every whit In every point she likes that latter well So that its plain that some kind of insight Of Gods own being in the soul doth dwell Though what God is we cannot yet so plainly tell 11 As when a name lodg'd in the memory But yet through time almost obliterate Confusely hovers near the phantasie The man that 's thus affected bids relate A catalogue of names It is not that Saith he nor that that 's something like to it That nothing like that 's likst of all I wot This last you nam'd it 's not like that a whit O that 's the very name now we have rightly hit 12 Thus if 't be lawfull least things to compare With greatest so our selves affected be Concerning Gods high essence for we are Not ignorant quite of this mystery Nor clearly apprehend the Deity But in mid state I call 't parturient And should bring forth that live Divinity Within our selves if once God would consent To shew his specious form and nature eminent 13 For here it lies like colours in the night Unseen and unregarded but the sunne Displayes the beauty and the gladsome plight Of the adorned earth while he doth runne His upper stage But this high prize is wonne By curbing sense and the self-seeking life True Christian mortification Thus God will his own self in us revive If we to mortifie our straitned selves do strive 14 But can ought bodily Gods form receive Or have it in its self potentially Or can ought sprung of this base body heve It self so high as to the Deitie To clamber strive to reach infinity Can ought born of this carcase be so free As to grasp all things in large sympathie Can lives corporeall quite loosened be From their own selves casheering their centreity 15 These all ill suit with corporeitie But do we not amisse with stroke so strong All to dispatch at once needed we flie So high at first we might have chose among The many arguments that close do throng And tender their own selves this cause to prove Some of a meaner rank and then along Fairly and softly by degrees to move My Muse kens no such pomp she must with freedome rove 16 And now as chance her guides compendiously The heads of many proofs she will repeat Which she lists not pursue so curiously But leaves the Reader his own brains to beat To find their fuller strength As the souls meat Of which she feeds if that she fed at all She is immortall if she need not eat But if her food prove to be spiritall Then can we deem herself to be corporeall 17 The souls most proper food is verity Got and digest by Contemplation Hence strength enlargement and activity She finds as th' body by infusion Of grosser meats and drinks concoction Well perfected our limbs grow strong by these The soul by reasons right perswasion But that truths spiritall we may with ease Find out For truth the soul from bodies doth release 18 Next argument let be abstraction When as the soul with notion precise Keeps off the corporall condition And a nak'd simple essence doth devise Against the law of Corporeities It doth devest them both of time and place And of all individualities And matter doth of all her forms uncase Corporeall wight such subtile virtue never has 19 Now shall the indivisibilitie Of the souls virtues make an argument For certainly there 's no such qualitie Resideth in a body that 's extent For tell me is that quality strait pent Within a point of that corporeall Or is it with some spreaden part distent If in a point then longs it not at all To th' body in spread part then 't is extentionall 20 But that some virtue 's not extentionall May thus be proved Is there no science Of numbers Yes But what is principall And root of all have we intelligence Of Unities Or else what 's sprong from thence We could not know what doth the soul then frame Within her self Is that Idea extense Or indivisible If not we 'll blame The soul of falshood and continuall lying shame 21 Again if we suppose our intellect Corporeall then must we all things know By a swift touch what do we then detect The truth of bignesse when one point doth go Of our quick mind It need not be â—o'reslow For infinite parts be found in quantitie Or doth it use its latitude If so Remember that some things unspreaden be How shall it find them out Or if 't use both we 'll see 22 That both be unsufficient I prove A point cannot discern loose unity Freed from all site That latitude must move On all the body that it doth descry So must it be upstretch'd unto the skie And rub against the Stars surround the Sun And her own parts to every part apply Then swiftly fridge about the pallid Moon Thus both their quantities the mind hath strangely won 23 Adde unto these that the soul would take pains For her destruction while she doth aspire To reach at things that were her wofull gains That be not corporall but seated higher Above the bodies sphere Thus should she tire Her self to ' stroy her self Again the mind Receives contrary forms The feverish fire Makes her cool brooks and shadowing groves to find Within her thoughts thus hot and cold in one she binds 24 Nor is she chang'd by the susception Of any forms For thus her self contraire Should be unto her self But Union She then possesseth when heat and cold are Together met They meet withouten jarre Within our souls Such forms they be not true You 'll say But of their truth lest you despair Each form in purer minds more perfect hew Obtains then those in matter we do dayly view 25 For there they 're mixt soild and contaminate But truth doth clear unweave and simplifie Search sever pierce open and disgregate All ascititious cloggins then doth eye The naked essence and its property Or you must grant the soul cannot define Ought right in things or you must not deny These forms be true that in her self do shine These be her rule of truth these her unerring line 26 Bodies have no such properties Again See in one cluster many arguments Compris'd She multitudes can close constrain Into one nature Things that be fluent As flitting time by her be straight retent Unto one point she joyns future and past And makes them steddy stand as if present Things distant she can into one place cast Calls kinds immortall though their singulars do waste 27 Upon her self she strangely operates And from her self and by her self returns Into her self thus the soul circulates Do bodies so Her axle-tree it burns With heat of motion This low world she spurns Raiseth her self to catch infinity Unspeakable great numbers how she turns Within her mind like evening mist the eye Discerns whose muddy atomes 'fore the wind do fly 28 Stretcheth out time at both ends without end Makes place still higher swell often creates
light 32 And when he hath that life elicited He gives his own dear body and his bloud To drink and eat Thus dayly we are fed Unto eternall life Thus do we bud True heavenly plants suck in our lasting food From the first spring of life incorporate Into the higher world as erst I show'd Our lower rayes the soul to subjugate To this low world we fearlesse sit above all fate 33 Safely that kingdomes glory contemplate O'reflow with joy by a full sympathie With that worlds sprite and blesse our own estate Praising the fount of all felicitie The lovely light of the blest Deitie Vain mortals think on this and raise your mind Above the bodies life strike through the skie With piercing throbs and sighs that you may find His face Base-fleshly fumes your drowsie eyes thus blind 34 So hath my Muse according to her skill Discovered the soul in all her rayes The lowest may occasionate much ill But is indifferent Who may dispraise Dame Natures work But yet you ought to raise Your selves to higher state Eternitie Is the souls rest and everlasting dayes Aspire to this and hope for victorie I further yet shall prove her immortalitie The Argument of PSYCHATHANASIA Or The Immortality of the Soul BOOK III. CANT 2. From many arguments we show The independencie Of humane souls That all Lives flow From a free Deitie 1 THree apprehensions do my mind divide Concerning the souls preexistencie Before into this outward world she glide So hath my Muse with much uncertaintie Exprest her self so as her phantasie Strongly inacted guides her easie pen I nought obtrude with sow'r anxietie But freely offer hints to wiser men The wise from rash assent in darksome things abstein 2 Or souls be well awake but hovering Not fixt to ought but by a Magick might Drawable here and there and so their wing Struck with the steem of this low Mundane sprite May lower flag and take its stooping flight Into some plantall man new edified By his own plastick point Or else deep Night Drawn on by drooping phansie she doth slide Into this world and by her self that skill is tried 3 Makes to her self this fleshly habitation For this worlds spirit hath provok'd these rayes Then drown in sleep she works that efformation Of her own body all its parts displayes As doth the senselesse plant The two next wayes Are these A reall tricentreitie First centre ever wakes unmoved stayes Hight Intellect The next in sleep doth lie Till the last centre burst into this open skie 4 And then the middle wakes But the last way Makes but one centre which doth sleep likewise Till its low life hath reach'd this worlds glad day A fourth we 'll adde that we may all comprise Take quite away all preexistencies Of humane souls and grant they 're then first made When they begin this bodies edifice And actually this outward world invade None of these wayes do show that they must ever fade 5 The first way might be well occasioned By what the soul in her self feels and tries She works sometime as though she quite had fled All commerce with these low carnalities Yet falls she down at last and lowly lies In this base mansion is so close contract That sleep doth seise her actualities Retains no memory of that strange fact Nor of her self that soar'd in that high heavenly tract 6 The second way that makes the soul tricentrall The highest awake the other with sleep drownd May spring from hence None would vouchsafe the entrall Into this life if they were but once bound To that vast centre where all things are found Hight Intellect The lowest is not awake Therefore the midst lies close in sleep upwound Three centres made that souls may quite forsake This baser world when union with the lowest they break 7 Again because this bodie 's fashioned Without our knowledge reason doth suggest That it could no wise be thus figured From our own centre and yet we not prest To any adversion Therefore we are drest With this grosse clothing by some plantall spright Centred in Nature So that glorious vest The Deiform intellect by our own might's Not made But we have rayes which each of these will fit 8 Ardent desire strong breathing after God At length may work us to that better place Body or clothing that high sure aboad That searching weather nor time can deface But to go on in our proposed race The third and fourth way have the same foundation Not multiplying beings to surpasse Their use What needs that numerous clos'd centration Like wastefull sand ytost with boisterous inundation 9 Let wiser Clerks the truth dare to define I leave it loose for men to muse upon View at their leasure But yet this call mine Though we should grant the souls condition Before her deep incorporation Into dull matter to be nothing more But bare potentiality yet none Can prove from thence that she must fade therefore When to its earth this earth the trusty fates restore 10 For though she and her body be at once Yet of her body she doth not depend But it of her she doth its members branch Pierce bind digest and after makes it wend At her own will when she hath brought to end Her curious work and hath consolidate Its tender limbs which earst did feebly bend Through weaknesse then this world she contemplates And life still blazing higher seeks an heavenly state 11 Breaths after the first fountain of all life Her sweet Creatour thither doth aspire Would see his face nor will she cease this strife Till he fulfill her thirsty fierce desire Nothing can quench this so deep rooted fire But his own presence So he gins despise This bodies pleasures ceaseth to admire Ought fair or comely to these outward eyes Or if she do from hence she higher doth arise 12 But can she higher rise then her own head Therefore her spring is God thence doth she pend Thence did she flow thither again she 's fled When she this life hath lost and made an end Of this low earthly course she doth ascend Unto her circles ancient Apogle Lifted aloft not again to descend Nor stoups not sets that Sunne but standeth free On never shaken pillars of Aeternitie 13 But still this truth more clearly to evince Remember how all things are from one light It shall thy reason forceably convince That nought but God destroyes a centrall spright If he sucks in his beams eternall night Seiseth upon that life that it no'te flow In actuall efflux hath no being quite But Gods own power He lets his breath out go The self-same things again so eas'ly doth he show 14 Let be Noon day the welkin clear the Moon I' th' nether world reflecting the Suns rayes To cheer the irksome night Well! That being done Call out some wondrous might that listlesse stayes In slower phansies Bid't break all delayes Surround with solid dark opacity The utmost beams that Phoebus light displayes Softly steal on
poyson do outspue Or have an ugly shape and foule presence That deadly poison and that direfull hue From this Nocturnall spright these uggly creaturâ—◠〈◊〉 27 This is the seat of Gods eternall ire When unmixt vengeance he doth fully powre Upon foul souls fit for consuming fire Fierce storms and tempests strongly doth he show Upon their heads His rage doth still devoure The never dying soul Here Satanas Hath his full swing to torture every houre The grisly ghosts of men when they have passe From this mid world to that most direfull dismall place 28 Did Nature but compile one mighty sphere Of this dark Stygian spright and close collect Its scatter'd being that it might appear Aloft in the wide heaven it would project Dark powerfull beams that solar life ycheckt With these dull choking rayes all things would die Infernall poyson the earth would infect Incessant showrs of pitchie shafts let flie Against the Sun with darknesse would involve the skie 29 Nor is my Muse wox mad that thus gives life To Night or Darknesse sith all things do live But Night is nothing straight I 'll end that strife Doth nought impressions to the sense derive If without prejudice you 'll deigne to dive Into the matter as much realty To darknesse as to coldnesse you will give Certes both night and coldnesse active be Both strike the sense they both have reall entity 30 Again 't is plain that that nocturall spright Sends forth black eben-beams and mirksome rayes Because her darknesse as the Sunne his light More clearly doth reflect on solid place As when a wall a shade empighten has Upon it sure that shade farre darker is Then is the aire that lies in the mid space What is the reason but that rayes emisse From centrall Night the walls reflexion multiplies 31 The light 's more light that strikes upon the wall And much more strongly there affects the eye Then what 's spread in the space aereall So 't is with shadows that amid do lie In the slight air there scarce we them descrie But when they fall upon the wall or ground They gain a perfect sensibilitie Scarce ought in outgone light is to be found But this Nocturnall ray's with like indowments crown'd 32 But why doth my half-wearied mind pursue Dim sculking darknesse a fleet nimble shade If Moses and wise Solomon speak true What we assert may safely well be said Did not a palpable thick Night invade The Land of Egypt such as men might feel And handle with their hands That darknesse ray'd From nether Hell and silently did steal On th' enemies of God as Scripture doth reveal 33 The womb of Night then fully flowred out For that all-swaying endlesse Majestie Which penetrateth those wide worlds throughout This thin spread darknesse that dispers'd doth lie Summon'd by his drad voice and strong decree Much therefore of that spirit close unite Into one place did strike the troubled eye With horrid blacknesse and the hand did smite With a clam pitchie ray shot from that Centrall Night 34 This Centrall Night or Universall spright Of wo of want of balefull bitternesse Of hatred envy wrath and fell despight Of lust of care wasting disquietnesse Of warre contention and bloud-thirstinesse Of zeal of vengeance of suspicion Of hovering horrour and sad pensivenesse This Stygian stream through all the world doth run And many wicked souls unto it self hath wonne 35 Lo here 's the portion of the Hypocrite That serveth God but in an outward show But his drad doom must passe upon his sprite Where it propends there surely must he go Due vengeance neither sleepeth nor is slow Hell will suck in by a strong sympathie What 's like unto it self So down they flow Devouring anguish and anxietie Do vex their souls in piteous pains alas they lie 36 Thus with live Hell be they concorporate United close with that self-gnawing sprite And this I wot will breed no sleeping state Who here descends finds one long restlesse Night May this the dreaming Psychopannychite Awake and make him seriously prepare And purge his heart lest this infernall might Suck in his soul 'fore he be well aware Kill but the seeds of sinne then are you past this fear 37 Thus have I prov'd by the souls union With heaven and hell that she will be awake When she from this mid Nature is ygone But still more curious task to undertake And spenden time to speak of Lethe lake And whether at least some souls fall not asleep Which if they do of Hell they do partake Whether who liv'd like plant or grazing sheep Who of nought else but sloth and growth doth taken keep 38 Whose drooping phansie never flowred out Who relish'd nought but this grosse bodies food Who never entertaind an active thought But like down-looking beasts was onely mov'd To feed themselves whither this drousie mood So drench the lowring soul and inly steep That she lies senselesse drownd in Lethe floud Who will let dive into this mysterie deep Into such narrow subtilties I list not creep 39 But well I wote that wicked crueltie Hate envie malice and ambition Bloud-sucking zeal and lawlesse tyrannie In that Nocturnall sprite shall have their wonne Which like this world admits distinction But like will like unto it strongly draw So every soul shall have a righteous doom According to our deeds God will bestow Rewards Unto the cruell he 'll no mercy show 40 Where 's Nimrod now and dreadfull Hannibal Where 's that ambitious pert Pellean lad Whose pride sweld bigger then this earthly ball Where 's cruell Nero with the rest that had Command and vex'd the world with usage bad They 're all sunk down into this nether hell Who erst upon the Nations stoutly strad Are now the Devils footstool His drad spell Those vassals doth command though they with fury swell 41 Consuming anguish styptick bitternesse Doth now so strangle their imperious will That in perpetuall disquietnesse They roll and rave and roar and rage their fill Like a mad bull that the slie hunters skill Hath caught in a strong net But more they strive The more they kindle that tormenting ill Wo's me in what great miserie they live Yet wote I not what may these wretched thralls relieve 42 The safest way for us that still survive Is this even our own lust to mortifie So Gods own Will will certainly revive Thus shall we gain a perfect libertie And everlasting life But if so be We seek our selves with ardent hot desire From that Infornall Night we are not free But living Hell will kindle a fierce fire And with uncessant pains our vexed soul will tire 43 Then the wild phanfie from her horrid wombe Will senden forth foul shapes O dreadfull sight Overgrown toads fierce serpents thence will come Red-scaled Dragons with deep burning light In their hollow eyeâ—pits With these she must fight Then thinks her self ill wounded sorely stung Old fulsome Hags with scabs and skurf bedight Foul tarry
in these points farre deeper seen Than either Corvin or Don Graculo Yea than my self assent doth almost win That Church nor Scripture cast in reason too Can to our searching minds truth's hidden treasures show 103 Wherefore a fourth sole ground of certainty Thou didst produce to weet the Spirit divine But now alas here is the misery That left to doubt we cannot well enjoyn Nor this nor that nor Faith-forms freely coyn And make the trembling conscience swear thereto For we our selves do but ghesse and divine What we force other men to swear is true Untill the day-star rise our eyes with light t' embew 104 Which gift though it be given to me and you Mn. Not unto me courteous Don Psittaco Ps Yet certainly there be but very few That so sublime a pitch ascend unto Mn. My self alas a silly Swain I know So far from solving these hard knots said I That more and harder my ranck brain o're grow And wonder that thy quick sagacity Doth not winde out a further inconveniency 105 If light divine we know by divine light Nor can by any other means it see This ties their hands from force that have the spirit How can said Psittaco these things agree For without force vain is Church-Polity Mn. But to use force ' gainst men that thing to do In which they 've not the least ability May seem unjust and violent I trow Gainst reason ' gainst Religion ' gainst all sence and law 106 For 't is as if the King of Arragon Who was well skilled in Astronomy Should by decree deprive each Countrey Clown Of life of lands or of sweet liberty That would not fully avow each star in sky Were bigger then the Earth Here Psittaco Though what I said did not well satisfie His grave judicious self yet he did know Of whom this talk much ' plause would gain and kindnesse too 107 And straight gan say Dear Glaucis hadst thou been At this discourse how would thy joyous spright Have danc'd along For thou art or well seen In these queint points or dost at least delight Exceeding much to hear them open'd right And well I wot on earth scarce can be found So witty girl so wily female wight As this my Glaucis over all renown'd I mean for quicker parts if not for judgment sound 108 How fit an Auditour would she then prov'd To thee young Mnemon how had she admired Thy sifting wit thy speech and person lov'd Clove to that mouth with melting zeal all fired And hung upon those lips so highly inspired Mn. Certes she 'd been a bold immodest wight To come so near when not at all desired Ps Alas good Mnemon you mistake me quite I meant no fond salutes bu what is just and right 109 Her due attention on thy wise discourse Though what thou deemst and more then thou didst deem May fit you too For why by Natures course Like joyn with like wherefore right well I ween Mought I but make the match 't would well beseem For your conspiring minds exactly agree In points which the wide world through wrath and teen Rudely divide I mean free Liberty Be 't so said I yet may our grounds farre different be 110 For might I but repeat without offence What I have heard ill symtomes men descry In this thy Glaucis though the nimble wench So dexterously can pray and prophecy And lectures read of drad mortality Clasping her palms with fatall noise and shreeks Inculcating approching misery To sad afflicted houses when she strikes With brushing strokes the glassie doors and entrance seeks 111 Nor doth her solemne looks much like her Sire Or native zeal which she did once derive From thee grave Psittaco exalt her higher Then Earth and Nature For men do conceive Black sanguine fumes my spouse do thus deceive Translating her into fools Paradise And so of sense and reason her bereave And that that melting love which doth so please Her gulled soul the thawing is of her own grease 112 The naturall spright it self doth sweetly hug In false conceit and ill-deceiving guile Sucking fond solace from it's own dear dug Like the mistaken Cat that lick'd the file And drawing bloud uncessantly did toyl To suck hat sweet as if there Moses rock Had swet new milk Thus Glaucis doth beguil Her likorish taste al 's ' doth delude her flock Teaching them suck themselves their empty souls to mock 113 Thus they intoxicate with their own bloud Mistaken Elves deem it no worse a thing Then pure Ambrosian Nectar fresh and good In golden streams that from great Jove did spring And count themselves His onely choice Ofspring Upon no count but that their count is so O sweet conceit full joy Soul-ravishing Delight Pure faith Self-love keep close thereto Allow but this to us we 'll any thing allow 114 Besides the fixednesse of th' eternall Fates And Adamantine laws of Gods decree Whereby immutably he loves and hates May prove new grounds of Glaucis liberty No danger then nor detriment can be To his own people whom of old he chose From the out goings of Eternity No infecting poyson may them ill dispose What worthlesse wit of man this puzling knot may loose 115 Did not I tell thee what a wily lasse Said Psittace my daughter Glaux would prove And well perceiving how averse I was From her strange manners left all suits of love And straight gan show me how she did improve Her principles to lewdnesse and excesse Secure no fault no filth can ever move Her Maker to dislike no unrighteousnesse Can hurt her soul ne sorrow needs she to expresse 116 Thus in the wicked wench rank fields do grow Of Rapine Riot Lust and Covetize Of Pride of Sacriledge and a thousand moe Disorders which no mortall can devise Said I from ought but that mistake t' arise Of naked Faith disjoyn'd from Purity So with full bitter words he did chastise His absent child but whether zeal it be Or deep conceived hatred I no'te well descry 117 Nor stopt he here but told me all her guise How law-lesse quite and out of shape she 's grown Affecting still wilde contrarieties Averse from what for good all others own Preposterous Girl how often hast thou thrown Thy self into dark corners at Mid-day And then at dead of Night away art flown To some old barn thereon to preach and pray Ending thy dark devotions just at Break of day 118 When others sleep or weep then dost thou sing In frosty night on neighbours chimney set When others fast ' ginst thou thy revelling Thy lustfull sparrows greedily dost eat Which thou by bloud and violence dost get When others eyes plainly can nothing see Then thy prodigious lamps by night unwet And unblown-out can read right readily Withouten spectacles the smallest prints that be 119 If chance or free election ever brings Thee to our Churches then with hooting wild Thou causest uproars and our holy things Font Table Pulpit they be all defil'd
rais'd upon her spreaden wing She softly playes and warbles in the wind And carols out her inward life and spring Of overflowing joy and of pure love doth sing 4 She sings of purest love not that base passion That fouls the soul with filth of lawlesse lust And Circe-like her shape doth all misfashion But that bright flame that 's proper to the just And eats away all drosse and cankred rust With its refining heat unites the mind With Gods own spright who raiseth from the dust The slumbring soul and with his usage kind Makes 't breath after that life that time hath not defin'd 5 So hath he rais'd my soul and so possest My inward spright with that unfained will He bears to Psyche's brood that I nere rest But ruth or ragefull indignation fill My troubled veins that I my life near spill With sorrow and disdain for that foul lore That crept from dismall shades of Night and quill Steep'd in sad Styx and fed with stinking gore Suckt from corrupted corse that God and men abhorre 6 Such is thy putid muse Lucretius That fain would teach that souls all mortall be The dusty Atoms of Democritus Certes have fall'n into thy feeble eye And thee bereft of pâ—rspicacity Others through the strong steem of their dull bloud Without the help of that Philosophy Have with more ease the truth not understood And the same thing conclude in some sad drooping mood 7 But most of all my soul doth them refuse That have extinguish'd natures awfull light By evil custome and unkind abuse Of Gods young tender work that in their spright He first gins frame But they with heddy might Of over-whelming liquour that life drownd And reasons eye swell up or put out quite Hence horrid darknesse doth their souls confound And foul blasphemous belch from their furd mouth resounds 8 Thus while false way they take to large their spirit By vaster cups of Bacchus they get fire Without true light and ' cording to demerit Infernall blasts blind confidence inspire Bold heat to uncouth thoughts is their bad hire Which they then dearly hug and ween their feet Have clombe whither vulgar men dare not aspire But it s the fruit of their burnt sootie spright Thus dream they of drad death and an eternall night 9 Now in the covert of dame Natures cell They think they 'r shrowded and the mystery Of her deep secrets they can wisely spell And ' pprove that art above true piety Laugh at religion as a mockery A thing found out to aw the simpler sort But they brave sparks have broke from this dark tie The light of nature yields more sure comfort Alas too many souls in this fond thought consort 10 Like men new made contriv'd into a cave That ne're saw light but in that shadowing pit Some uncouth might them hoodwink hither drave Now with their backs to the dens mouth they sit Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit So much gets in as Optick art counts meet To shew the forms that hard without do flit With learned quaere each other here they greet True moving substances they deem each shadow slight 11 When fowls flie by and with their swapping wings Beat the inconstant air and mournfull noise Stirre up with their continuall chastisings In the soft yielding penitent the voice These solemn Sages nought at all accoyes 'T is common onely they philosophize Busying their brains in the mysterious toyes Of flittie motion warie well advize On'ts inward principles the hid Entelechies 12 And whereabout that inward life is seated That moves the living creature they espie Passing in their dim world So they 'r defeated Calling thin shadows true realitie And deeply doubt if corporalitie For so they term those visibles were stroy'd Whether that inward first vitalitie Could then subsist But they are ill accloy'd With cloddie earth and with blind duskishnesse annoy'd 13 If roaring Lion or the neighing Horse With frisking tail to brush off busie flies Approch their den then haply they discourse From what part of these creatures may arise Those greater sounds Together they advise And gravely do conclude that from the thing That we would term the tail those thund'ring neyce Do issue forth tail of that shadowing They see then moved most while he is whinneying 14 And so the Lions huge and hideous roar They think proceeds from his rugg'd flowing mane Which the fierce winds do tosse and tousell sore Unlesse perhaps he stirre his bushie train For then the tail will carrie it again Thus upon each occasion their frail wit Bestirres it self to find out errours vain And uselesse theories in this dark pit Pond reasoning they have seldome or never hit 15 So soon new shadows enter in the cave New entelechias they then conceive Brought forth of nature when they passed have Their gloomy orb false shades eas'ly deceive Not onely they that visible bereave Of life and being but the hidden might And moving root unliv'd unbeen'd they leave In their vain thoughts for they those shadows slight Do deem sole prop and stay of th' hidden motive spright 16 This is that awfull cell where Naturalists Brood deep opinion as themselves conceit This Errours den where in a magick mist Men hatch their own delusion and deceit And grasp vain shows Here their bold brains they beat And dig full deep as deep as Hyle's hell Unbare the root of life O searching wit But root of life in Hyles shade no'te dwell For God's the root of all as I elsewhere shall tell 17 This is the stupid state of drooping soul That loves the body and false forme admires Slave to base sense fierce ' gainst reasons controul That still it self with lower lust bemires That nought believeth and much lesse desires Things of that unseen world and inward life Nor unto height of purer truth aspires But cowardly declines the noble strife ' Gainst vice and ignorance so gets it no relief 18 From this default the lust full Epicure Democrite or th' unthankfull Stagirite Most men preferre 'fore holy Pythagore Divinest Plato and grave Epictete But I am so inflam'd with the sweet sight And goodly beauty seen on Eloim-hill That maugre all mens clamours in despight I 'll praise my Platonissa with loud quill My strong intended voice all the wide world shall fill 19 O sacred Nymph begot of highest Jove Queen of Philosophie and virtuous lear That firest the nobler heart with spotlesse love And sadder minds with Nectar drops dost chear That oft bedrencht with sorrows while we 're here Exil'd from our dear home that heavenly soil Through wandring wayes thou safely dost us bear Into the land of truth from dirtie foil Thou keepst our slipping feet oft wearied with long toil 20 When I with other beauties thine compare O lovely maid all others I must scorn For why they all rude and deform'd appear Certes they be ill thew'd and baser born Yet thou alas of men art more forlorn For like will to its
Straight all night-trifling sprights doth chase away with fear 12 Long have I swonk with anxious assay To finden out what this hid soul may be That doth her self so variously bewray In different motions Other we her see When she so fairly spreads the branching tree Other when as sh ' hath loos'd her self from ground And opes her root and breaths in heaven free And doth her wants in the wide air resound Speaks out her joy no longer whispers under-ground 13 Such is the noise of chearfull chirping birds That tell the sweet impressions of the Spring Or 'fore some storm when their quick sprights be stird With nearer strong appulse and hid heaving That fills their little souls and makes them sing Puft up with joy and o'rflowing delight Estsoons with ratling winds the air doth ring The sturdy storm doth make them take their flight Into thick bush or hedge to save them from heavens spight 14 From this same sourse of sense are murmuring moans Of bellowing bullocks when sharp hunger bites Hence whining dog so pittifully groans When as with knotted whip his Lord him smites And every beast when with Deaths pangs he fights But senslesse trees nor feel the bleaker wind That nip their sides nor the Suns scorching might Nor the sharp ax piercing their ruggid rind Yet have they soul whose life in their sweet growth we find 15 So plants spring up flourish and fade away Not marking their own state they never found Themselves when first they ' pear'd in sunny day Nor ever sought themselves though in the ground They search full deep Nor are they wak'd by wound Of biting iron to nought are attent That them befalls when cold humours abound And clog their vitall heat or when they 're brent With Sirius flame or when through eld they waxen faint 16 Or whatsoever diseases them betide That basten death they nought at all regard But when to plantall life quick sense is ti'd And progging phansie then upon her guard She gins to stand and well her self to ward From foes she plainly feels pursues her joy Remembers where she well or ill hath far'd Or swiftly flies from that that doth annoy Or stoutly strives her fierce destroyer to destroy 17 Thus have we run thorow these two degrees Of the souls working seen in beast and plant Reason's the third of common qualities The best Of this the humane race doth vaunt As proper to themselves But if we skan't Sans prejudice it 's not in them alone The Dog the Horse the Ape the Elephant Will all rush in striving to make up one And sternly claim their share in use of right reason 18 But whether brutes do reason and reflect Upon their reasoning I 'll not dispute Nor care I what brisk boyes will here object Long task it were all fondlings to confute But I 'll lay down that which will better sute With that high heavenly spark the soul of man His proper character I would he knew 't Is that which Adam lost by wily train Of th' old sly snake that â—â—ve beguil'd with speeches vain 19 This was the Image of the highest God Which brutes partake not of This Image hight True Justice that keeps ever th' even trod True Piety that yields to man the sight Of heavenly beauty those fair beams so bright Of th' everlasting Deity that shed Their sacred fire within the purer spright The fruit of Eden wherewith souls be fed Mans awfull majesty of every beast ydred 20 Nor is that radiant force in humane kind Extinguisht quite he that did them create Can those dull rusty chains of fleep unbind And rear the soul unto her pristin state He can them so inlarge and elevate And spreaden out that they can compasse all When they no longer be incarcerate In this dark dungeon this foul fleshly wall Nor be no longer wedg'd in things corporeall 21 But rais'd aloft into their proper sphere That sphere that hight th' Orb Intellectuall They quiet sit as when the flitting fire That Natures mighty Magick down did call Into the oyly wood at its own fall Grows full of wrath and rage and gins to fume And roars and strives ' gainst its disquietall Like troubled Ghost forc'd some shape to assume But it its holding foe at last doth quite consume 22 And then like gliding spright doth straight dispear That earst was forc'd to take a fiery form Full lightly it ascends into the clear And subtile aire devoid of cloudy storm Where it doth steddy stand all-uniform Pure pervious immixt innocuous mild Nought scorching nought glowing nothing enorm Nought destroying not destroy'd not defil'd Foul fume being spent just 'fore its flight it faicly smil'd 23 Thus have I trac'd the soul in all her works And severall conditions have displaid And show'd all places where so e'r she lurks Even her own lurking's of her self bewray'd In plants in beasts in men while here she staid And freed from earth how then she spreads on high Her heavenly rayes that also hath been said Look now my Muse and cast thy piercing eye On every kind and tell wherein all souls agree 24 Here dare I not define't th' Entelechie Of organized bodies For this life This centrall life which men take souls to be Is not among the beings relative And sure some souls at least are self-active Withouten body having Energie Many put out their force informative In their ethereall corporeity Devoid of heterogenâ—all organity 25 Self-moving substance that be th' definition Of souls that longs to them in generall This well expresseth that common condition Of every vitall centre creaturall For why both what hight form spermaticall Hath here a share as also that we term Soul sensitive I 'll call 't form bestiall It makes a beast added to plantall sperm Adde rationall form it makes a man as men affirm 26 All these be substances self-moveable And that we call virtue magneticall That what 's defin'd be irreprovable I comprehend it in the life plantall Mongst trees ther 's found life Sympatheticall Though trees have not animadversive sense Therefore the soul 's Autokineticall Alone What ere 's in this defining sense Is soul what ere 's not soul is driven far from hence 27 But that each soul 's Autokineticall Is easly shown by sifting all degrees Of souls The first are forms Spermaticall That best be seen in shaping armed trees Which if they want their fixt Centreities By which they fairly every part extend And gently inact with spred vitalities The flowring boughs How Natures work doth wend Who knows or from what inward stay it doth depend 28 Forthy let first an inward centre hid Be put That 's nought but Natures fancie ti'd In closer knot shut up into the mid Of its own self so our own spirits gride With piercing wind in storming Winter tide Contract themselves and shrivell up together Like snake the countrey man in snow espi'd Whose spright was quite shrunk in by nipping weather From whence things come by fo-man
steddy Spring exclude Summers accession Or Summer spoil the Spring with furious hot oppression 5 You chearfull chaunters of the flowring woods That feed your carelesse souls with pleasant layes O silly birds cease from your merry moods Ill suits such mirth when dreary deaths assayes So closely presse your sory carkases To mournfull note turn your light verilayes Death be your song and winters hoary sprayes Spend your vain sprights in sighing Elegies I 'll help you to lament your wofull miseries 6 When we lay cover'd in the shady Night Of senselesse matter we were well content With that estate nought pierc'd our anxious spright No harm we suffered no harm we ment Our rest not with light dream of ill was blent But when rough Nature with her iron hond Pull'd us from our soft ease and hither hent Disturbing fear and pinching pain we found Full many a bitter blast full many a dreadfull stound 7 Yet life 's strong love doth so intoxicate Our misty minds that we do fear to dy What did dame Nature brood all things of hate And onely give them life for misery Sense for an undeserved penalty And show that if she list that she could make Them happy but with spightfull cruelty Doth force their groaning ghosts this house forsake And to their ancient Nought their empty selves betake 8 Thus in deep sorrow and restlesse disdain Against the cankered doom of envious fate I clove my very heart with riving pain While I in sullen rage did ruminate The Creatures vanity and wofull state And night that ought to yield us timely rest My swelling griefs did much more aggravate The sighs and groans of weary sleeping beast Seem'd as if fleep it self their spirits did molest 9 Or as constrain'd perforce that boon to wrest From envious Nature All things did augment My heavie plight that fouly I blam'd the best Of stubborn destiny cause of this wayment Even sleep that 's for our restauration ment As execrable thing I did abhorre Cause ugly death to th' life it did depeint What good came to my mind I did deplore Because it perish must and not live evermore 10 Thus wrapt in rufull thought through the waste field I staggerd on and scattered my woe Bedew'd the grasse with tears mine eyes did yield At last I am arriv'd wiâ—h footing slow Near a black pitchy wood that strongest throw Of starry beam no'te easily penetrate On the North side I walked to and fro In solitary shade The Moons sly gate Had cross'd the middle line It was at least so late 11 When th' other part of night in painfull grief Was almost spent out of that solemn grove There issued forth for my timely relief The fairest wight that ever sight did prove So fair a wight as might command the love Of best of mortall race her count'nance sheen The pensive shade gently defore her drove A 〈◊〉 sweet light shone from her lovely eyne She seem'd no earthly branch but sprung of stock divine 12 A silken mantle colour'd like the skie With silver starres in a due distance set Was cast about her somewhat carelesly And her bright flowing hair was not ylet By Arts device onely a chappelet Of chiefest flowers which from far and near The Nymphs in their pure Lilly hands had fet Upon her temples she did seemly weare Her own fair beams made all her ornaments appear 13 What wilfull wight doth thus his kindly rest Forsake said she approching me unto What rage what sorrow boils thus in thy chest That thou thus spend'st the night in wasting wo Oft help he gets that his hid ill doth show Ay me said I my grief 's not all mine own For all mens griefs into my heart do flow Nor mens alone but every mornfull grone Of dying beast or what so else that grief hath shown 14 From fading plants my sorrows freshly spring And thou thy self that com'st to comfort me Wouldst strongst occasion of deep sorrow bring If thou wert subject to mortality But I no mortall wight thee deem to be Thy face thy voice immortall thee proclaim Do I not well to wail the vanity Of fading life and churlish fates to blame That with cold frozen death lifes chearfull motions tame 15 Thou dost not well said she to me again Thou hurt'st thy self and dost to them no good The sighs thou sendest out cannot regain Life to the dead thou canst not change the mood Of stedfast destiny That man is wood That weetingly hastes on the thing he hates Dull sorrow chokes the sprights congeals the blood The bodies fabrick quickly ruinates Yet foolish men do fondly blame the hasty fates 16 Come hasty fates said I come take away My weary life the fountain of my wo When that 's extinct or shrunk into cold clay Then well I wote that I shall undergo No longer pain O! why are you so slow Fond speech said she nor chang'd her countenance No signe of grief or anger she did show Full well she knew passions misgovernance Through her clear brest fond passion never yet did lance 17 But thus spake on Sith friendly sympathy With all the creatures thus invades thy brest And strikes thine heart with so deep agony For their decay ' cording to that behest Which the pure sourse of sympathy hath prest On all that of those lovely streams have drunk I 'll tell thee that that needs must please thee best All life 's immortall though the outward trunk May changed be yet life to nothing never shrunk 18 With that she bad me rear my heavie eye Up toward heaven I rear'd them toward th' East Where in a roscid cloud I did espy A Lunar rainbow in her painted vest The heavenly maid in the mean while surceast From further speech while I the bow did view But mine old malady was more increas'd The bow gan break and all the gawdy hiew Dispeared that my heart the sight did inly rue 19 Thus life doth vanish as this bow is gone Said I. That sacred Nymph forthwith reply'd Vain showes may vanish that have gaily shone To feeble sense but if the truth be tri'd Life cannot perish or to nothing slide It is not life that falleth under sight None but vain flitting qualities are ey'd By wondring ignorance The vitall spright As surely doth remain as the Suns lasting light 20 This bow whose breaking struck thy troubled heart Of causelesse grief I hope shall thee recure When I have well explain'd with skilfull Art By its resemblance what things must indure What things decay and cannot standen sure The higher causes of that coloured Ark What e're becomes of it do sit secure That so the body falling lifes fair spark Is safe I 'll clearly show if you but list to mark 21 There be six Orders 'fore you do descend To this gay painted bow Sols centrall spright To the first place to th' next we must commend His hid spread form then his inherent light The fourth his rayes wherewith he is bedight The
Or some thin body or spread quality Or point of quality or fixt or setten free 29 But whether thin spread body she doth deem Her self dispersed through this grosser frame Or doth her self a quality esteem Or quient complexion streaming through the same Or else some lucid point her self doth name Of such a quality in chiefest part Strongly fix'd down or whether she doth clame More freedome for that point in head nor heart Fast seated yet saith she the bodies brat thou art 30 Thence thou arose thence thou canst not depart There die thou must when thy dear nurse decayes But these false phansies I with reason smart Shall eas'ly chace away and the mind raise To higher pitch O listen to my layes And when you have seen fast seald eternity Of humane souls then your great Maker praise For his never fading benignity And feed your selves with thought of immortality The Argument of PSYCHATHANASIA OR The Immortality of the Soul Book 2. Cant. 2. Sense no good judge of truth What spright What body we descry Prove from the souls inferiour might Her incorp'reitie 1 WHile I do purpose with my self to sing The souls incorporeity I fear That it a worse perplexitie may bring Unto the weaker mind and duller ear For she may deem herself ' stroyd quite clear While all corporeals from her we expell For she has yet not mark'd that higher sphear Where her own essence doth in safety dwell But views her lower shade like boy at brink of well 2 Dotes upon sense ne higher doth arise Busied about vain forms corporeall Contemns as nought unseen exilities Objects of virtue Intellectuall Though these of substances be principall But I to better hope would fainly lead The sunken mind and cunningly recall Again to life that long hath liggen dead Awake ye drooping souls shake off that drousihead 3 Why do you thus confide in sleepy sense Ill judge of her own objects who 'll believe The eye contracting Phoebus Orb immense Into the compasse of a common sieve If solid reason did not us relieve The host of heaven alwayes would idle stand In our conceit nor could the Sun revive The neither world nor do his Lords command Things near seem further off farst off the nearst at hand 4 The touch acknowledgeth no gustables The tast no fragrant smell or stinking sent The smell doth not once dream of audibles The hearing never knew the verdant peint Of springs gay mantle nor heavens light ylent That must discover all that goodly pride So that the senses would with zeal fervent Condemne each other and their voice deride If mutually they heard such things they never try'd 5 But reason that above the sense doth sit Doth comprehend all their impressions And tells the touch it s no fanatick fit That makes the sight of illustrations So stifly talk upon occasions But judgeth all their voyces to be true Concerning their straight operations And doth by nimble consequences shew To her own self what those wise Five yet never knew 6 They never knew ought but corporealls But see how reason doth their verdict rude Confute by loosening materialls Into their principles as latitude Profundity of bodies to conclude The term of latitude is breadthlesse line A point the line doth manfully retrude From infinite processe site doth confine This point take site away it s straight a spark divine 7 And thus unloos'd it equally respects The bodies parts not fixt to any one Let 't be distused through all Thus it detects The soul's strange nature operation Her independency loose union With this frail body So 's this unity Great but without that grosse extension Exceeding great in her high energie Extended far and wide from her non-quantity 8 If yet you understand not let the soul Which you suppose extended with this masse Be all contract and close together roll Into the centre of the hearts compasse As the suns beams that by a concave glasse Be strangely strengthned with their strait constraint Into one point that thence they stoutly passe Fire all before them withouten restraint The high arch'd roof of heaven with smouldry smoke they taint 9 But now that grosnesse which we call the heart Quite take away and leave that spark alone Without that sensible corporeall part Of humane body so when that is gone One nimble point of life that 's all at one In its own self doth wonderfully move Indispers'd quick close with self-union Hor sparkling active mounting high above In bignesse nought in virtue like to thundring Jove 10 Thus maugre all th' obmurmurings of sense We have found an essence incorporeall A shifting centre with circumference But she not onely sits in midst of all But is also in a manner centrall In her outflowing lines For the extension Of th' outshot rayes circumserentiall Be not gone from her by distrought distension Her point is at each point of all that spread dimension 11 This is a substance truly spiritall That reason by her glistring lamp hath shown No such the sense in things corporeall Can ere find out May this perswasion O sunken souls slaves of sensation Rear up your heads and chase away all fear How when by strong argumentation I shall you strip of what so doth appear Corporeall that you to nought should vanish clear 12 The naked essence of the body 's this Matter extent in three dimensions Hardnesse or softnesse be but qualities Withouten self reduplications Or outspread circling propagations Of its own presence These be corporall And what with these in such extension Singly's stretch'd out is form materiall Whether our soul be such now to the test we 'll call 13 If souls be bodies or inanimate They be or else endowed with life If they Be livelesse give they life if animate Then tell me what doth life to them convey Some other body Here can be no stay Straight we must ask whether that livelesse be Or living Then what ' lives it Thus we 'll play Till we have forc'd you to infinity And make your cheeks wax red at your Philosophy 14 Again pray tell me is this body grosse Or fluid and thin you deem the soul to be If grosse then either strongly it is cross'd From entring some parts of this rigid tree And so of life they 'll want their ' lotted fee Or if it penetrate this bulk throughout It breaks and tears and puts to penalty This sory corse If 't thin and fluid be thought How pulls it up those limbs and again jerks them out 15 Besides if stretchen corporeity Longs to the soul then Augmentation Must likewise thereto appertain But see Th' absurdities that this opinion Will drag on with it for effluxion Of parts will spoil the steddy memory And wash away all intellection Deface the beauty of that imagery That once was fairly graven in her phantasie 16 But oft when the weak bodie 's worn and wasted And far shrunk in the nimble phantasie So far she 's from being withered and blasted More
messenger of woes That grieveth not himself Can they disclose That misery without impression Upon themselves Therefore one spirit goes Through all this bulk not by extension But by a totall Self-reduplication 34 Which neither body nor dispersed form Nor point of form dispersed e'r could do And bodies life or sprite for to transform Into our soul though that might this undo Yet to so rash conceit to yield unto Cannot be safe for if it propagate It 's self and 'ts passions yet they free may go Unmark'd if sense would not them contemplate So doth the Mundane sprite not heeded circulate 35 Besides if from that spirit naturall The nurse of plants you should dare to assert That lively inward Animadversall To springen out it would surely invert The order of the Orbs from whence do stert All severall beings and of them depend Therefore the Orb Phantastick must exert All life phantasticall sensitive send The life of sense so of the rest unto each end 36 There 's nought from its own self can senden forth Ought better then it self So nought gives sense That hath not sense it self nor greater worth Then sense nor sense nor better springs from thence Nor that which higher is can have essence Lesse active lesse reduplicate lesse free Lesse spiritall then that 's amov'd from hence And is an Orb of a more low degree Wherefore that centrall life hath more activitie 37 And present is in each part totally Of this her body Nor we ought diffide Although some creatures still alive we see To stirre and move when we have them divide And cut in twain Thus worms in sturdie pride Do wrigge and wrest their parts divorc'd by knife But we must know that Natures womb doth hide Innumerable treasures of all life And how to breaken out upon each hint they strive 38 So when the present actuall centrall life Of sense and motion is gone with one part To manage it strait for the due relief Of th' other particle there up doth start Another centrall life and tries her art But she cannot raigne long nor yet recure That deadly wound The plantall lifes depart And flitten or shrunk spright that did procure Her company being lost make her she 'll not endure 39 And so at last is gone from whence she came For soon did fade that sweet allurement The plantall life which for a while did flame With sympathetick fire but that being spent Straight she is flown Or may you this content That some impression of that very soul That 's gone if gone with plantall spirit meint The broken corse thus busily may roll Long 't is till water boild doth stranger heat controul 40 Thus have we prov'd ' cording to our insight That humane souls be not corporeall With reasons drawn from the sensitive might Nor bodies nor spread forms materiall Whether you substances list them to call Or qualities or point of these I 'll bring Hereafter proofs from power rationall In humane souls to prove the self same thing Mount up aloft my Muse and now more shrilly sing The Argument of PSYCHATHANASIA Or The Immortality of the Soul BOOK II. CANT III. The souls incorporeitie From powers rationall We prove Discern true pietie From bitternesse and gall 1 LIke Carpenter entred into a wood To cut down timber for some edifice Of stately structure whiles he casts abroad His curious eye he much perplexed is There stand in view so many goodly trees Where to make choice to enter his rugg'd saw My Muse is plung'd in like perplexities So many arguments themselves do show That where to pitch my wavering mind doth yet scarce know 2 One taller then the rest my circling eye Hath hit upon which if 't be sound at heart Will prove a goodly piece to raise on high The heavenly structure of that deemed part Of man his soul and by unerring art Set his foundation 'bove the bodies frame On his own wheels that he may thence depart Intire unhurt So doth the Scythian swain Drive his light moving house on the waste verdant Plain 3 I 'll sing of piety that now I mean That Trismegist thus wisely doth define Knowledge of God That 's piety I ween The highest of virtues a bright beam divine Which to the purer soul doth sweetly shine But what 's this beam and how doth it enlight What doth it teach It teacheth to decline Self-love and frampard wayes the hypocrite Doth trample in accloy'd with dirt and dismall night 4 Not rage nor mischief nor love of a sect Nor eating irefulnesse harsh cruelty Contracting Gods good will nor conscience checkt Or chok'd continually with impiety Fauster'd and fed with hid hypocrisie Nor tyranny against perplexed minds Nor forc'd conceit nor man-idolatry All which the eye of searching reason blinds And the souls heavenly flame in dungeon darknesse binds 5 Can warres and jarres and fierce contention Swoln hatred and consuming envie spring From piety No. 'T is opinion That makes the riven heavens with trumpets ring And thundring engine mur'drous balls out-sling And send mens groning ghosts to lower shade Of horrid hell This the wide world doth bring To devastation makes mankind to fade Such direfull things doth false Religion perswade 6 But true Religion sprong from God above Is like her fountain full of charity Embracing all things with a tender love Full of good will and meek expectancy Full of true justice and sure verity In heart and voice free large even infinite Not wedg'd in strait particularity But grasping all in her vast active spright Bright lamp of God! that men would joy in thy pure light 7 Can souls that be thus universalis'd Begot into the life of God e're dy His light is like the sun that doth arise Upon the just and unjust can they fly Into a nothing and hath God an eye To see himself thus wasted and decay In his true members can mortality Seize upon that that doth it self display Above the laws of matter or the bodies sway 8 For both the body and the bodies spright Doth things unto particulars confine Teaching them partiall friendship and fell spight But those pure souls full of the life divine Look upon all things with mild friendly eyne Ready to do them good Thus is their will Sweetly spread out and ever doth incline The bent of the first Goodnesse to fulfill Ay me that dreary death such lovely life should spill 9 Besides this largenesse in the will of man And winged freenesse now let 's think upon His understanding and how it doth scan Gods being unto whom religion Is consecrate Imagination That takes its rise from sense so high ascent Can never reach yet intellection Or higher gets or at least hath some sent Of God vaticinates or is parturient 10 For ask her whether God be this or that A body infinite or some mighty spright Yet not almighty such vain speech she 'll hate Whether all present or in some place pight Whether part here part there or
What God near made nor doth at all intend To make free phantasms laughs at future fates Foresees her own condition she relates Th' all comprehension of eternity Complains she 's thirsty still in all estates That all she sees or has no'te satisfie Her hungry self nor fill her vast capacity 29 But I 'll break off My Muse her self forgot Her own great strength and her foes feeblenesse That she her name by her own pains may blot While she so many strokes heaps in excesse That fond grosse phansie quite for to suppresse Of the souls corporal'tie For men may think Her adversaries strength doth thus her presse To multitude of reasons makes her swink With weary toyl and sweat out thus much forced ink 30 Or that she loves with trampling insultations To domineere in easie victory But let not men dare cast such accusations Against the blamelesse For no mastery Nor fruitlesse pomp nor any verity Of that opinion that she here destroyes Made her so large No 't is her jealousie ' Gainst witching falshood that weak souls annoyes And oft doth choke those chearing hopes of lasting joyes The Argument of PSYCHATHANASIA OR The Immortality of the Soul Book 3. Cant. 1. The souls free independency Her drery dreadfull state In hell Her tricentreity What brings to heavens gate 1 WEll said that man what ever man that was That said what things we would we straight believe Upon each slight report t' have come to passe But better he that said Slow faith we give To things we long for most Hope and fear rive Distracted minds as when nigh equall weights Cast on the trembling scales each tug and strive To pull the other up But the same sleights By turns do urge them both in their descents and heights 2 Thus waves the mind in things of greatest weight For things we value most are companied With fear as well as hope these strifly fight The stronger hope the stronger fear is fed On mother both and the like livelyhed One object both from whence they both do spring The greater she the greater these she bred The greater these the greater wavering And longer time to end their sturdy struggeling 3 But is there any thing of more import Then the souls immortality Hence fear And hope we striving feel with strong effort Against each other That nor reason clear Nor sacred Oracles can straight down bear That sturdy rascall with black phantasies Yclad and clouded with drad dismall chear But still new mists he casts before our eyes And now derides our prov'd incorporieties 4 And grinning saith That labour 's all in vain For though the soul were incorporeall Yet her existence to this flesh restrain They be so nearly link'd that if one fall The other fails The eare nor hears our call In stouping age nor eye can see ought clear Benumming palsies shake the bodies wall The soul hath lost her strength and cannot steer Her crasie corse but staggering on reels here and there 5 So plain it is that though the soul 's a spright Not corporall that it must needs depend Upon this body and must perish quite When her foundation falls But now attend And see what false conceits vain fears do send 'T is true I cannot write without a quill Nor ride without an horse If chance that rend Or use make blunt o're-labouring this kill Then can I walk not ride not write but think my fill 6 Our body is but the souls instrument And when it fails onely these actions cease That thence depend But if new eyes were sent Unto the aged man with as much case And accuratenesse as when his youth did please The wanton lasse he now could all things see Old age is but the watry blouds disease The soul from death and sicknesse standeth free My hackney fails not I my pen not sciencie 7 But as I said of things we do desire So vehemently we never can be sure Enough Therefore my Muse thou must aspire To higher pitch and fearfull hearts secure Not with slight phansie but with reason pure Evincing the souls independency Upon this body that doth her immure That when from this dark prison she shall flie All men may judge her rest in immortality 8 Therefore I 'll sing the Tricentreity Of humane souls and how they wake from sleep In which ywrapt of old they long do lie Contract with cold and drench'd in Lethe deep Hugging their plantall point It makes me weep Now I so clearly view the solemn Spring Of silent Night whose Magick dew doth steep These drowsie souls of men whose dropping wing Keeps off the light of life and blunts each fiery sting 9 Three centres hath the soul One plantall hight Our parents this revive in nuptiall bed This is the principle that hales on Night Subjects the mind unto dull drowsyhed If we this follow thus we shall be led To that dark straitnesse that did bind before Our sluggish life when that is shrivelled Into its sunken centre we no more Are conscious of life what can us then restore 10 Unlesse with fiery whips fell Nemesis Do lash our sprights and cruelly do gore Our groning ghosts this is the way I wisse The onely way to keep 's from Morpheus power Both these so dismall are that I do showr Uncessant tears from my compassionate eyes Alas ye souls Why should or sleep devour Sweet functions of life or hellish cries To tender heart resound your just calamities 11 Thus may you all from your dead drowsinesse Be wak'd by inward sting and pinching wo That you could wish that that same heavinesse Might ever you o'represse and Lethe flow Upon your drowned life But you shall glow With urging fire that doth resuscitate Your middle point and makes it self to gnaw It self with madnesse while 't doth ruminate On its deformity and sterill vexing state 12 Continuall desire that nought effects Perfect hot-glowing fervour out to spring In some good world With fury she affects To reach the Land of life then struck with sting Of wounding memory despairs the thing And further off she sees her self the more She rageth to obtain thus doth she bring More fewell to her flame that scorched sore With searching fire she 's forc'd to yell and loudly rore 13 Thus she devours her self not satisfies Her self nought hath she but what 's dearly spun From her own bowels jejune exilities Her body 's gone therefore the rising sun She sees no more nor what in day is done The sporting aire no longer cools her bloud Pleasures of youth and manhood quite are gone Nor songs her eare nor mouth delicious food Doth fill But I 'll have this more fully understood 14 Three centres hath mans soul in Unity Together joynd or if you will but one Those three are one with a Triplicity Of power or rayes Th' high'st intellection Which being wak'd the soul's in Union With God If perfectly regenerate Into that better world corruption Hath then no force her blisse to perturbate The
find and that men call Mortality Plain death 's as good as such a Psychopannychie 4 What profiteth this bare existency If I perceive not that I do exist Nought longs to such nor mirth nor misery Such stupid beings write into one list With stocks and stones But they do not persist You 'll say in this dull dead condition But must revive shake off this drowsie mist At that last shrill loud-sounding clarion Which cleaves the trembling earth rives monuments of stone 5 Has then old Adam snorted all this time Under some senselesse sod with sleep ydead And have those flames that steep Olympus climbe Right nimbly wheeled or'e his heedlesse head So oft in heaps of years low buried And yet can ken himself when he shall rise Wakend by piercing trump that farre doth shed Its searching sound If we our memories And wit do lose by sicknesse falls sloth lethargies 6 If all our childhood quite be waste away With its impressions so that we forget What once we were so soon as age doth sway Our bowed backs sure when base worms have eat His mouldring brains and spirits have retreat From whence they came spread in the common fire And many thousand sloping sunnes have set Since his last fall into his ancient mire How he will ken himself reason may well admire 7 For he must know himself by some impression Left in his ancient body unwash'd out Which seemeth strange For can so long succession Of sliding years that great Colosses mought Well moulder into dust spare things ywrought So slightly as light phantasms in our brain Which oft one yeare or moneth have wrenched out And left no footsteps of that former stain No more then 's of a cloud quite melted into rain 8 And shall not such long series of time When Nature hath dispread our vitall spright And turn'd our body to its ancient slime Quite wash away what ever was empight In that our spirit If flesh and soul unite Lose such impressions as were once deep seald And fairly glistered like to comets bright In our blew Chaos if the soul congeald With her own body lose these forms as I reveald 9 Then so long time of their disjunction The body being into dust confract The spright diffus'd spread by dispersion And such Lethean sleep that doth contract The souls hid rayes that it did nothing act Must certainly wipe all these forms away That sense or phansie ever had impact So that old Adam will in vain assay To find who here he was he 'll have no memorie 10 Nor can he tell that ere he was before And if not tell he 's as if then first born If as first born his former life's no store Yet when men wake they find themselves at morn But if their memory away were worn With one nights sleep as much as doth respect Themselves these men they never were beforn This day 's their birth day they cannot conject They ever liv'd till now much lesse the same detect 11 So when a man goes hence thus may he say As much as me concerns I die now quite Adiew good self for now thou goest away Nor can I possibly thee ever meet Again nor ken thy face nor kindly greet Sleep and dispersion spoyls our memory So my dear self henceforth I cannot weet Wherefore to me it 's perfectly to die Though subtiler Wits do call 't but Psychopannychie 12 Go now you Psychopannychites perswade To comely virtues and pure piety From hope of ioy or fear of penance sad Men promptly may make answer Who shall try That pain or pleasure When death my dim eye Shall close I sleep not sensible of ought And tract of time at least all memory Will quiâ—e debarre that reacquainten mought My self with mine own self if so my self I sought 13 But I shall neither seek my self nor find My self unsought Therefore not deprehend My self in joy or wo. Men ought to mind What longs unto them But when once an end Is put unto this life and fate doth rend Our retinence what follows nought at all Belongs to us what need I to contend And my frail spright with present pain to gall For what I nere shall judge my self did ere befall 14 This is the uncouth state of sleeping soul Thus weak of her own self without the prop Of the base body that she no'te out-roll Her vitall raies those raies Death down doth lop And all her goodly beauty quite doth crop With his black claws Wisdome love piety Are straight dried up Death doth their fountain stop This is those sleepers dull Philosophy Which fairly men invites to foul impiety 15 But if we grant which in my former song I plainly prov'd that the souls energie Pends not on this base corse but that self-strong She by her self can work then when we fly The bodies commerce no man can deny But that there is no interruption Of life where will puts on there doth she hie Or if she 's carried by coaction That force yet she observes by presse adversion 16 And with most lively touch doth feel and find Her self For either what she most doth love She then obtains or else with crosse unkind Contrary life since her decease sh ' hath strove That keeps her wake and with like might doth move To think upon her self and in what plight She 's fallen And nothing able to remove Deep searching vengeance groans in this sad Night And rores and raves and storms and with her self doth fight 17 But hearty love of that great vitall spright The sacred fount of holy sympathy Prepares the soul with its deep quickning might To leave the bodies vain mortality Away she flies into Eternity Finds full accomplishment of her desire Each thing would reach its own centrality So Earth with Earth and Moon with Moon conspire Our selves live most when most we feed our Centrall fire 18 Thus is the soul continually in life Withouten interruption if that she Can operate after the fatall knife Hath cut the cords of lower sympathy Which she can do if that some energie She exercise immur'd in this base clay Which on frail flesh hath no dependency For then the like she 'll do that done away These independent acts t is time now to display 19 All comprehending Will proportionate To whatsoever shall fall by Gods decree Or prudent sufferance sweetly spread dilate Stretch'd out t' embrace each act or entity That creep from hidden cause that none can see With outward eyes Next Intellect whose hight Of working 's then when as it stands most free From sense and grosser phansie deep empight In this vild corse which to purg'd minds yields small delight 20 Both Will and Intellect then worketh best When Sense and Appetite be consopite And grosser phansie lull'd in silent rest Then Will grown full with a mild heavenly light Shines forth with goodly mentall rayes bedight And finds and feels such things as never pen Can setten down so that unexpert wight May reade and
you decline Even his whose love to you more strong then death Did death abide foul shame and evil tine But if sweet love your hearts may move uneath Think how one fatall flame shall burn all underneath 55 Pans pipe shall then be mute and Satyrs heel Shall cease to dance ybrent in scorching fire For pleasure then each earthly spright shall feel Deep searching pain Revenge and base desire Shall bear due vengeance reap their worthy hire From thee great Prince of souls shall be their doome Then thou and thy dear Saints ascending higher Shalt fly the fate and quit this stinking room With smouldry smoak fierce fire and loathsome stench o'rerun 56 Go now you cursed Hags salute your Goat Whether with driveling lips or taper end Whereby at last you fire his hispide coat And then the deadly dust on mischief spend As your Liege Lord these ashes doth commend For wicked use thundring this precept drad Revenge revenge or I shall on you send Due vengeance Thus dismist th' Assembly bad Hoyst up into the Air fly home through clammy shade 57 Which stories all to us do plainly prove That airy sprights both speak and hear and see Why do not then the souls of mortalls move In airy Chariots but stupid lie Lock'd up in sloth and senselesse Lethargie Certes our soul 's as well proportionate To this aeriall weed as spirits free For neither can our souls incorporate With naked Earth the Air must ever mediate 58 Which that bold Art which Necromancy hight Doth know too well and therefore doth prepare A vap'rous vehicle for th' intended spright With reek of oyl meal milk and such like gear Wine water hony Thus souls fitted are A grosser Carkas for to reassume And though Thessalian Hags their pains do spare Sometimes they enter without Magick fume Witnesse ye Cretick wives who felt their fruitlesse spume 59 And therefore to prevent such hellish lust They did by laws Municipall provide That he that dar'd to rise out of his dust And thus infest his wife a stake should gride His stubborn heart and 's body burn beside Hereto belongs that story of the spright Of fell Asuitus noted far and wide And of his faithfull comrade Asmund hight Twixt whom this law was made as Danish Records write 60 Which of them two the other did survive Must be intomb'd with 's fellow in one grave Dead Asuit therefore with his friend alive His dog and horse all in one mighty Cave Be shut together yet this care they have That faithfull Asmund be not lost for meat Wherefore he was well stor'd his life to save And liv'd sometime in that infernall seat Till Errick King of Sweads the door did open break 61 For well he ween'd there was some treasure hid Which might enrich himself or 's Army pay But when he had broke ope the brasen lid Nought but a sory wight they finden may Whom out of darknesse brought to open day The King beheld dight with most deadly hue His cheek all gore his ear quite bit away Then gan the King command the cause to shew To which Asmundus answers as doth here ensue 62 Why gaze you thus on my sad squalid face Th' alive needs languish must amongst the dead But this sore wound that further doth deface My wasted looks Asuitus who first fed On 's horse and dog and then with courage dred At me let fly Asuit this wound me gave But well I quit my self took off his head With this same blade his heart nayl'd to the Cave Thus I my self by force did from the monster save 63 The soul of Naboth lies to Ahab told As done the learned Hebrew Doctours write His foe in mischief thereby to infold Go up to Ramoth Gilead and fight Go up and prosper said the lying spright The angry ghost of Naboth whom he slew Unjustly and possest his ancient right Hence his revengefull soul with speech untrue Sat on his Prophets lips and did with lies embue 64 Ne may I passe that story sad of Saul And Samuels ghost whom he in great distresse Consulted was foretold his finall fall By that old man whom Endors sorceresse Awak'd from pleasant vision and sweet ease Straitning a while his wonted liberty By clammy air more close and thick compresse Then gan the mantled Sage Sauls destiny To reade and thine with his dear Jonathan to tye 65 That lovely lasse Pausanias did kill Through ill surmise she ment him treachery How did her angry spirit haunt him still That he could no where rest nor quiet ly Her wronged ghost was ever in his eye And he that in his anger slew his wife And was exempt by Law from penalty Poore sorry man he led a weary life Each night the Shrow him beat with buffes and boxes rife 66 And love as well as hate the dead doth reach As may be seen by what Albumaron Did once befall that learnd Arabian Leach He of a late deceas'd Physition Upon his bed by dream or vision Receiv'd a soveraign salve for his sore eye And just Simonides compassion Unto the dead that did unburied ly On washed shore him sav'd from jaws of destinie 67 For he had perish'd in th' unruly waves And sudden storm but lo the thankfull spright Of the interr'd by timely counsell saves Warning him of the danger he would meet In his intended voyage Simonides desists by 's counsell won The rest for want of faith or due foresight A prey to the devouring Seas become Their dashed bodies welter in the weedy scum 68 In Artick Climes an Isle that Thule hight Famous sor snowy monts whose hoary head 's Sure signe of cold tyet from their siery feet They strike out burning stones with thunders dread And all the Land with smoak and ashes spread Here wandring Ghosts themselves have often shown As if it were the region of the dead And men departed met with whom they 've known In seemly sort shake hands and ancient friendship own 69 A world of wonders hither might be thrown Of Sprights and spectres as that frequent noise Oft heard upon the Plane of Marathon Of neighing horses and of Martiall boyes The Greek the Persian nightly here destroyes In hot assault embroyl'd in a long war Foure hundred years did last these dreadfull toyes As doth by Attick Records plain appear The seeds of hate by death so little slaked are 70 Nor lists me speak of Remus Lemures Nor haunted house of slain Calâ—gula Nor Julius stern Ghost who will with ease May for himself of old or new purvey Thousand such stories in mens mouths do stray But sith it much perplexeth slower minds To think our souls unhurt can passe away From their dear corps so close thereto confin'd From this unweildy thought let 's now their wits unbind 71 For if that spirits can possesse our veins And arteries as usuall stories tell Use all our Organes act our nerves and brains And by our tongue can future things foretell And safely yet keep close in
as when lamp we lighten from a lamp Which done withouten diminution Of the first light shows how the soul of man Though indivisible may another rear Imparting life But if we rightly scan This argument it cometh nothing near To light the lamp's to kindle the sulphurious gear 89 No substance new that act doth then produce Onely the oyly atomes 't doth excite And wake into a flame but no such use There is of humane sperm For our free sprite Is not the kindled seed but substance quite Distinct therefrom If not then bodies may So changed be by nature and stiff fight Of hungry stomacks that what erst was clay Then herbs in time it self in sense may well display 90 For then our soul can nothing be but bloud Or nerves or brains or body modifide Whence it will follow that cold stopping crud Hard moldy cheese dry nuts when they have rid Due circuits through the heart at last shall speed Of life and sense look thorough our thin eyes And view the Close wherein the Cow did feed Whence they were milk'd grosse Pie-crust will grow wife And pickled Cucumbers sans doubt Philosophize 91 This all will follow if the soul be nought But the live body For mens bodies feed Of such grosse meat and if more fine be brought Suppose Snipes heads Larks heels for Ladies meet The broth of Barly or that oily Sweet Of th' unctious Grape yet all men must confesse These be as little capable of wit And sense nor can be so transform'd I wisse Therefore no soul of man from seed traducted is 92 Ne been they by th' high God then first create When in this earthly mansion they appear For why should he so soon contaminate So unspotted beauties as mens spirits are Flinging them naked into dunghills here Soyl them with guilt and foul contagion When as in his own hand they spotlesse were Till by an uncouth strange infusion He plung'd them in the deep of Malediction 93 Besides unworthily he doth surmise Of Gods pure being and bright Majesty Who unto such base offices him ties That He must wait on lawlesse Venery Not onely by that large Causality Of generall influence for Creation More speciall concourse all men deem to be But on set purpose He must come anon And ratifie the act which oft men wish undone 94 Which is a rash and shamelesse bad conceit So might they name the brat Adeodatus What ever they in lawlesse love beget Again what 's still far more prodigious When men are stung with fury poysonous And burn with flames of lust toward brute beasts And overcome into conjunction rush He then from that foul act is not releast Creates a soul misplacing the unhappy guest 95 Wherefore mans soul 's not by Creation Nor is it generate as I prov'd before Wherefore let 't be by emanation If fully it did not praeexist of yore By flowing forth from that eternall store Of Lives and souls ycleep'd the World of life Which was and shall endure for evermore Hence done all bodies vitall fire derive And matter never lost catch life and still revive 96 And what has once sprout out doth never cease If it enjoy it self a spray to be Distinct and actuall though if God please He can command it into th' ancient tree This immense Orb of wast vitality With all its Lives and Souls is every where And do's where matter right prepar'd doth lie Impart a soul as done the sunne beams clear Insinuate themselves where filth doth not debarre 97 Thus may the souls in long succession Leap out into distinct activity But sooth to say though this opinion May seem right fair and plausible to be Yet toils it under an hard difficulty Each where this Orb of life 's with every soul Which doth imply the souls ubiquity Or if the whole Extent of Natures's full Of severall souls thick set what may the furthest pull 98 What may engage them to descend so low Remov'd farre from the steam of earthly mire My wits been here too scant and faith too slow Ne longer lists my wearied thoughts to tire Let bolder spirits to such hight aspire But well I wote if there admitted were A praeexistency of souls entire And due Returns in courses circular This course all difficulties with ease away would bear 99 For then suppose they wore an airy sphear Which choise or Nemesis suck'd lower down Thus without doubt they 'll leave their carcase clear Like dispossessed spright when death doth come And by rude exorcisme bids quit the room Ne let these intricacies perplex our mind That we forget that ere we saw the sunne Before this life For who can call to mind Where first he here saw sunne or felt the gentle wind 100 Besides what wonder is 't when fierce disease Can so empair the strongest memory That so full change should make our spirits leese What 'fore they had impress'd in phantasie Nor doth it follow thence that when we die We nought retain of what pass'd in these dayes For Birth is Death Death Life and Liberty The soul 's not thence contract but there displayes Her loosened self doth higher all her powers raise 101 Like to a light fast lock'd in lanthorn dark Whereby by night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets and dirty channels mark Some weaker rayes through the black top do glide And flusher streams perhaps from horny side But when we 've past the perill of the way Arriv'd at home and laid that case aside The naked light how clearly doth it ray And spread its joyfull beams as bright as Summers day 102 Even so the soul in this contracted state Consin'd to these strait instruments of sense More dull and narrowly doth operate At this hole hears the sight must ray from thence Here tasts there smels But when she 's gone from hence Like naked lamp she is one shining sphear And round about has perfect cognoscence What ere in her Horizon doth appear She is one Orb of sense all eye all airy ear 103 Now have I well establish'd the fourth way The souls of men from stupid sleep to save First Light next Night the third the soules Self-ray Fourth the souls Chariot we named have Whether moist air or fire all sparkling brave Or temper mixt Now how these foure agree And how the soul her self may dip and lave In each by turns how no redundancy Ther 's in them might we tell nor scant deficiency 104 But cease my restlesse Muse be not too free Thy chiefest end thou hast accomplished Long since shak'd of the Psychopannychie And rouz'd the soul from her dull drowsiehed So nothing now in death is to be dred Of him that wakes to truth and righteousnesse The corps lies here the soul aloft is fled Unto the fount of perfect happinesse Full freedome joy and peace she lively doth possesse ANTIMONOPSYCHIA Or The fourth part of the Song OF THE SOUL Containing A confutation of the Unity of Souls Whereunto is annexed a Paraphrase
Mela. Cleanthes Cl. MEla my dear why been thy looks so sad As if thy gentle heart were sunk with care Impart thy case for be it good or bad Friendship in either will bear equall share Mel. Not so Cleanthes for if bad it be My self must bleed afresh by wounding thee But what it is my slow uncertain wit Cannot well judge But thou shalt sentence give How manfully of late my self I quit When with that lordly lad by chance I strive Cl. Of friendship Mela let 's that story hear Mel. Sit down Cleanthes then and lend thine ear Upon a day as best did please my mind Walking abroad amidst the verdant field Scattering my carefull thoughts i' th' wanton wind The pleasure of my path so farre had till'd My feeble feet that without timely rest Uneath it were to reach my wonted nest In secret shade farre moved from mortalls sight In lowly dale my wandring limbs I laid On the cool grasse where Natures pregnant wit A goodly Bower of thickest trees had made Amongst the leaves the chearfull Birds did fare And sweetly carol'd to the echoing Air. Hard at my feet ran down a crystall spring Which did the cumbrous pebbles hoarsly chide For standing in the way Though murmuring The broken stream his course did rightly guide And strongly pressing forward with disdain The grassie flore divided into twain The place a while did feed my foolish eye As being new and eke mine idle ear Did listen oft to that wild harmonie And oft my curious phansie would compare How well agreed the Brooks low muttering Base With the birds trebbles pearch'd on higher place But senses objects soon do glut the soul Or rather weary with their emptinesse So I all heedlesse how the waters roll And mindlesse of the mirth the birds expresse Into my self 'gin softly to retire After hid heavenly pleasures to enquire While I this enterprize do entertain Lo on the other side in thickest bushes A mighty noise with that a naked swain With blew and purple wings streight rudely rushes He leaps down light upon the flowry green Like sight before mine eyes had never seen At 's snowy back the boy a quiver wore Right fairly wrought and gilded all with gold A silver bow in his left hand he bore And in his right a ready shaft did hold Thus armed stood he and betwixt us tway The labouring brook did break its toilsome way The wanton lad whose sport is others pain Did charge his bended bow with deadly dart And drawing to the head with might and main With fell intent he aim'd to hit my heart But ever as he shot his arrows still In their mid course dropt down into the rill Of wondrous virtues that in waters been Is needlesse to rehearse all books do ring Of those strange rarities But ne're was seen Such virtue as resided in this spring The noveltie did make me much admire But stirr'd the hasty youth to ragefull ire As heed lesse fowls that take their per'lous flight Over that bane of birds Avernâ— lake Do drop down dead so dead his shafts did light Amid the stream which presently did slake Their fiery points and all their feathers wet Which made the youngster Godling inly fret Thus lustfull Love this was that love I ween Was wholly changed to consuming ire And eath it was sith they 're so near a kin They be both born of one rebellious fire But he supprest his wrath and by and by For feathered darts he winged words let flie Vain man said he and would thou wer'st not vain That hid'st thy self in solitary shade And spil'st thy precious youth in sad disdain Hating this lifes delight Hath God thee made Part of this world and wilt not thou partake Of this worlds pleasure for its makers sake Unthankfull wretch Gods gifts thus to reject And maken nought of Natures goodly dower That milders still away through thy neglect And dying fades like unregarded flower This life is good what 's good thou must improve The highest improvement of this life is love Had I but O that envious Destinie Or Stygian vow or thrice accursed charm Should in this place free passage thus denie Unto my shafts as messengers of harm Had I but once transfixt thy froward breast How would'st thou then I staid not for the rest But thus half angry to the boy replide How would'st thou then my soul of sense bereave I blinded thee more blind should choose my guide How would'st thou then my muddied mind deceive With fading shows that in my errour vile Base lust I love should tearm vice virtue stile How should my wicked rhymes then idolize Thy wretched power and with impious wit Impute thy base born passions to the skies And my souls sicknesse count an heavenly fit My weaknesse strength my wisdome to be caught My bane my blisse mine ease to be o'rewraught How often through my fondly feigning mind And frantick phansie in my Mistris eye Should I a thousand fluttering Cupids find Bathing their busis wings How oft espie Under the shadow of her eye-brows fair Ten thousand Graces sit all naked bare Thus haunted should I be with such feat fiends A pretty madnesse were my portion due Foolish my self I would not hear my friends Should deem the true for false the false for true My way all dark more slippery then ice My attendants anger pride and jealousies Unthankfull then to God I should neglect All the whole world for one poore sorry wight Whose pestilent eye into my heart project Would burn like poysonous Comet in my spright Aye me how dismall then would prove that day Whose onely light sprang from so fatall ray Who seeks for pleasure in this mortall life By diving deep into the body base Shall loose true pleasure But who gainly strive Their sinking soul above this bulk to place Enlarg'd delight they certainly shall find Unbounded joyes to fill their boundlesse mind When I my self from mine own self do quit And each thing else then an all-spreaden love To the vast Universe my soul doth fit Makes me half equall to All-seeing Jove My mightie wings high stretch'd then clapping light I brush the starres and make them shine more bright Then all the works of God with close embrace I dearly hug in my enlarged arms All the hid paths of heavenly Love I trace And boldly listen to his secret charms Then clearly view-I where true light doth rise And where eternall Night low-pressed lies Thus lose I not by leaving small delight But gain more joy while I my self suspend From this and that for then with all unite I all enjoy and love that love commends That all is more then loves the partiall soul Whose petty love th' impartiall fates controll Ah son said he and laughed very loud That trickst thy tongue with uncouth strange disguize Extolling highly that with speeches proud To mortall men that humane state denies And rashly blaming what thou never knew Let men experienc'd speak if they 'll
Dearum Coeli splendor unica O voluptas Humani generis catena nodis Auratis homines ligans Deósque Te circumvolitant leves Olympi Alati juvenes tuósque gressus Sustentant manibus suis tenellos Et firmant tua crura mollicella Dulcis cura Deûm Venúsque coeli O fons laetitiae piÃque lusus O ter pulchra puella blanda virgo Nostris molliter insidens medullis Coelestémque animo fovens amorem In coetu superûm locas Deorum SIng aloud His praise rehearse Who hath made the Universe He the boundlesse Heavens has spread All the vitall orbs has kned He that on Olympus high Tends his flocks with watchfull eye And this eye has multiplide Midst each flock for to reside Thus as round about they stray Toucheth each with out-strecth'd ray Nimble they hold on their way Shaping out their Night and Day Summer Winter Autumne Spring Their inclined Axes bring Never slack they none respires Dancing round their Centrall fires In due order as they move Echo's sweet be gently drove Thorough Heavens vast Hollownesse Which unto all corners presse Musick that the heart of Jove Moves to joy and sportfull love Fills the listning saylers eares Riding on the wandring Sphears Neither Speech nor Language is Where their voice is not transmisse God is good is Wise is Strong Witnesse all the creature-throng Is confess'd by every Tongue All things back from whence they sprong As the thankfull Rivers pay What they borrowed of the Sea Now my self I do resigne Take me whole I all am thine Save me God! from Self-desire Deaths pit dark Hells raging fire Envy Hatred Vengeance Ire Let not Lust my soul bemire Quit from these thy praise I 'll sing Loudly sweep the trembling string Bear a part O Wisdomes sonnes Free'd from vain Religions Lo from farre I you salute Sweetly warbling on my Lute Indie Egypt Arabie Asia Greece and Tartarie Carmel-tracts and Lebanon With the Mountains of the Moon From whence muddie Nile doth runne Or where ever else you wonne Breathing in one vitall air One we are though distant farre Rise at once let 's sacrifice Odours sweet perfume the skies See how Heavenly lightning fires Hearts inflam'd with high aspires All the substance of our souls Up in clouds of Incense rolls Leave we nothing to our selves Save a voice what need we els Or an hand to wear and tire On the thankfull Lute or Lyre Sing aloud His praise rehearse Who hath made the Universe Charitie and Humilitie FArre have I clambred in my mind But nought so great as love I find Deep-searching wit mount-moving might Are nought compar'd to that good spright Life of delight and soul of blisse Sure source of lasting happinesse Higher then Heaven lower then hell What is thy tent where maist thou dwell My mansion hight humilitie Heavens vastest capabilitie The further it doth downward tend The higher up it doth ascend If it go down to utmost nought It shall return with that it sought Lord stretch thy tent in my strait breast Enlarge it downward that sure rest May there be pight for that pure fire Wherewith thou wontest to inspire All self-dead souls My life is gone Sad solitude 's my irksome wonne Cut off from men and all this world In Lethes lonesome ditch I 'm hurld Nor might nor sight doth ought me move Nor do I care to be above O feeble rayes of mentall light That best be seen in this dark night What are you what is any strength If it be not laid in one length With pride or love I nought desire But a new life or quite t' expire Could I demolish with mine eye Strong towers stop the fleet stars in skie Bring down to earth the pale-fac'd Moon Or turn black midnight to bright Noon Though all things were put in my hand As parch'd as dry as th' Libyan sand Would be my life if Charity Were wanting But Humility Is more then my poore soul durst crave That lies intombd in lowly grave But if 't were lawfull up to send My voice to Heaven this should it rend Lord thrust me deeper into dust That thou maist raise me with the just THE TRIUMPH OR A Paraphrase upon the ninth Hymn of Synesius written in honour of Jesus the Son of Mary the SAVIOUR of the World O Lovely Child with Glory great arraid Sweet Of-spring of the Solymeian Maid Thee would I sing and thy renowned Acts For thou didst rid the boundlesse flowry tracts Of thy dear Fathers Garden from the spoyles Of the false Serpent and his treacherous toyles When thou hadst once descended to this earth A stranger wight ' mongst us of humane birth After some stay new voyage thou didst take Crossing cold Lethe and the Stygian Lake Arriv'st at the low fields of Tartara There where innumerable flocks do stray Of captive souls whom pale-fac'd Death doth feed Forc'd under his stiff Rod and churlish Reed Streight at thy sight how did that surly Sire Old Orcus quake and greedy Dogg retire From 's usuall watch whiles thou from slavish chain Whole swarms of souls to freedome dost regain Then ' ginst thou with thy immortall Quire to praise Thy Father and his strength to Heaven to raise Ascending thus with joy as thou dost fare Through the thin Sky the Legions of the Aire Accursed Fiends do tremble at thy sight And starry Troops wax pale at thy pure light But Ather master of queint Harmonies With smiling look on 's Musick doth devise Tunes his seven-corded Harp more trimly strung Then strikes up loudly thy Triumphall song Lucifer laughs bright Nuncio of the Day And golden Hesperus to hear him play The Moon begins a dance great Queen of Night Her hollow horns fill'd up with flusher light Titan his streaming locks along doth strow Under thy sacred feet more soft to go Doth homage to thee as to Gods dear Son And to the Spring whence his own light doth run Then thou drad Victour thy quick wings didst shake And suddenly ascend'st above the back Of the blew Skie In th' Intellectuall sphears Dispreadst thy self Where the still Fount appears Of inexhausted Good and silent Heaven Smiles without wrinckle ever constant even Unwearied Time this mansion connot seize Nor Hyles worm importunate Disease Here Aeon wons that cannot wexen old Though of his years the numbers no'te be told Youthfull and ag'd at once here doth he live And to the Gods unmov'd duration give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS Notes upon Psychozoia Canto 1. Stanz 1. Vers 6. Psyche I 'll sing c. THe fittest