“For the fabric: do you know that six goose quills will support a
man?--if not, I can assure you they will; there is lightness and
strength for you! What can, with equal economy, be beaten thinner or is
lighter than aluminium?--a new metal with you, I find. For propelling
mechanism, study the wing of the swift-flying birds, created by our
Great Spirit; you cannot _improve_ on that, but you can modify and
adapt it to your particular purpose.”
Then casting his eye upon my umbrella, which was lying open beside me
(for I had used it to keep the sun off), he bade me observe its form,
which I did.
“In that worm-produced fabric,” said he, pointing to the silk shade,
“you have the form of the best sustainer (parachute) that even we have
yet discovered. There! I have mentioned your principal materials, now
set to work, and do not longer disfigure your beautiful islands with
iron webs, rabbit burrows, and crawling beetles, for such, I am told,
your railway systems appear to the inhabitants of your satellite the
Moon, who have very powerful telescopes, and are fond of gazing at
their big brother the Earth.
“Really, when I come to reflect upon the condition of you mortals, your
whole system seems strange; here, six centuries after I have left the
earth, you are actually eating and drinking just as when I was among
you (and I was no mean connoisseur of a bottle of Sack or Malmsey),
and, consequently, you are always ill and ailing. It therefore follows,
as a matter of course, that half of you die before there is any
necessity for you to do so.
“For the first thousand or two years after the Creation, people knew
what was good for them, and partook of everything fresh and good, and
lived for centuries; but now it appears to me that you have a system in
vogue among you called adulteration, by which one half of the community
seeks to partially poison the other half, simply to gather together as
many pieces of gold as they can hoard in a few years, and when they die
they leave these gold coins to some one else to scatter to the four
winds and the Evil One, for their so-called amusement. All very nice,
I dare say, but why do you not do as I did--work, and discover the
Philosopher’s Stone and Elixir Vitæ! Then, having discovered them, you
could be as rich as you pleased, and live as long as you had any desire
to.”
“Interrupting you,” I ventured, “would it be against your bond to
impart to me, a mortal, the secret of those two great discoveries you
claim to have made when on earth? Would you be induced by anything I
could offer you, or do for you, to divulge the component parts of your
Elixir Vitæ?”
The jolly little man laughed till his sides vibrated like a
blanc-mange, at the very idea of _my_ being able to do anything
for _him_, or offer him any equivalent for his priceless secret of
continued life.
“Ha! ha! Ho! ho! My friend, you would be the death of me if it were
possible to kill a spirit; I declare I feel quite a curious feeling
just where my ribs ought to be, by indulging in such hearty laughter as
I have not experienced for quite a century.
“My friend, I will give you the recipe for the Elixir of Life with
pleasure, as it was my own discovery _previous_ to my death, so that
I may divulge it to any one I choose. The ingredients are so simple
that it is a wonder scores of alchemists did not discover it as I did,
but doubtless it was the simplicity of the various items that caused
them to miss the mark. They searched for curious and complex mixtures,
for crystals and ores, powders and nostrums, distillations and subtle
gases, and other things of a complex nature, when the real articles
were right under their very noses, and _in everyday use_!
“Here is the solution to the buried secret; for buried it was when they
laid me in the grave six centuries agone, for I told it to no man, nor
did I take advantage of it to prolong my own life, as I had worked so
hard that I longed for a thorough rest, and am now enjoying it, for we
spirits never tire.
“Take one ounce of acetic acid, it is a preventive of frivolity; one
pound of pure alcohol, which gives spirit and vigour whenever used;
of laudanum three drams, as a soporific giving a quiet and steady
demeanour; and add two drams of ground cloves, for spice is very
preserving to the body.
“Next you add three pints of distilled water, which is a very cleansing
agent, and with it put in a few twigs of birch, which is a capital
corrective, and every man requires somewhat of the kind at times.
“Then you take a few--but I am sure you will forget all these things,
so, if you will lend me a piece of paper and a pencil (which are things
we lacked in our day), I will write down the various ingredients and
quantities for you, and you can get them made up at any chemist’s; here
are twenty-seven ingredients in all, each good for something; miss
one, and you spoil the harmony of the whole, and the prescription is
useless. Everything must be absolutely free from adulteration, or only
a partial success will be the result.”
Then for a quarter of an hour he scribbled away, occasionally pausing,
and cocking his head upon one side to recollect things which he had
stored in his busy memory centuries ago.
His smoky brain revolved at a great rate as I watched him write the
formula.
“There,” said he at last, as he handed me the wonderful secret, which
was to make me live to see ships float under water, people fly through
the air, and electricity the great motive power of the world, “I think
you will find that correct, and I shall be glad to meet you here this
day one hundred years hence, to see how matters are going with you. By
the way, what is the time?”
I now perceived that it was grown quite dark, and the stars were
twinkling through the trees, a fact which I had not before noted, so
absorbed had I been with the strange conversation of my visitor.