Elixir

elixir: [i-lik-ser] noun the quintessence or absolute embodiment of anything; a substance held capable of changing base metals into gold; a substance held capable of prolonging life indefinitely; a sweetened liquid usually containing alcohol that is used in medication.


What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Potable gold, when, with one virtuous touch,
The arch-chimic Sun, so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of colour glorious and effect so rare?
----John Milton
Paradise Lost: The Third Book