1702 c/o James Smart


Grim
or
a lesson in following the instructions of the 1702 edition of the Mutus Liber.


A Yorkshireman quests for the Philosopher's Stone.
      Hearing it can turn gold into base metals, he argues the toss, "It is with copper, iron and steel that people build ships, pits, schools and homes. Not gold."
      Providence; the Yorkshireman finds the Stone perched on a Whitehall charity shop shelf. The label reads ninety nine pence.
      Returning to his grim northern town, the Yorkshireman finds the stone does the reverse of advertised. Bitter and spitting, he throws it onto the slag heap. The hillock - shale, stone and all, turns into solid gold.
      Useless, alongside Grail and Phoenix egg.