KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Sir Walter Scottsays that the gold and precious stones of the Holy City are inno sort for those who work abomination, or who frame lies.”“Well, my son,” said the Doctor, “and what is your inferencefrom thence?”“That those,” said Foster, “who distil poisons, and administerthem in secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeakableriches.”“You are to distinguish, my son,” replied the alchemist, “betwixtthat which is necessarily evil in its progress and in itsend also, and that which, being evil, is, nevertheless, capableof working forth good. If, by the death of one person, thehappy period shall be brought nearer to us, in which all that isgood shall be attained, by wishing its presence—all that is evilescaped, by desiring its absence—in which sickness, and pain,and sorrow shall be the obedient servants of human wisdom,and made to fly at the slightest signal of a sage—in whichthat which is now richest and rarest shall be within the compassof every one who shall be obedient to the voice of wisdom—whenthe art of healing shall be lost and absorbed inthe one universal medicine when sages shall become monarchsof the earth, and death itself retreat before their frown,—if this blessed consummation of all things can be hastened bythe slight circumstance that a frail, earthly body, which mustneeds partake corruption, shall be consigned to the grave ashort space earlier than in the course of nature, what is such asacrifice to the advancement of the holy Millennium?”“Millennium is the reign of the Saints,” said Foster, somewhatdoubtfully.“Say it is the reign of the Sages, my son,” answered Alasco;“or rather the reign of Wisdom itself.”“I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exercisingnight,” said Foster; “but he says your doctrine is heterodox,and a damnable and false exposition.”“He is in the bonds of ignorance, my son,” answered Alasco,“and as yet burning bricks in Egypt; or, at best, wandering inthe dry desert of Sinai. Thou didst ill to speak to such a manof such matters. I will, however, give thee proof, and thatshortly, which I will defy that peevish divine to confute,though he should strive with me as the magicians strove withMoses before King Pharaoh. I will do projection in thy presence,my son,—in thy very presence—and thine eyes shallwitness the truth.”273