Annwyl
The Celtic Other-world. (See Hell.) Anonymous Adept (fl. 1750) : A noted German jesuit of the eighteenth century, known to his clerical confrères and his flock as Athanasius the Churchman. He composed two folio volumes of semi-alchemistic writing, which were published at Amsterdam in 1768. In the course of these voluminous works, he alludes to an alchemist whose name he refrains from revealing, and who is usually hailed in consequence by the elusive title heading this article. Athanasius, we find, having long endeavoured to discover the Philosopher's Stone, and having met with no success, chanced one day to encounter a venerable personage, who addressed him thus: " I see by these glasses and this furnace that you are engaged in search after something very great in chemistry, but, believe me, you will never attain your object by working as you are doing." Pondering on these words, the shrewd Jesuit suspected that his interlocutor was truly learned in alchemy, wherefore he besought him to display his erudition, and thereupon our Anonymous Adept took a quill, and wrote down a receipt for the making of transmutatory powder, together with specific directions for using the same. us proceed together," said the great unknown; nor were the hopes of Athanasias frustrated, for in a little while a 66 "Let fragment of gold was duly made, the wise pedagogue disappearing immediately afterwards. The Jesuit now fancied himself on the verge of a dazzling fortune, and he proceeded straightway to try and manufacture nuggets; but, alas! Try as he might, his attempts all proved futile. Much enraged, he went to the inn where the Anonymous Adept was staying, but it need scarcely be said, perhaps, that the bird was flown. "We see by this true history," remarks Athanasius, by way of pointing a moral, "how the devil seeks to deceive men who are led by a lust of riches"; while he relates further, that having been duped in this wise, he destroyed his scientific appliances, to renounce alchemy for ever.