SUB. Sir, do you
Believe that eggs are hatch'd so?

SUR. If I should?

SUB. Why, I think that the greater miracle.
No egg but differs from a chicken more
Than metals in themselves.

SUR. That cannot be.
The egg's ordain'd by nature to that end,
And is a chicken in potentia.

SUB. The same we say of lead and other metals,
Which would be gold, if they had time.

MAM. And that
Our art doth further.

SUB. Ay, for 'twere absurb
To think that nature in the earth bred gold
Perfect in the instant: something went before.
There must be remote matter.

SUR. Ay, what is that?

SUB. Marry, we say --

MAM. Ay, now it heats: stand, father,