Her befineffe is yet to sene,
That it stant ever aliche grene,
All be it fo the body deie,
The name of hem shall never awey.
In the cronique as I finde
Cham, whos labour is yet in minde,
Was he, which first the letters fonde
And wrote in Hebreu with his honde,
Of natural philosophy
He found first also the clergy.
Cadmus the letters of Gregois
First made upon his owne chois.
Theges of thing, which shal befalle,
He was the first augure of alle.
And Philemon by the visage
Found to defcrive the corage.
Claudius, Efdras and Sulpices,
Termegis, Pandulf and Frigidilles,
Menander, Ephiloquorus,
Solins, Pandas and Jofephus
The firfte were of enditours
Of old cronique and eke auctours.
And Herodot in his science
Of metre, of rime and of cadence
The firfte was of which men note.
And of mufique alfo the note
In mannes voise or fofte or sharpe
That founde Jubal. And of the harpe
The mery foune, whiche is to like,
That founde Paulius forth with phifique.
Zeuzis found first the portreture,
And Prometheus the sculpture,
After what forme that hem thought
The resemblaunce anon they wrought.
Tubal in iron and in ftele
Found first the forge and wrought it wele, And Jadahel, as faith the boke,
First made nette and fishes toke.
Of hunting eke he found the chace,
Which now is knowe in many place,
A tent of cloth with corde and stake
He fet up first and did it make.
Berconius of cokerie
First made the delicacie.
The craft Minerve of wolle fonde
And made cloth her owne honde.
And Delbora made it of line,
The women were of great engine.
But thing which yiveth us mete and drinke
And doth the labour for to fwinke
To till the londes and fet the vines,
Wherof the cornes and the wines
Ben fuftenaunce to mankinde,
In olde bokes as I finde,
Saturnus of his owne wit
Hath founde first, and more yit
Of chapmenhode he found the wey
And eke to coigne the money
Of fondry metal, as it is
He was the firste man of this.
But how that metal cam a place
Through mannes wit and goddes grace
The route of philofophres wife
Contreveden by fondry wife,
First for to get it out of mine
And after for to trie and fine.
And also with great diligence
They founde thilke experience,
Which cleped is alconomy,
Wherof the filver multiply
They made and eke the golde alfo.
And for to telle howe it is fo,
Of bodies seven in speciall
With foure spirits joint withall
Stant the substance of this matere.
The bodies, whiche I fpeke of here,
Of the planettes ben begonne.
The golde is titled to the sonne,
The mone of filver hath his part,
And iron that stond upon Mart,
The leed after Satorne groweth,
And Jupiter the brass bestoweth,
The copper fet is to Venus,
And to his part Mercurius
Hath the quick filver, as it falleth,
The whiche after the boke it calleth
Is firft of thilke foure named
Of spirites, which ben proclaimed.
And the spirit, whiche is secounde
In fal armoniak is founde.
The thridde spirit fulphur is,
The forth fuende after this
Arcennicum by name is hote.
With blowing and with fires hote
In these thinges, whiche I say,
They worchen by diverse way.
For as the philofophre tolde,
Of golde and filver they ben holde
Two principal extremities,
To whiche all other by degrees
Of the metalles ben accordaunt.
And fo through kinde resemblaunt,
That what man couthe awaie take
The ruft, of which they waxen blacke,
And the favour of the hardneffe,
They shulden take the likenesse
Of golde or filver parfitly.
But for to worche it fikerly
Betwene the corps and the spirit,
Er that the metall be parfit,
In feven formes it is set
Of all. And if that one be let,
The remenaunt may nought availe,
But other wife it may nought faile.
For they, by whom this art was founde,
To every point a certain bounde
Ordeignen, that a man may finde
This craft is wrought by wey of kinde
So that there is no fallas inne.
But what man that this werk beginne,
Nota de tribus lapidibus, quos philofo
phi compofuerunt,
He mot awaite at every tide,
So that nothing be left afide.
First of the diftillation
Forth with the congelation
Solucion, difcention
And kepe in his entention
The point of fublimation,
And forth with calcination
Of verray approbation
Do that there be fixation
With tempred hetes of the fire,
Till he the parfit elixir
Of thilke philofophres stone
May gete, of which that many one
Of philofophres whilom write.
And if thou wolt the names wite
Of thilke ftone with other two,
Whiche as the clerkes maden tho,
So as the bokes it recorden,
The kinde of hem I shall recorden.
These olde philofophres wife By wey of kinde in fondry wife quorum primus dici- Thre stones made through clergy. tur lapis vegetabilis, qui fanitatem confer- The firfte if I fhall specify,
lapis animalis, qui Was cleped vegetabilis,
fenfibiles fortificat, Of which the propre vertue is
mineralis, qui omnia To mannes hele for to ferve metalla purificat et
in fuum perfectum As for to kepe and to preserve naturali potencia de- The body fro fikenesses alle, Till deth of kinde upon him falle.
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