So, when the Soule mounts with so high a wing,
As of eternall things she doubts can moue ;
Shee proofes of her eternitie doth bring,
Euen when she striues the contrary to proue.

For euen the thought of immortalitie,

Being an act done without the bodie's ayde ; Shewes, that her selfe alone could moue and bee, Although the body in the graue were layde.

A

THAT THE SOULE CANNOT BE DESTROYED.

ND if her selfe she can so liuely moue,

And neuer need a forraine helpe to take; Then must her motion euerlasting proue, "Because her selfe she neuer can forsake.

HER CAUSE CEASETH NOT.

But though corruption cannot touch the minde,
By any cause that from it selfe may spring;
Some outward cause Fate hath perhaps designd,
Which to the Soule may vtter quenching bring.

SHE HATH NO CONTRARY.

Perhaps her cause may cease, and she may

die;

God is her cause, His Word her Maker was;

Which shall stand fixt for all eternitie

When Heauen and Earth shall like a shadow passe.

Perhaps some thing repugnant to her kind,
By strong antipathy, the Soule may kill;

But what can be contrary to the minde,
Which holds all contraries in concord still?

She lodgeth heat, and cold, and moist, and dry,
And life, and death, and peace, and war together;
Ten thousand fighting things in her doe lye,
Yet neither troubleth, or disturbeth either.

SHEE CANNOT DIE FOR WANT OF FOOD.

Perhaps for want of food the soule may pine;
But that were strange, sith all things bad and good,
Sith all God's creature's mortall and diuine,

Sith God Himselfe, is her eternall food.

Bodies are fed with things of mortall kind,

And so are subiect to mortalitie;

But Truth which is eternall, feeds the mind;
The Tree of life, which will not let her die.

G

VIOLENCE CANNOT DESTROY HER.

Yet violence, perhaps the Soule destroyes :
As lightning, or the sun-beames dim the sight;
Or as a thunder-clap, or cannons' noyse,
The power of hearing doth astonish quite.

But high perfection to the Soule it brings,

T'encounter things most excellent and high; For, when she views the best and greatest things They do not hurt, but rather cleare her eye,

Besides,―as Homer's gods 'gainst armies stand,—
Her subtill forme can through all dangers slide;
Bodies are captiue, minds endure no band,
"And Will is free, and can no force abide.

TIME CANNOT DESTROY HER.

But lastly, Time perhaps at last hath power

To spend her liuely powers, and quench her light;
But old god Saturne which doth all deuoure,
Doth cherish her, and still augment her might.

Heauen waxeth old, and all the spheres aboue

Shall one day faint, and their swift motion stay;

› Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, misread 'the.' G.

And Time it selfe in time shall cease to moue;
Onely the Soule suruives, and liues for aye.

"Our Bodies, euery footstep that they make, "March towards death, vntill at last they die ; "Whether we worke, or play, or sleepe, or wake, "Our life doth passe, and with Time's wings doth flie :

But to the Soule Time doth perfection giue,
And ads fresh lustre to her beauty still;

And makes her in eternall youth to liue,
Like her which nectar to the gods doth fill.9

The more she liues, the more she feeds on Truth;
The more she feeds, her strength doth more increase:
And what is strength, but an effect of youth?

Which if Time nurse, how can it euer cease?

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE IMMORTALITIE OF THE SOULE.

BUT now these Epicures begin to smile,

And say, my doctrine is more false then true;

And that I fondly doe my selfe beguile,
While these receiu'd opinions I ensue.

9 Hebe. G.

OBJECTION I.

'OR what, say they, doth not the Soule waxe old?

FOR

How comes it then that agèd men doe dote;

And that their braines grow sottish, dull and cold, Which were in youth the onely spirits of note?

What? are not Soules within themselues corrupted?
How can there idiots then by nature bee?
How is it that some wits are interrupted,
That now they dazeled are, now clearely see?

ANSWERE.

THESE questions make a subtill argument,

To such as thinke both sense and reason one;

To whom nor agent, from the instrument,
Nor power of working, from the work is known.

But they that know that wit can shew no skill,
But when she things in Sense's glasse doth view;
Doe know, if accident this glasse doe spill,
It nothing sees, or sees the false for true.

For, if that region of the tender braine,

Where th' inward sense of Fantasie should sit,