a raw apple […] that looked so fresh and shining that it might even have been an early arrival of the new season’s crop

For Reliques[…]worke like an Apothecaries potion or new Ale: they have best strength and verd at the first.

As to the monotheistic attitude of Alkmaeon, this is not very surprising, for he was a Pythagoreon, also a mystic with pantheistic tendencies, adhering firmly to the oneness of the whole existence and was known as a bitter and avowed enemy of polytheism and polypragmatism — the belief that nature has various creative forces.

He removes his hat without misgiving, he unbuttons his coat and sits down, proffered all pure and open to the long joys of being himself, like a basin to a vomit.