La Poule Noire (The Black Pullet)

—were full of gold and precious stones of every kind. "You see, my son, that with this, one does not fear poverty. Everything belongs to you. I am approaching the end of my career original: carrière; here referring to the course of his life or his professional journey as a sage., and I will be happy to leave you in possession of them. These treasures are not the fruit of greed or a sordid interest; I owe them to my knowledge of the occult sciences: the study of hidden knowledge and paranormal powers, such as alchemy, astrology, and magic which are familiar to me, and to the favor granted to me by the Supreme Being: original Grand-Être, a term for God commonly used in the 18th century, reflecting Enlightenment or Masonic influence to penetrate the secrets of nature. I can even command the beings who inhabit the earth and the air, and who are not visible to ordinary men. I love you, my dear son; I have recognized in you a sense of candor, frankness, a love of truth, and an aptitude for the sciences, and before long, I want you to know what more than twenty-four years of research, meditation, and experiments have cost me.

The science of the magi: the ancient wisdom and magical practices attributed to the priests of ancient Persia and the language of hieroglyphs: the writing system of ancient Egypt, which in 1790—before the Rosetta Stone was fully understood—was still considered a mystical and undeciphered code are lost through the fault of men; I alone am their guardian. I will share these precious confidences with you, and together we shall read those characters carved upon the pyramids, which have caused the despair of all scholars and before which they have turned pale original: pâli; implies the scholars grew exhausted or sickly from their fruitless efforts to understand the symbols. for several centuries."