In explaining the nature of his age-restoring experiment to his acquaintances, Dr. Heidegger employs a well-known idiom when he claims that his mysterious elixir will restore them to "the bloom of youth":
“You shall judge for yourself, my dear colonel,” replied Dr. Heidegger; “and all of you, my respected friends, are welcome to so much of this admirable fluid as may restore to you the bloom of youth."
The "bloom of youth" is an age-old idiom that appears in various ancient texts and has a number of parallel expressions in other languages. A person might be said to be in the "bloom of youth" when they are at the height of their youth, a period associated with success, good health, and overall happiness. This idiom, then, compares the lifespan of a human to that of a flower, which develops from a bud (comparable to childhood) into a full and beautiful bloom that, after a period of time, begins to droop and fade in the manner of old age. Dr. Hawthorne's use of this idiom here is not merely a common poetic cliché, but a direct reflection of the plot: in the following scene, he will restore the old rose gifted to him by his late fiancée to freshness. Throughout the story, the characters' restoration (and loss) of youth will run parallel to that of the rose.
