One common power doth in the forehead sit,
Which all their proper formes together brings.

For all those nerues, which spirits of Sence doe beare,
And to those outward organs spreading goe;

Vnited are, as in a center there,

And there this power those sundry formes doth know.

Those outward organs present things receiue,

This inward Sense doth absent things retaine;
Yet straight transmits all formes shee doth perceiue,
Vnto a higher region of the braine.

WHERE Fantasie, neere hand-maid to the mind,

Sits and beholds, and doth discerne them all; Compounds in one, things diuers in their kind; Compares the black and white, the great and small.

Besides, those single formes she doth esteeme,
And in her ballance doth their values trie;

Where some things good, and some things ill doe seem,
And neutrall some, in her fantasticke eye.

• Misprinted 'then' in 1622 edition, but as above correctly in 1599 and 1608 editions.

G.

7 Misprinted Fancasticke' in 1622 edition. G.

This busie power is working day and night;
For when the outward senses rest doe take,

A thousand dreames, fantasticall and light,
With fluttring wings doe keepe her still awake.8

THE SENSITIUE MEMORIE.

YET alwayes all may not afore her bee;

Successiuely, she this and that intends; Therefore such formes as she doth cease to see, To Memorie's large volume shee commends.

The lidger-booke lies in the braine behinde,
Like Ianus' eye, which in his poll was set;
The lay-man's tables, store-house of the mind,
Which doth remember much, and much forget.

Heere Sense's apprehension, end doth take;
As when a stone is into water cast,
One circle doth another circle make,

Till the last circle touch the banke at last.9

8 Cf. Milton's Il Penseroso, lines 5-10. G.

9 Cf. Phineas Fletcher: Purple Island c. v., stanza 47. G.

་

THE PASSIONS OF SENSE.

BUT though the apprehensiue1 power doe pause,

The motiue vertue then begins to moue;

Which in the heart below doth PASSIONS cause,
Ioy, griefe, and feare, and hope, and hate, and loue.

These passions haue a free commanding might,
And diuers actions in our life doe breed;
For, all acts done without true Reason's light,
Doe from the passion of the Sense proceed.

But sith the braine doth lodge the powers of Sense,
How makes it in the heart those passions spring?
The mutuall loue, the kind intelligence

"Twixt heart and braine, this sympathy doth bring.

From the kind heat, which in the heart doth raigne,
The spirits of life doe their begining take;
These spirits of life ascending to the braine,
When they come there, the spirits of Sense do make.

These spirits of Sense, in Fantasie's High Court,
Iudge of the formes of obiects, ill or well;

1 Misprinted 'apprehension;' corrected in the errata of 1622 edition from 1599 and 1608 editions. G.

2 In 1599 and 1608 editions since,' as before. G.

And so they send a good or ill report

Downe to the heart, where all affections dwell.

If the report bee good, it causeth loue,

And longing hope, and well-assurèd ioy:

If it bee ill, then doth it hatred moue,
And trembling feare, and vexing griefe's annoy.

Yet were these naturall affections good:

(For they which want them, blockes or deuils be) If Reason in her first perfection stood,

That she might Nature's passions rectifie.

THE MOTION OF LIFE.

BESIDES, another motiue-power doth rise

Out of the heart; from whose pure blood do spring

The vitall spirits; which, borne in arteries,
Continuall motion to all parts doe bring.

THE LOCALL MOTION.

THIS makes the pulses beat, and lungs respire,

This holds the sinewes like a bridle's reines;

And makes the Body to aduance, retire,

To turne or stop, as she them3 slacks, or straines.

Thus the soule tunes the bodie's instrument;
These harmonies she makes with life and sense;
The organs fit are by the body lent,

But th' actions flow from the Soule's influence.

THE INTELLECTUALL POWERS OF THE SOULE.

BUT now I haue a will, yet want a wit,

To expresse the working of the wit and will; Which, though their root be to the body knit,

Vse not the body, when they vse their skill.

These powers the nature of the Soule declare,
For to man's soule these onely proper bee;
For on the Earth no other wights there are
That haue these heauenly powers, but only we.

THE WIT OR UNDERSTANDING.

HE WIT, the pupill of the Soule's cleare eye,

And in man's world, the onely shining starre;

3 Misprinted 'them' in 1622 edition, corrected as above from 1599 and 1608 editions.

G.