building which falls to ruine if the foundation and Base of it be unsound or disordered And in some of these the vitall spirits are contained and preserved which the other keep in convenient temper and as long as they do so the soul and bodie dwell together like good friends so that these foure are the Base of the conjunction of the other two both which he saith are Proportion'd equally by seven and nine In which words I understand he meanes the influences of the superior substances which governe the inferiour into the two differing parts of Man to wit of the Starres the most powerfull of which are the seven Planets into his body and of the Angels divided into nine Hierarchies or Orders into his soul which in his Astrophel he saith is By soveraigne choice from th`heavenly Quires select And lineally deriv`d from Angels race And as much as the one governe the Body so much the other do the Minde Wherein is to be considered that some are of opinion how at the instant of a childs conception or rather more effectually at the instant of his Birth the conceived sperme or tender Body doth receive such influence of the Heavens as then raigne over that place where the conception or birth is made And all the Starres or virtuall places of the celestiall Orbes participating the qualities of the seven Planets according to which they are distributed into so many Classes or the compounds of them it comes to passe that according to the varietie of the severall Aspects of the one and of the other there are various inclinations and qualities in mens bodies but all reduced to seven generall heads and the compounds of them which being to be varied innumerable wayes cause as many different effects yet the influence of some one Planet continually predominating But when the matter in a womans wombe is capable of a soul to inform it then God sendeth one from Heaven into it Eternall God In Paradise whilome did plant this Flower Whence he it fetcht out of her native place And did in Stock of earthly flesh inrace And this opinion the Author more plainly expresses himself to be of in another work where he saith There she beholds with high aspiring thought The cradle of her own Creation Emongst the seats of Angels heavenly wrought Which whether it have been created ever since the beginning of the world and reserv'd in some fit place till due time or be created on emergent occasion no man can tell but certain it is that it is immortall according to what I said before when I spake of the Circle which hath no ending and an uncertain beginning The messengers to conveigh which soul into the bodie are the Intelligences which move the Orbes of Heaven who according to their severall natures communicate to it severall proprieties and they most who are Governours of those Starres at that instant who have the superioritie in the planetary aspects Whereby it comes to passe that in all inclinations there 's much affinitie betweene the Soul and the Body being that the like is betweene the Intelligences and the Starres both which communicate their vertues to each of them And these Angels being as I said before of nine severall Hierarchies there are so many principle differences in humane souls which participate most of their proprieties which whom in their descent they made the longest stay and that had most active power to work on them and accompanied them with a peculiar Genius which is according to their severall Governments like the same kind of water that running through various conduits wherein severall aromatike and odoriferous things are laid do acquire severall kinds of tastes and smels For it is supposed that in their first Creation all Souls are alike and that their differing proprieties arive to them afterwards when they passe through the spheres of the governing Intelligences So that by such their influence it may truly be said that Nine was the Circle set in Heavens place Which verse by assigning this office to the nine and the proper place to the Circle gives much light to what is said before And for a further confirmation that this is the Authors opinion read attentively the sixt Canto of the 3. Book where most learnedly and at large he delivers the Tenets of this Philosophie and for that I commend to you to take particular notice of the 2d and thirty two Stanzaes as also the last of his Epithalamion and survaying his works you shall finde him a constant disciple of Platoes School All which compacted made a goodly Diapase In Nature there is not to be found a more compleat and more exact Concordance of all parts then that which is betweene the compaction and conjunction of the Body and Soul of Man Both which although they consist of many and most different faculties and parts yet when they keepe due time with one another they altogether make the most perfect Harmony that can be imagined And as the nature of sounds that consist of friendly consonancies and accords is to mingle themselves with one another and to slide into the eare with much sweetnesse where by their unity they last a long time and delight it where as contrarily discords continually jarre and fight together and will not mingle with one another but all of them striving to have the victory their reluctation and disorder gives a speedie end to their sounds which strike the Eare in a harsh and offensive manner and there die in the very beginning of their Conflict In like manner when a mans Actions are regular and directed towards God they become like the lines of a Circle which all meet in the Center then his musick is most excellent and compleat and all together are the Authors of that blessed harmony which maketh him happie in the glorious vision of Gods perfections wherein the minde is filled with high knowledges and most pleasing contemplations and the senses as it were drowned in eternall delight and nothing can interrupt this Joy this Happinesse which is an everlasting Diapase Whereas on the contrary if a mans actions be disorderly and consisting of discords which is when the sensitive part rebels and wrastles with the Rationall striving to oppresse it then this musick is spoiled and instead of eternall life pleasure and joy it causeth perpetuall death horrour paine and misery Which infortunate estate the Poet describes elsewhere as in the conclusion of this Staffe he intimates the other happy one which is the never-failing Reward of such an obedient bodie and ethereall and vertuous minde as he makes to be the feat of the bright Virgin Alma mans worthiest inhabitant Reason Her I feele to speake within me and chide me for my bold Attempt warning me to stray no further For what I have said considering how weakly it is said your Command is all the excuse that I can pretend But since my desire to obey that may bee seene as well in a few lines as in a large Discourse it were indiscretion in me to trouble you with more or to discover to you more of my Ignorance I will onely begge pardon of you for this blotted and interlined paper whose Contents are so meane that it cannot deserve the paines of a Transcription which if you make difficulty to grant to it for my sake let it obtain it for having been yours And now I return to you also the Book that contains my Text which yesterday you sent me to fit this part of it with a Comment which peradventure I might have performed better if either I had afforded my selfe more time or had had the conveniencie of some other books apt to quicken my Invention to whom I might have been beholding for enlarging my understanding in some things that are treated here although the Application should still have been my own With these helps perhaps I might have dived further into the Authors Intention the depth of which cannot be sounded by any that is lesse learned then he was But I perswade my self very strongly that in what I have said there 's nothing contradictory to it and that an intelligent and well learned man proceeding on my grounds might compose a worthie and true Commentarie on this Theme Upon which I wonder how I stambled considering how many learned men have failed in the Interpretation of it and have all at the first hearing approved my opinion But it was Fortune that made me fall upon it when first this Stanza was read to me for an indissoluble Riddle And the same Discourse I made upon it the first halfe quarter of an houre that I saw it I send you here without having reduced it to any better form or added any thing at all unto it Which I beseech you receive benignely as coming from Your most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Kenelm Digby FINIS
right Angles cannot comprehend and inclose a superficies having but 3 angles they are all acute if it be equilaterall and but equall to 2 right in which respect all other regular Figures consisting of more then 3 lines do exceed it May not these be resembled to the 3 great compounded Elements in mans bodie to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercurie which mingled together make the naturall heat and radicall moysture the 2 qualities whereby man liveth For the more lines that go to comprehend the Figure the more and the greater the Angles are and the nearer it comes to the perfection and capacitie of a Circle A Triangle is composed of severall lines and they of Points which yet do not make a quantitie by being contiguous to one another but rather the motion of them doth describe the lines In like manner the Body of man is compounded of the foure Elements which are made of the foure primarie qualities not compounded of them for they are but Accidents but by their operation upon the first matter And as a Triangle hath three lines so a solid Body hath three dimensions to wit Longitude Latitude and Profunditie But of all bodies Man is of the lowest rank as the Triangle is among Figures being composed of the Elements which make it liable to alteration and corruption In which consideration of the dignitie of bodies I divide them by a generall division into sublunarie which are the elementated ones and Aethereall which are supposed to be of their own nature incorruptible and peradventure there are some other species of corporeall substances which is not of this place to dispute O work divine Certainly of all Gods works the noblest and perfectest is Man and for whom indeed all others were done For if we consider his soul it is the very Image of God If his bodie it is adornd with the greatest beautie and most excellent symmetry of parts of any created thing whereby it witnesseth the perfection of the Architect that of so drossie mold is able to make so rare a fabrick If his operations they are free If his end it is eternall glory And if you take all together Man is a little world an exact type of the great world and of God himself But in all this me thinks the admirablest work is the joyning together of the two different and indeed opposite substances in Man to make one perfect compound the Soul and the Body which are of so contrary a nature that their uniting seems to be a Miracle For how can the one inform and work in the other since there 's no mean of operation that we know of between a spirituall substance and a corporeall yet we see that it doth as hard it is to find the true proportion betweene a Circle and a Triangle yet that there is a just proportion and that they may be equall Archimedes hath left us an ingenious demonstration but in reducing it to a Probleme it fails in this that because the proportion between a crooked line and a straight one is not known one must make use of a Mechanick way of measuring the peripherie of the one to convert it to the side of the other These two the first and last proportions are What I have already said concerning a Circle and a Triangle doth sufficiently unfold what is meant in this verse Yet t will not be amisse to speak one word more hereof in this place All things that have existence may be divided into three Classes which are either what is pure and simple in it self or what hath a nature compounded of what is simple or what hath a nature compounded of what is compounded In continued quantitie this may be exemplified by a Point a line and a superficies in Bodies and in numbers by an unity a Denary and a Centenary The first which is onely pure simple like an indivisible point or an unity hath relation onely to the Divine nature That point then moving in a sphericall manner which serves to expresse the perfection of Gods actions describes the Circles of our souls and of Angels and intellectuall substances which are of a pure and simple nature but receiveth that from what is so in a perfecter manner and that hath his from none else Like lines that are made by the flowing of points or Denaries that are composed of Unities beyond both which there is nothing In the last place Bodies are to be rankt which are composed of the Elements and they likewise suffer composition and may very well be compared to the lowest of the Figures which are composed of lines that owe their being to Points and such are Triangles or to Centenaries that are composed of Denaries and they of Unities But if we will compare these together by proportion God must be left out since there is as infinite distance betweene the Simplicitie and Perfection of his nature and the composition and imperfection of all created substances as there is between an indivisible Point and a continuate quantitie or between a simple Unitie and a compounded number So that onely the other two kinds of substance do enter into this consideration and of them I have already proved that mans Soul is of the one the noblest being dignified by hypostaticall Union above all other intellectuall substances and his elementated Body of the other the most low and corruptible Whereby it is evident that those two are the first and last Proportions both in respect of their own Figure and of what they expressed The one imperfect Mortall Feminine Th'other immortall perfect Masculine Mans Body hath all the proprieties of imperfect matter It is but the Patient of it self alone it can do nothing it is liable to corruption and dissolution if it once be deprived of the form which actuates it and which is incorruptible and immortall And as the feminine Sex is imperfect and receives perfection from the masculine so doth the Body from the Soul which to it is in lieu of a male And as in corporall generations the female affords but grosse and passive matter to which the Male gives active heat and prolificall vertue so in spirituall generations which are the operations of the minde the body administers onely the Organs which if they were not imployed by the Soul would of themselves serve for nothing And as there is a mutuall appetence between the Male and the Female betweene matter and forme So there is betweene the bodie and the soul of Man but what ligament they have our Author defineth not and it may be Reason is not able to attaine to it yet he tels us what is the foundation that this Machine rests on and what keeps the parts together in these words And twixt them both a Quadrate was the Base By which Quadrate I conceive that he meaneth the foure principall humors in mans Bodie viz. Choler Blood Phleme and Melancholy which if they be distempered and unfitly mingled dissolution of the whole doth immediately ensue like to a
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 22. STANZA IN THE 9th CANTO OF the 2d Book of SPENCERS Faery Queen Full of excellent Notions concerning the Frame of Man and his rationall Soul Written by the Right Noble and Illustrious Knight Sir Kenelme Digby at the request of a Friend LONDON Printed for Daniel Frere Bookseller at the Red-Bull in Little Brittain 1643. OBSERVATIONS on the 22. Stanza in the 9th Canto of the 2d Book of SPENCERS Faery Queene written by the Request of a Friend My most honour'd Friend I Am too well acquainted with the weaknesses of mine abilities far unfit to undergo such a Task as I have in hand to flatter my self with the hope I may either inform your understanding or do my self honour by what I am to write But I am so desirous you should be possest with the true knowledge of what a bent will I have upon all occasions to do you service that obedience to your command weigheth much more with me then the lawfulnesse of any excuse can to preserve me from giving you in writing such a testimonie of my ignorance and erring Phantasie as I fear this will prove Therefore without any more circumstance I will as I can deliver to you in this paper what th' other day I discoursed to you upon the 22. Staffe of the ninth Canto in the second Book of that matchlesse Poem The Faery Queen written by our English Virgil whose words are these The Frame thereof seem'd partly Circular And part Triangular O work divine Those two the first and last proportions are The one imperfect mortall feminine Th' other immortal perfect masculine And twixt them both a Quadrate was the Base Proportion'd equally by seven and nine Nine was the Circle set in Heavens place All which compacted made a goodly Diapase In this Staffe the Author seems to me to proceed in a different manner from what he doth elsewhere generally through his whole Book For in other places although the beginning of his Allegory or mysticall sense may be obscure yet in the processe of it he doth himself declare his own conceptions in such sort as they are obvious to any ordinarie capacitie But in this he seems onely to glance at the profoundest notions that any Science can deliver us and then on a sudden as it were recalling himself out of an Enthusiasme he returns to the gentle Relation of the Allegoricall History he had begun leaving his Readers to wander up and down in much obscuritie to come within much danger of erring at his Intention in these lines Which I conceive to be dictated by such a learned Spirit and so generally a knowing Soul that were there nothing else extant of Spencers writing yet these few words would make me esteeme him no whit inferiour to the most famous men that ever have been in any age as giving an evident testimonie herein that he was throughly verst in the Mathematicall Sciences in Philosophy and in Divinity to which this might serve for an ample Theme to make large Commentaries upon In my praises upon this subject I am confident that the worth of the Author will preserve me from this Censure that my Ignorance onely begets this Admiration since he hath written nothing that is not admirable But that it may appear I am guided somewhat by my own Judgement tho' it be a meane one and not by implicite Faith and that I may in the best manner I can comply with what you expect from me I will no longer hold you in suspense but begin immediately tho' abruptly with the declaration of what I conceive to be the true sense of this place which I shall not go about to adorne with any plausible discourses or with Authorities and examples drawne from others writings since my want both of conveniency and learning would make me fall very short herein but it shall be enough for me to intimate mine own conceptions and offer them up to you in their own simple and naked form leaving to your better Judgement the examination of the weight of them and after perusall of them beseeching you to reduce them and me if you perceive us erring T is evident that the Authors intention in this Canto is to describe the bodie of a man inform'd with a rationall soul and in prosecution of that designe he sets down particularly the severall parts of the one and of the other But in this Stanza he comprehends the generall description of them both as being joyned together to frame a compleat Man they make one perfect compound which will the better appear by taking a survey of every severall clause thereof by it self The Frame thereof seemd partly Circular And part Triangular By these Figures I conceive that he means the mind and body of Man the first being by him compared to a Circle and the latter to a Triangle For as a Circle of all Figures is the most perfect and includeth the greatest space and is every way full and without Angles made by the continuance of one onely line so mans soul is the noblest and most beautifull Creature that God hath created and by it we are capable of the greatest gifts that God can bestow which are Grace Glory and Hypostaticall Union of the Humane nature to the Divine and she enjoyeth perfect freedome and libertie in all her Actions and is made without composition which no Figures are that have Angles for they are caus'd by the coincidence of severall lines but of one pure substance which was by God breath'd into a Body made of such compounded earth as in the preceding Stanza the Author describes And this is the exact Image of him that breathed it representing him as fully as t is possible for any creature which is infinitely distant from a Creator For as God hath neither beginning nor ending so neither of these can be found in a Circle although that being made of the successive motion of a line it must be supposed to have a beginning somewhere God is compared to a Circle whose Center is every where but his circumference no where But mans soul is a Circle whose circumference is limited by the true center of it which is onely God For as a circumference doth in all parts alike respect that indivisible Point and as all lines drawn from the inner side of it do make right Angles within it when they meet therein so all the interiour actions of mans soul ought to have no other respective Point to direct themselves unto but God and as long as they make right Angles which is that they keep the exact middle of virtue and decline not to either of the sides where the contrary vices dwell they cannot fail but meet in their Center By the Triangular Figure he very aptly designes the body for as the Circle is of all other Figures the most perfect and most capacious so the Triangle is most imperfect and includes least space It is the first and lowest of all Figures for fewer then 3