James Roberts Brown

“ Love as I or else I dye.
Love and fear God.
Love him in heart
whose joy thou Art.
Love ever not the guift
but the giver.
Love is the bond of peace.
Love loves no chainge.
Love that is pure
wil endure. ”

“ In the Book of Genesis we hear of the “whole Land of Havilah where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.” Almost everything seems to have been made of gold; lamps, tongs, candlesticks, snuffers, censers, spoons, to say nothing of articles of adornment. “Job” had a quantity of the precious metal, for every one gave him “an ear-ring of gold.” As to Solomon he made the Altars and Tables of gold, 200 targets and 300 shields of gold; and Daniel wore a chain of gold round his neck. Then from most early times rings were made of gold—marriage and betrothal rings. ”

“ God above increase our love.
Another.
All thine, is mine.
26
Another.
Nere joy the heart,
That seeks to part.
27
Another sent with a pair of Bracelets.
Fair as Venus, as Diana
Chast and pure is my Susana.
28
The posie of a young man to his Love, shewing her what a woman should be. Tell him that
If woman should to man be wo,
She should not be what God did
make her,
That was to be a helper, so
God then did give
man now doth take her.
29
The posie of a Maid cast off, expressing how light she takes it. ”

“ Endless my love as this shall prove.
Happy in thee hath God made me.
I hold my love by God above.
God in Trinitie bless our unitie.
Let us share in joy and care.
Love never dies where vertue lies.
While I live, I love. ”

“ I would here offer my sincere thanks to our distinguished typographer, who has spared no pains to place before the reader as nearly as possible a fac-simile of the copy in the British Museum. The quaintness of the little work will I hope commend it to every “Odd Volume”; it is, moreover, now very scarce, which you will readily believe when I tell you that I have not been able to procure a copy—for “love” or “money”—even with our far-famed Librarian’s assistance. ”

“ Believe me, my dear unsentimental, sceptical friend, “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy”; there are more ways of giving happiness to mankind than in discovering the Philosopher’s Stone. ”

“ And Death’s the market palce,
whereat all Creatures meet.
When God made all, he made all good
So Woman was, if she had stood
Though woman was the cause of fall
Yet Jesus blood made amends for all
On a good woman
A wise man poore is like a sacred
book that’s never read:
To himself he lives, though to the
world seems dead:
Yet this age counts more of a golden
foole
Than of a thread bare Saint
nurst up in Wisdomes schoole. ”

“ In our own marriage ceremony the man places the same plain gold ring on his bride’s finger when he says, “With all my worldly goods I thee endow.” The plain hoop of gold as a marriage or betrothal-ring appears to have been of very early origin. In the latter part of the fourteenth century it was customary to have a motto or “Posy” engraved outside the ring; this continued during the fifteenth century; in the sixteenth and seventeenth the “Posies” were engraved inside. The practice of inscribing rings existed largely in France and Germany as well as in England. ”

“ I should have rejoiced to have been your guest at a meeting of the Sette of ‘Odd Volumes’ one night. By the bye,” he resumed, “there is a very good article on Alchemy in the Encyclopædia Britannica (1879) ; in this the writer says of me: ‘His work, like his genius, oscillates perpetually between magic and science; but what has not been sufficiently observed, Science invariably ends by carrying the day;’ if he is giving you ‘a recipe for making gold,’ he ends by breaking a lance with the seekers for gold. ”

“ My next visitor was our own countryman, Roger Bacon (1214–1292) . I found his society all I could wish. A Franciscan Monk, but one who had evidently devoted more of his thoughts to alchymic research than to his religious duties, he held a most high opinion of Gebir, and believed very firmly in the possibility of the baser metals being converted into gold. He had, he said, “great faith in the Elixir of Life,” which he considered to be potable gold, otherwise aqua regia, viz. gold dissolved in nitro-chloric acid. ”

“ By the courtesy of John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., D.C.L., of Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, I have been favoured with the following list of Posie Mottoes from rings in his possession. The collection is so unique and of such exceptional interest, that I print it entire, at the risk of repeating some of the mottoes already given. ”

“ And such pretty Tokens
that Lovers send their Loves
London, Printed by Andrew Clark, and are to be sold by Tho. Passenger at the Three Bibles upon London-Bridge, 1674.
Loves Garland.
1
The posie of a Hankercher from a young man to his Love.
LOve is a chain,
whose linkes of gold
Two hearts within
one bosom hold.
2
Another singifying the mutual love that should be between man and wife. ”

“ I was desirous of learning more concerning this youth, but I regret to say Roger Bacon appeared to know very little about his subsequent career; he had heard, he said, that he was a great reader, and was to be constantly seen at the British Museum Library; he was fond of old books, and “Ye Boke of ye Odd Volumes” had much delighted him, also “B. Q., a Biographical and Bibliographical Fragment,” by C. W. H. Wyman, but he could not vouch for these things. “You see,” he added, thoughtfully, “we never meet now; for, alas! I did not take the Elixir when I might have done so.” ”

“ I see a sceptical, unpoetical Brother, who can evolve nothing from his inner consciousness but the conception of hard solid facts: he says with Hamlet,—“Man delights not me, nor women either.” His mind has been intent on the absolute discovery of the Philosopher’s Stone ”

“ Nor puling heigh-hoes wet mine eye.
30
The posie of a Ring.
I do reioyce in thee my choice.
31
A posie of a scornfull Lover.
Since thy hot love so quickly’s done,
Do thou but goe, Ile strive to run.
32
A posie shewing man and wife to be one. ”

“ C. W. King (“Antique Gems and Rings”) and Mr. William Jones (“Finger-ring Lore”) , both of whom have dealt exhaustively with the subject; to attempt anything of this kind is not my intention. Mr. King tells us (in his beautiful work just alluded to) that “Gold was before the introduction of coinage much in use among the Egyptians, and circulated in the form of a ring, and the Egyptian on his marriage placed one of these rings of gold on his bride’s finger in token of his intrusting her with all his property” ”

“ If, then, so much can be done with gold, it is not to be wondered at that men in later ages sought to transmute it from the other metals; but for the present let me leave my alchymical researches. I have said that marriage or betrothal-rings were made of gold, and it is on these I venture now to make a few remarks. To enter broadly into the history of finger-rings would be but to traverse the works of the Rev. ”

“ The following “Poesies” are reprinted from “The Card of Courtship,” or the Language of Love, fitted to the Humours of all Degrees, Sexes, and Conditions, made up of all sorts of curious and ingenious Dialogues, Pithy and pleasant Discourses, Eloquent and Witty Letters, Delicious Songs and Sonnets, Fine Fancies, Harmonious Odes, Sweet Rhapsodies. London. ”

“ He smiles at my story of the Sicilian labourer; and, as to the Vases of “Padway in Italy,” he believes them to be mythical and unreal; and he denounces, too, the elegant Hexasticons inscribed on them as meaningless nonsense ”

“ INTRODUCTION.
n an address to the Sette of Odd Volumes, March 31, 1882, his Ex-Oddship, Bernard Quaritch, our “Librarian,” in allusion to myself as “Auditor” for that year, remarked that my duties would be light; but that he hoped I should, on that account, from time to time favour the Sette with my researches with the crucible (in my capacity as Alchymist to the Sette) . “In time,” he remarked, “Bro. Brown will no doubt discover the Philosopher’s Stone, and issue it as an Odd Volume.” Bro. ”

“ Robert Day, Jun., Esq., F.S.A., of Cork, has very kindly sent me a list of Poesies from rings in his collection. I select the following:—
A merry heart, puts by all Smart. As you yous me, you shall finde me.
As I proue, I wish your loue.
Condem Hm not bvt lve Hm in
For Kindnes that before Hath bin.
God for ever bless us together.
I long to be made one with thee.
I wish to thee as to myself.
If not, how then.
Ile constant prove to the my love.
Keepe vertue still within thy will.
Let vartu be Gide to the.
Love is the things I wish to winne. ”

“ Again, within this little pot was found a light yet burning betwene two Phials, the one of Golde, the other of Silver, ful of a certayne moste pure liquor, by the vertue whereof they beleue that this lighte hadde burnte manye a yeare, as dyd note in their collections and gatherings of auncient inscriptions or Poesies, Petrus Appianus and Bartholomeus, Amantius, Hermolaus, Barbarus also in hys Corollarium or addicion vpon Dioscorides made mention of this same thing, where as he entreateth of waters in comun. ”