sight, extremely imposing. Instances were not rare in which they
generously abandoned all the profits of their transmutations--even the
honour of the discovery. But this apparent disinterestedness was one of
the most cunning of their manoeuvres. It served to keep up the popular
expectation; it seemed to shew the possibility of discovering the
philosopher's stone, and provided the means of future advantages, which
they were never slow to lay hold of--such as entrances into royal
households, maintenance at the public expense, and gifts from ambitious
potentates, too greedy after the gold they so easily promised.
It now only remains to trace the progress of the delusion from the
commencement of the eighteenth century until the present day. It will be
seen that, until a very recent period, there were but slight signs of a
return to reason.
JEAN DELISLE.
In the year 1705, there was much talk in France of a blacksmith, named
Delisle, who had discovered the philosopher's stone, and who went about
the country turning lead into gold. He was a native of Provence, from
which place his fame soon spread to the capital. His early life is
involved in obscurity; but Lenglet du Fresnoy has industriously collected
some particulars of his later career, which possess considerable interest.
He was a man without any education, and had been servant in his youth to
an alchymist, from whom he learned many of the tricks of the fraternity.
The name of his master has never been discovered; but it is pretended that
he rendered himself in some manner obnoxious to the government of Louis
XIV., and was obliged, in consequence, to take refuge in Switzerland.
Delisle accompanied him as far as Savoy, and there, it is said, set upon
him in a solitary mountain-pass, and murdered and robbed him. He then
disguised himself as a pilgrim, and returned to France. At a lonely inn,
by the road-side, where he stopped for the night, he became acquainted
with a woman, named Aluys; and so sudden a passion was enkindled betwixt
them, that she consented to leave all, follow him, and share his good or
evil fortune wherever he went. They lived together for five or six years
in Provence, without exciting any attention, apparently possessed of a
decent independence. At last, in 1706, it was given out that he was the
possessor of the philosopher's stone; and people from far and near came
flocking to his residence, at the Château de la Palu, at Sylanez, near
Barjaumont, to witness the wealth he could make out of pumps and
fire-shovels. The following account of his operations is given in a letter
addressed by M. de Cerisy, the Prior of Châteauneuf, in the Diocese of
Riez, in Provence, to the Vicar of St. Jacques du Hautpas, at Paris, and
dated the 18th of November, 1706:
"I have something to relate to you, my dear cousin, which will be
interesting to you and your friends. The philosopher's stone, which so
many persons have looked upon as a chimera, is at last found. It is a man
named Delisle, of the parish of Sylanez, and residing within a quarter of
a league of me, that has discovered this great secret. He turns lead into
gold, and iron into silver, by merely heating these metals red hot, and
pouring upon them in that state some oil and powder he is possessed of; so
that it would not be impossible for any man to make a million a day, if he
had sufficient of this wondrous mixture. Some of the pale gold which he
had made in this manner, he sent to the jewellers of Lyons, to have their
opinion on its quality. He also sold twenty pounds weight of it to a
merchant of Digne, named Taxis. All the jewellers say they never saw such
fine gold in their lives. He makes nails, part gold, part iron, and part
silver. He promised to give me one of them, in a long conversation which I
had with him the other day, by order of the Bishop of Senés, who saw his
operations with his own eyes, and detailed all the circumstances to me.
"The Baron and Baroness de Rheinwald shewed me a lingot of gold made out
of pewter before their eyes by M. Delisle. My brother-in-law Sauveur, who
has wasted fifty years of his life in this great study, brought me the
other day a nail which he had seen changed into gold by Delisle, and fully
convinced me that all his previous experiments were founded on an
erroneous principle. This excellent workman received, a short time ago, a
very kind letter from the superintendent of the royal household, which I
read. He offered to use all his influence with the ministers to prevent
any attempts upon his liberty, which has twice been attacked by the agents
of government. It is believed that the oil he makes use of, is gold or
silver reduced to that state. He leaves it for a long time exposed to the
rays of the sun. He told me that it generally took him six months to make
all his preparations. I told him that, apparently, the king wanted to see
him. He replied that he could not exercise his art in every place, as a
certain climate and temperature were absolutely necessary to his success.
The truth is, that this man appears to have no ambition. He only keeps two
horses and two men-servants. Besides, he loves his liberty, has no
politeness, and speaks very bad French; but his judgment seems to be
solid. He was formerly no more than a blacksmith, but excelled in that
trade without having been taught it. All the great lords and seigneurs
from far and near come to visit him, and pay such court to him, that it
seems more like idolatry than any thing else. Happy would France be if
this man would discover his secret to the king, to whom the superintendent
has already sent some lingots! But the happiness is too great to be hoped
for; for I fear that the workman and his secret will expire together.
There is no doubt that this discovery will make a great noise in the
kingdom, unless the character of the man, which I have just depicted to
you, prevent it. At all events, posterity will hear of him."
In another letter to the same person, dated the 27th of January 1707, M.
de Cerisy says, "My dear cousin, I spoke to you in my last letter of the
famous alchymist of Provence, M. Delisle. A good deal of that was only
hearsay, but now I am enabled to speak from my own experience. I have in
my possession a nail, half iron and half silver, which I made myself. That
great and admirable workman also bestowed a still greater privilege upon
me--he allowed me turn a piece of lead which I had brought with me into
pure gold, by means of his wonderful oil and powder. All the country have
their eyes upon this gentleman; some deny loudly, others are incredulous;
but those who have seen acknowledge the truth. I have read the passport
that has been sent to him from court, with orders that he should present
himself at Paris early in the spring. He told me that he would go
willingly, and that it was himself who fixed the spring for his departure;
as he wanted to collect his materials, in order that, immediately on his
introduction to the king, he might make an experiment worthy of his
majesty, by converting a large quantity of lead into the finest gold. I
sincerely hope that he will not allow his secret to die with him, but that
he will communicate it to the king. As I had the honour to dine with him
on Thursday last, the 20th of this month, being seated at his side, I told
him in a whisper that he could, if he liked, humble all the enemies of
France. He did not deny it, but began to smile. In fact, this man is the
miracle of art. Sometimes he employs the oil and powder mixed, sometimes
the powder only; but in so small a quantity that, when the lingot which I
made was rubbed all over with it, it did not shew at all."
This soft-headed priest was by no means the only person in the
neighbourhood who lost his wits in hopes of the boundless wealth held out
by this clever impostor. Another priest, named De Lions, a chanter in the
cathedral of Grenoble, writing on the 30th January 1707, says: "M.
Mesnard, the curate of Montier, has written to me, stating that there is a
man, about thirty-five years of age, named Delisle, who turns lead and
iron into gold and silver; and that this transmutation is so veritable and
so true, that the goldsmiths affirm that his gold and silver are the
purest and finest they ever saw. For five years this man was looked upon
as a madman or a cheat; but the public mind is now disabused with respect
to him. He now resides with M. de la Palu, at the château of the same
name. M. de la Palu is not very easy in his circumstances, and wants money
to portion his daughters, who have remained single till middle age, no man
being willing to take them without a dowry. M. Delisle has promised to
make them the richest girls in the province before he goes to court,
having been sent for by the king. He has asked for a little time before
his departure, in order that he may collect powder enough to make several
quintals of gold before the eyes of his majesty, to whom he intends to
present them. The principal matter of his wonderful powder is composed of
simples, principally the herbs _Lunaria major_ and _minor_. There is a
good deal of the first planted by him in the gardens of La Palu; and he
gets the other from the mountains that stretch about two leagues from
Montier. What I tell you now is not a mere story invented for your
diversion: M. Mesnard can bring forward many witnesses to its truth; among
others, the Bishop of Senés, who saw these surprising operations
performed; and M. de Cerisy, whom you know well. Delisle transmutes his
metals in public. He rubs the lead or iron with his powder, and puts it
over burning charcoal. In a short time it changes colour; the lead becomes
yellow, and is found to be converted into excellent gold; the iron becomes
white, and is found to be pure silver. Delisle is altogether an illiterate
person. M. de St. Auban endeavoured to teach him to read and write, but he
profited very little by his lessons. He is unpolite, fantastic, and a
dreamer, and acts by fits and starts."
Delisle, it would appear, was afraid of venturing to Paris. He knew that
his sleight of hand would be too narrowly watched in the royal presence;
and upon some pretence or other he delayed the journey for more than two
years. Desmarets, the Minister of Finance to Louis XIV., thinking the
"philosopher" dreaded foul play, twice sent him a safe conduct under the
king's seal; but Delisle still refused. Upon this, Desmarets wrote to the
Bishop of Senés for his real opinion as to these famous transmutations.
The following was the answer of that prelate:
"Copy of a report addressed to M. Desmarets, Comptroller-General
of the Finances to His Majesty Louis XIV., by the Bishop of Senés,
dated March 1709.
"SIR,--A twelvemonth ago, or a little more, I expressed to you my joy at
hearing of your elevation to the ministry; I have now the honour to write
you my opinion of the Sieur Delisle, who has been working at the
transmutation of metals in my diocese. I have, during the last two years,
spoken of him several times to the Count de Pontchartrain, because he
asked me; but I have not written to you, sir, or to M. de Chamillart,
because you neither of you requested my opinion upon the subject. Now,
however, that you have given me to understand that you wish to know my
sentiments on the matter, I will unfold myself to you in all sincerity,
for the interests of the king and the glory of your ministry.
"There are two things about the Sieur Delisle which, in my opinion, should
be examined without prejudice: the one relates to his secret; the other,
to his person; that is to say, whether his transmutations are real, and
whether his conduct has been regular. As regards the secret of the
philosopher's stone, I deemed it impossible, for a long time; and for more
than three years I was more mistrustful of the pretensions of this Sieur
Delisle than of any other person. During this period I afforded him no
countenance; I even aided a person, who was highly recommended to me by an
influential family of this province, to prosecute Delisle for some offence
or other which it was alleged he had committed. But this person, in his
anger against him, having told me that he had himself been several times
the bearer of gold and silver to the goldsmiths of Nice, Aix, and Avignon,
which had been transmuted by Delisle from lead and iron, I began to waver
a little in my opinions respecting him. I afterwards met Delisle at the
house of one of my friends. To please me, the family asked Delisle to
operate before me, to which he immediately consented. I offered him some
iron nails, which he changed into silver in the chimney-place before six
or seven credible witnesses. I took the nails thus transmuted, and sent
them by my almoner to Imbert, the jeweller of Aix, who, having subjected
them to the necessary trial, returned them to me, saying they were very
good silver. Still, however, I was not quite satisfied. M. de
Pontchartrain having hinted to me, two years previously, that I should do
a thing agreeable to his majesty if I examined into this business of
Delisle, I resolved to do so now. I therefore summoned the alchymist to
come to me at Castellane. He came; and I had him escorted by eight or ten
vigilant men, to whom I had given notice to watch his hands strictly.
Before all of us he changed two pieces of lead into gold and silver. I
sent them both to M. de Pontchartrain; and he afterwards informed me by a
letter, now lying before me, that he had shewn them to the most
experienced goldsmiths of Paris, who unanimously pronounced them to be
gold and silver of the very purest quality, and without alloy. My former
bad opinion of Delisle was now indeed shaken. It was much more so when he
performed transmutation five or six times before me at Senés, and made me
perform it myself before him without his putting his hand to any thing.
You have seen, sir, the letter of my nephew, the Père Berard, of the
Oratoire at Paris, on the experiment that he performed at Castellane, and
the truth of which I hereby attest. Another nephew of mine, the Sieur
Bourget, who was here three weeks ago, performed the same experiment in my
presence, and will detail all the circumstances to you personally at
Paris. A hundred persons in my diocese have been witnesses of these
things. I confess to you, sir, that, after the testimony of so many
spectators and so many goldsmiths, and after the repeatedly successful
experiments that I saw performed, all my prejudices vanished. My reason
was convinced by my eyes; and the phantoms of impossibility which I had
conjured up were dissipated by the work of my own hands.
"It now only remains for me to speak to you on the subject of his person
and conduct. Three suspicions have been excited against him: the first,
that he was implicated in some criminal proceeding at Cisteron, and that
he falsified the coin of the realm; the second, that the king sent him two
safe-conducts without effect; and the third, that he still delays going to
court to operate before the king. You may see, sir, that I do not hide or
avoid any thing. As regards the business at Cisteron, the Sieur Delisle
has repeatedly assured me that there was nothing against him which could
reasonably draw him within the pale of justice, and that he had never
carried on any calling injurious to the king's service. It was true that,
six or seven years ago, he had been to Cisteron to gather herbs necessary
for his powder, and that he had lodged at the house of one Pelouse, whom
he thought an honest man. Pelouse was accused of clipping Louis-d'ors; and
as he had lodged with him, he was suspected of being his accomplice. This
mere suspicion, without any proof whatever, had caused him to be condemned
for contumacy; a common case enough with judges, who always proceed with
much rigour against those who are absent. During my own sojourn at Aix, it
was well known that a man, named André Aluys, had spread about reports
injurious to the character of Delisle, because he hoped thereby to avoid
paying him a sum of forty _Louis_ that he owed him. But permit me, sir, to
go further, and to add that, even if there were well-founded suspicions
against Delisle, we should look with some little indulgence on the faults
of a man who possesses a secret so useful to the state. As regards the two
safe-conducts sent him by the king, I think I can answer certainly that it
was through no fault of his that he paid so little attention to them. His
year, strictly speaking, consists only of the four summer months; and when
by any means he is prevented from making the proper use of them, he loses
a whole year. Thus the first safe-conduct became useless by the irruption
of the Duke of Savoy in 1707 and the second had hardly been obtained, at
the end of June 1708, when the said Delisle was insulted by a party of
armed men, pretending to act under the authority of the Count de Grignan,
to whom he wrote several letters of complaint, without receiving any
answer, or promise that his safety would be attended to. What I have now
told you, sir, removes the third objection, and is the reason why, at the
present time, he cannot go to Paris to the king, in fulfilment of his
promises made two years ago. Two, or even three, summers have been lost to
him, owing to the continual inquietude he has laboured under. He has, in
consequence, been unable to work, and has not collected a sufficient
quantity of his oil and powder, or brought what he has got to the
necessary degree of perfection. For this reason also he could not give the
Sieur de Bourget the portion he promised him for your inspection. If the
other day he changed some lead into gold with a few grains of his powder,
they were assuredly all he had; for he told me that such was the fact long
before he knew my nephew was coming. Even if he had preserved this small
quantity to operate before the king, I am sure that, on second thoughts,
he would never have adventured with so little; because the slightest
obstacles in the metals (their being too hard or too soft, which is only
discovered in operating,) would have caused him to be looked upon as an
impostor, if, in case his first powder had proved ineffectual, he had not
been possessed of more to renew the experiment and surmount the
difficulty.
"Permit me, sir, in conclusion, to repeat, that such an artist as this
should not be driven to the last extremity, nor forced to seek an asylum
offered to him in other countries, but which he has despised, as much from
his own inclinations as from the advice I have given him. You risk nothing
in giving him a little time, and in hurrying him you may lose a great
deal. The genuineness of his gold can no longer be doubted, after the
testimony of so many jewellers of Aix, Lyons, and Paris in its favour. As
it is not his fault that the previous safe-conducts sent to him have been
of no service, it will be necessary to send him another; for the success
of which I will be answerable, if you will confide the matter to me, and
trust to my zeal for the service of his majesty, to whom I pray you to
communicate this letter, that I may be spared the just reproaches he might
one day heap upon me if he remained ignorant of the facts I have now
written to you. Assure him, if you please, that, if you send me such a
safe-conduct, I will oblige the Sieur Delisle to depose with me such
precious pledges of his fidelity as shall enable me to be responsible
myself to the king. These are my sentiments, and I submit them to your
superior knowledge; and have the honour to remain, with much respect, &c.
"+ JOHN BISHOP OF SENES.
"To M. Desmarets, Minister of State, and Comptroller-General of the
Finances, at Paris."
That Delisle was no ordinary impostor, but a man of consummate cunning and
address, is very evident from this letter. The bishop was fairly taken in
by his clever legerdemain, and when once his first distrust was conquered,
appeared as anxious to deceive himself as even Delisle could have wished.
His faith was so abundant that he made the case of his _protégé_ his own,
and would not suffer the breath of suspicion to be directed against him.
Both Louis and his minister appear to have been dazzled by the brilliant
hopes he had excited, and a third pass, or safe-conduct, was immediately
sent to the alchymist, with a command from the king that he should
forthwith present himself at Versailles, and make public trial of his oil
and powder. But this did not suit the plans of Delisle. In the provinces
he was regarded as a man of no small importance; the servile flattery that
awaited him wherever he went was so grateful to his mind that he could not
willingly relinquish it, and run upon certain detection at the court of
the monarch. Upon one pretext or another he delayed his journey,
notwithstanding the earnest solicitations of his good friend the bishop.
The latter had given his word to the minister, and pledged his honour that
he would induce Delisle to go, and he began to be alarmed when he found he
could not subdue the obstinacy of that individual. For more than two years
he continued to remonstrate with him, and was always met by some excuse,
that there was not sufficient powder, or that it had not been long enough
exposed to the rays of the sun. At last his patience was exhausted; and
fearful that he might suffer in the royal estimation by longer delay, he
wrote to the king for a _lettre de cachet_, in virtue of which the
alchymist was seized at the castle of La Palu, in the month of June 1711,
and carried off to be imprisoned in the Bastille.
The gendarmes were aware that their prisoner was supposed to be the lucky
possessor of the philosopher's stone, and on the road they conspired to
rob and murder him. One of them pretended to be touched with pity for the
misfortunes of the philosopher, and offered to give him an opportunity of
escape whenever he could divert the attention of his companions. Delisle
was profuse in his thanks, little dreaming of the snare that was laid for
him. His treacherous friend gave notice of the success of the stratagem so
far; and it was agreed that Delisle should be allowed to struggle with and
overthrow one of them while the rest were at some distance. They were then
to pursue him and shoot him through the heart; and after robbing the
corpse of the philosopher's stone, convey it to Paris on a cart, and tell
M. Desmarets that the prisoner had attempted to escape, and would have
succeeded if they had not fired after him and shot him through the body.
At a convenient place the scheme was executed. On a given signal from the
friendly gendarme, Delisle fled, while another gendarme took aim and shot
him through the thigh. Some peasants arriving at the instant, they were
prevented from killing him as they intended, and he was transported to
Paris, maimed and bleeding. He was thrown into a dungeon in the Bastille,
and obstinately tore away the bandages which the surgeons applied to his
wound. He never afterwards rose from his bed.
The Bishop of Senés visited him in prison, and promised him his liberty if
he would transmute a certain quantity of lead into gold before the king.
The unhappy man had no longer the means of carrying on the deception; he
had no gold, and no double-bottomed crucible or hollow wand to conceal it
in, even if he had. He would not, however, confess that he was an
impostor; but merely said he did not know how to make the powder of
projection, but had received a quantity from an Italian philosopher, and
had used it all in his various transmutations in Provence. He lingered for
seven or eight months in the Bastille, and died from the effects of his
wound, in the forty-first year of his age.
ALBERT ALUYS.