Which foolish lovers and admirers please:

Who if they chance within the shrine to pry,

Find that a beast they thought a Deity.

Nor makes it only our opinion less

70Of what we lik'd before, and now possess;

But robs the fuel, and corrupts the spice

Which sweetens and inflames Love's sacrifice,

After fruition once, what is Desire

But ashes kept warm by a dying fire?

This is (if any) the Philosopher's Stone