confidence that we know the truth by means of a charm,
whereas we can only possess the desire to seek for it. Our certainty also
misleads us to constrain others to think as we think, and to despise them
and persecute them when they differ from us. The elixir made you happy,
my father, because you are good and pure, and because the beautiful, to
the pursuit of which you have dedicated your life, ennobles everyone and
makes every thing harmonious that comes from you.

"But many generations had to pass before you appeared to do honour to the
powers of the elixir. I myself have been cast in a less heroic mould, and
who can prophesy what my children, if I ever have any, will be like. In
this world where every thing is deceitful, and no one is outspoken, the
man who alone is under the necessity of proclaiming what he considers the
truth, is like a warrior who opposes himself without shield or harness to
a fully armed foe. Therefore, my dear father, I am very reluctant to make
use of the elixir to-morrow."

The old gentleman smiled and replied: "Inhale it in peace, my Ernst, for
I will confide to you that I have poured the elixir into the Tiber, on
whose banks the battle for the Truth has been so often joined, and where
so many factions have imagined that they possessed the elixir of Truth. I
have filled the phial with water and a drop of aromatic myrrh. The water
I took from the fountain of Trevi, which, you know, is supposed to
possess the power of inspiring longing--only for the Eternal City, I
believe--but perhaps in our phial it may awaken a desire for the Eternal
Truth. Let us leave the little bottle to our successors. It will not hurt
them to use it while they are young, and they can commit to memory, at
the same time, the maxim which is attached to it. Then if the harmless
liquid which it contains, together with the adage and the example of
their parents, arouse a craving for truth within them we shall have cared
better for them than Doctor Melchior did for our ancestors."

"I think so, too," I answered gratefully. "But," I added, "when you
poured the elixir into the river did you not sacrifice a valuable aid to
yourself in remaining loyal to the Truth in your creations?"

"The old gentleman shook his head. Let the essence flow away!" he
answered. "The verity of the Ueberhells, that is what each one thought to
be true, was a thing of naught, and, if you consider it closely, a
dangerous thing. Only the mind which is c