' Now, not one of these officers for a
moment suspected this metal to be any thing but brass. The idea of its
being gold never entered their brains, of course; how could such a
wild fancy have entered it? And their astonishment may be well
conceived, when the next day it became known, all over Bremen, that
the 'lot of brass' which they had carted so contemptuously to the
police office, without putting themselves to the trouble of
pocketing the smallest scrap, was not only gold- real gold- but gold
far finer than any employed in coinage-gold, in fact, absolutely pure,
virgin, without the slightest appreciable alloy.
I need not go over the details of Von Kempelen's confession (as
far as it went) and release, for these are familiar to the public.
That he has actually realized, in spirit and in effect, if not to
the letter, the old chimaera of the philosopher's stone, no sane
person is at liberty to doubt. The opinions of Arago are, of course,
entitled to the greatest consideration; but he is by no means
infallible; and what he says of bismuth, in his report to the Academy,
must be taken cum grano salis.
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