Part 35 (1/2)

2 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 everything seek gold in vain.

3 For she all natures under heaven doth pa.s.s, Being like those spirits, which G.o.d's bright face do see, Or like Himself, whose image once she was, Though now, alas! she scarce his shadow be.

4 For of all 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.

5 Were she a body,[1] 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s contained be?

6 All bodies are confined within some place, But she all place within herself confines: All bodies have their measure and their s.p.a.ce; But who can draw the soul's dimensive lines?

7 No body can at once two forms admit, Except the one the other do deface; But in the soul ten thousand forms do fit, And none intrudes into her neighbour's place.

8 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.

9 Nor can her wide embracements filled be; For they that most and greatest things embrace, Enlarge thereby their mind's capacity, As streams enlarged, enlarge the channel's s.p.a.ce.

10 All things received, do such proportion take, As those things have, wherein they are received: So little gla.s.ses little faces make, And narrow webs on narrow frames are weaved.

11 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?

12 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.

13 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.

14 This doth she, when, from things particular, She doth abstract the universal kinds, Which bodiless and immaterial are, And can be only lodged within our minds.

15 And thus from divers accidents and acts, Which do within her observation fall, She G.o.ddesses and powers divine abstracts; As nature, fortune, and the virtues all.

16 Again; how can she several bodies know, If in herself a body's form she bear?

How can a mirror sundry faces show, If from all shapes and forms it be not clear?

17 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 cloy'd.

18 Nor can a man of pa.s.sions judge aright, Except his mind be from all pa.s.sions free: Nor can a judge his office well acquit, If he possess'd of either party be.

19 If, lastly, this quick power a body were, Were it as swift as in the wind or fire, Whose atoms do the one down sideways bear, And the other make in pyramids aspire;

20 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 cannot divide;

21 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.

22 As then the soul a substance hath alone, Besides the body in which she's confined; So hath she not a body of her own, But is a spirit, and immaterial mind.

23 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.

24 This true Prometheus first made man of earth, And shed in him a beam of heavenly fire; Now in their mothers' wombs, before their birth, Doth in all sons of men their souls inspire.

25 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.