EPITAPHIUM CHYMICUM.
The following epitaph was written by a Dr. Godfrey, who died in Dublin in 1755:
Here lieth, to digest macerate, and amalgamate into clay,
In Batneo Arenæ,
Stratum super Stratum The Residuum, Terra damnata and Caput Mortuum,
Of BOYLE GODFREY, Chymist and M.D.
A man who in this Earthly Laboratory pursued various
Processes to obtain Arcanum Vitæ,
Or the Secret to Live;
Also Aurum Vitæ,
or the art of getting rather than making gold.
Alchymist-like, all his Labour and Projection,
as Mercury in the Fire, Evaporated in Fume when he
Dissolved to his first principles.
He departed as poor
as the last drops of an Alembic; for Riches are not
poured on the Adepts of this world.
Though fond of News, he carefully avoided the
Fermentation, Effervescence, and Decrepitation of this
life. Full seventy years his Exalted Essence was hermetically sealed in its Terrene Matrass; but the
Radical Moisture being exhausted, the Elixir Vitæ spent,
And exsiccate to a Cuticle, he could not suspend longer in his Vehicle, but precipitated Gradatim, per Campanam, to his original dust.
May that light, brighter than Bolognian Phosphorus,
Preserve him from the Athanor, Empyreuma, and Reverberatory
Furnace of the other world,
Depurate him from the Fæces and Scoria of this,
Highly Rectify and Volatilize, his æthereal spirit,
Bring it over the Helm of the Retort of this Globe, place
in a proper Recipient or Crystalline orb,
Among the elect of the Flowers of Benjamin; never to
be saturated till the General Resuscitation, Deflagration,
Calcination, and Sublimation of all things.