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.