Here Gutenberg clasping both hands round his mug, raised it to his lips, and drank a long draught. Claude had listened with _naïve_ emotion to the relation of the old man, and when he had finishing speaking, Claude replied, in a tone of prophetic inspiration, “Master, you have discovered and accomplished a divine work, what are all arts in comparison of yours, with its incessant fecundity? No, no, do not take what I say as a piece of insipid flattery, but I can only liken your invention to an old fable which I saw represented in my joyous city of Paris, I think they called it a Mystery; there was a hero who if I recollect right was named Prometheus; he wished to steal fire from heaven, to bring down a spark of it to our cold gloomy earth. You have done as he did; may then your name, and your art, live for ever!” Here the young man stood up and drank. Gutenberg meanwhile had with a pensive air been shaking his head and his grey locks, his eyes fixed before him. “Claude,” said he, “thou speakest according to thy years, and thy imagination. Life has no shadows for thee, thy dreams have not yet been destroyed. It is different with me. Claude, believe what I say, I see the time coming when these little mobile letters, which I have discovered, will become living realities; like so many serpents, they will climb the walls of our Cathedrals, even up to the clock towers, and they will be as gnawing worms to the old thrones of our Emperors. Yes, these moveable letters contain also a Satanic element, which thou dost not perceive. I have created, I have invented them, but they cannot be otherwise than destructive. I have lighted a torch, but let the wind and the storm arise, and shake their wings, and I warn them that the flame will suddenly become a devouring fire, consuming everything around it.”