Catalogue Entry: OTHE00064

Chapter Seven: The Dawn of Wisdom

Author: John T. Young

Source: Faith, Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy: Johann Moriaen, Reformed Intelligencer, and the Hartlib Circle (Aldershot: 1998).

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

[1] On Worsley, see Thomas Leng, Benjamin Worsley (1618-1677): commerce, colonisation and the fate of universal reform (PhD thesis, Sheffield University, 2004); also Charles Webster, 'Benjamin Worsley: engineering for universal reform from the Invisible College to the Navigation Act', SHUR, 213-35; Antonio Clericuzio, 'New light on Benjamin Worsley's natural philosophy', SHUR, 236-246, and J.J. O'Brien, 'Commonwealth Schemes for the Advancement of Learning', British Journal of Education Studies 16 (1968), 30-42. A handy summary of the known facts about his career, with an extensive list of sources, is provided by G.E. Aylmer, The State's Servants: The Civil Service of the English Republic 1649-1660, (London, 1973), 270-72.

[2] Webster suggests late Feb. 1647 as the date of Worsley's departure ('Benjamin Worsley', 223), but this is far too early. He was still in England on 10 Dec. 1647, when Culpeper was trying to locate some recipes his wife had lost, and asked Hartlib to 'doe me the kindnes to search diligently at yourselfe & Mr Woorsly for them' (HP 13/206B). Clucas, on the other hand, situates the visit 'some time in the summer of 1648' ('The Correspondence of a XVII-Century "Chymicall Gentleman"', Ambix 40 (1993), 147-70, p. 152): Worsley was indeed in the Netherlands that summer, but had been there since at least January. A letter to Hartlib dated The Hague, 14 Feb. 1648 (HP 36/8/1A-6B), gives a detailed account of Worsley's recent contacts and activities. He mentioned having arrived at The Hague on 'the 27th', presumably of January, before which he had spent some time in Rotterdam.

[3] Hartlib's letters do not survive, but it is obvious from the replies that they were full of detailed queries about Glauber.

[4] Moriaen to Hartlib, 3 Feb. 1648, HP 37/127A. Worsley was already in the Netherlands by this date but had not met either Moriaen or Glauber.

[5] Appelius to Hartlib, 26 Sept./6 Oct. 1647, HP 45/1/37A.

[6] Ibid., HP 45/1/37B.

[7] Culpeper to Hartlib, 20 Oct. 1647, HP 13/197A. The illogical bracketing is Culpeper's. On Culpeper's offer of funding for the Office of Address, see Hartlib to Boyle, Nov. 1647, Boyle, Works VI, 76.

[8] See Webster, 'New Light on the Invisible College', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 24 (1974), 19-42; also Great Instauration, 59-67.

[9] As Charles Webster remarks, 'Benjamin Worsley: engineering for universal reform', SHUR, 213-235, 225.

[10] 'General History of the Air', Boyle, Works V, 638-44. For the reattribution, see Clericuzio, 'New light on Benjamin Worsley's natural philosophy', 238-9.

[11] DNB XLV, 113, under Petty; see Webster, 'Benjamin Worsley', for a reappraisal of this harsh and superficial judgment. See also Webster's entry on Worsley in the Oxford DNB.

[12] Hartlib to Boyle, 16 Nov. 1647, Boyle, Works VI, 76. Hartlib later became extremely disillusioned with Petty: see his bitterly humorous account to Boyle of 10 Aug. 1658, Boyle, Works VI, 112-13.

[13] Hartlib to Boyle, 28 Feb. 1654, Boyle, Works VI, 79.

[14] Hartlib to Boyle, 27 April 1658, ibid., 104-5. Hartlib was about eighteen years Worsley's elder.

[15] Cf. Webster, 'Benjamin Worsley', 220, and Great Instauration, 59-60 and the letters cited there.

[16] HP 37/142A.

[17] 'Er [Worsley] wolle mich excusiren das Ich an ihn selbsten nichts schreib bin im Englischen nicht so fertig' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 15 April 1650, HP 37/152A. Cf. also Moriaen to Hartlib, 25 March 1650, HP 37/146A: writing to Worsley 'fält mir […] zue schwehr vnd langsam' ('is too difficult and slow for me').

[18] Moriaen to Hartlib, 22 June 1657, HP 42/2/10B-11A.

[19] HP 9/16/1A-13B and 63/14/13A-B (all holographs, so they cannot be Latin translations of English originals).

[20] Worsley's letters are lost, but in one of his replies Moriaen quoted Worsley back to him in English, though Moriaen's own text is in Latin (Moriaen to Worsley, 26 May 1651, HP 9/16/6A).

[21] See his proposals for the saltpetre project at HP 71/11/1A-B and 17/11/12A-13A; a similar unascribed document at HP 53/26/6A-B is probably also by Worsley. See also Webster, Great Instauration, 378-80, and 'Benjamin Worsley: engineering for universal reform', 215-17.

[22] Moriaen, before getting to know him, twice referred to him as 'candidatus medicinæ' (HP 37/122A and 37/123A), this evidently being the description Hartlib had provided.

[23] Aylmer, The State's Servants, 271; Webster, 'Benjamin Worsley', 213.

[24] Worsley to Dury, 27 Aug. 1649, HP 33/2/3A-4B.

[25] Fuller details in Aylmer, The State's Servants, 270-72.

[26] Culpeper to Hartlib, 17 Nov. 1647, HP 13/204A. During a severe illness in 1641, which he expected to prove fatal, Culpeper had signed over the control of his estates to his father, Sir Thomas Culpeper. Sir Thomas was supposed to return control to his son in the event of the latter's recovery, but, outraged by Cheney's support of Parliament at the outbreak of civil war, he refused to do so. Furthermore, Sir Thomas's own debts were charged to the revenue of the estates he had taken over from his son. In the course of 1646-7, with the estates now apparently again under his control, Culpeper was trying to get the fine imposed on them reduced, and succeeded in having the charge cut by about a third, but was still confronted in Nov. 1647 with a bill for £844 1 s. He was consequently in financial straits throughout the rest of his life, and was heavily in debt at his death. For fuller details, see 'Introduction' to M.J. Bradwick and M. Greengrass (eds.), The Letters of Sir Cheney Culpeper (1641-1657), Camden Miscellany XXXIII (Cambridge, 1996), 118-23.

[27] Culpeper to [Hartlib?], 29 March 1648, HP 13/214B.

[28] Worsley to Hartlib, 22 June/2 July 1649, HP 26/33/1A-3B.

[29] Dury to Worsley, 14 March 1648, HP 1/2/1A-B and 12 July 1649, HP 26/33/4A-5B, and Worsley to Dury, 27 July 1649, HP 33/2/18A-19B. On this theory and its ramifications, see above, p. 43, and the literature cited there.

[30] Worsley to Hartlib, 14 Feb. 1648, HP 36/8/6A.

[31] Ibid. On 10 Feb. Moriaen mentioned having forwarded a letter from Worsley (then in Rotterdam) to Glauber (HP 37/129A).

[32] HP 1/2/1B.

[33] As Moriaen wrote to Hartlib two days later, HP 37/131A.

[34] Moriaen to Hartlib, 28 May 1648, HP 37/133A.

[35] 'Glauber verstehet woll Latein wans auff hoch teutsch außgesprochen wird aber Er wird nicht Lateinisch reden wollen […] das wird Ihme unlustig und die conversation zue wieder machen' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 27 Feb. 1648, HP 37/131A.

[36] 'Ich höre dz Er [Moriaen] Herrn Worslÿ sehr ehret vndt auf der Rechten handt läßet gehen, welches Ihm aber von etlichen nicht zum besten wird aufgenommen, vnd zwar nicht ohne vrsach, dan H. Morian ist ein zimlich betagter Man, in vielen Künsten vndt wißenschafften erfahren' - Brun to Hartlib, 13 June 1649, 39/2/9A.

[37] Appelius to Hartlib, May 1648, HP 45/1/47A.

[38] 'Mr Worsleys werck geht langsam fort, Glauber fühlt nicht dz ihm die zeit vnd kosten schwer fallen, man bringt viel zeit mit complementen zu, vnd sagt nit rund aus was vnd wie man ein ding begehrt, was oder wie man ein ding zusagt, vnd auf sich nimt: etliche förchten Glauber werde seiner zusage keinen genügen können thun' - Appelius to Hartlib, 2 Aug. 1648, HP 45/1/39B.

[39] Culpeper to Hartlib, 5 April 1648, HP 13/215A. On Culpeper's interest in this subject, see above, p. 166.

[40] Ibid.

[41] Culpeper to Hartlib, 25 July 1648, HP 13/231A: 'I vnderstande from yourselfe that hee is (for the presente) otherwise supplied'. I can find no hint as to what this alternative source might have been.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Cf. Worsley to ?, 22 July 1648, 42/1/1A, recounting that he had dined with the Kufflers at Moriaen's.

[44] Culpeper to Hartlib, 5 April 1648, HP 13/217B.

[45] On this subject, see H.C. Darby, The Draining of the Fens (Cambridge, 1940).

[46] See Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1988), 257-88.

[47] Worsley to Hartlib, 22 June/2July 1649, HP 26/33/1A.

[48] Kalthof (or Calthof) aroused much interest in Hartlib for his work on drainage and perpetual motion. He was co-recipient of patents for perpetual motion machines from the States General in 1642 and from the States of Holland in 1653 (Doorman, 144, G432, and 179, H72).

[49] Worsley to Petty, 15 June 1649, HP 8/50/1A, and Brun to Hartlib, 13 June 1649, HP 39/2/9A.

[50] Worsley to Petty, 15 June 1649, HP 8/50/1A.

[51] Eph 49, HP 28/1/3B.

[52] Eph 49, HP 28/1/17A, giving Petty himself as the source.

[53] Fromantil is a thoroughly obscure figure who appears to have been an all-round inventor. There are numerous mentions in the Ephemerides of 1649 on, and Hartlib's papers include a list of 'Ahasverus Fremantils Mechanical Vnder takings in his owne hand' (n.d., HP 71/19/1A-B), in all probability sent or brought over by Worsley. These include various clocks, an engine for levelling river beds and various engines for raising weights or water. He also invented a fire engine (HP 53/35/5A), an instrument for measuring the concentration of liquids in compound, and an 'art of making notches in Iron-wheels', perhaps meaning cog wheels (Eph 49, HP 28/1/32B and 35A). Worsley is the only correspondent to mention his microscopes. He is surely identical with, or at least related to, the Assuerus Fromanteel of the Dutch Reformed Church in London who in 1645 had joined the Anabaptists and was consequently excommunicated from the Dutch church the following year: see O.P. Grell, Calvinist Exiles in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1996), 90-91.

[54] Worsley to ?, 27 June or July 1648, HP 42/2/1A. Hartlib was obviously circulating this very interesting letter, which constitutes something of a manifesto for natural philosophy, as there are three copies in his papers, HP 42/2/1A-2A, 8/27/2B-7B and 8/27/9A-13B. The second of these is dated June, the other two July.

[55] Worsley to ?, 27 June or July 1648, HP 42/2/1B.

[56] Ibid.

[57] Ibid.

[58] HP 42/1/7A-8B, 14 Oct. 1657.

[59] As he explained in his 'Physico-Astrologicall Letter' of c. July 1657 (copies at HP 26/56/1A-4B and 26/56/5A-8B; Latin translation at 42/1/18A-25B). Cf. Clericuzio, 'New light on Benjamin Worsley's natural philosophy', 242.

[60] HP 42/2/1A.

[61] Hall to Worsley, 5 Feb. 1647, HP 3/6/1A-B.

[62] Hall's letter is at HP 3/6/1A-B and 36/7/2B-3A, Worsley's (16 Feb. 1647) at HP 36/6/3A-8B and 36/7/3A-6B.

[63] HP 36/6/4B.

[64] HP 36/6/4B.

[65] HP 36/6/5B-6A.

[66] E.g. Dury to Worsley, 2 May 1649, HP 4/1/26A-B, thanking Worsley for obtaining from Boreel or Moriaen a catalogue of Menasseh's Hebrew books, and sending regards to both. Dury also hoped Boreel could learn from Menasseh or another rabbi whether there were any Jewish refutations of Islam to be had.

[67] 'mit H Glaubern ein vnd anders ins werkh zuestellen damit H Worsleÿ nicht vergeblich herkommen oder so lange zeit vnnüzlich zuegebracht habe' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 11 June 1649, HP 37/137A.

[68] Worsley to Hartlib, 22 June/2 July 1649, 26/33/2B.

[69] Worsley to Dury, 27 July/6 Aug. 1649, HP 33/2/19B (misdated '27 July 165?' in the HP transcript: though the manuscript gives no year, the letter is obviously a reply to Dury's of 12 July 1649, HP 26/33/4A-5B).

[70] Ibid.

[71] Dury to ?, 8 Aug. 1649, HP 1/31/1B; Culpeper to Hartlib, 14 Aug. 1649, HP 13/260A-261B.

[72] 'D. Worsley zeügt wieder nach haus […] ich kan nicht genug verwundern, woher es komt, dz er von Glauber so lang aufgehalten worden, vnd nun auch mit lehrer hand nach haus reiset, nach dem er so lange schwehre kosten gethan […] Glauber sagt alle zeit, es mangele an ihn nicht so [word missing] auch H Worsley, vnd gleichwol verstehen sie ein ander nicht, es wundert mich dz Glauber so hart [word missing] gegen ihn ist, da er sich doch so resolut vnd liberal gegen ihn vor [sic] anfang erzeigt hat' - Appelius to Hartlib, 20 Sept. 1649, HP 45/1/41A.

[73] More to Hartlib, 21 Oct. 1649, HP 18/1/35A. Moriaen later mentioned that Worsley had intended to observe the solar eclipse of 4 Nov. with him (HP 37/146A), but whether it was his departure or something else that prevented him from doing so is not stated.

[74] The first clear indication of his being back in England does not occur until late January 1650, when Moriaen sent his regards and More expressed a hope of visiting Worsley and Hartlib in London - Moriaen to Hartlib, 21 Jan. 1650, HP 37/140A, and More to Hartlib, 29 Jan., HP 18/1/25A. Moriaen also mentioned in this letter that he had written several times to Worsley, who was apparently complaining that he had not heard from Moriaen, but whether Moriaen had been writing to him in England or not is not specified.

[75] 'Ich hab gemeint mit H Glaubers furschlag ihn [Worsley] sehr zueerfrewen aber es falt ganz wiederartig aus seine einbildung die Er von Ihm hatt ist so ganz schlecht das Er alles zum argsten auffnimbt' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 25 March 1650, HP 37/146A.

[76] He stressed in particular that Glauber's method had been tested using large quantities of material (for the greater the quantity experimented on, obviously, the greater the reliability of the results: this distinction between operations effected in bulk and those only tested on small samples is regularly drawn in chemical texts of the period).

[77] Moriaen to Hartlib, 29 April 1650, HP 37/153A: 'berichte das Glauber die conditiones von Mr W. annimbt'.

[78] Moriaen to Worsley, 4 March 1650, HP 37/142A. This is not a holograph so it is unclear whether the English is Moriaen's own or a translation from German or Latin. Worsley is not cited as the addressee, but the internal evidence is overwhelming.

[79] Moriaen to Worsley, 27 Jan. 1651, HP 9/16/1B.

[80] 'quoad fieri per literas potest, namque maxima eius ratio in methodo et manuali dexteritate posita est' - Moriaen to Worsley, 26 May 1651, HP 9/16/6A.

[81] 'quo in loco, imo cujus in fodinâ (nam in uno eodemque loco illæ differunt) debita et ad opus nostrum idonea minera antimonij invenienda sit' - Moriaen to Worsley, 16 June 1651, HP 9/16/8A.

[82] See above, p. 162.

[83] Moriaen to Worsley, 9 June 1651, HP 9/16/7A.

[84] Eph 51, HP 28/2/15A.

[85] Eph 50, HP 28/1/49B: 'The Refiners name at Amsterdam worth 10 thousand lb. is Gralle. Hee is the Aurifaber of which hee [presumably Worsley or Moriaen] speakes in his Letters.'

[86] HP 37/161A and 42/2/9A.

[87] HP 42/2/10B-11A.

[88] Moriaen to Worsley, 26 May 1651, HP 9/16/6A.

[89] Moriaen to Worsley, 19 May 1651, HP 9/16/5A.

[90] Newman has subsequently come to agree that the 'nobleman' refers to Starkey, and argues convincingly that Worsley was deliberately trying to conceal his identity from Moriaen by the use of such a misleading term. Worsley, it would seem, was by this point trying to wean Starkey off thoughts of a collaboration with Moriaen, even though it was Worsley who had proposed such a collaboration in the first place. See Alchemy Tried in the Fire, 246, esp. n. 133.

[91] On Starkey, see William Newman's excellent biography, Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an Alchemist of Harvard in the Scientific Revolution (Harvard, 1994). Newman has also written a number of valuable shorter studies on specific aspects of Starkey's career: 'Prophecy and Alchemy: the Origin of Eirenæus Philalethes', Ambix 37 (1990), 97-115; 'Newton's Clavis as Starkey's Key', Isis 78 (1987), 564-74, and 'George Starkey and the selling of secrets', SHUR, 193-210. See also Turnbull, 'George Stirk, Philosopher by Fire', Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts 38 (1959), 219-51, and R.S. Wilkinson, 'George Starkey, Physician and Alchemist', Ambix 11 (1963), 121-52, though both these have been largely superseded by Newman's work. Since this book first came out, Newman and Lawrence M. Principe have co-authored another important contribution to the literature on Starkey and his place in alchemical history, Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the fate of Helmontian chymistry (Chicago and London, 2002).

[92] Moriaen to Worsley, 19 May 1651, HP 9/16/5A.

[93] Starkey to Moriaen, 30 May 1651, HP 17/7/1A-2B. This is summarised and analysed in detail by Newman, 'Prophecy and Alchemy', 101, and my account here is based largely on Newman's.

[94] 'Prophecy and Alchemy', 111.

[95] E.g. R.S. Wilkinson, 'The Problem of the Identity of Eirenæus Philalethes', Ambix 12 (1964), 24-43. Newman's 'Prophecy and Alchemy' provides the conclusive identification. 'Eirenæus Philalethes' is a pseudonym subsequently applied to Starkey's fictional adept, though not one he used himself.

[96] Starkey to Moriaen, 30 May 1651, HP 17/7/1A: 'quodam amico juvene […] adhuc vitali'. All my citations from this letter are given in Newman's translations as published in 'Prophecy and Alchemy'.

[97] Ibid., 17/7/2A.

[98] Eph 51, HP 28/2/18A. The names 'Dury' and 'Worsly' appended to the entries indicate that these were the sources of Hartlib's information. Precise dating of entries in the Ephemerides is seldom possible, but the previous entry but one to this refers to events of 23 April, so it is certainly later, but probably not much later, than that. The next mention of a specific date is 26 July, several pages later (HP 28/2/23B).

[99] Moriaen to Worsley, 30 June 1651, HP 9/16/9A.

[100] Ibid.

[101] Especially the letters of 30 June (HP 9/16/9A-B), 2 July (9/16/10A-B) and 9 July (9/16/11A-12B).

[102] 30 June 1651, HP 9/16/9B: 'obesæ naris sim si amicorum commendationes non suboleam'.

[103] Starkey to Moriaen, 30 May 1651, HP 17/7/1A: 'virtutis vestræ verè Heroicæ'.

[104] 30 June 1651, HP 9/16/9B: 'operæ pretium fuerit eum, quem commendare non erubuistis, vestro consilio et auxilio juvare ut aliquo modo virum se præstare possit ne aliquando commendationis vestræ vos pudeat'.

[105] Moriaen to Worsley, 4 Aug. 1651, HP 9/16/13A.

[106] Moriaen to Worsley, 7 July 1651, HP 9/16/11B: 'Lunam vestram mirabilem unam cum mercurio anxie desidero' (I anxiously desire your miraculous silver fused with mercury'); and 4 Aug. 1651, HP 9/16/13A: 'de non missa luna nullam video excusationem' ('I can see no excuse for not having sent the silver').

[107] Moriaen to Worsley, 4 Aug. 1651, HP 9/6/13A: 'illud vulgare esse existimo'.

[108] Ibid: 'Ego ulterius non Urgebo, sed in voluntate Divinâ acquiescam' ('I shall press [you] no longer, but acquiesce in the will of God').

[109] HP 17/7/1A: 'Venalia nulla secreta habeo, quod et abominor, eoque solo nomine, Magister Iohannes Glauberus (vir sane inclytus) mihi vituperandus censetur'.

[110] Moriaen to Worsley, 2 July 1651, HP 9/16/10A: 'judicium Nobilis, de Glaubero prorsus rectum est. […] Turpis ex hoc negotio mercatura est'.

[111] HP 28/2/64B: no source is given for the information.

[112] Moriaen to Worsley, 4 Aug. 1651, with reference to 'debitor meus Kufflerus' ('my debtor Kuffler'), HP 9/16/13A.

[113] Moriaen to Worsley, 31 March 1651, 9/16/4A.

[114] Eph 51, HP 28/2/15A.

[115] Comenius to Hartlib, 10 August 1657, HP 7/111/23A: 'legi nuper illi epistolam Tuam etiam qvæ de Moriano, illiusque misera sorte, & qvomodo illi subveniri posset, si Patroni D. L. de G. animum excitaret Deus, scripsisti: ad quæ ille nihil, nisi Er hat sich mit Alchymisterey gestürzt, vel ruiniret'.

[116] Figulus to Hartlib, 6 Nov. 1650, HP 9/17/45A-B, also in Blekastad, Figulus Letters, 236.

[117] 'Von Glaubern sagte H. Morian mir im vertrawen das Er damit sich nicht wenig shaden [sic] gethan hätte, das er sich grosses geld fur gewisse vermeinte kunst-stucklein geben lassen, die er doch selbst niemals versuchet, vnd sie in der that also befunden, dannenhero er dan ettliche mahl mit shanden [sic] bestehen mussen' - Hübner to ?, 24 March 1652, HP 63/14/21A. The letter exists as a copy in Hartlib's hand, and this idiosyncratic German spelling ('sh' for 'sch') is a distinctive quirk of Hartlib's, probably reflecting how anglicised he had become.

[118] Boyle to Hartlib, 8 May 1654, Boyle, Works VI, 86.

[119] Moriaen to Hartlib, 24 Aug 1657, HP 42/2/19A.

[120] Christoph Fahrner, Ehrenrettung (1656), 75; cf. Link, Glauber, 33.

[121] 'Farner gibt fur wie Er aus 100 lb bleÿ 12 lot Silber bringen könne gieng es aber mit nuz zue wurde Ers woll schweigen und selbst practisiren' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 24 Aug. 1647, HP 42/2/19A.

[122] Moriaen to Hartlib, 4 May 1657, HP 42/2/7B: 'de qvibus cum Aurifabro & Glaubero agendum mihi est nihil dum rescribere possum qvosque illorum responsa recepero. Glaub: hoc ipso tempore de domo in domum migrat, qvo facto ad aliqvot dies me convenire consituit, qvando opportuna dabitur de omnibus colloqvendi occasio Deo benè juvante'.

[123] 'das H W keine transmutation mehr glauben will, ist mir ein zeichen seines wanckelbahren gemuehts, darumb wird […] warheit doch woll warheit bleiben' - Moriaen to ?, 3 May 1652, HP 63/14/20A.

[124] Worsley to ?, 14 Feb. 1655/6, HP 42/1/5A.

[125] Ibid., citing Romans 9:16. This is an unascribed copy letter, but the style, the subject matter, the autobiographical details and the fact that it is from Dublin leave virtually no doubt of Worsley's authorship.

[126] Eph 59, HP 29/8/5A.

[127] 30 Dec. 1650, HP 31/8/1A. This letter, a copy in Hartlib's hand which to judge by the numerous manuscript corrections is probably a translation, is unattributed, but there is much internal evidence to suggest Moriaen's authorship.

[128] 'bin noch der meinung wie vor diesem das ihm in der Natur ein zimblich liecht auffgangen ist dz Er Ihm aber selbsten nicht zue nuz machen kan' - Moriaen to Hartlib, 26 May 1658, HP 31/18/28A.

[129] For a summary of Nuysement's chemico-religious doctrines and their direct influence on Culpeper, see Clucas, 'Correspondence of a XVII-Century "Chymicall Gentleman"', 153-4.

[130] Culpeper to Hartlib, 14 Aug. 1649, HP 13/260B.

[131] Culpeper to Worsley, 9/19 April 1648, HP 13/219B-220A; the illogical parentheses are again Culpeper's.

[132] Culpeper to Worsley, 9/19 May 1648, HP 13/219A. Whether the writers he was citing here were indeed, as Culpeper maintained, all talking about the same thing is a moot point.

[133] Culpeper to Hartlib, 14 Aug. 1649, HP 13/260A.

[134] Culpeper to Hartlib, 4 July 1649, HP 13/155A.

[135] The prophecy occurs in the Liber mineralium which is probably not in fact by Paracelsus.

[136] See Walter Pagel, 'The Paracelsian Elias Artista and the Alchemical Tradition', Kreatur und Kosmos: Internationale Beiträge zur Paracelsus-Forschung, ed. Heinz Dillinger (Stuttgart, 1981); Newman, 'Prophecy and Alchemy', 97-9.

[137] From the full title of Miraculum Mundi Ander Theil [in fact the fifth part] Oder Dessen Vorlängst Geprophezeiten ELIÆ ARTISTÆ TRIUMPHIRLIcher Ein Ritt. Vnd auch Was der ELIAS ARTISTA für einer sey? (Amsterdam, 1660).

[138] Worsley to ?, HP 33/2/16A-B.

[139] Culpeper to Hartlib, Dec. 1645, 13/112A: Culpeper goes on to cite the 'Paracelsian' prophecy verbatim.

[140] 'Correspondence of a XVII-Century "Chymicall Gentleman"', 154.

[141] Ibid., 157-8.

[142] Culpeper wished that Dury would 'give me an hower or two of his analiticall thowghts upon my Chymicall quotations, Oh that I cowld but sometimes injoy an hower with him about his Analisis in which I see enough to rayse but not enough to satisfy my desires' - to Hartlib, 17 Feb. 1646, HP 13/128A.

[143] 'Correspondence of a XVII-Century "Chymicall Gentleman"', 158.

[144] Worsley to [Hartlib?], 14 Oct. 1657, HP 42/1/7A-B.

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