You bring out the goods and set them in a row; but trim them up a little first, and make them look their best, to attract as many customers as possible. You, Mercury, must put up the lots, and bid all comers welcome to the sale. Gentlemen,—We are here going to offer you philosophical systems of all kinds, and of the most varied and ingenious description, purified with a lighted torch, an egg, and sulphur.
On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by James Mactear