First _in Man's mind_ we find an appetite To _learne_ and _know the truth_ of euery thing; Which is co-naturall, and borne with it, And from the _essence_ of the _soule_ doth spring. With this _desire_, shee hath a natiue _might_ To find out euery truth, if she had time; Th' innumerable effects to sort aright, And by degrees, from cause to cause to clime. But sith our life so fast away doth slide, As doth a hungry eagle through the wind, Or as a ship transported with the tide; Which in their passage leaue no print behind; Of which swift little time so much we spend, While some few things we through the sense doe straine; That our short race of life is at an end, Ere we the principles of skill attaine. Or God (which to vaine ends hath nothing done) In vaine this _appetite_ and _power_ hath giuen; Or else our knowledge, which is here begun, Hereafter must bee perfected in heauen. God neuer gaue a _power_ to one whole kind, But most part of that kind did vse the same; Most eies haue perfect sight, though some be blind; Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame: But in this life no _soule_ the truth can know So perfectly, as it hath power to doe; If then perfection be not found below, An higher place must make her mount thereto. [Footnote 143: = disciples of Epicurus's Philosophy. G.] REASON II. DRAWN FROM THE MOTION OF THE SOULE. _Againe_ how can shee but immortall bee? When with the motions of both _Will_ and _Wit_, She still aspireth to eternitie, And neuer rests, till she attaine to it? Water in conduit pipes, can rise no higher Then the wel-head, from whence it first doth spring: Then sith to eternall GOD shee doth aspire, Shee cannot be but an eternall thing. "All mouing things to other things doe moue, "Of the same kind, which shews their nature such; So _earth_ falls downe and _fire_ doth mount aboue, Till both their proper elements doe touch. THE SOUL COMPARED TO A RIUER. _And as_ the moysture, which the thirstie earth Suckes from the sea, to fill her emptie veines, From out her wombe at last doth take a birth, And runs a _Nymph_[144] along the grassie plaines: [Footnote 144: Davies and Southey, as before, have the extraordinary misprint here of 'lymph.' Cf. 'Orchestra,' stanza 63, which explains the personification. G.] Long doth shee stay, as loth to leaue the land, From whose soft side she first did issue make; Shee tastes all places, turnes to euery hand, Her flowry bankes vnwilling to forsake: Yet _Nature_ so her streames doth lead and carry, As that her course doth make no finall stay, Till she her selfe vnto the _Ocean_ marry, Within whose watry bosome first she lay: