son.

THE

TO

sacred style, the style of oracles and laws. The into the principles both of natural and supera. vows and thanks of the people were recommended tural motives : hereby the soul is made intelligito their gods in songs and hymns. Why may they ble, which comprehends all things besides; the not retain this privilege? for if prose should con- boundless tracks of sea and land, and tbe vaster tend with verse, it would be upon unequal terms, spaces of Heaven ; that vital principle of action, and, as it were, on foot against the wings of Pega- which has always been busied in inquiries abroad, SUS. With what delight are we touched in hearing is now made known to itself; insomuch that we the stories of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and Æneas? may find out what we ourselves are, from whence Because in their characters we have wisdom, ho- we came, and whither we must go; we may pernour, fortitude, and justice, set before our eyes.ceive what noble guests those are, which we lodge It was Plato's opinion, that if a man could see vir- | in our bosoms, which are nearer to us than all tue, he would be strangely enamoured on her per- other things, and yet nothing further from our ac.

Which is the reason why Horace and Virgil quaintance. have continued so long in reputation, because they But here all the labyrinths and windings of the have drawn her in all the charms of poetry. No human frame are laid open: it is seen by what man is so senseless of rational impressions, as not pullies and wheels the work is carried on, as plainly to be wonderfully affected with the pastorals of the as if a window were opened into our breast: for it ancients, when under the stories of wolves and is the work of God alone to create a mind.-The sheep, they describe the misery of people under next to this is to show how its operations are perhard masters, and their happiness under good. So formed. the bitter but wholesoine iambic was wont to make

N. TATE. villany blush; the satire incited men to laugh at folly; the comedian chastised the common errours of life; and the tragedian made kings afraid to be tyrants, and tyrants to be their own tormentors. Wherefore, as sir Philip Sidney said of Chaucer,

AUTHOR'S DEDICATION that he knew not which he should most wonder at, either that he in his dark time should see so distinctly, or that we in this clear age should go so

QUEEN ELIZABETH. stumblingly after him ; so may we marvel at and bewail the low condition of poetry now, when in To that clear majesty which in the north our plays scarce any one rule of decorum is observed, but in the space of two hours and an half Doth, like another Sun, in glory rise, we pass through all the fits of Bedlam; in one Which standeth fix'd, yet spreads her heav'nly scene we are all in mirth, in the next we are sunk

worth; into sadness ; whilst even the most laboured parts

Loadstone to hearts, and loadstar to all eyes. are commonly starved for want of thought; a con-' fused heap of words, and empty sound of rhyme.

This very consideration should advance the es- Like Heav'n in all, like Earth to this alone, teem of the following poem, wherein are repre

That through great states by her support do sented the various movements of the mind; at which we are as much transported as with the Yet she herself supported is of none, (stand; most excellent scenes of passion in Shakspeare, or But by the finger of th’ Almighty's hand. Fletcher: for in this, as in a mirrour (that will not Aatter) we see how the soul arbitrates in the under: To the divinest and the richest inind, standing upon the various reports of sense, and all the changes of imagination : how compliant the Both by Art's purchase, and by Nature's dow'r, will is to her dictates, and obeys her as a queen That ever was from Heaven to Earth contin'd, does her king. At the same time acknowledging a

To show the utmost of a creature's powr: subjection, and yet retaining a majesty. How the passions move at her command, like a well disciplined army; from which regular composure of To that great spring, which doth great kingdoms the faculties, all operating in their proper time and

move ;

[streams, place, there arises a complacency upon the whole

The sacred spring, whence right and honour soul, that infinitely transcends all other pleasures.

What deep philosophy is this! to discover the Distilling virtue, shedding peace and love, process of God's art in fashioning the soul of man

In every place, as Cynthia sheds her beams : after his own image; by remarking how one part moves another, and how those motions are varied by several positions of each part, from the first I offer up some sparkles of that fire, springs and plummets, to the very hand that points Whereby we reason, live, and move and be, out the visible and last effects. What eloquence These sparks by nature evermore aspire, and force of wit to convey these profound specu

Which makes them dow to such a highness flee. Jations in the easiest language, expressed in words so vulgarly received, that they are understood by the meanest capacities !

Fair soul, since to the fairest body join'd, For the poet takes care in every line to satisfy

You give such lively life, such quick’ning pow'r; the understandings of mankind : he follows step by step the workings of the mind from the first strokes And influence of such celestial kind, of sense, then of fancy, afterwards of judgment, As keeps it still in yonth's immortal flower ;

As where the Sun is present all the year,

For then their minds did first in passion see And never doth retire his golden ray,

Those wretched shapes of misery and woe,

Of nakedness, of shame, of poverty, [know. Needs must the spring be everlasting there, Which then their own experience made them And every season like the month of May.

But then grew reason dark, that she no more

Could the fair forms of good and truth discern; 0! many, many years may you remain

Bats they became, that eagles were before;
A happy angel to this happy land :

And this they got by their desire to learn.
Long, long may you on Earth our empress reign,
Ere you in Heaven a glorious angel stand.

But we, their wretched offspring, what do we?

Do not we still taste of the fruit forbid?

Whilst with fund fruitless curiosity, Stay long (sweet spirit) ere thou to Heaven depart, In books profane we seek for knowledge hid. who mak'st each place a Heaven wherein thou art. What is this knowledge? but the sky-stol'n fire, Her majesty's devoted subject

For which the thief still chain'd in ice doth sit?

And which the poor rude satyr' did admire, and servant,

And needs would kiss, but burnt his lips with it. What is it? but the cloud of empty rain,

[got? July 11, 1592.

Which when Jove's guest* embrac'd, he monsters Or the false pails ', which oft being fill’d with pain,

Receiv'd the water, but retain'd it not?

JOHN DAVIES.

THE

In fine, what is it, but the fiery coach

Which the youth sought, and sought his death INTRODUCTION.

withall ?

Or the boy's' wings, which, when he did approach Wey did my parents send me to the schools, The Sun's hot beams, did melt and let bim fall?

That I with knowledge might enrich my mind?
Since the desire to know first made men fools, And yet, alas! when all our lamps are burn'd,
And did corrupt the root of all mankind ;

Our bodies wasted, and our spirits spent ;

When we have all the learned volumes turn'd
Por when God's hand had written in the hearts Which yield men's wits both help and ornament:

Of tbe first parents, all the rules of good,
So that their skill infus'd, did pass all arts What can we know? or what can we discern?
That ever were, before, or since the flood; When errour chokes the windows of the mind ;

The divers forms of things how can we learn,
And when their reason's eye was sharp and clear, That have been ever from our birth-day blind ?

And (as an eagle can behold the Sun)
Could have approach'd th' eternal light as near When reason's lamp, which (like the Sun in sky)
As th' intellectual angels could have done.

Throughout man's little world her beams did

Is now become a sparkle, which doth lie (spread, Een then to them the spirit of lies suggests,

Under the ashes, half extinct, and dead: That they were blind, because they saw not ill, And breath'd into their incorrupted breasts How can we hope, that through the eye and ear, A curious wish, which did corrupt their will. This dying sparkle, in this cloudy place,

Can recollect these beams of knowledge clear,
For that same ill they straight desir’d to know ; Which were infus'd in the first minds by grace?

Which ill, being nanght but a defect of good,
In all God's works the Devil could not show, So might the heir, whose father hath in play
While man their lord in his perfection stood. Wasted a thousand pounds of ancient rent,

By painful earning of one groat a day,
So that themselves were first to do the ill,

Hope to restore the patrimony spent. Fre they thereof the knowledge could attain, Like bim that knew not poison's power to kill, The wits that div'd most deep, and soar'd most high, Vatil (by tasting it) himself was slain.

Seeking man's pow'rs, have found his weakness

“Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth Ay, (such: Een so by tasting of that fruit forbid,

We learn so little and forget so much." Where they sought knowledge, they did errour Itbey desir'd to know, and ill they did; (find; For this the wisest of all moral men And to give passion eyes, made reason blind. Said, he knew nought, but that he nought did knoro,

And the great mocking-master mock'd not then,

When he said, truth was buried deep below. ' This poem was published by Mr. Tate, with the universal applause of the nation; and was without dispute, except Spenser's Fairy Queen, the

2 Prometheus. 3 See Æsop's Fables. best that was written in queen Elizabeth's, or even

" Danaides, king James the First's time, W. T.

Nile;

Fow how may we to other things attain,

And while the face of outward things we find,
When none of us his own soul understands? Pleasing and fair, agreeable and sweet,
For which the Devil mocks our curious brain, These things transport, and carry out the mind,

When, “krow thyself,” bis oracle commands. That with herself, the mind can never meet.
For why should we the busy soul believe,

Yet if AMiction once her wars begin,
When boldly she concludes of that and this, And threat the feebler sense with sword and fire,
When of herself she can no judgment give,

The mind contracts herself, and sbrinketh in,
Nor how, nor whence, nor where, nor what she is. And to herself she gladly doth retire:
All things without, which round about we see, As spiders touch'd, seek their web's inmost part;

We seek to know, and how therewith to do: As bees in storms back to their hives return;
But that whereby we reason, live, and be,

As blood in danger gathers to the heart; Within ourselves, we strangers are thereto. As men seek towns, when foes the country burn. We seek to know the moving of each sphere, If aught can teach us aught, Amiction's looks, And the strange cause of th' ebbs and floods of (Making us pry into ourselves so near)

Teach us to know ourselves beyond all books, But of that clock within our breasts we bear, Or all the learned schools that ever were. The subtle motions we forget the while.

This mistress lately pluck'd me by the ear,
We that acquaint ourselves with every zone,

And many a golden lesson hath me taught;
. And pass both tropics, and behold each pole, Hath made my senses quick, and reason clear ;
When we come home, are to ourselves unknown, Reform'd my will, and rectify'd my thought.
And unacquainted still with our own soul.

So do the winds and thunders cleanse the air:
We study speech but others we persuade,

So working seas settle and purge the wine:
We leach-craft learn, but others cure with it, So lopp'd and pruned trees do flourish fair:
We interpret laws, which other men have made, So doth the fire the drossy gold refine.
But read not those which in our hearts are writ.

Neither Minerra, nor the learned Muse,
It is because the mind is like the eye,

Nor rules of art, nor precepts of the wise, Through which it gathers knowledge by degrees, Could in my brain those beams of skill infuse, Whose rays reflect not, but spread outwardly; As but the glance of this dame's angry eyes. Not seeing itself, when other things it sees?

She within lists my ranging mind hath brought, No, doubtless; for the mind can backward cast That now beyond myself I will not go ;

Upon herself, her understanding's light, Myself am centre of my circling thought, But she is so corrupt, and so defac'd,

Only myself I study, learn, and know. As her own image doth herself affright.

I know my body 's of so frail a kind, As is the fable of the lady fair,

As force without, fevers within can kill: Which for her lust was turn'd into a cow, I know the heavenly nature of my mind, When thirsty to a stream she did repair,

But 't is corrupted both in wit and will. And saw herself transform'd she wist not how :

I know my soul hath power to know all things,
At first she startles, then she stands amaz'd;

Yet is she blind and ignorant in all :
At last with terrour she from thence doth fly, I know I'm one of Nature's little kings,
And loaths the watry glass wherein she gaz'd, Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

And shuns it still, though she for thirst doth die:
E'en so man's soul which did God's image bear,

I know my life 's a pain, and but a span, And was at first fair, good, and spotless pure,

I know my sense is mock'd in ev'ry thing, Since with her sins her beauties blotted were,

And to conclude, I know myself a man, Doth of all sights her own sight least endure :

Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.
For e'en at first reflection she espies,

Such strange chimeras, and such monsters there,
Such toys, such antics, and such vanities,
As she retires, and shrinks for shame and fear.

THE SOUL OF MAN,
And as the man loves least at home to be,

That hath a sluttish bouse haunted with sprites; So she, impatient her own faults to see,

THE IMMORTALITY THEREOF. Turns from herself, and in strange things delights. For this few know themselves: for merchants broke The lights of Heav'n (which are the world's fair eyes) View their estate with discontent and pain,

Look down into the world, the world to see; And seas are troubled, when they do revoke And as they turn, or wander in the skies,

Their flowing waves into themselves again. Survey all things, that on this centre be.

OF

AND

And yet the lights which in my tow'r do shine, But (thou) which lidst man's soul of nothing make,

Mine eyes which view all objects, nigh and far, And when to nothing it was fallen again, Look not into this little world of mine,

“ To make it new, the form of man didst take; Nor see my face, wherein they fixed are.

And God with God, becam'st a man with men. Siace Nature fails us in no needful thing,

Thou that hast fashion'd twice this soul of ours, Why want I means my inward self to see? So that she is by double title thine, Which sight the knowledge of myself might bring, Thou only know'st her nature and her pow'rs; Which to true wisdom is the first degree.

Her subtle form thou only canst define. That pow'r, which gave me eyes the world to view, To judge herself, she must herself transcend, To view myself, infus'd an inward light,

As greater circles comprehend the less : Whereby my soul, as by a mirror true,

But she wants pow'r, her own pow'rs to extend, Of her own form may take a perfect sight. As fetter'd men cannot their strength express. But as the sharpest eye discerneth nought, But thou, bright morning Star, thou rising Sun, Except the sun-beams in the air do shine:

Which in these later times hast brought to light So the best soul, with her reflecting thought, Those mysteries, that, since the world begun, Sees not herself without some light divine.

Lay hid in darkness, and eternal night. O Light, which mak’st the light, which mak’st the Thou (like the Sun) do'st with an equal ray day!

Into the palace and the cottage shine, Which set'st the eye without, and mind within ; And show'st the soul, both to the clerk aud lay, 'Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray, By the clear lamp of oracle divine. Which now to view itself doth first begin.

This lamp, through all the regions of my brain, For her true form how can my spark discern, Where my soul sits, doth spread such beams of

Which, dimn by nature, art did never clear? As now, methinks, I do distinguish plain, (grace, When the great wits, of whom all skill we learn, Each subtle line of her immortal face. Are ignorant both what she is, and where.

The soul a substance and a spirit is, One thinks the soul is air; another, fire;

Which God himself doth in the body make, Another blood, diffus'd about the heart;

Which makes the man, for every man from this Another saith, the elements conspire,

The nature of a man and name doth take. And to her essence each doth give a part.

And though this spirit be to th' body knit, Musicians think our souls are harmonies,

As an apt means her pow'rs to exercise, Physicians hold that they complexions be;

Which are life, motion, sense, and will, and wit, Epicures make them swarms of atomies,

Yet she survives, although the body dics. Which do by chance into our bodies flee.

SECTION 1.
Some think one gen'ral soul fills ev'ry brain,

As the bright Sup sheds light in every star;
And others think the name of soul is vain,
And that we only well-mix'd bodies are.

She is a substance, and a real thing,

Which hath itself an actual working might, In jodgment of her substance thus they vary, Which neither from the senses' power doth spring,

And thus they vary in judgment of her seat; Nor from the body's humours temper'd right. For some her chair up to the brain do carry, Some thrust it down into the stomach's heat.

She is a vine, which doth no propping need

To make her spread herself, or spring upright; Some place it in the root of life, the heart ;

She is a star, whose beams do not proceed Some in the fiver, fountain of the veins,

From any sun, but from a native light. Some say, she's all in all, and all in every part:

For when she sorts things present with things past, Some say, she's not contain'd, but all contains.

And thereby things to come doth oft foresee; Thas these great clerks their little wisdom show,

When she doth doubt at first, and choose at last, While with their doctrines they at bazard play ;

These acts her own“, without her body be. Tossing their light opinions to and fro,

When of the dew, which th' eye and ear do take To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they. From flow'rs abroad, and bring into the brain,

She doth within both wax and honey make :
FOT do craz'd brain could ever yet propound, This work is her's, this is her proper pain.

Touching the soul, so vain and fond a thought;
Bat some among these masters have been found, When she from sundry acts one skill doth draw;
Which in their schools the self-same thing have Gathering from divers fights one art of war;

(taught. From many cases, like one rule of law; God only wise, to punish pride of wit,

These her collections, not the senses are. Among men's wits hate this confusion wrought, As the proud tow'r whose points the clouds did hit, That the soul hath a proper operation without

By tongues' confusion was to ruin brought. the body.

THAT THE SOUL IS A THING SUBSISTING BY ITSELP WITH

OUT THE BODY.

When in th' effects she doth the causes know, But when the cause itself must be decreed, And, seeing the stream, thinks where the spring Himself in person, in his proper court, doth rise;

To grave and solemn hearing doth proceed, And, seeing the branch, conceives the root below; Of ev'ry proof, and ev'ry by-report. These things she views without the body's eyes.

Then, like God's angel, he pronounceth right, When she, without a Pegasus, doth fiy,

And milk and honey from his tongue doth flow : Swifter than lightning's fire from east to west; Happy are that still are in his sight, About the centre, and above the sky,

To reap the wisdom which his lips do sow.
She travels then, although the body rest.

Right so the soul, which is a lady free,
When all her works she formeth first within, And doth the justice of her state maintain:

Proportions them, and sees their perfect end ; Because the senses ready servants be,
Ere she in act doth any part begin,

Attending nigh about her court, the brain : What instruments doth then the body lend ?

By them the forms of outward things she learns, When without hands she doth thus castles build, For they return into the fantasie,

Sees without eyes, and without feet doth run; Whatever each of them abroad discerns ; When she digests the world, yet is not fill'd;

And there enroll it for the mind to see. By her own pow'rs these miracles are done.

But when she sits to judge the good and ill,
When she defines, argues, divides, compounds, And to discern betwixt the false and true,

Considers virtue, vice, and general things: She is not guided by the sepses' skill,
Aud marrying divers principles and grounds, But doth each thing in her own mirror view.
Out of their match a true conclusion brings.

Then she the senses checks, which oft do err,
These actions in her closet, all alone,

And e'en against their false reports decrees; (Retir'd within herself) she doth fulfil;

And oft she doth condemn what they prefer; Use of her body's organs she hath none,

For with a pow'r above the sense she sees. When she doth use the pow'rs of wit and will.

Therefore no sense the precious joys conceives, Yet in the body's prison so she lies,

Which in her private contemplations be; As through the body's windows she must look, For then the ravish'd spirit th’senses leaves, Her divers powers of sense to exercise,

Hath her own pow'rs, and proper actions free. By gath'ring notes out of the world's great book.

Her harmonies are sweet, and full of skill, Nor can herself discourse or judge of ought,

When on the body's instruments she plays; Bat what the sense collects, and home doth bring; But the proportions of the wit and will, And yet the pow'rs of her discoursing thought, Those sweet accords are even th' angels lays. From these collections is a diverse thing.

These tunes of reason are Amphion's lyre, For though our eyes can nought but colours see, Wherewith he did the Theban city found :

Yet colours give them not their pow'r of sight: These are the notes wherewith the heavenly choir So, though these fruits of sense her objects be, The praise of him which made the Heav'n doth Yet she discerns them by her proper light.

sound.

The workman on his stuff his skill doth show,

And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill : Kings their affairs do by their servants know,

But order them by their own royal will.

Then her self being nature shines in this,

That she performs her noblest works alone: “ The work, the touch-stone of the uature is;

And by their operations things are known."

So, though this cunning mistress, and this queen,'

Doth, as her instruments, the senses use,
To know all things that are felt, heard, or seen;

Yet she herself doth only judge and choose.

SECTION II.
THAT THE Soul IS MORE THAN A PERFECTION, OR

REFLECTION OF THE SENSE.

E'en as a prudent emperor, that reigns

Are they not senseless ther, that think the soul By sovereign title over sundry lands,

Nought but a fine perfection of the sense, Borrows, in mean affairs, his subjects' pains, Or of the forms which fancy dloth enroll; Sees by their eyes, and writeth by their hands : A quick resulting, and a consequence

? But things of weight and consequence indeed, What is it then that doth the sense accuse,

Himself doth in his chamber them debate ; Butb of false judgment, and fond appetites ? Where all his counsellors he doth exceed,

What makes us do what sense doth most refuse, As far in judgment, as he doth in state.

Which oft in torment of the sense delights ? Or as the man whom princes do advance,

Sense thinks the planets' spheres not much asunder: 1 Upon their gracious mercy-seat to sit,

What tells us then the distance is so far? Doth common things, of course and circumstance, Sense thinks the lightning born before the thunder: To the reports of cominon men commit:

What tells us then they both together are?