By observing and following the manner in which nature performs such wonders, we may assuredly hope to execute this desirable transformation, and the first condition is an amiable temperament, such as that which was possessed by Moses, of whom it is written that for one hundred and twenty years his sight never failed him.' Is it possible that she will refuse unto man, for whom all was created, what she accords to the stags, the eagles, and the serpents, who do annually cast aside the mournful concomitants of senility, and do assume the most brilliant, the most gracious amenities of the most joyous youth? Art, it is true, has not as yet arrived at the apex of perfection wherefrom it can renew our youth but that which was unachieved in the past may be accomplished in the future, a prodigy which may be more confidently expected from the fact that in isolated cases it has actually already taken place, as the facts of history make evident. Let us turn rather to Nature, so admirable in her achievements, and deem her not capable alone of destroying what she has produced at the moment she has begotten them. We know that Paracelsus has vaunted the metamorphic resources of his Mercury of Life which not merely rejuvenates men but converts metals into gold He who promised unto others the years of the sybils, or at least the 300 winters of Nestor, himself perished at the age of thirty-seven. Here it is to no purpose that we should speak of that problem so much discussed by the Wise, whether the art can be carried to such a pitch of excellence that old age should itself be made young. 'To renew youth is to enter once more into that felicitous season which imparts to the human frame the pleasures and strength of the morning. As an illustration of the alchemical concept of the elixir of life, the following extract from a work dealing with the secret of rejuvenescence (originally supposed to have been written by Arnuldus de Villanova and published by Longueville-Harcourt of Paris in 1716) is instructive: The aged alchemist, weary with his quest for gold, craved the boon of youth and desired renewed health and strength to assist him in carrying out his great purpose.

The possibility that the elixir could prolong life was undoubtedly the chief reason alchemists continued their search. This process would, when 'elaborated to the Red,' transmute copper and other metals into pure gold, he stated if 'elaborated to the White' it would produce pure silver. Fifteenth-century alchemist Bernard Tr évisan said that dropping philosophers' stone into mercurial water would create the elixir. In the grimoire, Le Petit Albert, for example, one is instructed to use eight pounds of sugar of mercury as the foundation of such a mixture. There was no standard method of manufacturing the elixir of life. The search for this elixir and a quest for gold became the grand goals of alchemy. Medieval alchemists and mystics believed they were justified in their search for the mythical elixir of life, a universal medicine supposedly containing a recipe for the renewal of youth.

Elixir of immortality illustration