_
'Spirit is a most subtile vapour, which is expressed from the Bloud,
and the instrument of the soule, to perform all his actions; a common
tye or _medium_ betwixt the body and the soule, as some will have it;
or as _Paracelsus_, a fourth soule of itselfe.
'Spirit is a most subtile vapour, which is expressed from the Bloud,
and the instrument of the soule, to perform all his actions; a common
tye or _medium_ betwixt the body and the soule, as some will have it;
or as _Paracelsus_, a fourth soule of itselfe.
John Donne
cxv.
4.
Now if 'Soe' be the right reading here then Donne is thinking of
the heavenly bodies without distinguishing in them between soul or
intelligence and body. 'As these high bodies or beings operate on
man's soul through the comparatively low intermediary of air, so
lovers' souls must interact through the medium of body. '
If 'For' be the right reading, then Donne is giving as an example of
soul operating on soul through the medium of body the influence of the
heavenly intelligences on our souls. But this is not the orthodox view
of their interaction. I feel sure that 'Soe' is the right reading. The
thought and construction are simpler, and 'Soe' and 'For' are easily
interchanged.
Of noblemen Donne says: 'They are _Intelligences_ that move great
_Spheares_. ' _Sermon_, Judges xv. 20, p. 20 (1622).
ll. 61-4. _As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like soules as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtile knot, which makes us man.
_
'Spirit is a most subtile vapour, which is expressed from the Bloud,
and the instrument of the soule, to perform all his actions; a common
tye or _medium_ betwixt the body and the soule, as some will have it;
or as _Paracelsus_, a fourth soule of itselfe. _Melancthon_ holds
the fountaine of these spirits to be the _Heart_, begotten there; and
afterward convayed to the Braine, they take another nature to them. Of
these spirits there be three kindes, according to the three principall
parts, _Braine_, _Heart_, _Liver_; _Naturall_, _Vitall_, _Animall_.
The _Naturall_ are begotten in the _Liver_, and thence dispersed
through the Veines, to performe those naturall actions. The _Vitall
Spirits_ are made in the Heart, of the _Naturall_, which by the
Arteries are transported to all the other parts: if these _Spirits_
cease, then life ceaseth, as in a _Syncope_ or Swowning. The _Animall
spirits_ formed of the _Vitall_, brought up to the Braine, and
diffused by the Nerves, to the subordinate Members, give sense and
motion to them all. ' Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1638), p. 15.
'The spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood,
and so are of a kind of middle nature, between soul and body, those
spirits are able to doe, and they doe the office, to unite and apply
the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body, and so there is a
man. ' _Sermons_ 26. 20. 291.
PAGE =55=. LOVES DIET.
ll. 19-24.
Now if 'Soe' be the right reading here then Donne is thinking of
the heavenly bodies without distinguishing in them between soul or
intelligence and body. 'As these high bodies or beings operate on
man's soul through the comparatively low intermediary of air, so
lovers' souls must interact through the medium of body. '
If 'For' be the right reading, then Donne is giving as an example of
soul operating on soul through the medium of body the influence of the
heavenly intelligences on our souls. But this is not the orthodox view
of their interaction. I feel sure that 'Soe' is the right reading. The
thought and construction are simpler, and 'Soe' and 'For' are easily
interchanged.
Of noblemen Donne says: 'They are _Intelligences_ that move great
_Spheares_. ' _Sermon_, Judges xv. 20, p. 20 (1622).
ll. 61-4. _As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like soules as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtile knot, which makes us man.
_
'Spirit is a most subtile vapour, which is expressed from the Bloud,
and the instrument of the soule, to perform all his actions; a common
tye or _medium_ betwixt the body and the soule, as some will have it;
or as _Paracelsus_, a fourth soule of itselfe. _Melancthon_ holds
the fountaine of these spirits to be the _Heart_, begotten there; and
afterward convayed to the Braine, they take another nature to them. Of
these spirits there be three kindes, according to the three principall
parts, _Braine_, _Heart_, _Liver_; _Naturall_, _Vitall_, _Animall_.
The _Naturall_ are begotten in the _Liver_, and thence dispersed
through the Veines, to performe those naturall actions. The _Vitall
Spirits_ are made in the Heart, of the _Naturall_, which by the
Arteries are transported to all the other parts: if these _Spirits_
cease, then life ceaseth, as in a _Syncope_ or Swowning. The _Animall
spirits_ formed of the _Vitall_, brought up to the Braine, and
diffused by the Nerves, to the subordinate Members, give sense and
motion to them all. ' Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1638), p. 15.
'The spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood,
and so are of a kind of middle nature, between soul and body, those
spirits are able to doe, and they doe the office, to unite and apply
the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body, and so there is a
man. ' _Sermons_ 26. 20. 291.
PAGE =55=. LOVES DIET.
ll. 19-24.
