The Law Of Conservation Of Mass

We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing,
since things require a seed to start from...
Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing,
but all things return dissolved into their elements.
 — Lucretius 'De Rerum Natura'


Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
 — William Shakespeare 'The Tempest'