Natural philosophy* is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science. - P22
It may appear very strange, that a disciple of Albertus Magnus should arise in the eighteenth century; but our familywas not scientifical, and I had not attended any of the lectures given at the schools of Geneva.
My dreams were therefore undisturbed by reality; and I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher‘s stone and the elixir of life.
But the latter obtained my most undivided attention: wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death! - P23