My father, unable to overcome his fatal shyness by any effort of will,
had not the courage to withstand this unfairness until he was called home
by his mother for his twenty-fifth birthday, and made use of the elixir.
This not only gave him the resolution, but forced him to proclaim the
truth aloud, and to call injustice by its right name.
Owing to his accusations there was a thorough investigation of the
affair, a new judge was appointed who awarded the first prize at once
to Johannes Ueberhell, the said prize consisting of a magnificent
commission. Having thus achieved an opportunity of proving his worth,
he rose quickly to eminence in his profession, and came to be a famous
master while he was still a young man.
In later life also he owed nothing but good to the elixir, for his soul
was as pure as crystal, and his thoughts of others were so kindly that he
could safely speak out everything that was in his mind.
His eyes perceived only the beautiful in the universe; and the beautiful
and the true were one with him; so that he made others see and hear
nothing save what was lovely and ennobling. Whenever any debasing or
evil influence approached him he would trample upon it with all the
fierceness of a true Ueberhell; but such conflicts seldom occurred, for
his nature was so exalted that it carried him unconscious through the
depravity and pollution of this world.
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