CHAP. 22.—ORPIMENT.
There is also one other method of procuring gold; by making it from orpiment,901 a mineral dug from the surface of the earth in Syria, and much used by painters. It is just the colour of gold, but brittle, like mirror-stone,902 in fact. This substance greatly excited the hopes of the Emperor Caius,903 a prince who was most greedy for gold. He accordingly had a large quantity of it melted, and really did obtain some excellent gold;904 but then the proportion was so extremely small, that he found himself a loser thereby. Such was the result of an experiment prompted solely by avarice: and this too, although the price of the orpiment itself was no more than four denarii per pound. Since his time, the experiment has never been repeated.