Gold Not Gold

and shame increases. What is the outcome of these men, besides ashes, smoke, sweat, sighs, words, deceits, and ignominy? Thus they create evil for themselves; and he who wishes to be deceived, let him be deceived.

Albertus, On Alchemy, p. 614.

Yet, behold the man who has brought everything sought to the desired end.
Plutarch, Life of Marcellus.

Why then does Archimedes cry out, "I have found it" εὕρηκα? Oh, boy, a bean in a cake! He who nonetheless, like a gilded or "ear-ed" Midas,
Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 11

He presages nothing, he expects a reward; but it is in vain. Thus it is accustomed, thus it ought to be. He laments afterwards, who did not explore beforehand.
Matthew 13:25

He sowed (there are as many bad men in the seminary today as there were once good) wheat perhaps (but not rightly threshed) in soil perhaps stony or thorny; but the enemy sowed tares: Pluto has (suppose) something to do with the gold of Anthony,
Velleius Paterculus, book 1

while he slept. Hence, what is the companion of a deed well done? For the illustrious of old, it was envy: for these, it is sadness; as if virtue itself is not content, let alone being a pleasure, joy, and reward to itself. Or is it the Italian saying: At a sad time, the bread storms in the oven? Or for sad Ovid:

Ovid, Epistles from Pontus, book 2, el. 10; Fasti, book 5

He searches and finds beforehand; why then does he complain now, and why is he not heard? He has not sent out an apology, but rather a complaint, being greedy.

Tibullus, book 4

Does the impostor vindicate himself, he who asserts an imposture? Is he suddenly asserted to be industrious, perfect, true, and experienced, he who is a proclaimer of himself? I have seen a censure from learned, honest men, who are above exception, by which he is reproved as very imperfect and entirely unlearned. But what is this complaint? What is this defense? He himself is not ignorant that the learned will mock these things. Do these things please him more for that reason? Or do they laugh (the crude, not the learned) at things that are not