If ought can teach vs ought, Afflictions lookes,
(Making vs looke3 into our selues so neere,)
Teach vs to know our selues beyond all bookes,
Or all the learned Schooles that euer were.
This mistresse lately pluckt me by the eare,
And many a golden lesson hath me taught;
Hath made my Senses quicke, and Reason cleare,
Reform'd my Will and rectifide my Thought.
So doe the winds and thunders cleanse the ayre;
So working lees1 settle and purge the wine ;
So lop't and prunèd trees doe flourish faire;
So doth the fire the drossie gold refine.
Neither Minerua nor the learnèd Muse,
Nor rules of Art, nor precepts of the wise;
Could in my braine those beames of skill infuse,
As but the glance of this Dame's angry eyes.
She within lists my ranging minde hath brought,
That now beyond my selfe I list not goe;
3 Davies and Southey, as before, mis-substitute 'pry.' G.
4 An overlooked misprint here is 'seas': found in all the author's own editions, and repeated until now, e.g. by Thomas Davies and Southey, as before. G.
5 Bounds as in Race-courses. G.
Thoms Davies, as before, mis-reads 'will' G.
My selfe am center of my circling thought,
Onely my selfe I studie, learne, and know.
I know my bodie's of so fraile a kind,
As force without, feauers within can kill
;
I know the heauenly nature of my minde,
But 'tis corrupted both in wit and will:
I know my Soule hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blinde and ignorant in all ;
I know I am one of Nature's little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.
I know my life's a paine and but a span,
I know my Sense is mockt with euery thing: And to conclude, I know my selfe a MAN, Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.
OF THE SOULE OF MAN AND THE
THE lights of heav'n (which are the World's fair eies)
Looke downe into the World, the World to see;
And as they turne, or wander in the skies,
Suruey all things that on this Center bee.
And yet the lights which in my towre do shine,
Mine eyes which view all obiects, nigh and farre;
Looke not into this little world of mine,
Nor see my face, wherein they fixed are.
Since Nature failes vs in no needfull thing,
Why want I meanes my inward selfe to see? Which sight the knowledg of my self might bring, Which to true wisdome is the first degree.
That Power which gaue me eyes the World to view,
To see my selfe infus'd an inward light ;
Whereby my Soule, as by a mirror true,
Of her owne forme may take a perfect sight,
But as the sharpest eye discerneth nought,
Except the sunne-beames in the ayre doe shine;
So the best Soule with her reflecting thought,
Sees not her selfe without some light diuine.
O Light which mak'st the light, which makes the day!
Which setst the eye without, and mind within;
'Lighten my spirit with one cleare heauenly ray,
Which now to view it selfe doth first begin.
For her true forme how can my sparke discerne?
Which dimme by nature, Art did neuer cleare;
When the great wits, of whom all skill we learn,
Are ignorant both what shee is, and where.
One thinks the Soule is aire; another, fire;
Another blood, diffus'd about the heart;
Another saith, the elements conspire,
And to her essence each doth giue a part.
Musicians thinke our Soules are harmonies,
Phisicians hold that they complexions bee;
Epicures make them swarmes of atomies,
Which doe by chance into our bodies flee.
Some thinke one generall Soule fils euery braine,
As the bright sunne sheds light in euery starre ;
And others thinke the name of Soule is vaine,
And that we onely well-mixt bodies are.
In judgement of her substance thus they vary;
And thus they vary in iudgement of her seat;
For some her chaire vp to the braine doe carry,
Some thrust it downe into the stomackes heat.
Some place it in the root of life, the heart;
Some in the liver, fountaine of the veines ;
Some say, Shee is all in all, and all in part:
Some say,
She is not containd but all containes.
Thus these great clerks their little wisdome show,
While with their doctrines they at hazard play,
Tossing their light opinions to and fro,
To mocke the lewd, as learn'd in this as they.
For no craz'd braine could euer yet propound,
Touching the Soule, so vaine and fond a thought,
But some among these masters haue been found,
Which in their Schooles the self-same thing haue taught.
8 Davies and Southey misprint egregiously 'river.' G.
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