The Winged Beetle

76 THE GOD AND THE GIRL Yet the God smiled ; for in his heart there grew Nursed at dawn’s breast, and watered by its dew, That seed that is not bought and is not sold Of veritable, vegetable gold. Whereat he marvelled. In Eternity There only lived one wiser God than he. He posed his ‘ Why ? ’. “ Young God ! ” He made retort ; “ Know, the first matter of the Work is naught. “ Know, the pure gold is naught : for all decays. It is the Working of the Work that pays ! “ More, thou mistakest in thy mind of mist Matter for man, and dung for alchemist. “ Woman, for all thy skill of touch and tongue, Remains, poor poet ! only gilded dung. “ But thou, First Matter of the Work that art, Defiled by contact with her hemlock heart, “ Dost blacken to the Dragon of the Sages Whence grows the Gold. For her, throughout the ages, “ As it was ever, is, and ever shall be—on Earth everywhere—especially in Albion—