Works of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes)

colouring is reflected on such a notion by the fact that nothing was issued under the style of Eirenæus Philalethes till Eugenius had been settled in his grave at Albury, according to rumour.

Our next task is to ascertain whether the subsequent literary history of the two alchemists throws any light on the subject, and it happens that so early as the year 1705 a German translation of THE OPEN ENTRANCE was published at Hamburg under the name of Thomas de Vagan.¹ Since that date the confusion of the two alchemists became almost a matter of habit² until—after being misled myself by bibliographies then current—I endeavoured to clear up the question in 1888.³ But it continues in certain quarters even to this day. It follows that the birth coincidence is illustrated by early identification, which may well have arisen through similarity of pseudonyms,⁴ but certainly not owing to the coincidence itself, with which no one would have been acquainted on the continent. It was perpetuated in England subsequently by transmission from writer to writer.

¹ Mr E. K. Chambers states that the Jena Latin edition of THE OPEN ENTRANCE, published in 1699, has a preface by G. W. Wedelius, who says of the author, Ex Anglia tamen vulgo habetur oriundus et Thomas de Vagan appellatus, a still earlier ascription, but he was not able to verify it. There is, however, a copy in the British Museum at the present time and I have been able to determine the point. The opinion expressed by Wedelius at the end of the seventeenth century rests on the authority of G. Hornius, an editor of Geber. THE ABYSSUS ALCHEMIÆ describes Vaughan on the title-page as an English adept, the translator's short preface containing no particulars concerning him. The characteristic pseudonym of Thomas Vaughan does not appear anywhere, nor that of Eirenæus Philalethes.

² They are distinguished carefully, however, by Anthony à Wood.

³ LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS, pp. 187-200.

⁴ The DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, s.v. George Starkey, affirms that Eirenæus Philalethes used the pseudonym of Eugenius "in one case at least." It is unfortunate that the case is not mentioned, but I make no doubt that there is an error on the point of fact. The reference may be to A BRIEF NATURAL HISTORY by Eugenius Philalethes, 1669, on which see APPENDIX IX, pp. 489, 490. There are two things certain about this tract, the first being that it is not by Thomas Vaughan, and the second that it is not by Eirenæus.