But they doe want that quicke discoursing power,
Which doth in vs the erring Sense correct;
Therefore the bee did sucke the painted flower,
And birds, of grapes, the cunning shadow, peckt.3

Sense outsides knows; the Soule throgh al things sees;
Sense, circumstance; she, doth the substance view;
Sense sees the barke, but she, the life of trees;

Sense heares the sounds, but she, the concords true.

But why doe I the Soule and Sense diuide?

When Sense is but a power, which she extends;
Which being in diuers parts diuersifide,
The diuers formes of obiects apprehends?

This power spreds outward, but the root doth grow
In th' inward Soule, which onely doth perceiue;
For th' eyes and eares no more their obiects know,
Then glasses know what faces they receiue.

For if we chance to fixe our thoughts elsewhere,
Although our eyes be ope, we cannot see;
And if one power did not both see and heare,
Our sights and sounds would alwayes double be.

3 Pliny xxxv. 36 § 3: told of a picture of Zeuxis, as that of the horse neighing is of another by Apelles (ib § 17.) G.

Then is the Soule a nature, which containes
The powre of Sense, within a greater power
Which doth imploy and vse the Senses paines,
But sits and rules within her priuate bower.

THAT THE SOULE IS MORE THEN THE TEMPERATURE 4 OF THE HUMORS OF THE BODY.

IF shee doth then the subtill Sense excell,

How gross are they that drown her in the blood!

Or in the bodie's humors tempred well,

As if in them such high perfection stood?

As if most skill in that Musician were,

Which had the best, and best tun'd instrument;
As if the pensill neate5 and colours cleare,
Had power to make the Painter excellent.

Why doth not beautie then refine the wit?
And good complexion rectifie the will?

Why doth not health bring wisdom still with it?
Why doth not sicknesse make men bruitish still?

Who can in memory, or wit, or will,

Or ayre, or fire, or earth, or water finde?

What alchymist can draw, with all his skil,
The quintessence of these, out of the mind?

If th' elements which haue nor life, nor sense,
Can breed in vs so great a powre as this;
Why giue they not themselues like excellence,
Or other things wherein their mixture is?

If she were but the Bodie's qualitie

Then would she be with it sicke, maim'd and blind;
But we perceiue where these priuations be

A healthy, perfect, and sharpe-sighted mind.

If she the bodie's nature did pertake,

Her strength would with the bodie's strength decay;
But when the bodie's strongest sinewes slake,
Then is the Soule most actiue, quicke and gay.

If she were but the bodie's accident,
And her sole being did in it subsist;

As white in snow; she might her selfe absent,
And in the bodie's substance not be mist.

But it on her, not shee on it depends;

For shee the body doth sustaine and cherish;
Such secret powers of life to it she lends,

That when they faile, then doth the body perish.

Since then the Soule works by her selfe alone,

Springs not from Sense, nor humors, well agreeing;
Her nature is peculiar, and her owne:

She is a substance, and a perfect being.

THAT THE SOULE IS A SPIRIT.

BUT though this substance be the root of Sense,

Sense knowes her not, which doth but bodies know; Shee is a spirit, and heauenly influence,

Which from the fountaine of God's Spirit doth flow.

Shee is a Spirit, yet not like ayre, or winde,

Nor like the spirits about the heart or braine;
Nor like those spirits which alchymists do find,
When they in euery thing seeke gold in vaine.

For shee all natures vnder heauen doth passe;
Being like those spirits, which God's bright face do see;
Or like Himselfe, Whose image once she was,

Though now (alas !) she scarce His shadow bee.

Yet of the formes, she holds the first degree,
That are to grosse materiall bodies knit ;
Yet shee her selfe is bodilesse and free ;
And though confin'd, is almost infinite.

THAT IT CANNOT BE A BODY.

Were she a body how could she remaine

Within this body, which is lesse then she?

Or how could she the world's great shape contain, And in our narrow brests containèd bee?

All bodies are confin'd within some place,
But she all place within her selfe confines;
All bodies haue their measure, and their space,
But who can draw the Soule's dimensiue lines?

No body can at once two formes admit,

Except the one the other doe deface;

But in the soule ten thousand formes do sit,
And none intrudes into her neighbour's place.

All bodies are with other bodies fild,

But she receiues both heauen and earth together;
Nor are their formes by rash incounter spild,
For there they stand, and neither toucheth either.

Nor can her wide imbracements filled bee;

For they that most, and greatest things embrace, Inlarge thereby their minds' capacitie,

As streames inlarg'd, inlarge the channel's space.6

6 4 'Time but the impression stronger makes
As streams their channels deeper wear.'
BURNS: to Mary in Heaven.