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Like *Heav'n in moving, like in heav'nly firing ; Sweet heat and light, no burning flame inspiring; Yet, ah! too oft we find, they scorch with hot desiring. XXV.

They mounted high, sit on a lofty hill ;
(For they the prince's best intelligence!
And quickly warn of future good or ill)

Here stands the palace of the noblest sense:

Here +Visus keeps, whose court than crystal smoother, And clearer seems; he, though a younger brother, Yet far more noble is, far fairer than the other.

XXVI.

Six bands are set to stir the moving tow'r :

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The first the proud band call'd, that lifts it higher;
The next the humble band, that moves it lower;
The bibbing third, draws it together nigher ;
The fourth disdainful, oft away is moving:

The other two, helping the compass roving,
Are called the circling trains and wanton bands of loving.
XXVII.

Above, Stwo compass groves (love's bended bows)
Which fence the tow'rs from floods of higher place:
Before, a wall, deluding rushing foes,

That shuts and opens in a moment's space :

The low part fix'd, the higher quick descending; Upon whose tops, spear-men their pikes intending, Watch there both night and day, the castle's port defending.

*Plato affirmed, they were lighted up with heavenly fire, not burning, but shining.

+ Visus, or the sight, is the noblest of all the senses.

These are six muscles moving the eye, thus termed by anatomists.

§ Above are the eye-brows, keeping off the sweat.

The eye-lids serve to keep off dust, flies, &c.

XXVIII.

Three divers lakes within these bulwarks lie,
The noblest parts, and instruments of sight:
The first, receiving forms of bodies nigh,

Conveys them to the next, and breaks the light,
Daunting his rash and forcible invasion;

And with a clear and whitish inundation, Restrains the nimble spirits from their too quick evasion. XXIX.

In midst of both is plac'd the crystal↑ pond;

Whose living water thick, and brightly shining

Like sapphires or the sparkling diamond,

His inward beams with outward light combining,
Alt'ring itself to every shape's aspect;

The divers forms doth further still direct,

Till by the nimble post they're brought to th' intellect.
XXX.

The third, like molten glass, all clear and white,
Both round embrace the noble crystalline.

Six Sinward walls fence in this tow'r of sight:
The first, most thick, doth all the frame enshrine,
And girts the castle with a close embrace,

Save in the midst, is left a circle's space,
Where light and hundred shapes, flock out and in apace.
XXXI.

The second not so massy as the other,

Yet thicker than the rest, and tougher fram'd,

There are three humours in the eye: the first the watery, breaking the too vehement light, and stopping the spirits from going out too fast. The second is the crystalline, and is the chief instrument of sight. The third, from its likeness, is called the glassy humour,

§ There are six tunicles belonging to the eye, the first called the conjunċtive, solid, thick, compassing the whole eye, except the black window.

The second is cornea or horny tunicle, transparent, and made of the hard mother.

Takes his beginning from that harder mother;
The outward part like horn, and thence is nam'd;
Through whose translucent sides much light is borne
Into the tow'r, and much kept out by th' horn;
Makes it a pleasant light, much like the ruddy morn.
XXXII.

The third of softer mould, is like a grape,
Which all entwines with his encircling side :
In midst, a window lets in every shape;

Which with a thought is narrow made, or wide .
His inmost side more black than starless night;
But outward part (how like an hypocrite!)
As painted Iris looks, with various colours dight.
XXXIII.

The +fourth of finest work, more slight and thin,
Than, or Arachne (which in silken twine
With Pallas strove) or Pallas' self could spin:
This round enwraps the fountain crystalline.
The next is made out of that milky spring,
That from the Cephal mount his waves doth fling,
Like to a curious net his substance scattering.

XXXIV.

His substance as the head spring perfect white;
Here thousand nimble spies are round dispread :
The forms caught in this net, are brought to sight,
And to his eyes are lively pourtrayed.

*The third is Uvea, or grapy, made of the tender mother, thin, and per vious by a small round window; is diversly coloured without, but exceeding black within.

The fourth is thinner than any cobweb, compassing the crystalline humour. The fifth, reticularis, is a netty tunicle, framed of the substance of the brain.

The last the glassy wall (that round encasing

The moat of glass, is nam'd from that enlacing) The white and glassy wells, parts with his strict embracing. XXXV.

Thus then is fram'd the noble Visus' bow'r ;

Th' outward light by the first wall's circle sending His beams and hundred forms into the tow'r,

The wall of horn, and that black gate transcending,
Is light'ned by the brightest crystalline,

And fully view'd in that white netty shine,
From thence with speedy haste is posted to the mind.
XXXVI.

Much as a one-eyed room, hung all with night,
Only that side, which adverse to his eye
Gives but one narrow passage to the light,
Is spread with some white shining tapestry,
An hundred shapes that through flit airs stray,
Rush boldly in, crowding that narrow way;
And on that bright fac'd wall obscurely dancing play
XXXVII.

Two pair of rivers from the head-spring flow,
To these two tow'rs, the first in their mid-race
(The spies conveying) twisted jointly go,
Strength'ning each other with a firm embrace.

The other pair, these walking tow'rs are moving;
At first but one, then in two channels roving:
And therefore both agree in standing or removing.

The sixth is called the glassy tunicle, clasping in the glassy humour. The eye hath two nerves, the optic or seeing nerve, and the moving one; the optic separate in their root, in the midst of their progress meet, and strengthen one another.

The moving, rising from the same stem, are at length severed; therefore as one moves, so moves the other.

XXXVIII.

Auditus*, second of the Pentarchy†,
Is next, not all so noble as his brother;
Yet of more need and more commodity:
His seat is plac'd somewhat below the other :
On each side of the mount's a double cave;

Both which a goodly portal doth embrave,
And winding entrance, like Mæander's erring wave.
XXXIX.

The portal hard and dry, all hung around
With silken, thin, carnation tapestry;

Whose open gate drags in each voice and sound,
That through the shaken air passes by:

The entrance winding, lest some violence
Might fright the judge with sudden influence,
Or some unwelcome guest, might vex the busy sense.
XL.

This Scave's first part, fram'd with a steep ascent,
For in four parts 'tis fitly severed)

Makes th' entrance hard, but easy the descent :
Where stands a braced drum, whose sounding head
(Obliquely plac'd) struck by the circling air,
Gives instant warning of each sound's repair,
Which soon is thence convey'd unto the judgment chair.
XLI.

The drum is made of substance hard and thin:

Which if some falling moisture chance to wet,

*Hearing is the second sense, less noble than the sight, but more needful, The five senses.

The outward ear is of a gristly matter, covered with the common tunicle; framed of many crooks, lest the air should enter too forcibly.

The inward ear consists of four passages, the first is steep, lest any thing should enter in.

If the drum be wet with the falling of the rheum, we are hard of hearing, if it grow thick, we become irrecoverably deaf.

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