Were She a Body, how could She remain Within this body, which is less than She? Or how could She, the world's great shape contain; And in our narrow breasts contained be? All bodies are confined within some place; But She all place within herself confines; All bodies have their measure and their space; But who can draw the Soul's dimensive lines? No Body can, at once, two forms admit, Except the one, the other do deface; But in the Soul, ten thousand forms do sit, And none intrudes into her neighbour's place. All bodies are, with other bodies filled, But She receives both heaven and earth together, Nor are their Forms, by rash encounter, spilled, For there they stand, and neither toucheth either. Nor can her wide embracements fillèd be; For they that most and greatest things embrace, Enlarge thereby their mind's capacity, As streams enlarged, enlarge the channel's space. All things received, do such proportion take, As those things have, wherein they are received: So little glasses, little faces make; And narrow webs, on narrow frames be weaved: Then, what vast body must we make the Mind? Wherein are men, beasts, trees, towns, seas, and lands, And yet each thing a proper place doth find, And each thing in the true proportion stands. Doubtless, this could not be, but that She turns Bodies to Spirits, by sublimation strange; As fire converts to fire, the things it burns; As we, our meats into our nature change. From their gross Matter, she abstracts the Forms, And draws a kind of Quintessence from things, Which to her proper nature, She transforms, To bear them light on her celestial wings. This doth She, when from things particular, She doth abstract the universal kinds, Which bodiless and immaterial are, And can be lodged but only in our minds. And thus, from divers accidents and acts, Which do within her observation fall; She, goddesses and Powers Divine abstracts, As Nature, Fortune, and the Virtues all. Again, how can She, several bodies know, If in herself a body's form She bears? How can a mirror sundry faces show, If from all shapes and forms it be not clear? Nor could we by our eyes, all colours learn, Except our eyes were, of all colours void, Nor sundry tastes can any tongue discern, Which is with gross and bitter humours cloyed. Nor may a man, of Passions judge aright, Except his mind be from all Passions free; Nor can a Judge, his office well acquite, If he possest of either party be!