Which also God might in his works admire, Doth spread his glory forth with spiritual lays. Lastly, the brute, unreasonable wights, Did want a visible king, o'er them to reign: SECTION X. IN WHAT MANNER THE SOUL IS UNITED TO THE BODY BUT how shall we this union well express? Then dwells she not therein, as in a tent; Nor as the spider in his web is pent; Nor as a vessel water doth contain ; Nor as the heat doth in the fire remain; But as the fair and cheerful morning light To the transparent air in all and ev'ry 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 toss'd, not interrupted: So doth the piercing soul the body fill, Nor fore'd, encounter'd, troubled, or confus'd. And as the Sun above the light doth bring, So from the eternal light the soul doth spring, SECTION XI. HOW THE SOUL EXERCISES HER POWERS IN THE BODY. BUT as the world's Sun doth effect beget Diff'rent, in divers places, every day; Here autumn's temperature, their summer's heat; Here flow'ry spring-tide, and there winter grey. Here ev❜n, there morn; here noon, there day, there night, [some dead; Melts wax, dries clay, makes flow'rs, some quick, Makes the Moor black, the European white; Th' American tawny, and th' East Indian red: So in our little world, this soul of ours SECTION XII. THE VEGETATIVE POWER OF THE SOUL. HER quick'ning power in ev'ry living part, And busy care, her household to preserve. Here she attracts, and there she doth retain; There she decocts, and doth the food prepare; There she distributes it to ev'ry vein, There she expels what she may fitly spare. This pow'r to Martha may compared be. Who busy was, the household things to do: Or to a Dryas, living in a tree: For e'en to trees this pow'r is proper too. And though the soul may not this pow'r extend She hath a pow'r which she abroad doth send, SECTION XIII. THE POWER OF SENSE. THIS power is sense, which from abroad doth bring The colour, taste, and touch, and scent, and sound, The quantity and shape of ev'ry thing Within Earth's centre, or Heav'n's circle found. This pow'r, in parts made fit, fit objects takes; The print therein, but not itself, it leaves. And though things sensible be numberless, And in those five, all things their forms express, These are the windows, through the which she views SECTION XIV. SEEING. FIRST, the two eyes, which have the seeing pow'r, These mirrors take into their little space Of ev'ry body, and of ev'ry place, 1 Which with the world's wide arms embraced are: Yet their best object, and their noblest use, When God in them shall heav'nly light infuse, Here are they guides, which do the body lead, Which else would stumble in eternal night: Here in this world they do much knowledge read, And are the casements which admit most light: They are her furthest reaching instrument, If th' objects be far off, the rays do meet In a sharp point, and so things seem but small: If they be near, their rays do spread and fleet, And make broad points, that things seem great withal. Lastly, nine things to sight required are; The pow'r to see, the light, the visible thing, Being not too small, too thin, too nigh, too far, Clear space and time, the form distinct to bring. Thus see we how the soul doth use the eyes, As instruments of her quick pow'r of sight: Hence doth th' arts optic, and fair painting rise; Painting, which doth all gentle minds delight. |