Donne summarizes in these lines the old
concentric arrangement of the Universe as we find it in Dante.
concentric arrangement of the Universe as we find it in Dante.
John Donne
l. 190. _Meteors. _ See note to _The Storme_, l. 13. A meteor was
regarded as due to the effect of the air's cold region on exhalations
from the earth:
If th'Exhalation hot and oily prove,
And yet (as feeble) giveth place above
To th'Airy Regions ever-lasting Frost,
Incessantly th'apt-tinding fume is tost
Till it inflame: then like a Squib it falls,
Or fire-wing'd shaft, or sulphry Powder-Balls.
But if this kind of Exhalation tour
Above the walls of Winters icy bowr
'T-inflameth also; and anon becomes
A new strange Star, presaging wofull dooms.
Sylvester's _Du Bartas. Second Day of the First Weeke. _
i. e. a Meteor below the middle region, it becomes a Comet above.
l. 189 to PAGE =257=, l. 206.
Donne summarizes in these lines the old
concentric arrangement of the Universe as we find it in Dante. Leaving
the elements of earth and water the soul passes through the regions of
the air (including the central one where snow and hail and meteors
are generated), and through the element of fire to the Moon, thence
to Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Firmament of the
fixed stars. He has already indicated (p. 237, ll. 205 f. ) how this
arrangement is being disturbed by 'the New Philosophy'.
l. 192. _Whether th'ayres middle region be intense. _ Compare:
th'ayres middle marble roome.
_The Storme_, p. 175, l. 14.
PAGE =257=, ll. 219-20. _This must, my Soule, &c.
