In hearts alone where modesty resides
Is found the priceless treasure of Pure Truth.
If pride within you secretly abides
That, forced by the elixir's charm, The Sooth
You needs must speak--be wholly pure in thought,
Despising not the teachings wise, of old;
When Truth with equal earnestness was sought
If speech be silver, silence then is gold!
The scales seemed to fall from my eyes, and I realised why the Ueberhells
had borne such an evil and dreaded name among their fellow-citizens.
The day after I, too, was to use the elixir and I asked my father: "What
shall I do if the power of the essence forces me to speak out everything
that is true, simply because it is true, even when it is against my wish
and will tend to my own annoyance and distress, as well as to that of
others?"
And he replied solemnly: "The truth? Has any one yet found the right
answer to the old question: 'What is Truth?' Can you be sure that the
noble and mighty Goddess corresponds to your puny and individual
conception of her?"
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 he 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."
These words of my father removed my last regret for the loss of the
elixir, and my sons and grandsons who are now grown men have, with God's
help, brought it to pass that the burghers of Leipsic are willing once
again to associate with the Ueberhells.