This very idea had disturbed me during my ride over the Alps, and I exclaimed:  “Therein lies the dangerous power of the elixir!  It kindles in our minds the 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 capable of comprehending the laws of Nature can escape the danger of mistaking the fortuitous, and ever changing reality, for the eternal and unchangeable truth.  Therefore I do not regret what I have done.  If one of my grandsons should wish to become a painter I have obviated the risk of his falling into the error of believing that he has succeeded when he has only slavishly imitated all the imperfections in the objects he sees around him.  Nature reflected in a mirror, would be what his pictures under the influence of our elixir, would have been like, and for a true work of art, in the highest acceptation of the term, something further is needed.”