g, too knavish to let me trust to their
conclusions. I found but one man, a Sicilian, who comprehended the
secrets that are called occult, and had the courage to meet Nature and
all her agencies face to face. He believed, and sincerely, that he was
approaching the grand result, at the very moment when he perished from
want of the common precautions which a tyro in chemistry would have
taken. At his death the gaudy city became hateful; all its pretended
pleasures only served to exhaust life the faster. The true joys of youth
are those of the wild bird and wild brute, in the healthful enjoyment
of Nature. In cities, youth is but old age with a varnish. I fled to the
East; I passed through the tents of the Arabs; I was guided--no matter
by whom or by what--to the house of a Dervish, who had had for his
teacher the most erudite master of secrets occult, whom I knew years ago
at Aleppo---Why that exclamation?"

"Proceed. What I have to say will come--later."

"From this Dervish I half forced and half purchased the secret I sought
to obtain. I now know from what peculiar substance the so-called elixir
of life is extracted; I know also the steps of the process through which
that task is accomplished. You smile incredulously. What is your doubt?
State it while I rest for a moment. My breath labours; give me more of
the cordial."

"Need I tell you my doubt? You have, you say, at your command the elixir
of life of which Cagliostro did not leave his disciples the recipe; and
you stretch out your hand for a vulgar cordial which any village chemist
could give you!"

"I can explain this apparent contradiction. The process by which the
elixir is extracted from the material which hoards its essence is one
that requires a hardihood of courage which few possess. This Dervish,
who had passed through that process once, was deaf to all prayer, and
unmoved by all bribes, to attempt it again. He was poor; for the secret
by which metals may be transmuted is not, as the old alchemists seem to
imply, identical with that by which the elixir of life is extracted. He
had only been enabled to discover, in the niggard strata of the lands
within range of his travel, a few scanty morsels of the glorious
substance. From these he had extracted scarcely enough of the elixir to
fill a third of that little glass which I have just drained. He guarded
every drop for himself. Who that holds healthful life as the one boon
above all price to the living, woul