at first she startles, then she stands amaz’d,
at laft with terror fhe from thence doth fly,
and loaths the watry glass wherein the gaz'd,

and fhuns it ftill, though fhe for thirst do die:

even fo man's foul,- which did God's image bear,
and was, at firft, fair good, and spotlefs pure,-
fince with her fins her beauties blotted were,

doth, of all fights, her own fight least endure;

for, even at first reflection, the espies

fuch ftrange chimæras, and fuch monsters, there, fuch toys, fuch anticks, and fuch vanities,

as she retires, and shrinks, for fhame, and fear;

and as the man loves leaft at home to be,

that hath a sluttish house haunted with sprites, fo fhe, impatient her own faults to fee,

turns from herself, and in ftrange things delights:

for this, few know themselves; for merchants broke
view their estate with discontent, and pain;
and seas are troubl'd, when they do revoke
their flowing waves into themselves again :

And while the face of outward things we find
pleasing, and fair, agreable, and fweet,

these things tranfport and carry out the mind,
that with herself herself can never meet:

yet, if affliction once her wars begin,

and threat the feeble sense with fword and fire,
the mind contracts herself, and shrinketh in,
and to herself she gladly doth retire;

as fpiders, touch'd, feek their webs' inmoft part;
as bees, in ftorms, unto their hives return;
as blood, in danger, gathers to the heart;

as men feek towns, when foes the country burn.

If ought can teach us ought, affliction's looks,
making us look into ourselves fo near,
teach us to know ourselves, beyond all books,
or all the learned schools that ever were:

This miftrefs lately pluck'd me by the ear,
and many a golden lesson hath me taught,
hath made my fenfes quick, and reason clear,
reform'd my will, and rectify'd my thought;

fo do the winds, and thunders, cleanse the air;
fo working feas fettle and purge the wine;
fo lopt and pruned trees do flourish fair;
fo doth the fire the droffy gold refine:

neither Minerva, nor the learned muse,

nor rules of art, nor precepts of the wise, could in my brain those beams of skill infuse as but the glance of this dame's angry eyes:

why now fought after by the author; and

bis profit therein.

fhe within lifts my ranging mind hath brought,
that now beyond myself I lift not go;
myself am center of my circling thought;
only myself I ftudy, learn, and know:

I know, my body's of fo frail a kind

as force without, fevers within, can kill; I know the heavenly nature of my mind, but 'tis corrupted both in wit and will;

I know, my foul hath power to know all things,
yet is fhe blind and ignorant in all;
I know, I am one of nature's little kings,
yet to the least and vileft things am thrall;

I know, my life's a pain, and but a span;
I know, my fenfe is mock'd with every thing;
and, to conclude, I know myself a man,

which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.

ELEGY II. Of the Soul of Man, and
the Immortality thereof.

The lights of heaven, which are the world's fair look down into the world, the world to see ; and, as they turn, or wander in the skies, furvey all things that on this center be:

eyes, IntroductionThat the foul bath a power of looking into itself; but

and yet the lights which in my tower do fhine,
mine eyes, which view all objects, nigh, and far,

look not into this little world of mine,

nor fee my face, wherein they fixed are.

Since nature fails us in no needful thing,
why want I means mine inward felf to fee?
which fight the knowledge of myself might bring,
which to true wisdom is the first degree.

That Power, which gave me eyes

the world to view,

to view myself infus'd an inward light; whereby my foul, as by a mirror true,

of her own form may take a perfect fight.

But, as the sharpeft eye discerneth nought,

except the fun-beams in the air do fhine; fo the best foul, with her reflecting thought,

sees not herself, without fome light divine.

cannot exert

that power without divine affift

ance:

Invocation to O Light, which mak'st the light, which makes the day, the Divinity, which fet'ft the eye without, and mind within, to grant that lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray, which now to view itself doth first begin!

affiftance:

it is want

reasons why For her true form how can my fpark discern,which, dim by nature, art did never clear,when the great wits, of whom all skill we learn, are ignorant both what the is, and where?

ed, for that the greatest

wits have

err'din judgment of the foul; both in what it is,

and

One thinks, the foul is air; another, fire;
another, blood diffus'd about the heart;
another faith, The elements confpire,

and to her effence each doth give a part;

musicians think, our fouls are harmonies;
physicians hold, that they complexions be;
epicures make them fwarms of atomies,

which do by chance into our bodies flee;

fome think, one general foul fills every brain,
as the bright fun fheds light in every star;
and others think, the name of foul is vain,
and that we only well-mix'd bodies are:

where fedted in judgment of her fubftance thus they vary;
and thus they vary in judgment of her feat:
for fome her chair up to the brain do carry ;
fome thruft it down into the ftomack's heat;