And yet the lights which in my tow'r do shine, Mine eyes which view all objects, nigh and far, Look not into this little world of mine, Nor see my face, wherein they fixed are. Since Nature fails us in no needful thing, Why want I means my inward self to see? Which sight the knowledge of myself might bring, Which to true wisdom is the first degree. That pow'r, which gave me eyes the world to view, But as the sharpest eye discerneth nought, Except the sun-beams in the air do shine: So the best soul, with her reflecting thought, Sees not herself without some light divine. O Light, which mak'st the light, which mak'st the day! Which set❜st the eye without, and mind within ;' 'Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray, Which now to view itself doth first begin. For her true form how can my spark discern, One thinks the soul is air; another, fire; And to her essence each doth give a part. Musicians think our souls are harmonies, Physicians hold that they complexions be; Epicures make them swarms of atomies, Which do by chance into our bodies flee. Some think one gen'ral soul fills ev'ry brain, As the bright Sun sheds light in every star; And others think the name of soul is vain, And that we only well-mix'd bodies are. In judgment of her substance thus they vary, And thus they vary in judgment of her seat; For some her chair up to the brain do carry, Some thrust it down into the stomach's heat. Some place it in the root of life, the heart; Some in the river, fountain of the veins, Some say, she's all in all, and all in every part: Some say, she's not contain'd, but all contains. Thus these great clerks their little wisdom show, While with their doctrines they at hazard play; Tossing their light opinions to and fro, To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they. For no craz'd brain could ever yet propound, Touching the soul, so vain and fond a thought; But some among these masters have been found, Which in their schools the self-same thing have [taught. God only wise, to punish pride of wit, THAT THE SOUL IS A THING SUBSISTING BY ITSELF WITH OUT THE BODY. Suz is a substance, and a real thing, Which hath itself an actual working might, Which neither from the senses' power doth spring, Nor from the body's humours temper'd right. She is a vine, which doth no propping need From any sun, but from a native 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 choose at last, These acts her own', without her body be. When of the dew, which th' eye and ear do take From flow'rs abroad, and bring into the brain, She doth within both wax and honey make: This work is her's, this is her proper pain. When she from sundry acts one skill doth draw; Gathering from divers fights one art of wars From many cases, like one rule of law; These her collections, not the senses are. That the soul hath a proper operation without the body. When in th' effects she doth the causes know, And, seeing the stream, thinks where the spring doth rise; And, seeing the branch, conceives the root below; These things she views without the body's eyes. When she, without a Pegasus, doth fly, Swifter than lightning's fire from east to west; About the centre, and above the sky, She travels then, although the body rest. When all her works she formeth first within, Proportions them, and sees their perfect end; Ere she in act doth any part begin, What instruments doth then the body lend? When without hands she doth thus castles build, Sees without eyes, and without feet doth run; When she digests the world, yet is not fill'd; By her own pow'rs these miracles are done.' When she defines, argues, divides, compounds, Considers virtue, vice, and general things: And marrying divers principles and grounds, Out of their match a true conclusion brings. These actions in her closet, all alone, (Retir'd within herself) she doth fulfil; Use of her body's organs she hath none, When she doth use the pow'rs of wit and will. Yet in the body's prison so she lies, As through the body's windows she must look, Hér divers powers of sense to exercise, By gath❜ring notes out of the world's great book. Nor can herself discourse or judge of ought,, But what the sense collects, and home doth bring; And yet the pow'rs of her discoursing thought, From these collections is a diverse thing. For though our eyes can nought but colours see, Yet colours give them not their pow'r of sight: So, though these fruits of sense her objects be, Yet she discerns them by her proper light. The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill: Kings their affairs do by their servants know, But order them by their own royal will. So, though this cunning mistress, and this queen, E'en as a prudent emperor, that reigns But things of weight and consequence indeed, Himself doth in his chamber them debate ; Where all his counsellors he doth exceed, As far in judgment, as he doth in state. Or as the man whom princes do advance, But when the cause itself must be decreed, Then, like God's angel, he pronounceth right, Right so the soul, which is a lady free, And doth the justice of her state maintain : Because the senses ready servants be, Attending nigh about her court, the brain : By them the forms of outward things she learns, But when she sits to judge the good and ill, But doth each thing in her own mirror view. Then she the senses checks, which oft do err, And e'en against their false reports decrees; And oft she doth condemn what they prefer; For with a pow'r above the sense she sees. Therefore no sense the precious joys conceives, Her harmonies are sweet, and full of skill, Those sweet accords are even th' angels lays. These tunes of reason are Amphion's lyre, Wherewith he did the Theban city found: These are the notes wherewith the heavenly choir The praise of him which made the Heav'n doth sound. Then her self-being nature shines in this, That she performs her noblest works alone: "The work, the touch-stone of the nature is; And by their operations things are known." SECTION II. THAT THE SOUL IS MORE THAN A PERFECTION, OR ARE they not senseless then, that think the soul What is it then that doth the sense accuse, Both of false judgment, and fond appetites? What makes us do what sense doth most refuse, Which oft in torment of the sense delights? Sense thinks the planets' spheres not much asunder: Did sense persuade Ulysses not to hear The mermaid's songs which so his men did please, That they were all persuaded, through the ear, To quit the ship and leap into the seas? Could any pow'r of sense the Roman move, To burn his own right hand with courage stout? Could sense make Marius sit unbound, and prove The cruel lancing of the knotty gout? Doubtless, in man there is a nature found, Beside the senses, and above them far; "Though most men being in sensual pleasures drown'd, It seems their souls but in their senses are." SECTION III. THAT THE SOUL IS MORE THAN THE TEMPERATURE OF THE HUMOURS OF THE BODY. Ir she doth then the subtle sense excel, How gross are they that drown her in the blood? As if most skill in that musician were, Why doth not beauty then refine the wit, Who can in memory, or wit, or will, Or air, or fire, or earth, or water find? If th' elements which have nor life, nor sense, If she were but the body's quality, Then she would be with it sick, maim'd, and blind: But we perceive where these privations be, Au healthy, perfect, and sharp-sighted mind. If she the body's nature did partake, [cay: Her strength would with the body's strength deBut when the body's strongest sinews slake, Then is the soul most active, quick, and gay. If she were but the body's accident, And her sole being did in it subsist, As white in snow, she might herself absent, But it on her, not she on it depends; For she the body doth sustain and cherish : Such secret pow'rs of life to it she leuds, That when they fail, then doth the body perish. Since then the soul works by herself alone, SECTION IV. THAT THE SOUL IS A SPIRIT. BUT though this substance be the root of sense, Sense knows her not, which doth but bodies know: She is a spirit, and heav'nly influence, Which from th' fountain of God's spirit doth flow. She is a spirit, yet not like air or wind; Nor like the spirits about the heart or brain; Nor like those spirits which alchymists do find, When they in ev'ry thing seek gold in vain. For she all natures under Heav'n doth pass, [see, For of all forms, she holds the first degree, And, though confin'd, is almost infinite. Were she a body, how could she remain Within this body, which is less than she? Ór how could she the world's great shape contain, And in our narrow breasts contained be? All bodies are confin'd within some place, But she all place within herself confines: All bodies have their measure and their space; But who can draw the soul's dimensive lines? No body can at once two forms admit, Except the one the other do deface; But in the soul ten thousand forms do sit, And noue intrudes into her neighbour's place. All bodies are with other bodies fill'd, But she receives both Heav'n and Earth together: Nor are their forms by rash encounter spill'd, For there they stand, and neither toucheth either. Nor can her wide embracements filled be; For they that most and greatest things embrace, Enlarge thereby their mind's capacity, As streams enlarg'd, enlarge the channel's space. All things receiv'd do such proportion take, And narrow webs on narrow frames are weav'd. Then what vast body must we make the mind, From their gross matter she abstracts the forms, To bear them light on her celestial wings. This doth she, when, from things particular, And can be only lodg'd within our minds. And thus, from divers accidents and acts 2 That it cannot be a body. Nor could we by our eyes all colours learn, Nor can a man of passions judge aright, If, lastly, this quick pow'r a body were, Her nimble body yet in time must move, And not in instants through all places slide: But she is nigh and far, beneath, above, In point of time, which thought cannot divide: She 's sent as soon to China as to Spain; And thence returns, as soon as she is sent: She measures with one time, and with one pain, An ell of silk, and Heav'n's wide spreading tent. As then the soul a substance hath alone, Besides the body in which she 's confin'd; So hath she not a body of her own, But is a spirit, and immaterial mind. Since body and soul have such diversities, Well might we muse, how first their match began; But that we learn, that he that spread the skies, And fix'd the Earth, first form'd the soul in man. This true, Prometheus first made man of earth, And shed in him a beam of heav'nly fire; Now in their mother's wombs, before their birth, Doth in all sons of men their souls inspire. And as Minerva is in fables said, From Jove, without a mother, to proceed; So our true Jove, without a mother's aid, Doth daily millions of Minervas breed. SECTION V. ERRONEOUS OPINIÓNS OF THE CREATION OF SOULS. THEN neither from eternity before, Nor from the time, when time's first point begun, Made he all souls, which now he keeps in store; Some in the Moon, and others in the Sun: Nor in a secret cloister doth he keep These virgin-spirits, till their marriage day; Nor did he first a certain number make, So that the widow soul, her body dying, (These thoughts are fond; for since the bodies born Be more in number far, than those that die, Thousands must be abortive, and forlorn Ere others' deaths to them their souls supply :) But as God's handmaid, Nature, doth create Which himself makes of no material thing; For unto angels he no pow'r hath giv'n Either to form the shape, or stuff to bring From air or fire, or substance of the Heav'n. Nor herein doth he Nature's service use; For though from bodies she can bodies bring, Yet could she never souls from souls traduce, As fire from fire, or light from light doth spring. SECTION VI. THAT THE SOUL IS NOT EX TRADUCE. ALAS! that some who were great lights of old, And in their hands the lamp of God did bear! Some rev'rend fathers did this errour hold, Having their eyes dimm'd with religious fear. OBJECTION. For when, say they, by rule of faith we find, How can we say that God the soul doth make, But we must make him author of her sin? Then from man's soul she doth beginning take, Since in man's soul corruption did begin. For if God make her first he makes her ill, [unto;) (Which God forbid our thoughts should yield Or makes the body her fair form to spill, Which, of itself, it had not pow'r to do. Not Adam's body, but his soul did sin, And so herself unto corruption brought; But our poor soul corrupted is within, Ere she had sinn'd, either in act or thought: And yet we see in her such pow'rs divine, As we could gladly think, from God she came : Fain would we make him author of the wine, If for the dregs we could some other blame. ANSWER. Thus these good men with holy zeal were blind, When on the other part the truth did shine; Whereof we do clear demonstrations find, By light of nature, and by light divine. None are so gross as to contend for this, That souls from bodies may traduced be; Between whose natures no proportion is, When root and branch in nature still agree. | But many subtle wits have justify'd, That souls from souls spiritually may spring; Which (if the nature of the soul be try'd) Will e'en in nature prove as gross a thing. SECTION VII. REASONS DRAWN FROM NATURE. FOR all things made, are either made of nought, If then the soul another soul do make, Because her pow'r is kept within a bound, She must some former stuff or matter take; But in the soul there is no matter found. Then if her heav'nly form do not agree Again, if souls do other souls beget, T is by themselves, or by the body's pow'r: If by themselves, what doth their working let, But they might souls engender ev'ry hour? If by the body, how can wit and will Join with the body only in this act, Again, if souls of souls begotten were, Into each other they should change and move: And change and motion still corruption bear; How shall we then the soul immortal prove? If, lastly, souls do generation use, Then should they spread incorruptible seed: What then becomes of that which they do lose, When th' act of generation do not speed? And though the soul could cast spiritual seed, Therefore the angels sons of God are nam'd, And marry not, nor are in marriage giv❜n: Their spirits and ours are of one substance fram'd, And have one father, e'en the Lord of Heaven; Who would at first, that in each other thing The earth and water living souls should breed, But that man's soul, whom he would make their king, Should from himself immediately proceed. And when he took the woman from man's side, Lastly, God' being made man for man's own sake, |