them) that each member of the Sette should endeavour by some overt act to show that he rightly understood the raison-d’être of its existence.
With regard to myself, the high dignity of being the Alchymist to the Sette had been allotted to me, and if there were one thing above all others that it was incumbent on me to do it was to try to solve for ever the great problem of centuries, the existence of the Philosopher’s Stone; this, at any rate, was Bro. Quaritch’s opinion, and he spoke with authority. Bro. Cornelius Walford, our esteemed Master of the Rolls, may say:—
“Nemo tentetur ad impossibile.”
But this hardly meets the question, for it is an acknowledged fact that to Bro. Quaritch nothing is impossible; hence, having resolutely and determinedly refused in his own mind to believe in the non-existence of the Philosopher’s Stone, he, regardless of all
