Both of false judgements, and fond appetites?
Which makes us do, what Sense doth most refuse?
Which oft, in torment of the Sense delights?
Sense thinks the planets' spheres not much asunder;
What tells us, then, their distance is so far?
Sense thinks the lightning born before the thunder,
What tells us, then, they both together are?
When men seem crows, far off upon a tower;
Sense saith, "They are crows!" What makes us think them men?
When we, in agues, think all sweet things sour;
What makes us know our tongue's false judgements then?
What power was that, whereby MEDEA saw,
And well approved and praised the better course,
When her rebellious Sense did so withdraw
Her feeble powers, as she pursued the worst?
Did Sense persuade ULYSSES not to hear
The Mermaid's songs? which so his men did please,
As they were all persuaded through the ear,
To quit the ship, and leap into the seas.
Could any power 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 drowned,
It seems their souls but in their senses are."
If we had nought but sense, then only they
Should have sound minds, which have their senses sound;
But Wisdom grows, when senses do decay,
And Folly most, in quickest sense is found.
If we had nought but Sense, each living wight,
Which we call brute, would be more sharp than we;
As having Sense's apprehensive might
In a more clear and excellent degree.
But they do want that quick discoursing Power,
Which doth, in us, the erring Sense correct:
Therefore the bee did suck the painted flower,
And birds, of grapes the cunning shadow peckt.
Sense, outsides knows! the Soul, through all things sees,
Sense, circumstance! She doth, the substance view;
Sense sees the bark! but She, the life of trees;
Sense hears the sounds! but She, the concords true.
But why do I the Soul and Sense divide?
When Sense is but a power, which She extends,
Which being in divers parts diversified,
The divers Forms of objects apprehends?
This power spreads outward; but the root doth grow
In th'inward Soul, which only doth perceive;
For the Eyes and Ears, no more their objects know,
Than glasses know what faces they receive.
For if we chance to fix our thoughts elsewhere;
Although our eyes be ope, we do not see,
And if one Power did not both see and hear,
Our sights and sounds would always double be.
Then is the Soul a Nature which contains
The power of Sense within a greater power;
Which doth employ and use the senses' pains,
But sits and rules within her private bower.
[Sidenote: 3. That the Soul is more than the Temperature of the Humours
of the body.]
If She doth then the subtle Sense excel,
How gross are they, that drown her in the blood!
Or in the Body's humours tempered well,
As if in them, such high perfection stood.
As if most skill in that musician were,
Which had the best and best-tuned instrument;
As if the pencil neat, and colours clear
Had power to make the painter excellent
Why doth not Beauty then refine the Wit?
And good Complexion rectify the Will?
Why doth not Health bring Wisdom still with it?
Why doth not Sickness make men brutish still?
Who can in Memory, or Wit, or Will;
Or Air! or Fire! or Earth! or Water find!
What alchemist can draw, with all his skill,
The Quintessence of these, out of the Mind?
If th'Elements (which have, nor Life, nor Sense)
Can breed in us so great a power as this!
Why give they not themselves, like excellence,
Or other things wherein their mixture is?
If She were but the Body's quality
Then would She be, with it, sick! maimed! and blind!
But we perceive, when these privations be,
A healthy, perfect, and sharp-sighted Mind.
If She, the Body's nature did partake,
Her strength would, with the Body's strength decay;
But 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!
And in the Body's substance not the mist.
But it on Her, not She on it depends,
For She the Body doth sustain and cherish.
Such secret powers of life to it, She lends;
That when they fail, then doth the Body perish.
Since, then, the Soul works by herself alone,
Springs not from Sense, nor Humours well agreeing;
Her nature is peculiar, and her own.
She is a Substance! and a Perfect Being.
[Sidenote: 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 a heavenly influence;
Which from the 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 alchemists do find,
When they, in everything, seek gold, _in vain_.
For She, all natures under heaven doth pass;
Being like those spirits, which GOD's bright face do see,
Or like Himself! whose Image once She was,
Though now, alas, She scarce his Shadow be.
Yet of the forms, She holds the first degree,
That are to gross material bodies knit;
Yet She herself is bodiless and free,
And, though confined, is almost infinite.
[Sidenote: That it cannot be a Body.]
Were She a Body, how could She remain
Within this body, which is less than She?
Or how could She, the world's great shape contain;
And in our narrow breasts contained be?
All bodies are confined 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 none intrudes into her neighbour's place.
All bodies are, with other bodies filled,
But She receives both heaven and earth together,
Nor are their Forms, by rash encounter, spilled,
For there they stand, and neither toucheth either.
Nor can her wide embracements fillèd be;
For they that most and greatest things embrace,
Enlarge thereby their mind's capacity,
As streams enlarged, enlarge the channel's space.
All things received, do such proportion take,
As those things have, wherein they are received:
So little glasses, little faces make;
And narrow webs, on narrow frames be weaved:
Then, what vast body must we make the Mind?
Wherein 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.
Doubtless, this could not be, but that She turns
Bodies to Spirits, by sublimation strange;
As fire converts to fire, the things it burns;
As we, our meats into our nature change.
From their gross Matter, she abstracts the Forms,
And draws a kind of Quintessence from things,
Which to her proper nature, She transforms,
To bear them light on her celestial wings.
This doth She, when from things particular,
She doth abstract the universal kinds,
Which bodiless and immaterial are,
And can be lodged but only in our minds.
And thus, from divers accidents and acts,
Which do within her observation fall;
She, goddesses and Powers Divine abstracts,
As Nature, Fortune, and the Virtues all.
Again, how can She, several bodies know,
If in herself a body's form She bears?
How can a mirror sundry faces show,
If from all shapes and forms it be not clear?
Nor could we by our eyes, all colours learn,
Except our eyes were, of all colours void,
Nor sundry tastes can any tongue discern,
Which is with gross and bitter humours cloyed.
Nor may a man, of Passions judge aright,
Except his mind be from all Passions free;
Nor can a Judge, his office well acquite,
If he possest of either party be!
If, lastly, this quick power a Body were,
Were it as swift, as is the wind or fire,
(Whose atomies do, th' one down sideways bear,
And make the other, in pyramids aspire);
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 can not 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 heaven's wide-spreading tent.
As then, the Soul a Substance hath alone
Besides the Body, in which She is confined;
So hath She _not_ a body of her own,
But is a Spirit and immaterial Mind.
[Sidenote: That the Soul is created immediately by God.--_Zach_, xii.
x.]
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 fixed the earth, first formed the Soul in Man.
This true PROMETHEUS, first, made man of earth,
And shed in him a beam of heavenly fire:
Now, in their mother's womb, 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.
[Sidenote: Erroneous opinions of the creation of souls.]
Then neither, from Eternity before,
Nor from the time, when time's first point began;
Made He all souls! which now He keeps in store,
Some in the moon, and others in the sun:
Nor in the secret cloister doth He keep,
These virgin spirits until their marriage day,
Nor locks them up in chambers, where they sleep,
Till they awake within these beds of clay.
Nor did He first a certain number make,
Infusing part in beasts, and part in men,
And as unwilling farther pains to take,
Would make no more, than those He framèd then.
So that the widow Soul, her Body dying,
Unto the next born Body married was;
And so by often changing and supplying,
Men's souls to beasts, and beasts' to men did pass.
(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
Bodies, in time distinct and order due;
So GOD gives souls the like successive date,
Which Himself makes in bodies formèd new.
Which Himself makes, of no material things,
For unto angels, He no power hath given,
Either to form the shape, or stuff to bring,
From air, or Fire, or substance of the heaven.
[Sidenote: That the Soul is not traduced from the parents.]
Nor He, in this, doth 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.
Alas! that some that were great lights of old,
And in their hands the Lamp of GOD did bear,
Some reverend Fathers did this error hold,
Having their eyes dimmed with religious fear.
"For when," say they, "by rule of faith we find,
That every soul unto her body knit,
Brings from the mother's womb, the Sin of Kind,
The root of all the ill She doth commit."
"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,
(Which GOD forbid! our thoughts should yield unto)
Or makes the body, her fair form to spill;
Which, of itself, it hath no power 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 hath sinned, either in act or thought";
"And yet we see in her such powers 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."
[Sidenote: The Answer to the Objection.]
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 traducèd be;
Between whose natures no proportion is,
When root and branch in nature still agree.
But many subtle wits have justified
That Souls from Souls, spiritually may spring;
Which (if the nature of the Soul be tried)
Will even, in Nature, prove as gross a thing.
[Sidenote: Reasons derived from Nature.]
For all things made, are either made of nought,
Or made of stuff that ready made doth stand:
Of nought, no creature ever formed ought,
For that is proper to th'Almighty's hand.
If then the Soul, another soul do make;
Because her power 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 heavenly Form do not agree,
With any matter which the world contains;
Then She of nothing must created be,
And to Create, to GOD alone, pertains!
Again, if Souls do other Souls beget,
'Tis by themselves, or by the Body's power!
If by themselves! what doth their working let,
But they might Souls engender every hour?
If by the Body! how can Wit and Will,
Join with the body, only in this act?
Since when they do their other works fulfil,
They from the Body, do themselves abstract!
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 did generation use,
Then should they spread incorruptible seed:
What then becomes of that which they to lose,
When the acts of generation do not speed?
And though the Soul _could_ cast spiritual seed,
Yet _would_ She not, because She never dies;
For mortal things desire, their like to breed;
That so they may their kind immortalise.
Therefore the angels, Sons of God are named,
And marry not, nor are in marriage given;
Their spirits and ours are of one Substance framed,
And have one Father, even 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,
Doubtless Himself inspired her soul alone;
For 'tis not said, he did, Man's _soul_ divide,
But took _flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone_.
Lastly, GOD, being made Man, for man's own sake,
And being like man in all, except in sin:
His Body, from the Virgin's womb did take;
But all agree, _GOD formed His soul within_.
Then is the Soul from God? So Pagans say,
Which saw by Nature's light, her heavenly kind,
Naming her "Kin to God!" and "GOD's bright ray,"
"A citizen of heaven, to earth confined!"
But now I feel they pluck me by the ear,
(Whom my young Muse so boldly termed blind)
And crave more heavenly light; that cloud to clear,
Which makes them think GOD doth not make the Mind!
[Sidenote: Reasons drawn from divinity.]
GOD doubtless makes her! and doth make her good!
And grafts her in a Body, there to spring;
Which though it be corrupted, flesh and blood,
Can no way to the Soul, corruption bring.
And yet this Soul (made good by GOD at first,
And not corrupted by the Body's ill)
Even in the womb, is sinful and accurst,
Ere she can judge by Wit, or choose by Will.
Yet is not GOD, the author of her Sin;
Though author of her Being, and being there;
And if we dare to judge our Judge therein;
He can condemn us, and Himself can clear.
First, GOD, from infinite eternity
Decreed what hath been, is, or shall be done;
And was resolved that every man should Be
And, in his turn, his race of life should run.
And so did purpose all the souls to make,
That ever have been made, or ever shall;
And that their Being, they should only take
In human bodies, or not Be at all.
Was it then fit, that such a weak event
(Weakness, itself! the sin and fall of Man)
His counsel's execution should prevent?
Decreed and fixed before the world began.
Or that one penal law, by ADAM broke,
Should make GOD break His own eternal law;
The settled order of the world revoke,
And change all forms of things, which He foresaw.
Could EVE'S weak hand, extended to the tree,
In sunder rent that Adamantine Chain,
Whose golden links, Effects and Causes be;
And which to GOD's own chair, doth fixt remain?
O could we see! how Cause from Cause doth spring!
How mutually they linked and folded are!
And hear how oft one disagreeing string,
The harmony doth rather make, than mar!
And view at once, how Death by sin is brought!
And how from Death a better Life doth rise;
How this, GOD's Justice and his Mercy taught;
We, this decree, would praise, as right and wise!
But we (that measure times, by First and Last)
The sight of things successively do take;
When GOD, on all at once, His view doth cast;
And of all times, doth but one instant make.
All in Himself, as in a glass, He sees,
And from Him, by Him, through Him, all things be;
His sight is not discursive, by degrees;
But seeing the whole, each single part doth see.
He looks on ADAM, as a root, or well,
And on his heirs, as branches, and as streams;
He sees all men as one man! though they dwell
In sundry cities, and in sundry realms.
And as the root and branch are but one tree,
And well and stream do but one river make;
So, if the root and well corrupted be;
The stream and branch the same corruption take
So when the root and fountain of Mankind;
Did draw corruption, and GOD's curse by sin:
This was a charge that all his heirs did bind;
And all his offspring grew corrupt therein!
And as when th' hand doth strike, the man offends,
(For part from whole, Law severs not in this!)
So ADAM'S sin to the whole Kind extends,
For all their natures are but part of his.
Therefore, this sin, of Kind, not personal;
But real, and hereditary was:
The guilt whereof, and punishment to all,
By Course of Nature, and of Law doth pass.
For as that easy law was given to all!
To ancestor and heir! to first and last!
So was the first transgression general;
And All did pluck the fruit! and All did taste!
Of this, we find some footsteps in our Law,
Which doth her root from GOD and Nature take.
Ten thousand men she doth together draw,
And of them all, one Corporation make!
Yet these and their successors are but One;
And if they gain or lose their liberties;
They harm or profit not themselves alone,
But such, as in succeeding time, shall rise!
And so the ancestor and all his heirs,
(Though they in number pass the stars of heaven)
Are still but One! His forfeitures are theirs!
And unto them, are his advancements given!
His civil acts to bind and bar them all!
And as from ADAM, all corruption take;
So if the father's crime be capital;
In all the blood, Law doth _corruption_ make!
Is it, then, just with us, to disinherit
The unborn nephews, for the father's fault?
And to advance again, for one man's merit,
A thousand heirs that have deserved nought?
And is not GOD's decree as just as ours,
If He, for ADAM'S sins, his sons deprive
Of all those native virtues, and those powers;
Which He to him, and to his race did give?
For what is this contagious Sin of Kind,
But a privation of that grace within,
And of that great rich dowry of the mind;
Which all had had, but for the first man's sin?
If then a man, on light conditions, gain
A great estate, to him and his, for ever;
If wilfully, he forfeit it again:
Who doth bemoan his heir? or blame the giver?
So, though GOD make the Soul good, rich, and fair;
Yet when her form is to the Body knit,
Which makes the Man: which Man is ADAM'S heir;
Justly, forthwith, he takes his grace from it.
And then the Soul, being first from nothing brought,
When GOD's grace fails her, doth to nothing fall;
And this _declining Proneness unto nought_,
Is even that Sin, that we are born withal.
Yet not, alone, the first good qualities,
Which in the first Soul were, deprivèd are;
But in their place the contrary do rise,
And real spots of sin, her beauty mar.
Nor is it strange that ADAM'S ill desert,
Should be transferred unto his guilty race;
When CHRIST, His grace and justice doth impart
To men unjust! and such as have no grace!
Lastly, the Soul were better so to be
Born slave to sin, than not to Be at all!
Since, if She do believe, One sets her free,
That makes her mount the higher, from her fall.
Yet this, the curious Wits will not content!
They yet will know (since GOD foresaw this Ill)
Why His high providence did not prevent
The declination of the first Man's will.
If by His word, He had the current stayed,
Of Adam's will, which was by nature free;
It had been one as if His word had said,
"I will, henceforth, that man, no Man shall be!"
For what is Man, without a moving Mind;
Which hath a judging Wit, and choosing Will?
Now, if GOD's power should her election bind;
Her motions then would cease, and stand all still.
And why did GOD in Man this Soul infuse;
But that he should his Maker know and love?
Now if love be compelled, and cannot choose;
How can it grateful, or thankworthy prove?
Love must free hearted be, and voluntary,
And not enchanted, or by Fate constrained:
Not like that love, which did ULYSSES carry
To CIRCE'S isle, with mighty charms enchained
Besides! Were we unchangeable in Will,
And of a Wit, that nothing could misdeem;
Equal to GOD (whose wisdom shineth still,
And never errs) we might ourselves esteem.
So that if Man would be unvariable;
He must be GOD! or like a rock, or tree!
For even the perfect angels were not stable;
But had a fall, more desperate than we.
Then let us praise that Power, which makes us be
Men, as we are! and rest contented so!
And knowing man's fall was Curiosity,
Admire GOD's counsels! which we cannot know.
And let us know that GOD, the Maker is
Of all the Souls, in all the men that be:
Yet their corruption is no fault of His;
But the first man's, that broke GOD's first decree
[Sidenote: Why the Soul is united to the Body.]
This Substance, and this Spirit, of God's own making,
Is in the Body placed, and planted there:
That both of GOD, and of the world partaking;
Of all that is, Man might the Image bear!
GOD, first, made Angels! bodiless pure minds!
Then, other things, which mindless bodies be.
Last, He made Man, the Horizon 'twixt both kinds,
In whom, we do the World's Abridgement see.
Besides! This world below did need one wight,
Which might thereof, distinguish every part;
Make use thereof, and take therein delight;
And order things with industry and Art.
Which, also, GOD, might (in His works) admire,
And here, beneath, yield Him both prayer and praise;
As there, above, the holy Angels' Quire
Doth spread His glory, with spiritual lays.
Lastly, the brute unreasonable wights,
Did want a Visible King, on them to reign;
And GOD Himself, thus to the world unites,
That so the world might endless bliss obtain.
[Sidenote: In what manner the Soul is united to the Body.]
But how shall we this Union well express?
Nought ties the Soul, her subtility is such:
She moves the body, which She doth possess;
Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch!
Then dwells She _not_ therein, as in a tent,
Nor as a pilot, in his ship doth sit,
Nor as a spider, in her web is pent,
Nor as the wax retains the print in it:
Nor as a vessel, water doth contain,
Nor as one liquor, in another shed,
Nor as the heat doth in the fire remain,
Nor as a voice, throughout the air is spread.
But as the fair and cheerful Morning Light
Doth, here and there, her silver beams impart:
And, in an instant, doth herself unite
To the transparent air, in all and part.
Still resting whole, when blows, the air divide,
Abiding pure, when th'air is most corrupted;
Throughout the air, her beams dispersing wide;
And, when the air is tost, not interrupted!
So doth the piercing Soul, the Body fill,
Being all in all, and all in part diffused?
Indivisible! incorruptible still!
Not forced! encountered! troubled! or confused!
And as the Sun above, the light doth bring,
Though we behold it in the air below;
So from th' Eternal Light, the Soul doth spring,
Though in the body, She her powers do show.
[Sidenote: How the Soul doth exercise her powers in the Body.]
But as this world's sun doth effects beget,
Diverse in divers places, every day,
Here, Autumn's temperature! there, Summer's heat!
Here, flowery Spring-tide! and there, Winter grey!
Here, Even! there, Morn! here, Noon! there, Day! there, Night!
Melts wax! dries clay! makes flowers some quick, some dead!
Makes the Moor black! and th'European, white!
Th'American tawny! and th'East Indian red!
So in our little world, this Soul of ours,
Being only One, and to one Body tied,
Doth use on divers objects, diverse powers,
And so are her effects diversified.
[Sidenote: The Vegetative or Quickening Power.]