Alchemical Writings (Stone of Philosophers)

Glastonbury.* What occurred to him
here, what was destined, in fact, to be
the turning point in the life of this
fugitive, has been recited by more than
one of his biographers; and if, in the
present narrative, it be based on the
record of the French scientific writer original: "littérateur",
Louis Figuier Louis Figuier (1819–1894) was a popular science writer who documented the history of alchemy, that is not because
his account is specially preferable, but
because it is nearest at the moment.†

He put up, among other places, at a
lonely inn original: "hostelry" in the mountains, and there
it came to pass that he was shewn an old
manuscript which no one in the village
could decipher. Kelly had good, if some-
what mournful reason to be well acquaint-
ed with the mysteries of ancient writing,‡
and he saw at a glance not only that it
was in the old Welsh language, § but

• It is about 35 miles from Glastonbury to the nearest
  part of South Wales.
  † Alchemy and the Alchemists original: "L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes". Third edition original: "Troisième édition"
  Paris, 1860, p. 232, and following original: "et seq.".
  ‡ The insinuation is that Edward Kelly, as above indi-
  cated, had been concerned in the fraudulent manufacture of
  ancient legal documents.
  § Outside Mr. Figuier’s imagination there does not
  seem to be any reason for supposing that the manuscript
  was in Welsh.