1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

1.61

devoted their leisure time, of which they appear to have had no lack, to the so-called magnum opus. The magnum opus, the quintessence, the elixir of long life, were three different denominations of one and the same thing. Monkish intellectual toil was chiefly con- nected at that time with the study of essences, spirits, alcohols, and distillations. The plants which they sought with the greatest eagerness were rosemary, balm mint, snake weed, iris, etc. In the thirteenth century, Arnold de Villeneuve, a celebrated physician, possessed with this devil of a magnum, opus, formulated the question of the quint- essence or elixir of long life in these terms, which became afterwards a dogma for all his monastic successors. " This is the secret, viz., to find sub- stances so homogenous to our nature that they can increase it without inflaming it, continue it without diminishing it ... as our life continually loses somewhat, until at last all Is lost." The outcome of th^e long and patient labours of the monkish alchemists was certain elixirs and liqueurs, of which the secret composition was transmitted from generation to gener- ation in convents and monasteries. Such liqueurs were in their origin simply a pharmaceutic product. It is only within the last few years comparatively that they have been converted Into delicacies after dinner. Our age bears the hall mark of positivism. The monks labour no longer for the sole glory of God and comfort of the sick. Their object at the present day is to effect, it is affirmed, a ready and productive sale. L arnica, elder, camomile, sweet trefoil, rose, borage,