IV. It is obviously easy to exaggerate the philological

argument, or rather the argument from the identity of literary style, in the documents under consideration. This point indeed can only be adequately treated by a German. At present it rests on a single assertion of Arnold, which is uncorroborated by any illustrative facts. I think it will
THE CASE OFJOHANN VALENTIN ANDREAS. 235
also be plain, even to the casual reader, that the "Chymical Marriage " is a work of " extraordinary talent," as Buhle justly observes, but that the " Fama Fraternitatis " is a work of no particular talent, either inventive or otherwise, while the subsequent "Confession," both in matter and manner, is simply beneath contempt. Yet we are required to believe that the first was produced at the age of fifteen, while the worthless pamphlets are the work of the same writer from seven to thirteen years subsequently.