19 FEBRUARY 1921, Page 14

THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Referring to your review of An Encyclopaedia of Occult- ism, the following may be of interest to you :- " In Hone's Works, Vol. IV. (Year Book), a translation of the story by John Frederick Helvetius is given with this introduc- tion, The most celebrated history of transmutation is that given by Helvetius in his "Brief of the golden calf " discovering the rarest Miracle in Nature, how by the smallest portion of the Philosopher's Stone a great piece of common lead- was totally transmuted into the purest, transplendent gold at the. Hague in 16643.' The marvellous account of Helvetius ie thus rendered by Mr. Brenda."

The translation is practically identical with that given in the Spectator, as far as the former goes, but instead of saying the stranger " seemed like a native of the North of Scotland," it says he was " born in North Holland."—I am, Sir, &c.,

J. P C.