And if herself She can so lively move, And never need a foreign help to take, Then must her motion everlasting prove, "Because her self She never can forsake." [Sidenote: That the Soul cannot be destroyed.] "But though Corruption cannot touch the Mind, By any cause, that from itself may spring; Some Outward Cause, Fate hath perhaps designed, Which to the Soul, may utter quenching bring?" [Sidenote: Her Cause ceaseth not.] "Perhaps her Cause may cease, and She may die!" GOD is her Cause! His WORD, her Maker was! Which shall stand fixed for all eternity! When heaven and earth shall like a shadow pass. [Sidenote: She hath no contrary.] "Perhaps something repugnant to her kind, By strong antipathy, the Soul may kill!" But what can be contrary to the Mind, 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 do lie, Yet neither troubleth or disturbeth either. [Sidenote: She cannot die for want of food.] "Perhaps, for want of food, the Soul may pine!" But that were strange! since all things bad and good, Since all GOD's creatures, mortal and divine; Since GOD Himself is her eternal food. Bodies are fed with things of mortal kind, And so are subject to mortality; But Truth, which is eternal, feeds the Mind, The Tree of Life, which will not let her die. [Sidenote: Violence cannot destroy her.] "Yet violence perhaps the Soul destroys, As lightning or the sunbeams dim the sight; Or as a thunder-clap or cannon's noise, The power of hearing doth astonish quite?" But high perfection to the Soul it brings, T'encounter things most excellent and high; For when She views the best and greatest things, They do not hurt, but rather clear the eye. Besides as HOMER's gods 'gainst armies stand; Her subtle form can through all dangers slide; Bodies are captive, Minds endure no band, "And Will is free, and can no force abide!" [Sidenote: Time cannot destroy her.] "But lastly, Time perhaps, at last, hath power, To spend her lively powers, and quench her light?" But old god SATURN, which doth all devour, Doth cherish her, and still augment her might Heaven waxeth old; and all the spheres above Shall, one day, faint, and their swift motion stay; And Time itself, in time, shall cease to move, Only the Soul survives, and lives for aye. Our bodies, every footstep that they make, March towards death, until at last they die: Whether we work, or play, or sleep, or wake, Our life doth pass, and with Time's wings doth fly