Book 1,

“ Butler, being; ftill detained in prifon, commanded my houfehold-fervant, whom I had fent, that forthwith he fhould bring- unto him a fmall bottle of oil of olives ; and his little ftone, aforefaid, being- tinged therein, as at other times, he fent that oil unto me ; and told the fervant, that with one only fmall drop of the oil, I fhould anoint only one place of the pain, or all the places, if f would ; the which I did, and yet felt no help thereby. In the mean time, my enemy, according to his lot, being about to die, bade that pardon fhould be craved of me for his fin ; and fo I knew that I had taken poifon, the which I fufpefted ; and therefore, alfo, I procured with all care to extinguifh the flow venom, which, through the grace of God favouring me, I efcaped.
“ Seeing that-; afterwards, many other cures were performed upon certain gentlewomen, I alked Butler why fo many women fhould be cured, but that I (while that I fharply conflidted with death itfelf, being alfo environed wkh pains of all my joints and organs) fhould not feel any eafe ? — But he afited with what difeafe I had laboured ? — And when he underflood that poifon had given a beginning to the difeafe, he faid, — that, as the caufe had come from within to without, the oil ought to be taken into the body, or the ftone to be touched with the tongue ; becaufe the grief being cherifhed within, it was not local or external ; and alfo obferved, that the oil did, by degrees, uncloath itfelf with the efficacy of healing, becaufe the little ftone being lightly tinged in it, it had not pithily charged the oil throughout its whole body, but had only ennobled it with a delible or obliterable befprinkling of its odour : for truly that ftone did prefent, in the eyes and tongue, fea-falt fpread abroad, or rarified and it is fufficiently known that fait is not to be very intimately mixed with oil.
“ This fame man, alfo, cured an Abbefs, who, for eighteen years, had had her right arm fwelled, with an entire deprivation of motion, and the fingers thereof ftiff and unmoveable, only by the touching of her tongue with this admirable ftone.
“ But very many being prefent witneffes of thefe fame wonders, did fufpedt fome hidden forcery, or diabolical craft ; for the common people have it for an ancient cuftom, that whatfoever honelt thing their ignorance has determined
not
ALCHYMY.