In every song he sings a spiritual fact will be found its fundamental life, although I may quote this or that merely to illustrate some peculiarity of mode.
_The Elixir_ was an imagined liquid sought by the old physical investigators, in order that by its means they might turn every common metal into gold, a pursuit not quite so absurd as it has since appeared.
They called this something, when regarded as a solid, _the Philosopher's Stone_.

In the poem it is also called a _tincture_.
THE ELIXIR.
Teach me, my God and King, In all things thee to see; And what I do in anything, To do it as for thee; Not rudely, as a beast, To run into an action; But still to make thee prepossest, And give it his perfection.

_its._ A man that looks on glass, On it may stay his eye; Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, And then the heaven spy.
All may of thee partake: Nothing can be so mean, Which with his tincture--_for thy sake_-- _its._ Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine: Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, Makes that and the action fine.
This is the famous stone That turneth all to gold; For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for less be told.
With a conscience tender as a child's, almost diseased in its tenderness, and a heart loving as a woman's, his intellect is none the less powerful.
Its movements are as the sword-play of an alert, poised, well-knit, strong-wristed fencer with the rapier, in which the skill impresses one more than the force, while without the force the skill would be valueless, even hurtful, to its possessor.

There is a graceful humour with it occasionally, even in his most serious poems adding much to their charm.

To illustrate all this, take the following, the title of which means _The Retort_.
THE QUIP.
The merry World did on a day With his train-bands and mates agree To meet together where I lay, And all in sport to jeer at me.
First Beauty crept into a rose; Which when I plucked not--"Sir," said she, "Tell me, I pray, whose hands are those ?"[98] _But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._ Then Money came, and, chinking still-- "What tune is this, poor man ?" said he: "I heard in music you had skill." _But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._ Then came brave Glory puffing by In silks that whistled--who but he?
He scarce allowed me half an eye; _But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._ Then came quick Wit-and-Conversation, And he would needs a comfort be, And, to be short, make an oration: _But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me._ Yet when the hour of thy design To answer these fine things, shall come, Speak not at large--say I am thine; And then they have their answer home.
Here is another instance of his humour.