The most interesting
part of his life is that which the absence of documents makes it
impossible accurately to describe. He travelled in Germany, Italy,
France, the Netherlands, in Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. He went even to
India. He was taken prisoner by the Tartars, and brought to the Great
Khan, whose son he afterwards accompanied to Constantinople. The mind
must be dull indeed that is not thrilled by the thought of this wandering
genius traversing the lands of the earth at the most eventful date of the
world's history. It was at Constantinople that, according to a certain
_aureum vellus_ printed at Rorschach in the sixteenth century, he
received the philosopher's stone from Solomon Trismosinus. This person
possessed also the _Universal Panacea_, and it is asserted that he was
seen still alive by a French traveller at the end of the seventeenth
century. Paracelsus then passed through the countries that border the
Danube, and so reached Italy, where he served as a surgeon in the
imperial army. I see no reason why he should not have been present at the
battle of Pavia.
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