Laudator Temporis Acti

Francis Thynne (1544-1608), "Quiet and Rest," Emblemes and Epigrames, ed. F.J. Furnivall (London: Early English Text Society, 1876), p. 96:

As wearie bodie doth restore his strength with rest,
as fertill soyle sometimes vntild doth prove the best,
As laboringe beastes, the ox, the horse, must quiet haue,
as toylinge daie, the restefull night doth dulie crave,
As bowe still bent, in time is weake
    and looseth strength,
As Sommers flowers in Winters rootes
    doe reste at length,
Soe must the rulinge minde, the seate
    where reasone reynes,
with quiet recreate it self
    from former paynes.
ffor what wants interchanged rest
    will weare awaye,
And restles paines, both witt and wealth,
    doth soone decaye.
Then cease, thow wearie muse, allwaies
    to beate thy brayne
And weare thy paynefull hand,
    which never reaped gaine;
Since all thy sweating toyle finds but
    such hard event
As damned Sisiphus,
    most bitter punishement,
Wherbye thy goulden tyme
    thow thriftelesse dost consume,
Like Gebers Cooke, to waste thy wealth
    in Ayerye fume.

Geber was a writer on alchemy, and so Gebers Cooke is an alchemist.