Earls of Cromartie > [NSLBLANK]

1714.] GIFT OF MS. TO THE PHYSICIANS. clxxxvii
of Kellie, and grandchild to the Earle of Marr, a Senator of the Colledge of Jus-
tice, and Privy Counsellor to King James the 6th and to King Charles 1st, who
was a great student of naturall philosophy, evn to a considerable advancement in
the Hermetick school, and had a correspondence in very remote parts with the
sonnes of Hermes, and of whose fruits of his expensive and secret correspondence
with them I have depositat some volumns of manuscripts, mostly of his own
handwritt.
This was sent to him by the Society at Hess, and directed under the convoy
of the said Dr. Politius, who, by his letters to Sir George, declares that, by direc-
tion of that Society, his chief errand to Scotland was to confer with him. And I
judged it a monument not unworthy to be consignd to the Honourable College of
Physitians at Edinburgh, both for its conveyance and matter, evn tho' perhaps
much of it may be, or is now, in print ; but being long or it was, [it] is to
print as ane avToypacpov, and hath more by much than is printed, and many authors
not mentioned in the print.
To the Royal College of Physitians this volunm, and several other volumns, is
affectionately and humbly offered, on the nynteen of June, Anno Christi 1707,
by Geo. Cromertie. 1
It is probable that Dr. Politius was one of the missionaries sent abroad
by the Eosicrucians of Germany to propagate their tenets, among the chief
of which was the search for the Philosopher's Stone.
Lord Cromartie was one of the original Fellows of the Eoyal Society,
and was considered one of the ablest members of that learned body. In the
present collection several letters are printed from Professor James Gregorie,
the inventor of the reflecting telescope, on scientific subjects. 2 There is also
a letter from Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Eoyal Society, conveying
to his Lordship their thanks for his contributions to their Philosophical
Magazine, and requesting a continuance of them. 3
Lord Cromartie complied with this request, and the Philosophical Trans-
actions show that the following papers were contributed by that " ingenious
1 Original in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.
2 Letter, vol. i. pp. 20, 23. 3 Ibid. p. 22.