Quondam porticus attulit Obscuros nimium senes Qui sensus et imagines E corporibus extimis Credant mentibus imprimi, 5 Vt quondam celeri stilo Mos est aequore paginae, Quae nullas habeat notas, Pressas figere litteras. Sed mens si propriis uigens 10 Nihil motibus explicat, Sed tantum patiens iacet Notis subdita corporum Cassasque in speculi uicem Rerum reddit imagines, 15 Vnde haec sic animis uiget Cernens omnia notio? Quae uis singula perspicit Aut quae cognita diuidit? Quae diuisa recolligit 20 Alternumque legens iter Nunc summis caput inserit, Nunc decedit in infima, Tum sese referens sibi Veris falsa redarguit? 25 Haec est efficiens magis Longe causa potentior Quam quae materiae modo Impressas patitur notas. Praecedit tamen excitans 30 Ac uires animi mouens Viuo in corpore passio. Cum uel lux oculos ferit Vel uox auribus instrepit, Tum mentis uigor excitus 35 Quas intus species tenet Ad motus similes uocans Notis applicat exteris Introrsumque reconditis Formis miscet imagines. 40 IV. Cloudy old prophets of the Porch[175] once taught That sense and shape presented to the thought From outward objects their impression take, As when upon a paper smooth and plain On which as yet no marks of ink have lain We with a nimble pen do letters make. But if our minds to nothing can apply Their proper motions, but do patient lie Subject to forms which do from bodies flow, As a glass renders empty[176] shapes of things, Who then can show from whence that motion springs By force of which the mind all things doth know? Or by what skill are several things espied? And being known what power doth them divide, And thus divided doth again unite, And with a various journey oft aspires To highest things, and oft again retires To basest, nothing being out of sight, And when she back unto herself doth move, Doth all the falsehoods by the truth reprove? This vigour needs must be an active cause, And with more powerful forces must be deckt, Than that which from those forms, that do reflect From outward matter, all her virtue draws. And yet in living bodies passion's might Doth go before, whose office is to incite, And the first motions in the mind to make. As when the light unto our eyes appears, Or some loud voice is sounded in our ears, Then doth the strength of the dull mind awake Those phantasies which she retains within; She stirreth up such notions to begin, Whose objects with their natures best agree, And thus applying them to outward things,