“Hermetics⁠—what a lovely word, Herr Naphta! I’ve always liked the word ‘hermetic.’ It sounds like magicking, and has all sorts of vague and extended associations. You must excuse my speaking of such a thing, but it reminds me of the conserve jars that our housekeeper in Hamburg⁠—Schalleen, we call her, without any Miss or Mrs. ⁠—keeps in her larder. She has rows of them on her shelves, airtight glasses full of fruit and meat and all sorts of things. They stand there maybe a whole year⁠—you open them as you need them and the contents are as fresh as on the day they were put up, you can eat them just as they are. To be sure, that isn’t alchemy or purification, it is simple conserving, hence the word ‘conserve.’ The magic part of it lies in the fact that the stuff that is conserved is withdrawn from the effects of time, it is hermetically sealed from time, time passes it by, it stands there on its shelf shut away from time. Well, that’s enough about the conserve jars. It hasn’t much to do with the subject. Pardon me, you were going to enlighten me further.”