Note 134 — V THE HEIRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN (HERRENHAUSEN, 1701-1714)

He seems to have frequented her society up to a late date. In 1696 the Duchess of Orleans expresses her pleasure that her aunt should have his philosophy to amuse her—though, for her part, she ‘does not see how one can understand anything of which one knows nothing.’ The younger Helmont’s doctrine of metempsychosis was not in the long run satisfactory to Sophia, who had once said that it might account for her unlucky son Maximilian’s resemblance to the ‘seven old Dukes of Brunswick,’ who called all their servants ‘thou’ and occupied themselves with making nets and drinking warm beer.