Part 9

Thou (_like the sunne_) dost with indifferent ray, Into the _palace_ and the _cottage_ shine, And shew'st the _soule_ both to the clerke and lay[89], By the cleare _lampe_ of Thy _Oracle_ diuine.

[Footnote 87: 'Sense' in 1st edn. G.]

[Footnote 88: Davies and Southey misprint egregiously 'river.' G.]

[Footnote 89: Laymen. G.]

This Lampe through all the regions of my braine, Where my _soule_ sits, doth spread such beames of grace, As now, me thinks, I do distinguish plain, Each subtill line of her immortall face.

WHAT THE SOULE IS.

_The soule a substance_, and a _spirit_ is, Which _God_ Himselfe doth in the body make; Which makes the _Man_: for euery man from this, The _nature_ of a _Man_, and _name_ doth take.

And though this[1] spirit be to the body knit, As an apt meane her powers to exercise; Which are _life_, _motion_, _sense_, and _will_, and _wit_, Yet she _suruiues_, although the body _dies_.

THAT THE SOULE IS A THING SUBSISTING BY IT SELFE WITHOUT THE BODY.

_She is a substance_, and a reall thing, Which hath it selfe an actuall working might; Which neither from the Senses' power doth spring, Nor from the bodie's humors, tempred right.

She is a _vine_, which doth no propping need, To make her spread her selfe or spring vpright; She is a _starre_, whose beames doe not proceed From any _sunne_, but from a _natiue_ light.

For when she sorts things _present_ with things _past_, And thereby things to _come_ doth oft foresee; When she doth _doubt_ at first, and _chuse_ at last, These acts her owne, without her body bee.

When of the deaw,[90] which the _eye_ and _eare_ doe take From flowers abroad, and bring into the braine, She doth within both waxe and hony make: This worke is her's, this is her proper paine.[91]

When she from sundry acts, one skill doth draw, Gathering from diuers fights one art[92] of warre, From many cases like, one rule of Law; These her collections, not the _Senses_ are.

[Footnote 90: Dew: and so spelled also by the Fletchers and other contemporaries. G.]

[Footnote 91: Painstaking. G.]

[Footnote 92: Misprinted 'act' in the 1st edn. G.]

When in th' effects she doth the causes know, And seeing the stream, thinks wher the spring doth rise; And seeing the branch, conceiues the root below; These things she views without the bodie's eyes.

When she, without a _Pegasus_, doth flie Swifter then lightning's fire from _East_ to _West_, About the _Center_ and aboue the _skie_, She trauels then, although the body rest.

When all her works she formeth first within, Proportions them, and sees their perfect end, Ere she in act does anie part begin; What instruments doth then the body lend?

When without hands she doth thus[93] _castles_ build, Sees without eyes, and without feet doth runne; When she digests the world, yet is not fil'd: By her owne power these miracles are done.

[Footnote 93: In 1st edition 'she thus doth.' G.]

When she defines, argues, diuides, compounds, Considers _vertue_, _vice_, and _generall things_, And marrying diuers principles and grounds, Out of their match a true conclusion brings.

These actions in her closet all alone, (Retir'd within her selfe) she doth fulfill; Vse of her bodie's organs she hath none, When she doth vse the powers of Wit and Will.

Yet in the bodie's prison so she lies, As through the bodie's windowes she must looke, Her diuers powers of _sense_ to exercise, By gath'ring notes out of the _World's_ great book.

Nor can her selfe discourse or iudge of ought, But what the _Sense_ collects and home doth bring; And yet the power of her discoursing thought, From these collections, is a diuers thing.

For though our eyes can nought but colours see, Yet colours giue them not their powre of sight; So, though these fruits of _Sense_ her obiects bee, Yet she discernes them by her proper light.

The workman on his stuffe his skill doth show, And yet the stuffe giues not the man his skill; _Kings_ their affaires do by their seruants know, But order them by their owne royall will.

So, though this cunning mistresse and this queene, Doth, as her instrument, the _Senses_ vse, To know all things that are _felt_, _heard_, or _seene_, Yet she her selfe doth onely _iudge_ and _chuse_:

Euen as our great wise _Empresse_[94] that now raignes By _soueraigne_ title ouer sundry Lands; Borrowes in meane affaires her _subiects_ paines, Sees by their eyes, and writeth by their hands;

But things of waight and consequence indeed, Her selfe doth in her chamber them debate; Where all her Counsellers she doth exceed As farre in iudgement, as she doth in State.

Or as the man whom she doth now aduance,[95] Vpon her gracious _mercy-seat_ to sit; Doth common things, of course and circumstance, To the reports of common men commit:

[Footnote 94: Q. Eliz[abeth]. H. [Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'a prudent emperor.' G.]]

[Footnote 95: Davies and Southey, as before, substitute 'whom princes do.' Ellesmere. See sonnet addressed to him among 'Minor poems.' G.]

But when the cause it selfe must be decreed, Himselfe in person, in his proper Court, To graue and solemne hearing doth proceed, Of euery proofe and euery by-report.

Then, like God's angell he pronounceth right, And milke and hony from his tongue doth flow; Happie are they that still are in his sight, To reape the wisedome which his lips doe sow.

Right so the _Soule_, which is a lady free, And doth the iustice of her _State_ maintaine; Because the senses ready seruants be, Attending nigh about her Court, the braine:

By them the formes of outward things she learnes, For they returne into the fantasie, What euer each of them abroad discernes, And there inrole it for the Minde to see.

But when she sits to iudge the good and ill, And to discerne betwixt the false and true; She is not guided by the _Senses'_ skill, But doth each thing in her owne mirrour view.

Then she the _Senses_ checks, which oft do erre, And euen against their false reports decrees; And oft she doth condemne what they preferre, For with a power aboue the _Sense_, she sees.

Therefore no _Sense_ the precious ioyes conceiues, Which in her priuate contemplations bee; For then the rauish't spirit the _Senses_ leaues, Hath her owne powers, and proper actions free.

Her harmonies are sweet, and full of skill, When on the Bodie's instrument she playes; But the proportions of the _wit_ and _will_, Those sweete accords, are euen the angel's layes.

These tunes of _Reason_ are _Amphion's_ lyre, Wherewith he did the _Thebane_ citie found; These are the notes wherewith the heauenly _quire_, The praise of Him which made[96] the heauen doth sound.

[Footnote 96: 'Spreads' in 1st edn. G.]

Then her _selfe-being nature_ shines in this, That she performes her noblest works alone; "The _worke_, the touch-stone of the _nature_ is, "And by their operations, things are knowne.

THAT THE SOULE IS MORE THEN A PERFECTION OR REFLECTION OF THE SENSE.

_Are they not sencelesse_ then, that thinke the Soule Nought but a fine perfection of the _Sense_; Or of the formes which _fancie_ doth enroule, A _quicke resulting_, and a _consequence_?

What is it then that doth the _Sense_ accuse, Both of _false judgements_, and _fond appetites_? What makes vs do what _Sense_ doth most refuse? Which oft in torment of the _Sense_ delights?

_Sense_ thinkes the _planets_, _spheares_ not much asunder; What tels vs then their distance is so farre? _Sense_ thinks the lightning borne before the thunder; What tels vs then they both together are?

When men seem crows far off vpon a towre, _Sense_ saith, th'are crows; what makes vs think them men? When we in _agues_, thinke all sweete things sowre, What makes vs know our tongue's false iudgement then?

What power was that, whereby _Medea_ saw, And well approu'd, and prais'd the better course, When her rebellious _Sense_ did so withdraw Her feeble powers, as she pursu'd the worse?[97]

Did _Sense_ perswade _Vlisses_ not to heare The mermaid's songs, which so his men did please; As they were all perswaded, through the eare To quit the ship, and leape into the _seas_?

Could any power of _Sense_ the _Romane_ moue, To burn his own right hand with courage stout?[98] Could _Sense_ make _Marius_ sit vnbound, and proue The cruell lancing of the knotty gout?[99]

Doubtlesse in _Man_ there is a _nature_ found, Beside the _Senses_, and aboue them farre; "Though most men being in sensuall pleasures drownd, "It seemes their _Soules_ but in their _Senses_ are.

If we had nought but _Sense_, then onely they Should haue sound minds, which haue their _Senses_ sound; But _Wisdome_ growes, when _Senses_ doe decay, And _Folly_ most in quickest _Sense_ is found.

If we had nought but _Sense_, each liuing wight, Which we call _brute_, would be more sharp then we; As hauing _Sense's apprehensiue might_, In a more cleere, and excellent degree.

But they doe want that _quicke discoursing power_, Which doth in vs the erring _Sense_ correct; Therefore the _bee_ did sucke the painted flower, And _birds_, of grapes, the cunning shadow, peckt.[100]

_Sense_ outsides knows; the Soule throgh al things sees; _Sense_, _circumstance_; she, doth the _substance_ view; _Sense_ sees the barke, but she, the life of trees; _Sense_ heares the sounds, but she, the concords true.

But why doe I the _Soule_ and _Sense_ diuide? When _Sense_ is but a power, which she extends; Which being in diuers parts diuersifide, The diuers formes of obiects apprehends?

This power spreds outward, but the root doth grow In th' inward _Soule_, which onely doth perceiue; For th' _eyes_ and _eares_ no more their obiects know, Then glasses know what faces they receiue.

For if we chance to fixe our thoughts elsewhere, Although our eyes be ope, we cannot see; And if one power did not both see and heare, Our sights and sounds would alwayes double be.

Then is the _Soule_ a nature, which containes The powre of _Sense_, within a greater power Which doth imploy and vse the _Senses_ paines, But sits and rules within her priuate bower.

[Footnote 97: Meliora proboq ... iora ... sequor ... Sen'a. H. [Rather Ovid vii. 20.

... Video meliora, proboque Deteriora sequor'

Pathetically quoted by BYRON in his remarkable Letter to JOHN SHEPPARD. G.]]

[Footnote 98: The allusion is to Mutius Scaevola, who was taken in an attempt to assassinate Porsena, and thrust his hand into the fire to prove his fortitude: Livy II. 12. G.]

[Footnote 99: The story is told by Plutarch in his Life of Marius c. VI. 415. G.]

[Footnote 100: Pliny XXXV. 36 § 3: told of a picture of Zeuxis, as that of the horse neighing is of another by Apelles (_ib_ § 17.) G.]

THAT THE SOULE IS MORE THEN THE TEMPERATURE[101] OF THE HUMORS OF THE BODY.

_If shee doth then_ the subtill _Sense_ excell, How gross are they that drown her in the blood! Or in the bodie's humors tempred well, As if in them such high perfection stood?

As if most skill in that _Musician_ were, Which had the best, and best tun'd instrument; As if the pensill neate[102] and colours cleare, Had power to make the Painter excellent.

Why doth not beautie then refine the wit? And good complexion rectifie the will? Why doth not health bring wisdom still with it? Why doth not sicknesse make men bruitish still?

Who can in _memory_, or _wit_, or _will_, Or _ayre_, or _fire_, or _earth_, or _water_ finde? What alchymist can draw, with all his skil, The _quintessence_ of these, out of the mind?

If th' _elements_ which haue nor _life_, nor _sense_, Can breed in vs so great a powre as this; Why giue they not themselues like excellence, Or other things wherein their mixture is?

If she were but the Bodie's qualitie Then would she be with it _sicke_, _maim'd_ and _blind_; But we perceiue where these priuations be A _healthy_, _perfect_, and _sharpe-sighted_ mind.

If she the bodie's nature did pertake, Her strength would with the bodie's strength decay; But when the bodie's strongest sinewes slake, Then is the _Soule_ most actiue, quicke and gay.

If she were but the bodie's accident, And her sole _being_ did in it subsist; As _white in snow_; she might her selfe absent, And in the bodie's substance not be mist.

But _it_ on _her_, not _shee_ on _it_ depends; For _shee_ the body doth sustaine and cherish; Such secret powers of life to it she lends, That when they faile, then doth the body perish.

Since then the _Soule works by her selfe alone, Springs not from Sense, nor humors, well agreeing_; Her nature is peculiar, and her owne: She is a _substance_, and a _perfect being_.

[Footnote 101: Misprinted 'temparature.' G.]

[Footnote 102: Clean, pure. G.]

THAT THE SOULE IS A SPIRIT.

But though this substance be the root of _Sense_, _Sense_ knowes her not, which doth but _bodies_ know; _Shee is a spirit_, and heauenly influence, Which from the fountaine of God's Spirit doth flow.

Shee is a Spirit, yet not like _ayre_, or _winde_, Nor like the _spirits_ about the _heart_ or _braine_; Nor like those spirits which alchymists do find, When they in euery thing seeke gold in _vaine_.

For shee all _natures_ vnder heauen doth passe; Being like those spirits, which God's bright face do see; Or like _Himselfe_, Whose _image_ once she was, Though now (alas!) she scarce His _shadow_ bee.

Yet of the _formes_, she holds the first degree, That are to grosse materiall bodies knit; Yet shee her selfe is _bodilesse_ and free; And though confin'd, is almost infinite.

THAT IT CANNOT BE A BODY.

Were she a _body_ how could she remaine Within this body, which is lesse then she? Or how could she the world's great shape contain, And in our narrow brests containèd bee?

All _bodies_ are confin'd within some place, But _she_ all place within her selfe confines; All _bodies_ haue their measure, and their space, But who can draw the _Soule's_ dimensiue lines?

No _body_ can at once two formes admit, Except the one the other doe deface; But in the _soule_ ten thousand formes do sit, And none intrudes into her neighbour's place.

All _bodies_ are with other bodies fild, But she receiues both heauen and earth together; Nor are their formes by rash incounter spild, For there they stand, and neither toucheth either.

Nor can her wide imbracements fillèd bee; For they that most, and greatest things embrace, Inlarge thereby their minds' capacitie, As streames inlarg'd, inlarge the channel's space.[103]

_All things receiu'd, doe such proportion take, As those things haue, wherein they are receiu'd_: So little glasses little faces make, And narrow webs on narrow frames be weau'd;

Then what vast body must we make the _mind_ Wherin are men, beasts, trees, towns, seas, and lands; And yet each thing a proper place doth find, And each thing in the true proportion stands?

Doubtlesse this could not bee, but that she turnes Bodies to spirits, by _sublimation_ strange; As fire conuerts to fire the things it burnes As we our meats into our nature change.

From their grosse _matter_ she abstracts the _formes_, And drawes a kind of _quintessence_ from things; Which to her proper nature she transformes, To bear them light on her celestiall wings:

This doth she, when, from things _particular_, She doth abstract the _universall kinds_; Which bodilesse and immateriall are, And can be lodg'd but onely in our minds:

And thus from diuers _accidents_ and _acts_, Which doe within her obseruation fall, She goddesses, and powers diuine, abstracts: As _Nature_, _Fortune_, and the _Vertues_ all.

Againe, how can she seuerall _bodies_ know, If in her selfe a _bodie's_ forme she beare? How can a mirror sundry faces show, If from all shapes and formes it be not cleare?

Nor could we by our eyes all colours learne, Except our eyes were of all colours voide; Nor sundry tastes can any tongue discerne, Which is with grosse and bitter humors cloide.

Nor may a man of _passions_ iudge aright, Except his minde bee from all passions free; Nor can a _Iudge_ his office well acquite, If he possest of either partie bee.

If lastly, this quicke power a body were, Were it as swift as is[104] the _winde_ or _fire_; (Whose atomies doe th' one down side-waies beare, And make the other in _pyramids_ aspire:)

Her nimble body yet in time must moue, And not in instants through all places slide; But she is nigh, and farre, beneath, aboue, In point of time, which thought cannot deuide:

She is sent as soone to _China_ as to _Spaine_, And thence returnes, as soone as shee is sent; She measures with one time, and with one paine, An ell of silke, and heauen's wide spreading tent.

As then the _Soule_ a substance hath alone, Besides the Body in which she is confin'd; So hath she not a _body_ of her owne, But is a _spirit_, and _immateriall minde_.

[Footnote 103:

'Time but the impression stronger makes As streams their channels deeper wear.'

BURNS: to Mary in Heaven.]

[Footnote 104: Southey misprints 'in.' G.]

THAT THE SOULE IS CREATED IMMEDIATELY BY GOD.

_Since body and soule_ haue such diuersities, Well might we muse, how first their match began; But that we learne, that He that spread the skies, And fixt the Earth, first form'd the _soule_ in man.

This true _Prometheus_ first made Man of earth, And shed in him a beame of heauenly fire; Now in their mother's wombs before their birth, Doth in all sonnes of men their _soules_ inspire.

And as _Minerua_ is in fables said, From _Ioue_, without a mother to proceed; So our true _Ioue_, without a mother's ay'd, Doth daily millions of _Mineruas_ breed.

ERRONIOUS OPINIONS OF THE CREATION OF SOULES.

Then neither from eternitie before, Nor from the time when _Time's_ first point begun; Made He all _souls_: which now He keepes in store, Some in the moone, and others in the sunne:

Nor in a _secret cloyster_ doth Hee keepe These virgin-spirits, vntill their marriage-day; Nor locks them vp in chambers, where they sleep, Till they awake, within these beds of clay.

Nor did He first a certaine number make, Infusing part in _beasts_, and part in _men_, And, as vnwilling further paines to take, Would make no more then those He framèd then.

So that the widow _Soule_ her _body_ dying, Vnto the next-borne _body_ married was; And so by often changing and supplying, Mens' _soules_ to beasts, and beasts to men did passe.

(These thoughts are fond; for since the bodies borne Be more in number farre then those that dye; Thousands must be abortiue, and forlorne, Ere others' deaths to them their _soules_ supply.)

But as _God's handmaid_, _Nature_, doth create Bodies in time distinct, and order due;[105] So God giues _soules_ the like successiue date, Which _Himselfe_ makes, in bodies formèd new:

Which _Him selfe_ makes, of no materiall thing; For vnto angels He no power hath giuen, Either to forme the shape, or stuffe to bring From _ayre_ or _fire_, or _substance of the heauen_.

Nor He in this doth _Nature's_ seruice vse; For though from bodies, she can bodies bring, Yet could she neuer soules from Soules _traduce_, As fire from fire, or light from light doth spring.

OBJECTION:--THAT THE SOULE IS EXTRADUCE.

Alas! that some, that were great lights of old, And in their hands the _lampe_ of God did beare;[106] Some reuerend Fathers did this error hold, Hauing their eyes dim'd with religious feare!

For when (say they) by Rule of Faith we find, That euery _soule_ vnto her _body_ knit, Brings from the mother's wombe, the _sinne of kind_, The roote of all the ill she doth commit.

How can we say that God the _Soule_ doth make, But we must make Him author of her sinne? Then from man's soule she doth beginning take, Since in man's soule corruption did begin.

For if God make her, first He makes her ill, (Which God forbid our thoghts should yeeld vnto!) Or makes the body her faire forme to spill,[107] Which, of it selfe it had no power to doe.

Not _Adam's body_ but his _soule_ did sinne And so her selfe vnto corruption brought; But the poore _soule_ corrupted is within, Ere shee had sinn'd, either in act, or thought:

And yet we see in her such powres diuine, As we could gladly thinke, _from God she came_; Faine would we make Him Author of the wine, If for the dregs we could some other blame.

[Footnote 105: Misprinted in 1608 and 1622 edition 'other:' correctly, as above, in 1599 edition. G.]

[Footnote 106: Holy Scriptures. G.]

[Footnote 107: = Spoil. G.]

THE ANSWERE TO THE OBIECTION.

_Thus these_ good men with holy zeale were blind, When on the other part the truth did shine; Whereof we doe cleare demonstrations find, By light of _Nature_, and by light _Diuine_

None are so grosse as to contend for this, That soules from bodies may traducèd bee; Betweene whose natures no proportion is, When roote and branch in nature still agree.

But many subtill wits haue iustifi'd, That _soules_ from _soules_ spiritually may spring; Which (if the nature of the _soule_ be tri'd) Will euen in Nature proue as grosse a thing.

REASONS DRAWNE FROM NATURE.

For all things made, are either made of nought, Or made of stuffe that ready made doth stand; Of nought no creature euer formèd ought, For that is proper to th' Almightie's hand.

If then the _soule_ another _soule_ doe make, Because her power is kept within a bound, Shee must some former stuffe or _matter_ take; But in the soule there is no _matter_ found.

Then if her heauenly Forme doe not agree With any _matter_ which the world containes; Then she of nothing must created bee, And to _create_, to God alone pertaines.

Againe, if _soules_ doe other _soules_ beget, 'Tis by themselues, or by the bodie's power; If by themselues, what doth their working let, But they might _soules_ engender euery houre?

If by the body, how can _wit_ and _will_ Ioyne with the body onely in this act? Sith[108] when they doe their other works fulfill, They from the body doe themselues _abstract_?

Againe, if _soules_ of _soules_ begotten were, Into each other they should change and moue; And _change_ and _motion still corruption_ beare; How shall we then the _soule_ immortall proue?