1Those that the hidden chemic
art profess 2And visit Nature in her morning dress
, 3To Mercury and Sulfur philters
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 do th’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.