, »Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My
dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.«
    If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me,
that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern
system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than
the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of
the former were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should certainly
have thrown Agrippa aside, and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was,
by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible, that
the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my
ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means
assured me that he was acquainted with its contents; and I continued to read
with the greatest avidity.
    When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole works of this
author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the
wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known
to few beside myself. I have described myself as always having been embued with
a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense
labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my
studies discontented and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed
that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored
ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy
with whom I was acquainted, appeared even to my boy's apprehensions, as tyros
engaged in the same pursuit.
    The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him, and was acquainted with
their practical uses. The most learned philosopher knew little more. He had
partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a
wonder and a mystery. He might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not to
speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were
utterly unknown to him. I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that
seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and
ignorantly I had repined.
    But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew
more. I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple.
It may appear strange that such should arise in the eighteenth century; but
while I followed the routine of education in the schools
