History of the East Indies

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… usually take too much. The English show little courtesy to Foreigners, except Gentlemen who have seen other Courts, these often skimp on the delicacy and honesty of the most civilized Nations.
The garden of the King of England in London, and that of the Duke of Yorc were perfectly well maintained, there was a beautiful mall in the latter, which is the meeting place for politicians and novelists, and the retreat of minds. particular and solitary.

Chapter XVII
Meeting made by the Sieur de Rennefort in the gardens of the Palais Saint Jemes.

Sieur de Rennefort's most common walk was in this garden of the Duc d'Yorc, which is called the garden of the Palais Saint Jemes. There several times he had met a man of about seventy, who, although still alone, bore no look of grief on his face. This man having noticed the melancholy which appeared on that of Rennefort, stopped one day to ask him in French, if it was by temperament or for some cause of sadness that he held himself so gloomy. They struck up a conversation, which they resumed the following days, and in the communication they gave each other of their adventures, Rennefort learned that this old man was French...

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… of a former nobility of Brie: that in his youth he had been Page of Queen Marie de Medici, that after leaving it, he had attached himself to her service and had followed her to the Netherlands until having sent him to Florence towards the Grand Duke, the Tartane in which he was passing was taken by a vessel from Algiers, from which the Bacha sent him away with nineteen other slaves, and presented them to the Grand Duke. Vizier Achomat: that he was chosen to take care of his horses: that Achomat having been strangled by the order of the Sultana mother of Mahomet fourth Emperor of the Turks, he fell into the power of the Grand Vizier Koperly; that he was put in his room, where he remained for several years, and somewhat in his confidence when he died; that this Vizier wanted to enter into the secrets of nature, and against the ordinary of the Turks was learned, and had in his train an Arab whom he considered a great philosopher. I acquired, continued this old man, the friendship of this Arab, who having led me into a small room, said to me: Ishmael, that was my name of slave, freedom is due to your virtue, but it is because Koperly does not want to give it to you: we have enough to reward you some day for the violence we are doing to you now for holding you back, and there is nothing in the Empire of the Great Lord that is worth what you see here. There appeared to me only a table, on which was a terracotta stove. He made me take a piece from the bottom; I discovered a lamp burning underneath, and I saw on it, through a pane, a vial the size of an egg,

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… but both together. He instructed me to take care that this lamp did not go out, and to take care of the colors which would pass into the vial. I saw her in forty days turn black very black, she was gray since then, and whitened when Koperly died. His son Achmet who had his dignity, seized his Seraglio, but not being touched by the same curiosity as him, our furnace was abandoned.
The Arab was a good friend of Hali-Bacha, who was going to be him from Greater Cairo, he persuaded him to buy me. Nor was this Bachat just Achmet, a philosopher as Koperly had been. The Arab, who had an extraordinary passion for putting his knowledge into practice, taking leave of the Bachat, after having remained two months in Greater Cairo, begged him to grant him my freedom, which he obtained for a present of little consequence. He took me with him to Zibit, the town of his birth, where we had no sooner arrived than he proposed that I marry his sister. I had known that the Queen had died at Cologne, that my family was ruined in France, where there are surprising revolutions of fortune, and seeing no more fatherland than the land that would be sweetest to me, the friendship of this Arab scholar, his sister's graces and a decent fortune made me resolve to take this course. Religion made no obstacle to me, the Arab by the rules of his science, maintained that there could be no true one except that which taught the Mysteries of Christianity which we all three followed.
No sooner had we settled down than one day, having left...

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… from the city to go for a walk, we were surprised by a small troop of Arab runners who took my wife from my eyes, without my being able to know what had become of her since. Having put ourselves in a condition to defend ourselves, my brother-in-law was killed, I was taken wounded, and ran the risk of being very unhappy among these robbers, if having joined a great number of others, and dragged myself after them to the pillage they intended to make of a fair at Bassora, we would not have met a caravan of Europeans whom these Arabs attacked, and who routed these thieves. I received freedom, a present of thirty Jacobus from those who had delivered me, and passage to Europe in an English ship. I arrived in London in the year 1663 with these thirty Jacobus for all good and the memoir of my brother-in-law's secret which he had revealed to me. I took it to Paris, I saw a large number of curious people there, but in principles of avarice, without passion for the wisdom which must precede the practice of this work, running blindly to what they called individuals, who do not have ever produced anything but sophisticated, and much dependent on their vain ideas, and on their bottomless and endless reasonings. I passed by my house which had become that of another, because of the debts of my family. I did not make myself known. Continuing to go through Champagne and Lorraine, I arrived at Strasbourg. I saw a French Gentleman there named the MSDSB The most profound and modest man with whom I have ever conversed. He truly had the mind of a Philosopher,...

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… and if I had been able to bring myself to communicate, I would have accepted to travel with this illustrious personage, whom curiosity led to see the mines of Germany, Sweden, and Poland, although thank Heaven, I did not would therefore not need to descend to the center of the world to find the first matter. I stayed ten months in Strasbourg, aided in everything I needed by the friendship of a German Baron. I finished the first part of the great work there, having arranged the principles alone, and made projection in his presence of a weight of powder out of ten of Mercury, which were converted into gold. I will tell you that before having arrived at perfection, I was indifferent that she succeeds. I knew the infallibility of my science, and did not value life at all, nor riches, a certain desire to go further, and to reunite myself with my Author, deprived me of the taste for my possession. My German, who had no secrets, testified to increasing his curiosity, and in his eagerness, considering that everything was to be suspected and foreseen, I dared not risk the time to work on multiplication, and left Strasbourg one day. that he had left it to go to his castle. I resumed the road to France, and passing through the woods of Saverne, I was robbed of my powder and my money; I saw myself as destitute as I was after the Corsairs of Algiers stripped me. In this state I formed the plan to complete my life in some place where nature would have been liberal in its beauties. I choose the side of Touraine,

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… from Tours. The gentleman who was there gave me dinner, and took pleasure in the story of my adventures. I did not speak to him of chemical philosophy; and when I showed him some desire for retirement, he offered me a Hermitage in the woods of his Terre de Vaujours, where his ordinary residence was. The Hermitage was a very pleasant place, and I spent my life there quietly contemplating the marvels that God works by means of primary matter and secondary causes, when it pleased Him to finish that of this generous Lord. This death disturbed the peace of my solitude. I left and returned to see the Englishman who had brought me back from Arabia, and who was very rich. He received me and lodged me at his house, and wanting to complete the preservation of a man to whom he had already given so many pleasures, he charged his children at his death with a pension of fifty pounds sterling, or two hundred crowns in French currency, which they pay me punctually. I live quietly with no intention of prolonging my days by my science, nor of acquiring wealth. Providence arranges me in such a way that I have no need of it, and that I dare not provide it to others, for fear that they will abuse it.
The Sieur de Rennefort thinking he was dreaming, got up and walked a few steps to feel if he was not asleep, this man named him places and circumstances which were not unknown to him, but he was surprised at the novelties he had just discovered. hear. The old man looked at him without emotion in his astonishment, and assured him that he would teach him truths, if he wanted to... ... let go of all preoccupation and listen to him

.
As the day drew to a close, the Philosopher wanted to retire, and promised Rennefort to go the next day to the same place, where they had the following Dialogue together.

Chapter XVIII

Dialogue between the Philosopher and the Sieur de Rennefort, in the garden of the Palace of Saint Jemes.

The Philosopher: to console you for your losses, and to cure you of the passion you have for riches, I will reveal to you a secret which will put you in possession of them: but listen to me attentively, and begin by knowing of what order is the subject you need to use.

Rennefort: although I feel compelled and I know not what power to respect your words as Oracles, I find it difficult to persuade myself that you, who do not appear to be rich or powerful in the world, can satisfy the ambition which made me cross the Seas, and penetrate into Countries where I believed that was the source of fortune.

The Philosopher: such is the unfortunate character of those who do not know...

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… not reflect on the productions of nature, and who have never conceived that all that exists, is only one thing: that a leaf of a tree is even in its center that which composes the Throne of the Great Mogul. There is only the power to penetrate to know perfectly the harmony of the world; and if one knew how to release the smallest subject of a certain weight from which it is oppressed, a Sage could form from it all that seems greater and more marvelous. Thus long journeys and the greed to get rich are only vanities and distractions; and I want you to find in the least esteemed things around you, more than you expected from the Indies and the Austral Lands.

Rennefort: I beg your pardon if, not understanding your reasoning, I consider it imaginary. To philosophize on the leaf of a tree seems to me a very weak remedy for satisfying our passions, and it takes more solid things to be considered great.

The Philosopher: All the possessions of the Great, and a thousand bushels of diamonds and pearls, do not contain a better spirit than the buckle of my shoe which is only of steel, and even their more diffuse spirit is much more difficult and almost impossible to collect; as well as the men who seem the most elevated, are the most engaged in the exterior with which they are dazzled, and...

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… do not return to their center whose virtue is weakened by this outpouring of radiance. They are like gold which is so determined that it can neither produce nor multiply; which are not other metals which produce, multiply and make known that true poverty is where wealth appears, and that true wealth is naturally where humility and poverty appear.

Rennefort: I admit that your contempt for Grandeur is an excellent moral lesson: but almost all things speak in favor of the advantages and sweetnesses of life, our senses run to what flatters them, and even the vigor and the most beautiful fire of our ideas comes from the force of the passions; and if you want it to cost me all the pleasures, reward me with the knowledge of the truth which you have promised to give me.

The Philosopher: the most beautiful truth is that there is only one; that from the same source proceed all goods, however different they may seem, and that the deepest humility is the center of the greatest riches, as well as of the most perfect tranquillity: but unless you meditate attentively on the state of the ambitious and the miserly, you will not be able to understand what I say: all is in emotions among them; some for chimerical titles, whose pride they sustain only by...
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… baseness; others for the possession of wealth, the enjoyment of which never makes them happy; and their spirit, which has always strayed from the simplicity which makes nature, and which nature remakes in its turn, deviates all the more from the center of life, as it spreads over external objects. Here is nevertheless the dazzling and flourishing world that you esteem, and your passion which made you take the crossing of the Seas to enrich yourself, threw you into cannonades, nudity, and prison: but so that you do not believe that the door of the secrets of Philosophy is easily opened, however simple and common the first and next matter it must implement, I will tell you that his knowledge is defended by the most dangerous obstacle that is in nature; that the most terrible and most to be feared subject in the world hides the best and most salutary; and that he who would not open the last barriers of earth, sea and fire, would only discover their venom, and not their virtue. To achieve this, the Philosopher must use the skills of Jason and Theseus, which are love and sympathy, more capable of penetrating them perfectly than all the forces and all the artifices of the world.

He still reasoned with him a great deal, always tending to persuade him that there was no greatness worth humility, and that all the gold in the world did not have so much virtue in it to produce and multiply. gold itself, but a grain of the root from which it takes its beginning, which was very little esteemed.

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Rennefort was only able to reveal of their discussion what is here, and the Reader is spared the fatigue he had by such an abstract discourse, which the Philosopher assured him that he could not explain in a more intelligible sense. . He said to him afterwards: let's go out, I have served you a dish that you have trouble digesting: but I will let you know, if you do what I will teach you, the great virtue of the most humble subject.
They went to relax for a few moments in one of the Musicals mentioned; having left and arrived in front of the portico of Saint Paul, the Philosopher stopped, and made Rennefort swear that he would never say to anyone three words that he wrote on the ground, and that he erased when he believed that he had read them. Then he put a folded piece of paper in her hand. The Philosopher returned to the Vvithal district, and Rennefort crossed the rest of the streets of London to arrive at his Inn. He had opened the paper on the way: but being badly written, he put off deciphering it until he was at rest. He found there the following, and has not seen The Philosopher since.

Chapter XIX
Copy of the writing of the Philosopher.

Remember that what I have told you relates to what you will find written. Dissolve the simplest and the most vile by the most penetrating, sublimate them by the most subtle. The simplest and vilest...

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… will become the most penetrating and the most subtle. Purify its rawness with the sweet breaths of an east wind, and vivify its putrefaction with those of the south wind. He was dead, he is so resuscitated, that his body is alive on one side, his spirit on the other, both containing body and spirit; one containing the spirit under its body, the other the body under its spirit. To make them an immortal generation, marry them so that the body is not drowned by the spirit, nor the spirit oppressed by the body. Make the wind proportionate to your Vessel, which must be of oak lined with crystal, increase it, and instead of one sail which you had, spread two when you are in the open sea, there is less danger than to the coasts, where the reefs and the rocks are usually. And when you think you have only a month's journey to make to arrive under the Zodiac, lift three veils and push. It is difficult to achieve this. Take twice as much wind as when leaving, you will come there without missing, if it has not stopped. If you have only lost it for an hour, begin your journey again; because in this journey, the same wind must reign by attraction stronger and stronger. You can never find what you need unless you take it back from the first Port in another Ship that is brand new in all its parts. If you arrive well, you will find by virtue of the movement of the wind and the Stars, all that of the Sun attached to your matter at the bottom of your Vessel: a powder which cures all the diseases which are from the poles to the equinoctial line, and a ...

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… earth which contains all that is precious: but it must be joined to the determined nature of what you want to make appear. Use the powder with caution, it takes as much to use it as it takes art and patience to perfect it, and give earth to those who need it, especially if their hearts are not attached to it. If you use it according to the purpose of the Creator, you will live, you will make others live, and you will multiply your works by the virtue of the glorified body, and of the same spirit which guided you from the beginning.

Chapter XX
Return of the Sieur de Rennefort to France.

The Sieur de Rennefort shortly after his interview with the Philosopher left London and went to France. Having arrived in Paris, he made the Company the proposals of the Sieur de la Case: but they were no better received by the Directors than they had been by the Council of Madagascar. No one listened either to what he said in support of the establishment of this Island, and to make the enterprise of the Indies succeed. He even recognized that the Company had little desire to bring happiness to those whom fortune had condemned. Thus, Rennefort saw all the beautiful hopes that he had conceived of his journey vanish, and experienced what the Philosopher had told him of the uncertainty and vanity of the designs that the interest and... Page

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… ambition inspire men. There remained to him, however, in his misfortunes the consolation of not having failed towards him in fulfilling all the duties of his employment, and it was not up to him that people should not profit from some experiences which had cost him the loss of his life. his property, shipwreck and prison.