Gold Not Gold

more about the ash-sifters, the traveling charlatans, the quacks, the knaves, the spagyrics, the mageiroi cooks/scullions whom he admires, imitates, and emulates. If he had inhabited ancient Rome, he would have cultivated the Censors more, or suffered for his own evil. But it is given to Thraso (he fears nothing): that all the things he does are welcome, and to everyone. If it were perchance new, it would be welcome; but it is known even to the bleary-eyed and the barbers, which he learned here from Severinus, that languors can be refreshed, without Anthony, and without antimony, or any other fuel-heavy or drink-heavy thing. But for Seneca: He who knows how to be cautious, knows how to walk safely. Let him learn therefore to be cautious, and to revere: and let him have the "wound" from me, he who does not have "virtue" in himself; nor this "thriving" one, but that "reviving" one.

A woodcut tailpiece shows a stylized face or mask wearing a leafy crown, flanked by cornucopias pouring forth fruit and grain, set amidst scrolling acanthus leaves.