Physica Subterranea

... One to whom neither a gorgious home, nor security of occupation, nor fame, nor health appeals to me; for rather my chemicals amid the smoke, soot and flame of coals blown by bellows. Stronger than Hercules, I work forever in an Augean stable, blind almost from the furnace glare, my breathing affected by the vapour of mercury. I am another Mithridates saturated with poison. Deprived of the esteem and company of others, a beggar in things material, in things of the mind I am Croesus. Yet among all these evils I seem to live so happily that I would die rather than change places with a Persian king.

Johann Becher, In Physica Subterranea (1667)