The Count of Gabalis

( 9 )
A 5

learned they were devoted to these sciences,
to pretend to be infatuated with them. Right
from the start, I had more luck than I expected.
Since these people, as mysterious and reserved
as they flatter themselves to be, wish for
nothing more than to display their imaginings and the
new discoveries they claim to have made
in nature, I became, in just a
few days, the confidant of their most prominent members,
and one or another of them was constantly in my
cabinet: A private room or study used for research, reading, and the housing of special collections., which I had intentionally
stocked with their most extravagant authors. No
foreign scholar arrived here of whom I did not
receive word; in short, I played an important
role and knew nothing. I was in the company
of princes, great lords, statesmen,
beautiful and ugly ladies, scholars,
prelates, monks, nuns—people of
every station. One spoke of angels, another
of the devil, another of his original: "Genius" — a guiding spirit or tutelary deity believed to accompany an individual., another of the original: "Alp" — a malevolent spirit or nightmare in Germanic folklore believed to sit on a sleeper's chest.,
another of the universal medicine: Also known as the panacea, a legendary substance supposed to cure all diseases and prolong life., another of the stars, another
of the mysteries of the Godhead, and almost
everyone of the Philosopher's Stone: The ultimate alchemical substance, said to turn base metals into gold and grant immortality..