And here is an example." He took from one of the shelves of the library a manuscript which was none other than the Asch-Mezareph, the book of the Jew Abraham and of Nicolas Flamel, restored, translated, and annotated by Eliphas Levi.

This manuscript had been lent him by Des Hermies, who had discovered it one day among some old papers.
"In this is what claims to be the recipe for the philosopher's stone, for the grand quintessential and tinctural essence.

The figures are not precisely clear," he said to himself, as he ran his eye over the pen drawings, retouched in colour, representing, under the title of "_The chemical coitus_" various bottles and flasks each containing a liquid and imprisoning an allegorical creature.

A green lion, with a crescent moon over him, hung head downward.

Doves were trying to fly out through the neck of the bottle or to peck a way through the bottom.