a Piedmontese. There is a book of "Secrets," which for a long time has gone under his name. It was printed at Basil 1536, in 8vo, and translated from Italian into Latin by Wecher; it has also been translated into French, and printed several times with additions. There is a preface to the piece, wherein Alexis informs us, that he was born of a noble family; that he had from his most early years applied himself to study; that he had learned the Greek, the Latin, the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Arabian, and several other languages; that having an extreme curiosity to be acquainted with the secrets of nature, he had collected as much as he could during his travels for 57 years; that he piqued himself upon not communicating his secrets to any person; but that when he was 82 years of age, having been a poor man who had died of a sickness which might have been cured had he communicated his secret to the surgeon who took care of him, he was touched with such a remorse of conscience, that he lived almost like a hermit; and it was in this solitude that he arranged his secrets in such order as to make them fit to be published. The hawkers generally carry them, with other books, to the country fairs. These, however, contain only the select remedies of Seignior Alexis of Piedmont; the entire collection would make too large a volume for them.