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The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose

Now First Collected with a Prefatory Memoir by his Nephews W. E. and Sir Bartle Frere

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VI.

To prove our gold or silver coarse or fine,
Fire is the test; for man the proof is wine:
Wine can unravel secrets, and detect
And bring to shame the proudest intellect,
Hurried and overborne with its effect.