I love thee, Mary, and thou lovest me,

Our mutual flame is like the affinity

That doth exist between two simple bodies:

I am Potassium to thine Oxygen;

’Tis little that the holy marriage vow

Shall shortly make us one. That unity

Is, after all, but metaphysical.

Oh, would that I, my Mary, were an Acid,

A living acid, and thou an alkali,

Endowed with human sense, that brought together,

We might coalesce unto one salt,

One homogeneous crystal. Oh, that thou

Wert Carbon, and myself were Hydrogen!

We would unite to form olefiant gas,

Or common Coal, or Naphtha. Would to Heaven

That I were Phosphorus, and thou wert Lime,

And we of Lime composed a Phosphuret!

I’d be content to be Sulphuric Acid,

So that thou might be Soda; in that case

We should be Glauber’s Salt. Wert thou Magnesia

Instead, we’d form the salt that’s named from Epsom.

Could’st thou Potassa be, I, Aquafortis,

Our happy union should be that compound form,

Nitrate of Potash,—otherwise Saltpetre.

And thus our several natures sweetly blent,

We’d live and love together, until death

Should decompose the fleshy tertium quid,

Leaving our souls to all eternity

Amalgamated. Sweet, thy name is Briggs

Agree to form a Johnsonate of Briggs?

We will. The day, the happy day is nigh,

When Johnson shall with beauteous Briggs combine.