1Those that the hidden chemic art
profess 2And visit Nature in her morning dress
, 3To mercury and sulphur
philtres
give 4That they, consumed with love, may live
5In their posterity
and in them shine 6Though they their being unto them resign;
7Glorying to shine in silver and in gold
8Which fretting
vermeil
poison
doth enfold
, 9Forgetting quite that they were once refined
. 10By time and fate to dust are all calcined
11Lying obliviated
in their urn 12Till they to their great ancestors return.
13So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
14His primitive’s
dust (alas) doth end his story.