Works of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes)

from the editor’s preface to that of the writer, who opens with the following testimony : “ I, being an adept anonymous, a lover of learning and a philosopher, have undertaken to write this little treatise concerning medicinal, chemical and physical secrets, in the year of redemption 1645 and in the twenty-third year of my age.” The motives by which he was actuated were (1) that he might lead the Sons of the Art out of the labyrinth of errors and the deceits of sophisters ; (2) that he might be recognised by Adepts at large as their peer and their brother. These reasons set aside, it remains that Eirenæus Philalethes, according to his own statement, accomplished the Great Work at the age of twenty-two, and otherwise that his memorial concerning it did not see the light for twenty-two years. It is of course an interesting coincidence and nothing follows therefrom ; but as the result of a simple calculation we shall find that he was born in 1622, or in the same year as Thomas Vaughan, if we accept the Oxford University record, that the latter matriculated at the age of sixteen in 1638.¹ I am obviously not prepared to deny that here is another coincidence, however remarkable as such ; but I must confess that imagination is disposed, on the other hand, to speculate whether Vaughan really died in 1665, whether he did not change his local habitation, adopting another pseudonym, as he had done once previously.² A certain romantic

¹ The record is in agreement with the birth-date given by Wood.
² Henry Vaughan was satisfied only too well on the fact of his brother’s death, for he makes him the subject of an elegiac eclogue under the title of Daphnis, recording “ our long sorrows and his lasting rest.” The following lines have the unmistakable note of identity :—

Let Daphnis still be the recorded name
And solemn honour of our feasts and fame.
For though the Isis and the prouder Thames
Can show his relics lodged hard by their streams,
And must for ever to the honour’d name
Of noble Murray chiefly owe that fame,
Yet here his stars first saw him—

a reference to Usk and its vicinity.