ABSTRACT
The alchemical quest and attainment of Nicholas Flamel are first in the time-order of three remarkable narratives which may claim to count, at the value of their proper warrants, among romances of real life in Alchemy, though how far their historical position can be sustained is another and—as we shall find in the present instance—something more than a debateable question. The second is well known under the name of Bernard Trévisan, who is of venerable memory among all later Hermetists. The third is scarcely less celebrated under that of Denis Zachaire, though he is cited comparatively seldom by those who came after: he was even the subject of an indifferent but not unreadable novel towards the close of the nineteenth century. 1 All the original narratives are characterised by an air of veracity, but in respect of matter and manner the story of Flamel seems to stand forth from the others. The Book of Abraham the Jew is at least a notable invention, while its story is told with such seeming transparent sincerity that it is not altogether easy to regard it as a mere myth. The history of Nicholas Flamel shall be given in the first place and in what purports to be his own words.
