“‘Then what you have found is your elixir?’
“‘Yes, my son, yes!—the elixir of life! Life?—what do I say?—the eternity of life!’
“‘Oh!’ said Balsamo in a dejected voice (for he looked on this pursuit as mere insanity), ‘so it is that dream which occupies you still?’
“But Althotas, without listening, continued to gaze delightedly at his phial.
“‘At last,’ said he, ‘the combination is complete: the elixir of Aristæus, twenty grains; balm of mercury, fifteen grains; precipitate of gold, fifteen grains; essence of the cedar of Lebanon, twenty-five grains.’
“‘But it seems to me that, with the exception of the elixir of Aristæus, this is precisely your last combination, master?’
“‘Yes, but I had not then discovered one more ingredient, without which all the rest are as nothing.’
“‘And have you discovered it now?’
“‘Yes.’