Rudenesse it selfe she doth refine,
Euen like an Alchemist divine,
Grosse times of Iron turning
Into the purest forme of gold:
Not to corrupt, till heaven waxe old,
And be refin'd with burning.

From 'Hymnes of Astraea' (1599), Hymn I, in Clare Howard (ed.), The Poems of John Davies (1941)