SECTION III. 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 temper'd 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 pencil neat, and colours clear, Had power to make the painter excellent? 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, An healthy, perfect, and sharp-sighted mind. VOL. IV. D 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, 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 lends, 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 every thing seek gold in vain. For she all natures under Heav'n doth pass, [see, Being like those spirits, which God's bright face do Or like himself, whose image once she was, Though now, alas! she scarce his shadow be. 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? Or 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: No body can at once two forms admit, Except the one the other do deface; All bodies are with other bodies fill'd, But she receives both Heaven 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. * That it cannot be a body. 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, Doubtless, this could not be, but that she turns From their gross matter she abstracts the forms, This doth she, when, from things particular, And can be only lodg'd within our minds. And thus, from divers accidents and acts Again; how can she several bodies know, If from all shapes and forms it be not clear? 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, 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, So hath she not a body of her own, 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. |