Part 11

Heere _Sense's apprehension_, end doth take; As when a stone is into water cast, One circle doth another circle make, Till the last circle touch the banke at last.[133]

[Footnote 132: Cf. Milton's Il Penseroso, lines 5-10. G.]

[Footnote 133: Cf. Phineas Fletcher: Purple Island c. v., stanza 47. G.]

THE PASSIONS OF SENSE.

But though the _apprehensiue[134] power_ doe pause, The _motiue_ vertue then begins to moue; Which in the heart below doth PASSIONS cause, _Ioy_, _griefe_, and _feare_, and _hope_, and _hate_, and _loue_.

These passions haue a free commanding might, And diuers actions in our life doe breed; For, all acts done without true Reason's light, Doe from the passion of the _Sense_ proceed.

But sith[135] the _braine_ doth lodge the powers of _Sense_, How makes it in the heart those passions spring? The mutuall loue, the kind intelligence 'Twixt heart and braine, this _sympathy_ doth bring.

From the kind heat, which in the heart doth raigne, The _spirits_ of life doe their begining take; These _spirits_ of life ascending to the braine, When they come there, the _spirits of Sense_ do make.

These _spirits of Sense_, in Fantasie's High Court, Iudge of the formes of _obiects_, ill or well; And so they send a good or ill report Downe to the heart, where all affections dwell.

If the report bee _good_, it causeth _loue_, And longing _hope_, and well-assurèd _ioy_: If it bee _ill_, then doth it _hatred_ moue, And trembling _feare_, and vexing _grief's_ annoy.

Yet were these naturall affections good: (For they which want them, _blockes_ or _deuils_ be) If _Reason_ in her first perfection stood, That she might _Nature's_ passions rectifie.

[Footnote 134: Misprinted 'apprehension;' corrected in the errata of 1622 edition from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.]

[Footnote 135: In 1599 and 1608 editions 'since,' as before. G.]

THE MOTION OF LIFE.

Besides, another _motiue_-power doth rise Out of the heart; from whose pure blood do spring The _vitall spirits_; which, borne in _arteries_, Continuall motion to all parts doe bring.

THE LOCALL MOTION.

This makes the pulses beat, and lungs respire, This holds the sinewes like a bridle's reines; And makes the Body to aduance, retire, To turne or stop, as she them[136] slacks, or straines.

Thus the _soule_ tunes the _bodie's_ instrument; These harmonies she makes with _life_ and _sense_; The organs fit are by the body lent, But th' actions flow from the _Soule's_ influence.

THE INTELLECTUALL POWERS OF THE SOULE.

_But now_ I haue a _will_, yet want a _wit_, To expresse the working of the _wit_ and _will_; Which, though their root be to the body knit, Vse not the body, when they vse their skill.

These powers the nature of the _Soule declare_, For to man's _soule_ these onely proper bee; For on the Earth no other wights there are That haue these heauenly powers, but only we.

THE WIT OR UNDERSTANDING.

The WIT, the pupill of the _Soule's_ cleare eye, And in man's world, the onely shining _starre_; Lookes in the mirror of the Fantasie, Where all the gatherings of the _Senses_ are.

From thence this power the shapes of things abstracts, And them within her _passiue part_ receiues; Which are enlightned by that part which _acts_, And so the formes of single things perceiues.

But after, by discoursing to and fro, Anticipating, and comparing things; She doth all vniversall natures know, And all _effects_ into their _causes_ brings.[137]

[Footnote 136: Misprinted 'them' in 1622 edition, corrected as above from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.]

REASON, VNDERSTANDING.

When she _rates_ things and moues from ground to ground, The name of _Reason_ she obtaines by this; But when by Reason she the truth hath found, And _standeth fixt_, she VNDERSTANDING is.

OPINION, JUDGEMENT.

When her assent she _lightly_ doth encline To either part, she is OPINION[138] light: But when she doth by principles define A certaine truth, she hath _true Judgement's_ sight.

And as from _Senses_, _Reason's_ worke doth spring, So many _reasons understanding_ gaine; And many _understandings_, _knowledge_ bring; And by much _knowledge_, _wisdome_ we obtaine.

So, many stayres we must ascend vpright Ere we attaine to _Wisdome's_ high degree;[139] So doth this Earth eclipse our Reason's light. Which else (in instants) would like angels see.

Yet hath the _Soule_ a dowrie naturall, And _sparkes of light_, some common things to see; Not being a _blancke_ where nought is writ at all, But what the writer will, may written be

For Nature in man's heart her lawes doth pen; Prescribing _truth_ to _wit_, and _good_ to _will_; Which doe _accuse_, or else _excuse_ all men, For euery thought or practise, good or ill:

And yet these sparkes grow almost infinite, Making the World, and all therein their food; As fire so spreads as no place holdeth it, Being nourisht still, with new supplies of wood.

And though these sparkes were almost quencht with sin, Yet they whom that _Iust One_ hath iustifide; Haue them encreasd with heauenly light within, And like the _widowe's oyle_ still multiplide.

[Footnote 137: Thomas Davies, as before, mis-prints 'bring.' G.]

[Footnote 138: Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, read 'opinion's light:' but in all the Author's editions it is as above = light opinion: or query is 'hight' = named, meant? G.]

[Footnote 139: Davies, as before, 'decree.' G.]

THE POWER OF WILL.

And as this _wit_ should goodnesse truely know, We haue a _Will_, which that true good should chuse; Though _Wil_ do oft (when _wit_ false formes doth show) Take _ill_ for _good_, and _good_ for _ill_ refuse.

THE RELATIONS BETWIXT WIT AND WILL.

_Will_ puts in practice what the _Wit_ deuiseth: _Will_ euer acts, and _Wit_ contemplates still; And as from _Wit_, the power of _wisedome_ riseth, _All other vertues_ daughters are of _Will_.

_Will_ is the _prince_, and _Wit_ the counseller, Which doth for common good in Counsell sit; And when _Wit_ is resolu'd, _Will_ lends her power To execute what is aduis'd by _Wit_.

_Wit_ is the mind's chief iudge, which doth controule Of _Fancie's_ Court the iudgements, false and vaine; _Will_ holds the royall septer in the _soule_ And on[140] the passions of the heart doth raigne.

_Will_ is as free as any emperour, Naught can restraine her _gentle_ libertie; No tyrant, nor no torment, hath the power, To make vs _will_, when we vnwilling bee.

THE INTELLECTUALL MEMORIE.

To these high powers, a store-house doth pertaine, Where they all arts and generall reasons lay; Which in the _Soule_, euen after death, remaine And no _Lethæan_[141] flood can wash away.

This is the _Soule_, and these her vertues bee; Which, though they haue their sundry proper ends, And one exceeds another in degree, Yet each on other mutually depends.

_Our Wit_ is giuen, _Almighty God_ to _know_; Our _Will_ is giuen to _loue_ Him, being _knowne_; But God could not be _known_ to vs below, But by His _workes_ which through the sense are shown.

And as the _Wit_ doth reape the fruits of _Sense_, So doth the _quickning_ power the _senses feed_; Thus while they doe their sundry gifts dispence, "The best, the seruice of the least doth need.

Euen so the King his Magistrates do serue, Yet Commons feed both magistrate and king; The Commons' peace the magistrates preserue By borrowed power, which from the Prince doth spring.

The _quickning power_ would _be_, and so would rest; The _Sense_ would not _be_ onely, but _be well_; But _Wit's_ ambition longeth to the _best_, For it desires in endlesse blisse to dwell.

And these three powers, three[142] sorts of men doe make: For some, like plants, their veines doe onely fill; And some, like beasts, their senses' pleasure take; And some, like angels, doe contemplate still.

Therefore the fables turnd some men to flowres, And others, did with bruitish formes inuest; And did of others, make celestiall powers, Like angels, which still trauell, yet still rest.

Yet these three powers are not three _soules_, but one; As one and two are both containd in _three_; _Three_ being one number by it selfe alone: A shadow of the blessed Trinitie.

[Footnote 140: Here = o'er as on page 61 _ante_. G.]

[Footnote 141: = forgetfulness: from Lethe. G.]

[Footnote 142: A numeral '3' here, and in the next stanza but one. G.]

AN ACCLAMATION.

O! what is Man (great Maker of mankind!) That Thou to him so great respect dost beare! That Thou adornst him with so bright a mind, Mak'st him a king, and euen an angel's peere!

O! what a liuely life, what heauenly power, What spreading vertue, what a sparkling fire! How great, how plentifull, how rich a dower Dost Thou within this dying flesh inspire!

Thou leau'st Thy print in other works of Thine, But Thy whole image Thou in Man hast writ; There cannot be a creature more diuine, Except (like Thee) it should be infinit.

But it exceeds man's thought, to thinke how hie _God_ hath raisd _Man_, since _God a man_ became; The angels doe admire this _Misterie_, And are astonisht when they view the same.

THAT THE SOULE IS IMMORTAL, AND CANNOT DIE.

Nor hath He giuen these blessings for a day, Nor made them on the bodie's life depend; The _Soule_ though made in time, _suruives for aye_, And though it hath beginning, sees no end.

Her onely _end_, is _neuer-ending_ blisse; Which is, _th' eternall face of God to see_; Who _Last of Ends_, and _First of Causes_, is: And to doe this, she must _eternall_ bee.

How senselesse then, and dead a soule hath hee, Which _thinks_ his _soule_ doth with his body die! Or _thinkes_ not so, but so would haue it bee, That he might sinne with more securitie.

For though these light and vicious persons say, Our _Soule_ is but a smoake, or ayrie blast; Which, during life, doth in our nostrils play, And when we die, doth turne to wind at last:

Although they say, '_Come let us eat and drinke_'; Our life is but a sparke, which quickly dies; Though thus they _say_, they know not what to think, But in their minds ten thousand doubts arise.

Therefore no heretikes desire to spread Their light opinions, like these _Epicures_:[143] For so the staggering thoughts are comfortèd, And other men's assent their doubt assures.

Yet though these men against their conscience striue, There are some sparkles in their flintie breasts Which cannot be extinct, but still reuiue; That though they would, they cannot quite bee _beasts_;

But who so makes a mirror of his mind, And doth with patience view himselfe therein, His _Soule's_ eternitie shall clearely find, Though th' other beauties be defac't with sin.

REASON I.

DRAWNE FROM THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE.

First _in Man's mind_ we find an appetite To _learne_ and _know the truth_ of euery thing; Which is co-naturall, and borne with it, And from the _essence_ of the _soule_ doth spring.

With this _desire_, shee hath a natiue _might_ To find out euery truth, if she had time; Th' innumerable effects to sort aright, And by degrees, from cause to cause to clime.

But sith our life so fast away doth slide, As doth a hungry eagle through the wind, Or as a ship transported with the tide; Which in their passage leaue no print behind;

Of which swift little time so much we spend, While some few things we through the sense doe straine; That our short race of life is at an end, Ere we the principles of skill attaine.

Or God (which to vaine ends hath nothing done) In vaine this _appetite_ and _power_ hath giuen; Or else our knowledge, which is here begun, Hereafter must bee perfected in heauen.

God neuer gaue a _power_ to one whole kind, But most part of that kind did vse the same; Most eies haue perfect sight, though some be blind; Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame:

But in this life no _soule_ the truth can know So perfectly, as it hath power to doe; If then perfection be not found below, An higher place must make her mount thereto.

[Footnote 143: = disciples of Epicurus's Philosophy. G.]

REASON II.

DRAWN FROM THE MOTION OF THE SOULE.

_Againe_ how can shee but immortall bee? When with the motions of both _Will_ and _Wit_, She still aspireth to eternitie, And neuer rests, till she attaine to it?

Water in conduit pipes, can rise no higher Then the wel-head, from whence it first doth spring: Then sith to eternall GOD shee doth aspire, Shee cannot be but an eternall thing.

"All mouing things to other things doe moue, "Of the same kind, which shews their nature such; So _earth_ falls downe and _fire_ doth mount aboue, Till both their proper elements doe touch.

THE SOUL COMPARED TO A RIUER.

_And as_ the moysture, which the thirstie earth Suckes from the sea, to fill her emptie veines, From out her wombe at last doth take a birth, And runs a _Nymph_[144] along the grassie plaines:

[Footnote 144: Davies and Southey, as before, have the extraordinary misprint here of 'lymph.' Cf. 'Orchestra,' stanza 63, which explains the personification. G.]

Long doth shee stay, as loth to leaue the land, From whose soft side she first did issue make; Shee tastes all places, turnes to euery hand, Her flowry bankes vnwilling to forsake:

Yet _Nature_ so her streames doth lead and carry, As that her course doth make no finall stay, Till she her selfe vnto the _Ocean_ marry, Within whose watry bosome first she lay:

Euen so the _Soule_ which in this earthly mold The Spirit of God doth secretly infuse; Because at first she doth the earth behold, And onely this materiall world she viewes:

At first her _mother-earth_ she holdeth deare, And doth embrace the world and worldly things: She flies close by the ground, and houers here, And mounts not vp with her celestiall wings.

Yet vnder heauen she cannot light on ought That with her heauenly _nature_ doth agree; She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought, She cannot in this world contented bee:

For who did euer yet, in _honour_, _wealth_, Or _pleasure of the sense_, contentment find? Who euer ceasd to wish, when he had _health_? Or hauing _wisedome_ was not vext in mind?

Then as a _bee_ which among weeds doth fall, Which seeme sweet flowers, with lustre fresh and gay; She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all, But pleasd with none, doth rise, and soare away;

So, when the _Soule_ finds here no true content, And, like _Noah's_ doue, can no sure footing take; She doth returne from whence she first was sent, And flies to _Him_ that first her wings did make.

_Wit_, seeking _Truth_, from cause to cause ascends, And neuer rests, till it the _first_ attaine: _Will_, seeking _Good_, finds many middle ends, But neuer stayes, till it the _last_ doe gaine.

Now God, the _Truth_, and _First of Causes_ is: God is the _Last Good End_, which lasteth still; Being _Alpha_ and _Omega_ nam'd for this; _Alpha_ to _Wit_, _Omega_ to the _Will_.

Sith[145] then her heauenly kind shee doth bewray, In that to God she doth directly moue; And on no mortall thing can make her stay, She cannot be from hence, but from _aboue_.

[Footnote 145: In 1599 and 1608 editions, 'since,' as before. G.]

And yet this _First True Cause_, and _Last Good End_, Shee cannot heere so _well_, and _truely_ see; For this perfection shee must yet attend, Till to her _Maker_ shee espousèd bee.

As a _king's_ daughter, being in person sought Of diuers princes, who doe neighbour neere; On none of them can fixe a constant thought, Though shee to all doe lend a gentle eare:

Yet she can loue a forraine _emperour_, Whom of great worth and power she heares to be; If she be woo'd but by _embassadour_, Or but his _letters_, or his pictures see:

For well she knowes, that when she shalbe brought Into the _kingdome_ where her _Spouse_ doth raigne; Her eyes shall see what she conceiu'd in thought, Himselfe, his state, his glory, and his traine.

So while the _virgin Soule_ on _Earth_ doth stay, She woo'd and tempted is ten thousand wayes, By these great powers, which on the _Earth_ beare sway; The _wisdom of the World_, _wealth_, _pleasure_, _praise_:

With these sometime she doth her time beguile, These doe by fits her Fantasie possesse; But she distastes them all within a while, And in the sweetest finds a tediousnesse.

But if upon the World's Almighty King She once doe fixe her humble louing thought; Who by His _picture_, drawne in euery thing, And _sacred messages_, her _loue_ hath sought;

Of Him she thinks, she cannot thinke too much; This hony tasted still, is euer sweet; The pleasure of her rauisht thought is such, As almost here, she with her blisse doth meet:

But when in Heauen she shall His _Essence_ see, This is her _soueraigne good, and perfect blisse_: Her longings, wishings, hopes all finisht be, Her ioyes are full, her motions rest in this:

There is she crownd with garlands of _content_, There doth she manna eat, and nectar drinke; That Presence doth such high delights present, As neuer tongue could speake, nor heart could thinke.

REASON III.

FROM CONTEMPT OF DEATH IN THE BETTER SORT OF SPIRITS.

_For this_ the better _Soules_ doe oft despise The bodie's death, and doe it oft desire; For when on ground, the burdened ballance lies The emptie part is lifted vp the higher:

But if the bodie's death the _soule_ should kill, Then death must needs _against her nature_ bee; And were it so, all _soules_ would flie it still, "For Nature hates and shunnes her contrary.

For all things else, which Nature makes to bee, Their _being_ to preserue, are chiefly taught; And though some things desire a change to see, Yet neuer thing did long to turne to naught.

If then by death the _soule_ were quenchèd quite, She could not thus against her nature runne; Since euery senselesse thing, by Nature's light, Doth preservation seeke, destruction shunne.

Nor could the World's best spirits so much erre, If death tooke all--that they should all agree, Before this life, their _honour_ to preferre; For what is praise to things that nothing bee?

Againe, if by the bodie's prop she stand; If on the bodie's life, her life depend; As _Meleager's_ on the fatall brand[146],-- The bodie's good shee onely would intend:

We should not find her half so braue and bold, To leade it to the Warres and to the seas; To make it suffer watchings, hunger, cold, When it might feed with plenty, rest with ease.

Doubtlesse all _Soules_ have a suruiuing thought; Therefore of death we thinke with quiet mind; But if we thinke of _being turn'd to nought_, A trembling horror in our _soules_ we find.

[Footnote 146: Apollod I., 8, § 2, _et alibi_: Ovid, _Met._ viii., 450; _et seq_: 531: Diod. IV., 34. G.]

REASON IV.

FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH IN THE WICKED SOULES.

_And as_ the better spirit, when shee doth beare A scorne of death, doth shew she cannot die; So when the wicked _Soule_ Death's face doth feare, Euen then she proues her owne eternitie.

For when Death's forme appeares, she feareth not An vtter quenching or extinguishment; She would be glad to meet with such a lot, That so she might all future ill preuent:

But shee doth doubt what after may befall; For Nature's law accuseth her within; And saith, 'Tis true that is affirm'd by all, _That after death there is a paine for sin_.

Then she which hath bin hud-winkt from her birth, Doth first her selfe within Death's mirror see; And when her body doth returne to earth, She first takes care, how she alone shall bee.

Who euer sees these irreligious men, With burthen of a sicknesse weake and faint; But heares them talking of Religion then, And vowing of their _soules_ to euery saint?

When was there euer cursèd _atheist_ brought Vnto the _gibbet_,[147] but he did adore That blessed Power, which he had set at nought, Scorn'd and blasphemèd all his life before?

These light vaine persons still are drunke and mad, With surfettings and pleasures of their youth; But at their deaths they are fresh,[148] sober, sad Then they discerne, and then they speake the truth.

If then all _Soules_, both good and bad, doe teach, With generall voice, that _soules_ can neuer die; 'Tis not man's flattering glosse, but _Nature's speech_, Which, like _God's_ Oracle, can neuer lie.

REASON V.

FROM THE BENERALL DESIRE OF IMMORTALITIE.

_Hence springs_ that vniuersall strong desire, Which all men haue of Immortalitie: Not some few spirits vnto this thought aspire, But all mens' minds in this vnited be.

Then this desire of Nature is not vaine, "She couets not impossibilities; "Fond thoughts may fall into some idle braine, "But one _assent_ of all, is euer wise.

From hence that generall care and study springs, That _launching_ and _progression of the mind_; Which all men haue so much, of future things, That they no ioy doe in the present find.

From this desire, that maine desire proceeds, Which all men haue suruiuing Fame to gaine; By _tombes_, by _bookes_, by memorable _deeds_: For she that this desires, doth still remaine.

Hence lastly, springs care of posterities, For things their kind would euerlasting make; Hence is it that old men do plant young trees, The fruit whereof another age shall take.

If we these rules vnto our selues apply, And view them by reflection of the mind; All these true notes of immortalitie In our _heart's tables_ we shall written find.

[Footnote 147: Spelled in 1622 edition 'Iiebbet,' but in 1599 and 1608 as above. G.]

[Footnote 148: = active, vigorous: an uncommon use of the word. G.]

REASON VI.

FROM THE VERY DOUBT AND DISPUTATION OF IMMORTALITIE.

_And though_ some impious wits do questions moue, And doubt if _Soules_ immortall be, or no; That _doubt_ their immortalitie doth proue, Because they seeme immortall things to know.

For he which reasons on both parts doth bring, Doth some things mortall, some immortall call; Now, if himselfe were but a mortall thing, He could not iudge immortall things at all.

For when we iudge, our minds we mirrors make: And as those glasses which materiall bee, Formes of materiall things doe onely take, For _thoughts_ or _minds_ in them we cannot see;