`` So , fellow-pilgrims , '' said he , `` here we are , seven wise men and one fair damsel , who doubtless is as wise as any graybeard of the company . Here we are , I say , all bound on the same goodly enterprise . Methinks , now , it were not amiss that each of us declare what he proposes to do with the Great Carbuncle , provided he have the good hap to clutch it . -- What says our friend in the bearskin ? How mean you , good sir , to enjoy the prize which you have been seeking the Lord knows how long among the Crystal Hills ? '' `` How enjoy it ! '' exclaimed the aged Seeker , bitterly . `` I hope for no enjoyment from it : that folly has past long ago . I keep up the search for this accursed stone because the vain ambition of my youth has become a fate upon me in old age . The pursuit alone is my strength , the energy of my soul , the warmth of my blood and the pith and marrow of my bones . Were I to turn my back upon it , I should fall down dead on the hither side of the notch which is the gateway of this mountain-region . Yet not to have my wasted lifetime back again would I give up my hopes of is deemed little better than a traffic with the evil one . Now , think ye that I would have done this grievous wrong to my soul , body , reputation and estate without a reasonable chance of profit ? '' `` Not I , pious Master Pigsnort , '' said the man with the spectacles . `` I never laid such a great folly to thy charge . '' `` Truly , I hope not , '' said the merchant . `` Now , as touching this Great Carbuncle , I am free to own that I have never had a glimpse of it , but , be it only the hundredth part so bright as people tell , it will surely outvalue the Great Mogul 's best diamond , which he holds at an incalculable sum ; wherefore I am minded to put the Great Carbuncle on shipboard and voyage with it to England , France , Spain , Italy , or into heathendom if Providence should send me thither , and , in a word , dispose of the gem to the best bidder among the potentates of the earth , that he may place it among his crown-jewels . If any of ye have a wiser plan , let him expound it . '' `` That have I , thou sordid man ! '' exclaimed the poet .
`` Dost thou desire nothing brighter than gold , that thou wouldst transmute all this ethereal lustre into such dross XXXXX thou wallowest in already ?
If among as for from of than that to without