles born from the ashes of the insane Paracelsus, who thrust themselves into the courts of Princes and magnates with insane promises of gold; and while they are detected as most vain and lying, they seem to stain the most true and chaste art with some filth. Whence also in...