· · · · · “As, ’twixt two equal armies, Fate Suspends uncertain victory, Our souls—which to advance their state, Were gone out—hung ’twixt her and me. · · · · · “This ecstacy doth unperplex (We said), and tell us what we love; We see by this, it was not sex; We see, we saw not, what did move: “But as all several souls contain Mixture of things they know not what, Love these mix’d souls doth mix again, And makes both one, each this, and that. · · · · · “When love with one another so Interanimates two souls, That abler soul, which thence doth flow, Defects of loneliness controls. “We then, who are this new soul, know, Of what we are composed, and made, For th’ atomies of which we grow Are souls, whom no change can invade. · · · · · “And if some lover, such as we Have heard this dialogue of one, Let him still mark us, he shall see Small change when we’re to bodies gone.” In a like strain Randolph in “A Platonic Elegy” praises his love as that founded on reason, not on sense. The true union in love, he says, is the meeting of essence with essence. “Thus they, whose reasons love, and not their sense, The spirits love; thus one intelligence Reflects upon his like, and by chaste loves In the same sphere this and that angel moves. · · · · · “When essence meets with essence, and souls join In mutual knots, that’s the true nuptial twine. Such, lady, is my love, and such is true: All other love is to your sex, not you.” (ll. 31–34, 45–48.) The great value which this purely spiritual love was supposed to possess was that it was unaffected either by time or distance. The union, not being one known to sense, could exist as well in the absence of the lovers as in the presence of both. This thought is a great comfort and is emphasized as the peculiarity in the lovers’ passion that sets it apart from the vulgar kind. Thus Donne in the song, “Soul’s Joy,” consoles his beloved with the assurance that their souls may meet though their bodies be absent.