LV. For ever had this ISLE in that dire pit, With cureless grief, and endless error stray'd, Had not the KING, whose laws he, fool! betray'd, O thou deep Well of life, wide stream of love, Thy love no time began, no time decays; But still increaseth with decreasing days: My callow wing, that newly left the nest, But thou my sister Muse*, may'st well go high'r, Then let me end my easier taken story, They crouch, and close to th' earth their horns have laid: Screen we our scorched heads in that thick beech's shade. Alluding to his brother and his poem entitled "Christ's Victory and Triumph." J CANTO II. I. DECLINING Phoebus, as he larger grows, Taxing proud folly gentler waxeth still; Where all his flock he round might feeding view, Of nymphs and shepherd-boys, thus 'gan his song renew. II. Now was this ISLE pull'd from that horrid main, Which bears the fearful looks and name of Death; And settled new with blood and dreadful pain By HIM who twice had giv'n, once forfeit, breath: Wherein, to curb the too aspiring mind, The better things were lost, the worst were left behind : III. That glorious image of himself was raz’d; Ah! scarce the place of that best part we find : Then mortal made; yet as one fainting dies, And drooping stock with branches fresh immortalize. So that lone *bird, in fruitful Arabic, When now her strength, and waning life decays, Upon some airy rock, or mountain high, In spicy bed (fir'd by new Phoebus' rays) *The Phoenix, 1 Herself, and all her crooked age consumes: Straight from the ashes, and those rich perfumes, A new born Phoenix flies, and widow'd place resumes. V. It grounded lies upon a sure *foundation, Compact and hard; whose matter, cold and dry, To marble turns in strongest congelation; Fram'd of fat earth, which fires together tie, VI. Whose looser ends are glew'd with brother earth§, Of self-same parents both, at self-same birth; Upon this base** a curious work is rais'd, Like undivided brick, entire and one, Tho' soft, yet lasting, with just balance pais'd++; Annexed to the Bones are the Cartilages, white, flexible, and smooth, which themselves oss fy in process of time. Some of them sustain and uphold certain parts. These are fastened together by a kind of cartilages called Ligaments. ** Upon the bones, as the foundation, reposes the flesh, soft, ruddy, and covered with the common membrane or skin. tt i. e. Poised. So Spenser. D And that the rougher frame might lurk unseen, As when a virgin her snow-circled breast Displaying hides, and hiding sweet displays; Thus takes and gives, thus lends and borrows light: Lest eyes should surfeit with too greedy sight, Transparent lawns with-hold, more to increase delight. IX. Nor is there any part in all this land, But is a little isle; for thousand brooks* In azure channels glide on silver sand; Their serpent windings, and deceiving crooks, Three diff'rent streams, from fountains different, (Yet each with other, friendly ever went) The whole body is watered, as it were, with great plenty of rivers; namely, the veins, arteries, and nerves. This was the universally received opinion, before Dr. Harvey made known his great discovery of the circulation of the blood. A vein is a hollow canal, which receives the blood from the artery, and conveys it back to the heart. XI. The next, though from the same springs first it rise, Doth lose his former name and qualities : Through many a dale it flows, and many a mountain; And therefore fenced with a double wall; The flast, in all things diff'ring from the other, Fall from an hill, and close together go, Embracing as they run; each with his brother Guarded with double trenches sure they flow: The coldest spring, yet nature best they have; And like the lacteal stones which Heaven pave; Slide down to ev'ry part with their thick milky wave. XIII. These with a thousand streams through th' Island roving, Next life, last sense, and arbitrary moving : For when the prince hath now his mandate sent, The nimble posts quick down the river run, And end their journey, though but now begun; But now the mandate came, and now the mandate's done. *An artery is a hollow canal, composed of fibres twisted together, which conveys the blood from the cavity of the heart to all the parts of the body. + A nerve is a whitish, round, slender body, arising from the brain, which is supposed to convey the animal spirits to all parts of the body. That is, the veins convey the nourishment; the artery, life and heat; the nerves, sense and motion; the will commands, and the mandate is executed almost in an instant. |