Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 3.pdf/72

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But those who wot it best agree

How great an art is alchemy,

And whoso gives thereto his mind

In study wondrous things shall find;

For as in every species we

Find parts which taken separately

Are isolated, yet compose

One body when these join with those,

And this with that doth ever change

Throughout all Nature’s varying range,

And in such fashion they revolve

Till that doth into this resolve

Its nature, and they reappear

In different guise to what they were,

Ere purged and tried.

Behold we not

What different form the fern hath got

When ’tis by fire to ash reduced,

And straightway thence clear glass produced

By depuration, as we learn?

And yet we know glass is not fern,

And none would say that fern is glass.

And when we note the lightning pass

Which thunder brings, why do we see

Stones from the clouds fall presently

Which are not formed of stone at all?

Would we know this we needs must call

On learned men, for they alone

Can say why vapours turn to stone,

And how ’tis things so wide apart

Are changed by Nature or man’s art.

And so may men change metals who

Know with their substance what to do,