Chapter I: Introduction (1)

Henry More (1614-1687), the most interesting member of that group traditionally known as the Cambridge Platonists, lived conscientiously and well. Having early set out on one course, he never thought to change it; he devoted his whole life to the joy of celebrating, again and again, “a firm and unshaken Belief of the Existence of GOD . . . , a God infinitely Good, as well as infinitely Great . . . .”[1] Such faith was for More the starting point of his rational understanding: “with the most fervent Prayers” he beseeched God, in his autobiographical “Praefatio Generalissima,” “to set me free from the dark Chains, and this so sordid Captivity of my own Will.” More offered to faith all which his reason could know, and so it happened that he “was got into a most Joyous and Lucid State of Mind,” something quite ineffable; to preserve these “Sensations and Experiences of my own Soul,” he wrote “a pretty full Poem call’d _Psychozoia_” (or _A Christiano-Platonicall display of Life_), an exercise begun about 1640 and designed for no audience but himself. There were times, More continued in his autobiographical remarks, when he thought of destroying _Psychozoia_ because its style is rough and its language filled with archaisms. His principal purpose in that poem was to demonstrate in detail the spiritual foundation of all existence; Psyche, his heroine, is the daughter of the Absolute, the general Soul who holds together the metaphysical universe, against whom he sees reflected his own soul’s mystical progress. More must, nevertheless, have been pleased with his labor, for he next wrote _Psychathanasia Platonica: or Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, especially Mans Soul_, in which he attempts to demonstrate the immortality of the soul as a corrective to his age. Then, he joined to that _Antipsychopannychia, or A Confutation of the sleep of the Soul after death_, and _Antimonopsychia, or That all Souls are not one_; at the urging of friends, he published the poems in 1642--his first literary work--as _Psychodia Platonica_.

In his argument for the soul’s immortality toward the end of _Psychathanasia_ (III.4), More had urged that there was no need to plead for any extension of the infinite (“a contradiction,” and also, it would seem, a fruitless inquiry); but he soon changed his mind. The preface to _Democritus Platonissans_ reproduces those stanzas of the earlier poem which deny infinity (34 to the end of the canto) with a new (formerly concluding) stanza 39 and three further stanzas “for a more easie and naturall leading to the present Canto,” _i.e._, _Democritus Platonissans_, which More clearly intended to be an addition, a fifth canto to _Psychathanasia_ (Book III); and although _Democritus Platonissans_ first appeared separately, More appended it to _Psychathanasia_ in the second edition of his collected poems, this time with English titles, the whole being called _A Platonick Song of the Soul_ (1647).

There is little relationship between _Democritus Platonissans_ and the rest of More’s poetry; even the main work to which it supposedly forms a final and conclusive canto provides only the slightest excuse for such a continuation. Certainly, in _Psychathanasia_, More is excited by the new astronomy; he praises the Copernican system throughout Book III, giving an account of it according to the lessons of his study of Galileo’s _Dialogo_, which he may have been reading even as he wrote.[2] Indeed, More tries to harmonize the two poems--his habit was always to look for unity. But even though _Democritus Platonissans_ explores an astronomical subject, just as the third part of _Psychathanasia_ also does, its attitude and theme are quite different; for More had meanwhile been reading Descartes.

More’s theory of the infinity of worlds and God’s plenitude evidently owed a great deal to Descartes’ recent example; More responds exuberantly to him, especially to his _Principes de la Philosophie_ (1644); for in him he fancied having found a true ally. Steeped in Platonic and neo-Platonic thought, and determined to reconcile Spirit with the rational mind of man, More thought he had discovered in Cartesian ‘intuition’ what was not necessarily there. Descartes had enjoyed an ecstatic illumination, and so had Plotinus; but this was not enough, as More may have wanted to imagine, to make Descartes a neo-Platonist.[3] But the Platonic element implicit in Descartes, his theory of innate ideas, and his proof of the existence of God from the idea of God, all helped to make More so receptive to him. Nevertheless, More did not really need Descartes, nor, as he himself was later to discover, had he even understood him properly, for More had looked at him only to find his own reflection.

But there was nothing really new about the idea of infinite worlds which More described in _Democritus Platonissans_; it surely was not a conception unique to Descartes. The theory was a common one in Greek and Renaissance thought. Democritus and the Epicureans, of course, advocated the theme of infinite worlds in an infinite universe which More accepted; but at the same time, he rejected their view of a mechanistic and fortuitous creation. Although Plato specifically rejects the idea of infinite worlds (in _Timaeus_), More imagines, as the title of his poem implies, a Platonic universe, by which he really means neo-Platonic, combined with a Democritean plurality of worlds. More filled space, not with the infinite void of the Atomists, but with the Divine, ever active immanence. More, in fact, in an early philosophic work, _An Antidote against Atheisme_ (1652), and again in _Divine Dialogues_ (1668), refutes Lucretius by asserting the usefulness of all created things in God’s Providence and the essential design in Nature. His reference in _Democritus Platonissans_ (st. 20) is typical: “though I detest the sect/ of Epicurus for their manners vile,/ Yet what is true I may not well reject.” In bringing together Democritus’ theories and neo-Platonic thought, More obviously has attempted reconciliation of two exclusive world views, but with dubious success.

While More stands firmly before a familiar tradition, his belief in an infinity of worlds evidently has little immediate connection with any predecessors. Even Bruno’s work, or Thomas Digges,’ which could have occupied an important place, seems to have had little, if any, direct influence on More. It was Descartes who stimulated his thought at the most receptive moment: in 1642 to have denied a theory which in 1646 he proclaimed with such force evidently argues in favor of a most powerful attachment. More responded enthusiastically to what he deemed a congenial metaphysical system; as a champion of Descartes, he was first to make him known in England and first in England to praise the infinity of worlds, yet Descartes’ system could give to him little real solace. More embraces God’s plenitude and infinity of worlds, he rejoices in the variety and grandeur of the universe, and he worships it as he might God Himself; but Descartes was fundamentally uninterested in such enthusiasms and found them even repellant--as well as unnecessary--to his thought. For More the doctrine of infinity was a proper corollary of Copernican astronomy and neo-Platonism (as well as Cabbalistic mysticism) and therefore a necessity to his whole elaborate and eclectic view of the world.

In introducing Cartesian thought into England, More emphasized particular physical doctrines mainly described in _The Principles of Philosophy_; he shows little interest in the _Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason_ (1637), or in the _Meditations_ (1641), both of which were also available to him when he wrote _Democritus Platonissans_. In the preface to his poem, he refers to Descartes whom he seems to have read hopefully: surely “infinitude” is the same as the Cartesian “indefinite.” “_For what is his =mundus indefinitè extensus=, but =extensus infinitè=? Else it sounds onely =infinitus quoad nos=, but =simpliciter finitus=_,” for there can be no space “_unstuffd with Atoms_.” More thinks that Descartes seems “to mince it,” that difficulty lies in the interpretation of a word, not in an essential idea. He is referring to Part II, xxi, of _The Principles_, but he quotes, with tacit approval, from Part III, i and ii, in the motto to the poem. More undoubtedly knows the specific discussion of ‘infinity’ in Part I, xxvi-xxviii, where he must first have felt uneasy delight on reading “that it is not needful to enter into disputes regarding the infinite, but merely to hold all that in which we can find no limits as indefinite, such as the extension of the world . . . .”[4] More asked Descartes to clarify his language in their correspondence of 1648-49, the last year of Descartes’ life.

_Democritus Platonissans_ is More’s earliest statement about absolute space and time; by introducing these themes into English philosophy, he contributed significantly to the intellectual history of the seventeenth century. Newton, indeed, was able to make use of More’s forging efforts; but of relative time or space and their measurement, which so much concerned Newton, More had little to say. He was preoccupied with the development of a theory which would show that immaterial substance, with space and time as attributes, is as real and as absolute as the Cartesian geometrical and spatial account of matter which he felt was true but much in need of amplification.

In his first letter to Descartes, of 11 December 1648, More wrote: “. . . this indefinite extension is either _simpliciter_ infinite, or only in respect to us. If you understand extension to be infinite _simpliciter_, why do you obscure your thought by too low and too modest words? If it is infinite only in respect to us, extension, in reality, will be finite; for our mind is the measure neither of the things nor of truth. . . .” Unsatisfied by his first answer from Descartes (5 February 1649), he urges his point again (5 March): if extension can describe matter, the same quality must apply to the immaterial and yet be only one of many attributes of Spirit. In his second letter to More (15 April), Descartes answers firmly: “It is repugnant to my concept to attribute any limit to the world, and I have no other measure than my perception for what I have to assert or to deny. I say, therefore, that the world is indeterminate or indefinite, because I do not recognize in it any limits. But I dare not call it infinite as I perceive that God is greater than the world, not in respect to His extension, because, as I have already said, I do not acknowledge in God any proper [extension], but in respect to His perfection . . . . It is repugnant to my mind . . . it implies a contradiction, that the world be finite or limited, because I cannot but conceive a space outside the boundaries of the world wherever I presuppose them.” More plainly fails to understand the basic dualism inherent in Cartesian philosophy and to sense the irrelevance of his questions. While Descartes is really disposing of the spiritual world in order to get on with his analysis of finite experience, More is keenly attempting to reconcile neo-Platonism with the lively claims of matter. His effort can be read as the brave attempt to harmonize an older mode of thought with the urgency of the ‘new philosophy’ which called the rest in doubt. More saw this conflict and the implications of it with a kind of clarity that other men of his age hardly possessed. But the way of Descartes, which at first seemed to him so promising, certainly did not lead to the kind of harmony which he sought.

More’s original enthusiasm for Descartes declined as he understood better that the Cartesian world in practice excluded spirits and souls. Because Descartes could find no necessary place even for God Himself, More styled him, in _Enchiridion Metaphysicum_ (1671), the “Prince of the Nullibists”; these men “readily acknowledge there are such things as _Incorporeal Beings_ or _Spirits_, yet do very peremptorily contend, that they are _no where_ in the whole World [;] . . . because they so boldly affirm that a Spirit is _Nullibi_, that is to say, _no where_,” they deserve to be called _Nullibists_.[5] In contrast to these false teachers, More describes absolute space by listing twenty epithets which can be applied either to God or to pure extension, such as “Unum, Simplex, Immobile . . . Incomprehensible ”[6] There is, however, a great difficulty here; for while Space and Spirit are eternal and uncreated, they yet contain material substance which has been created by God. If the material world possesses infinite extension, as More generally believes, that would preclude any need of its having a creator. In order to avoid this dilemma, which _Democritus Platonissans_ ignores, More must at last separate matter and space, seeing the latter as an attribute of God through which He is able to contain a finite world limited in space as well as in time. In writing that “this infinite space because of its infinity is distinct from matter,”[7] More reveals the direction of his conclusion; the dichotomy it embodies is Cartesianism in reverse.

While More always labored to describe the ineffable, his earliest work, the poetry, may have succeeded in this wish most of all. Although he felt that his poetry was aiming toward truths which his “_later and better concocted Prose_”[8] reached, the effort cost him the suggestiveness of figurative speech. In urging himself on toward an ever more consistent statement of belief, he lost much of his beginning exuberance (best expressed in the brief “Philosopher’s Devotion”) and the joy of intellectual discovery. In the search “_to find out Words which will prove faithful witnesses of the peculiarities of my Thoughts_,” he staggers under the unsupportable burden of too many words. In trying so desperately to clarify his thought, he rejected poetic discourse as “slight”; only a language free of metaphor and symbol could, he supposed, lead toward correctness. Indeed, More soon renounced poetry; he apparently wrote no more after collecting it in _Philosophical Poems_ (1647), when he gave up poetry for “more seeming Substantial performances in solid _Prose_.”[9] “Cupids Conflict,” which is “annexed” to _Democritus Platonissans_, is an interesting revelation of the failure of poetry, as More felt it: he justifies his “rude rugged uncouth style” by suggesting that sweet verses avoid telling important truths; harshness and obscurity may at least remind one that there is a significance beyond mere words. His lament is characteristic: “How ill alas! with wisdome it accords/ To sell my living sense for liveless words.”

In spite of these downcast complaints, More was quite capable of lively and meaningful poetic ideas. One is the striking image of the cone which occurs in _Democritus Platonissans_ (especially in stanzas 7-8, 66-67, and 88) and becomes the most essential symbol to More’s expression of infinitude and extension. The figure first appears in _Antipsychopannychia_ (II.9) where his purpose is to reconcile the world Soul with Christian eschatology. In _Democritus Platonissans_, the cone enables More to adapt the familiar Hermetic paradox:

A Circle whose circumference no where
Is circumscrib’d, whose Centre’s each where set,
But the low Cusp’s a figure circular,
Whose compasse is ybound, but centre’s every where. (st. 8)

Every point on the circumference, or base of the cone, relates to the single point at the top. The world, More wants to say, has no limits, no center, yet there are bounds in its not having any. More recognizes the contradiction when he fancies “some strong arm’d Archer” at the wide world’s edge (st. 37). Where shall he send his shafts? Into “mere vacuity”? But More hardly seems aware of the inappropriateness of the cone: he uses a geometrical figure to locate space, time, and numberless worlds within the universal sight of God, but matter is infinite, “distinct/ And yet proceeding from the Deitie” (st. 68). Obviously, the archer must forever be sending his arrows through an infinitely expanding surface. Nevertheless, the cone has great value as a metaphor, as a richly suggestive and fascinating conception. More, however, does not want to speak metaphorically; he is attempting to disclose truths, literal and plain, where pretty words and metaphors have no place. Even as he is writing his most effective poetry, we are aware that More is denying his poetic office; for he is pleading a reasoned case where the words crack and strain, where poetic meaning gathers, only to be denied.

But these objections momentarily disappear when More forgets himself enough to let us feel his imagination and does not worry that we might miss the proofs of his philosophy. _Democritus Platonissans_ concludes with an apocalyptic vision wherein the poet imagines the reconciliation of infinite worlds and time within God’s immensity. He is also attempting to harmonize _Psychathanasia_, where he rejected infinitude, with its sequel, _Democritus Platonissans_, where he has everywhere been declaring it; thus we should think of endless worlds as we should think of Nature and the Phoenix, dying yet ever regenerative, sustained by a “centrall power/ Of hid spermatick life” which sucks “sweet heavenly juice” from above (st. 101). More closes his poem on a vision of harmony and ceaseless energy, a most fit ending for one who dared to believe that the new philosophy sustained the old, that all coherence had not gone out of the world, but was always there, only waiting to be discovered afresh in this latter age.

The University of British Columbia

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[Footnote 1: The quotations from More’s Latin autobiography occur in the _Opera Omnia_ (London, 1675-79), portions of which Richard Ward translated in _The Life of . . . Henry More_ (London, 1710). Cf. the modern edition of this work, ed. M. F. Howard (London, 1911), pp. 61, 67-68, the text followed here. There is a recent reprint of the _Opera Omnia_ in 3 volumes (Hildesheim, 1966) with an introduction by Serge Hutin. The “Praefatio Generalissima” begins vol. II. 1. One passage in it which Ward did not translate describes the genesis of _Democritus Platonissans_. More writes that after finishing _Psychathanasia_, he felt a change of heart: “Postea vero mutata sententia furore nescio quo Poetico incitatus supra dictum Poema scripsi, ea potissimum innixus ratione quod liquido constaret extensionem spacii dari infinitam, nec majores absurditates pluresve contingere posse in Materia infinita, infinitaque; Mundi duratione, quam in infinita Extensione spacii” (p. ix).]

[Footnote 2: Cf. Lee Haring’s unpub. diss., “Henry More’s _Psychathanasia_ and _Democritus Platonissans_: A Critical Edition,” (Columbia Univ., 1961), pp. 33-57.]

[Footnote 3: Marjorie Hope Nicolson’s various articles and books which in part deal with More are important to the discussion that follows, and especially “The Early Stage of Cartesianism in England,” SP, XXVI (1929), 356-379; _Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory_ (Ithaca, 1959), pp. 113-143, and _The Breaking of the Circle_ (New York, 1960), pp. 158-165.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. _The Meditations and Selections from the Principles of René Descartes_, trans. John Veitch (Chicago, 1908), p. 143. The quotations from the letters which follow occur in Alexandre Koyré’s very helpful book, _From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe_ (Baltimore, 1957), pp. 114, 122-123, but the complete and original texts can be consulted in Descartes, _Correspondance avec Arnaud et Morus_, ed. G. Lewis (Paris, 1953).]

[Footnote 5: This passage occurs at the beginning of “The Easie, True, and Genuine Notion, And consistent Explication Of the Nature of a Spirit,” a free translation of _Enchiridion Metaphysicum_, I. 27-28, by John Collins which he included in Joseph Glanvil’s _Saducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681). I quote from the text as given in _Philosophical Writings of Henry More_, ed. F. I. MacKinnon (New York, 1925), p. 183.]

[Footnote 6: Cf. _Enchiridion Metaphysicum_, VIII. 8, trans. Mary Whiton Calkins and included in John Tull Baker, _An Historical and Critical Examination of English Space and Time Theories_ . . . (Bronxville, N.Y., 1930), p. 12. For the original, cf. _Opera Omnia_, II. 1, p. 167.]

[Footnote 7: “_Infinitum_ igitur hoc _Extensum_ à Materia distinctum,” _Enchiridion Metaphysicum_, VIII. 9, in _Opera Omnia, loc. cit._ Quoted by MacKinnon, p. 262.]

[Footnote 8: This and the following reference appear in _An Explanation of the grand Mystery of Godliness_ (London, 1660), “To the Reader,” pp. vi and v.]

[Footnote 9: _Ibid._, II. xi. 5 (p. 52).]

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The text of this edition is reproduced from a copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library.

Democritus Platonissans,

Or,

_AN ESSAY_

Upon The

INFINITY OF WORLDS

Out Of

PLATONICK PRINCIPLES.

Hereunto is annexed

CUPIDS CONFLICT

together with

THE PHILOSOPHERS DEVOTION:

And a Particular Interpretation
appertaining to the three last books of the
_Song of the Soul_.

By _H. More_ Master of Arts, and Fellow of
Christs Colledge in Cambridge.

Ἀγαθὸς ἦν τὸ πᾶν τόδε ὁ συνιστὰς, ἀγαθῷ δὲ οὐδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς
οὐδέποτε ἐγγίνεται φθόνος. Τούτου δ’ ἐκτὸς ὢν πάντα ὁτι μάλιστα
ἐβουλήθη γενέσθαι παραπλήσια αὑτῷ. Plat.

_Pythagoras Terram Planetam quendam esse censuit qui circa solem
in centro mundi defixum converteretur, Pythagorans secuti sunt
Philolaus, Seleucus, Cleanthes, &c. imò PLATO jam senex, ut
narrat Theophrastus._ Libert. Fromond, de Orbe terræ immobili.

_CAMBRIDGE_

Printed by ROGER DANIEL, Printer to
the UNIVERSITIE. 1646.

To the Reader.

READER,

_If thou standest not to the judgement of thine eye more then of thy reason, this fragment may passe favourably, though in the neglectfull disguise of a fragment; if the strangenesse of the argument prove no hinderance. INFINITIE of WORLDS! A thing monstrous if assented to, and to be startled at, especially by them, whose thoughts this one have alwayes so engaged, that they can find no leisure to think of any thing else. But I onely make a bare proposall to more acute judgements, of what my sportfull fancie, with pleasure hath suggested: following my old designe of furnishing mens minds with varietie of apprehensions concerning the most weightie points of Philosophie, that they may not seem rashly to have settled in the truth, though it be the truth: a thing as ill beseeming Philosophers, as hastie prejudicative sentence Politicall Judges. But if I had relinquishd here my wonted self, in proving Dogmaticall, I should have found very noble Patronage for the cause among the ancients, =Epicurus=, =Democritus=, =Lucretius=, =&c.= Or if justice may reach the dead, do them the right, as to shew, that though they be hooted at, by the Rout of the learned, as men of monstrous conceits, they were either very wise or exceeding fortunate to light on so probable and specious an opinion, in which notwithstanding there is so much difficultie and seeming inconsistencie._

_Nay and that sublime and subtil Mechanick too, =DesChartes=, though he seem to mince it must hold infinitude of worlds, or which is as harsh one infinite one. For what is his =mundus indefinitè extensus=, but =extensus infinitè=? Else it sounds onely =infinitus quoad nos= but =simpliciter finitus=. But if any space be left out unstuffd with Atoms, it will hazard the dissipation of the whole frame of Nature into disjoynted dust. As may be proved by the Principles of his own Philosophie. And that there is space whereever God is, or any actuall and self-subsistent Being, seems to me no plainer then one of the κοιναί ἔννοιαι._

_For mine own part I must confesse these apprehensions do plainly oppose what heretofore I have conceived; but I have sworn more faithfull friendship with Truth then with myself. And therefore without all remorse lay batterie against mine own edifice: not sparing to shew how weak that is, that my self now deems not impregnably strong. I have at the latter end of the last Canto of =Psychathanasia=, not without triumph concluded, that the world hath not continued =ab æterno=, from this ground:_

Extension
That’s infinite implies a contradiction.

_And this is in answer to an objection against my last argument of the souls Immortalitie, =viz.= divine goodnesse, which I there make the measure of his providence. That ground limits the essence of the world as well as its duration, and satisfies the curiositie of the Opposer, by shewing the incompossibilitie in the Creature, not want of goodnesse in the Creatour to have staid the framing of the Universe. But now roused up by a new Philosophick furie, I answer that difficultie by taking away the Hypothesis of either the world or time being finite: defending the infinitude of both, which though I had done with a great deal of vigour and life, and semblance of assent, it would have agreed well enough with the free beat of Poesie, and might have passed for a pleasant flourish: but the severitie of my own judgement, and sad Genius hath cast in many correctives and coolers into the Canto it self; so that it cannot amount to more then a discussion. And discussion is no prejudice but an honour to the truth: for then and never but then is she Victorious. And what a glorious Trophee shall the finite world erect when it hath vanquished the Infinite; a Pygmee a Giant._

_For the better understanding of the connexion of this Appendix, with the Poem of the souls Immortalitie; I have taken off the last stanza’s thereof, and added some few new ones to them for a more easie and naturall leading to the present Canto. =Psychathan. lib. 3. Cant. 4.=_

_Stanz._ 33d.

But thou who ere thou art that thus dost strive
With fierce assault my groundwork to subvert,
And boldly dost into Gods secrets dive,
Base fear my manly face note make m’ avert.
In that odde question which thou first didst stert,
I’ll plainly prove thine incapacitie,
And force thy feeble feet back to revert,
That cannot climb so high a mysterie,
I’le shew thee strange perplexed inconsistencie.

34

Why was this world from all infinitie
Not made? say’st thou: why? could it be so made
Say I. For well observe the sequencie:
If this Out-world continually hath wade
Through a long long-spun-time that never had
Beginning, then there as few circulings
Have been in the quick Moon as Saturn sad;
And still more plainly this clear truth to sing,
As many years as dayes or flitting houres have been.

35

For things that we conceive are infinite,
One th’ other no’te surpasse in quantitie.
So I have prov’d with clear convincing light,
This world could never from infinitie
Been made. Certain deficiencie
Doth alwayes follow evolution:
Nought’s infinite but tight eternitie
Close thrust into itself: extension
That’s infinite implies a contradiction.

36

So then for ought we know this world was made
So soon as such a Nature could exist;
And though that it continue, never fade,
Yet never will it be that that long twist
Of time prove infinite, though ner’e desist
From running still. But we may safely say
Time past compar’d with this long future list
Doth show as if the world but yesterday
Were made, and in due time Gods glory out may ray.

37

Then this short night and ignorant dull ages
Will quite be swallowed in oblivion;
And though this hope by many surly Sages
Be now derided, yet they’ll all be gone
In a short time, like Bats and Owls yflone
At dayes approch. This will hap certainly
At this worlds shining conflagration.
Fayes, Satyrs, Goblins the night merrily
May spend, but ruddy Sol shall make them all to flie.

38

The roaring Lions and drad beasts of prey
Rule in the dark with pitious crueltie;
But harmlesse Man is matter of the day,
Which doth his work in pure simplicitie.
God blesse his honest usefull industrie.
But pride and covetize, ambition,
Riot, revenge, self-love, hypocrisie,
Contempt of goodnesse, forc’d opinion;
These and such like do breed the worlds confusion.

39

But sooth to say though my triumphant Muse
Seemeth to vant as in got victorie,
And with puissant stroke the head to bruize
Of her stiff so, and daze his phantasie,
Captive his reason, dead each facultie:
Yet in her self so strong a force withstands
That of her self afraid, she’ll not aby,
Nor keep the field. She’ll fall by her own hand
As _Ajax_ once laid _Ajax_ dead upon the strand.

40

For thus her-self by her own self’s oppos’d;
The Heavens the Earth the universall Frame
Of living Nature God so soon disclos’d
As He could do, or she receive the same.
All times delay since that must turn to blame,
And what cannot He do that can be done?
And what might let but by th’ all-powerfull Name
Or Word of God, the Worlds Creation
More suddenly were made then mans swift thought can run?

41

Wherefore that Heavenly Power or is as young
As this Worlds date; or else some needlesse space
Of time was spent, before the Earth did clung
So close unto her-self and seas embrace
Her hollow breast, and if that time surpasse
A finite number then Infinitie
Of years before this Worlds Creation passe.
So that the durance of the Deitie
We must contract or strait his full Benignitie.

42

But for the cradle of the _Cretian Jove_,
And guardians of his vagient Infancie
What sober man but sagely will reprove?
Or drown the noise of the fond _Dactyli_
By laughter loud? Dated Divinitie
Certes is but the dream of a drie brain:
God maim’d in goodnesse, inconsistencie;
Wherefore my troubled mind is now in pain
Of a new birth, which this one Canto’ll not contain.

_Now Reader, thou art arrived to the Canto it self, from which I have kept thee off by too tedious Preface and Apologie, which is seldome made without consciousnesse of some fault, which I professe I find not in my self, unlesse this be it, that I am more tender of thy satisfaction then mine own credit. As for that high sullen Poem, =Cupids Conflict=, I must leave it to thy candour and favourable censure. The =Philosophers Devotion= I cast in onely, that the latter pages should not be unfurnished._

H. M.

_Nihil tamen frequentius inter Autores occurrit, quám ut omnia adeò ex moduli ferè sensuum suorum æstiment, ut ea quæ insuper infinitis rerum spatiis extare possunt, sive superbè sive imprudenter rejiciant; quin & ea omnia in usum suum fabricata fuisse glorientur, perinde facientes ac si pediculi humanum caput, aut pulices sinum muliebrem propter se solos condita existimarent, eáque demum ex gradibus saltibúsve suis metirentur. =The Lord Herbert in his De Causis Errorum.=_

_De generali totius hujus mundi aspectabilis constructione ut rectè Philosophemur duo sunt imprimis observanda: Unum ut attendentes ad infinitam Dei potentiam & bonitatem nè vereamur nimis ampla & pulchra & absoluta ejus opera imaginari: sed è contra caveamus, nè si quos fortè limites nobis non certò cognitos, in ipsis supponamus, non satìs magnificè de creatoris potentia sentire videamur._

_Alterum, ut etiam caveamus, nè nimis superbè de nobis ipsis sentiamus. Quod fieret non modò, si quos limites nobis nullâ cognitos ratione, nec divinà revelatione, mundo vellemus affingere, tanquam si vis nostra cogitationis, ultra id quod à Deo revera factum est ferri posset; sed etiam maximè, si res omnes propter nos solos, ab illo creatas esse fingeremus. =Renatus DesCartes in his Princip. Philosoph. the third part.=_

THE ARGUMENT.

_’Gainst boundlesse time th’ objections made,
And wast infinity
Of worlds, are with new reasons weigh’d,
Mens judgements are left free._

1

Hence, hence unhallowed ears and hearts more hard
Then Winter clods fast froze with Northern wind.
But most of all, foul tongue I thee discard
That blamest all that thy dark strait’ned mind,
Can not conceive: But that no blame thou find;
What e’re my pregnant Muse brings forth to light,
She’l not acknowledge to be of her kind,
Till Eagle-like she turn them to the sight
Of the eternall Word all deckt with glory bright.

2

Strange sights do straggle in my restlesse thoughts,
And lively forms with orient colours clad
Walk in my boundlesse mind, as men ybrought
Into some spacious room, who when they’ve had
A turn or two, go out, although unbad.
All these I see and know, but entertain
None to my friend but who’s most sober sad;
Although the time my roof doth them contain
Their pretence doth possesse me till they out again.

3

And thus possest in silver trump I found
Their guise, their shape, their gesture and array.
But as in silver trumpet nought is found
When once the piercing sound is past away,
(Though while the mighty blast therein did stay,
Its tearing noise so terribly did shrill,
That it the heavens did shake, and earth dismay)
As empty I of what my flowing quill
In heedlesse hast elswhere, or here, may hap to spill.

4

For ’tis of force and not of a set will.
Ne dare my wary mind afford assent
To what is plac’d above all mortall skill.
But yet our various thoughts to represent
Each gentle wight will deem of good intent.
Wherefore with leave th’ infinitie I’ll sing
Of time, Of Space: or without leave; I’m brent
With eagre rage, my heart for joy doth spring,
And all my spirits move with pleasant trembeling.

5

An inward triumph doth my soul up-heave
And spread abroad through endlesse ’spersed aire.
My nimble mind this clammie clod doth leave,
And lightly stepping on from starre to starre
Swifter then lightning, passeth wide and farre,
Measuring th’ unbounded Heavens and wastfull skie;
Ne ought she finds her passage to debarre,
For still the azure Orb as she draws nigh
Gives back, new starres appear, the worlds walls ’fore her flie.

6

For what can stand that is so badly staid?
Well may that fall whose ground-work is unsure.
And what hath wall’d the world but thoughts unweigh’d
In freer reason? That antiquate, secure,
And easie dull conceit of corporature;
Of matter; quantitie, and such like gear
Hath made this needlesse, thanklesse inclosure,
Which I in full disdain quite up will tear
And lay all ope, that as things are they may appear.

7

For other they appear from what they are
By reason that their Circulation
Cannot well represent entire from farre
Each portion of the _Cuspis_ of the Cone
(Whose nature is elsewhere more clearly shown)
I mean each globe, whether of glaring light
Or else opake, of which the earth is one.
If circulation could them well transmit
Numbers infinite of each would strike our ’stonishd sight;

8

All in just bignesse and right colours dight
But totall presence without all defect
’Longs onely to that Trinitie by right,
_Ahad_, _Æon_, _Psyche_ with all graces deckt,
Whose nature well this riddle will detect;
A Circle whose circumference no where
Is circumscrib’d, whose Centre’s each where set,
But the low Cusp’s a figure circular,
Whose compasse is ybound, but centre’s every where.

9

Wherefore who’ll judge the limits of the world
By what appears unto our failing sight
Appeals to sense, reason down headlong hurld
Out of her throne by giddie vulgar might.
But here base senses dictates they will dight
With specious title of Philosophie,
And stiffly will contend their cause is right
From rotten rolls of school antiquitie,
Who constantly denie corporall Infinitie.

10

But who can prove their corporalitie
Since matter which thereto’s essentiall
If rightly sifted ’s but a phantasie.
And quantitie who’s deem’d Originall
Is matter, must with matter likewise fall.
What ever is, is Life and Energie
From God, who is th’ Originall of all;
Who being everywhere doth multiplie
His own broad shade that endlesse throughout all doth lie.

11

He from the last projection of light
Ycleep’d _Shamajim_, which is liquid fire
(It _Æther_ eke and centrall _Tasis_ hight)
Hath made each shining globe and clumperd mire
Of dimmer Orbs. For Nature doth inspire
Spermatick life, but of a different kind.
Hence those congenit splendour doth attire
And lively heat, these darknesse dead doth bind,
And without borrowed rayes they be both cold and blind.

12

All these be knots of th’ universall stole
Of sacred _Psyche_; which at first was fine,
Pure, thin, and pervious till hid powers did pull
Together in severall points and did encline
The nearer parts in one clod to combine.
Those centrall spirits that the parts did draw
The measure of each globe did then define,
Made things impenetrable here below,
Gave colour, figure, motion, and each usuall law.

13

And what is done in this Terrestriall starre
The same is done in every Orb beside.
Each flaming Circle that we see from farre
Is but a knot in _Psyches_ garment tide.
From that lax shadow cast throughout the wide
And endlesse world, that low’st projection
Of universall life each thing’s deriv’d
What e’re appeareth in corporeall fashion;
For body’s but this spirit, fixt, grosse by conspissation.

14

And that which doth conspissate active is;
Wherefore not matter but some living sprite
Of nimble Nature which this lower mist
And immense field of Atoms doth excite,
And wake into such life as best doth fit
With his own self. As we change phantasies
The essence of our soul not chang’d a whit,
So do these Atoms change their energies
Themselves unchanged into new Centreïties.

15

And as our soul’s not superficially
Colourd by phantasms, nor doth them reflect
As doth a looking-glasse such imag’rie
As it to the beholder doth detect:
No more are these lightly or smear’d or deckt
With form or motion which in them we see,
But from their inmost Centre they project
Their vitall rayes, not merely passive be,
But by occasion wak’d rouze up themselves on high.

16

So that they’re life, form, sprite, not matter pure,
For matter pure is a pure nullitie,
What nought can act is nothing, I am sure;
And if all act, that is they’ll not denie
But all that is is form: so easily
By what is true, and by what they embrace
For truth, their feigned Corporalitie
Will vanish into smoke, but on I’ll passe,
More fully we have sung this in another place.

17

Wherefore more boldly now to represent
The nature of the world, how first things were
How now they are: This endlesse large Extent
Of lowest life (which I styled whileere
The _Cuspis_ of the _Cone_ that’s every where)
Was first all dark, till in this spacious Hall
Hideous through silent horrour torches clear
And lamping lights bright shining over all
Were set up in due distances proportionall.

18

Innumerable numbers of fair Lamps
Were rightly ranged in this hollow hole,
To warm the world and chace the shady damps
Of immense darknesse, rend her pitchie stole
Into short rags more dustie dimme then coal.
Which pieces then in severall were cast
(Abhorred reliques of that vesture foul)
Upon the Globes that round those torches trac’d,
Which still fast on them stick for all they run so fast.

19

Such an one is that which mortall men call Night,
A little shred of that unbounded shade.
And such a Globe is that which Earth is hight;
By witlesse Wizzards the sole centre made
Of all the world, and on strong pillars staid.
And such a lamp or light is this our Sun,
Whose firie beams the scortched Earth invade.
But infinite such as he, in heaven won,
And more then infinite Earths about those Suns do run;

20

And to speak out: though I detest the sect
Of _Epicurus_ for their manners vile,
Yet what is true I may not well reject.
Truth’s incorruptible, ne can the style
Of vitious pen her sacred worth defile.
If we no more of truth should deign t’ embrace
Then what unworthy mouths did never soyl,
No truths at all mongst men would finden place
But make them speedie wings and back to Heaven apace.

21

I will not say our world is infinite,
But that infinitie of worlds ther be.
The Centre of our world’s the lively light
Of the warm sunne, the visible Deitie
Of this externall Temple. _Mercurie_
Next plac’d and warm’d more throughly by his rayes,
Right nimbly ’bout his golden head doth flie:
Then _Venus_ nothing slow about him strayes,
And next our _Earth_ though seeming sad full spritely playes.

22

And after her _Mars_ rangeth in a round
With firie locks and angry flaming eye,
And next to him mild _Jupiter_ is found,
But Saturn cold wons in our utmost skie.
The skirts of his large Kingdome surely lie
Near to the confines of some other worlds
Whose Centres are the fixed starres on high,
’Bout which as their own proper Suns are hurld
_Joves_, _Earths_ and _Saturns_; round on their own axes twurld.

23

Little or nothing are those starres to us
Which in the azure Evening gay appear
(I mean for influence) but judicious
Nature and carefull Providence her dear
And matchlesse work did so contrive whileere,
That th’ Hearts or Centres in the wide world pight
Should such a distance each to other bear,
That the dull Planets with collated light
By neighbour suns might cheared be in dampish night.

24

And as the Planets in our world (of which
The sun’s the heart and kernell) do receive
Their nightly light from suns that do enrich
Their sable mantle with bright gemmes, and give
A goodly splendour, and sad men relieve
With their fair twinkling rayes, so our worlds sunne
Becomes a starre elsewhere, and doth derive
Joynt light with others, cheareth all that won
In those dim duskish Orbs round other suns that run.

25

This is the parergon of each noble fire
Of neighbour worlds to be the nightly starre,
But their main work is vitall heat t’ inspire
Into the frigid spheres that ’bout them fare,
Which of themselves quite dead and barren are.
But by the wakening warmth of kindly dayes,
And the sweet dewie nights they well declare
Their seminall virtue in due courses raise
Long hidden shapes and life, to their great Makers praise.

26

These with their suns I severall worlds do call,
Whereof the number I deem infinite:
Else infinite darknesse were in this great Hall
Of th’ endlesse Universe; For nothing finite
Could put that immense shadow unto flight.
But if that infinite Suns we shall admit,
Then infinite worlds follow in reason right.
For every Sun with Planets must be fit,
And have some mark for his farre-shining shafts to hit.

27

But if he shine all solitarie, alone,
What mark is left,? what aimed scope or end
Of his existence? wherefore every one
Hath a due number of dim Orbs that wend
Around their centrall fire. But wrath will rend
This strange composure back’d with reason stout
And rasher tongues right speedily will spend
Their forward censure, that my wits run out
On wool-gathering, through infinite spaces all about.

28

What sober man will dare once to avouch
An infinite number of dispersed starres?
This one absurdity will make him crouch
And eat his words; Division nought impairs
The former whole, nor he augments that spares.
Strike every tenth out, that which doth remain,
An equall number with the former shares,
And let the tenth alone, th’ whole nought doth gain,
For infinite to infinite is ever the same.

29

The tenth is infinite as the other nine,
Or else, nor they, nor all the ten entire
Are infinite. Thus one infinite doth adjoyn
Others unto it and still riseth higher.
And if those single lights hither aspire,
This strange prodigious inconsistencie
Groweth still stranger, if each fixed fire
(I mean each starre) prove Sunnes, and Planets flie
About their flaming heads amid the thronged skie.

30

For whatsoever that their number be
Whether by seavens, or eighths, or fives, or nines,
They round each fixed lamp; Infinity
Will be redoubled thus by many times.
Besides each greater Planet th’ attendance finds
Of lesser. Our _Earths_ handmaid is the Moon,
Which to her darkned side right duly shines,
And _Jove_ hath foure, as hath been said aboven,
And _Saturn_ more then foure if the plain truth were known.

31

And if these globes be regions of life
And severall kinds of plants therein do grow,
Grasse, flowers, hearbs, trees, which the impartiall knife
Of all consuming Time still down doth mow,
And new again doth in succession show:
Which also ’s done in flies, birds, men and beasts;
Adde sand, pearls, pebbles, that the ground do strow
Leaves, quills, hairs, thorns, blooms, you may think the rest
Their kinds by mortall penne can not well be exprest:

32

And if their kinds no man may reckon well,
The summe of successive particulars
No mind conceive nor tongue can ever tell.
And yet this mist of numbers (as appears)
Belongs to one of these opacous sphears.
Suppose this _Earth_; what then will all those Rounds
Produce? No _Atlas_ such a load upbears.
In this huge endlesse heap o’rewhelmed, drownd,
Choak’d, stifled, lo! I lie, breathlesse, even quite confound.

33

Yet give me space a while but to respire,
And I my self shal fairly well out-wind;
Keep this position true, unhurt, entire,
That you no greater difficulty find
In this new old opinion here defin’d
Of infinite worlds, then one world doth imply.
For if we do with steddy patience mind
All is resolv’d int’ one absurdity,
The grant of something greater then infinitie.

34

That God is infinite all men confesse,
And that the Creature is some realty
Besides Gods self, though infinitely lesse.
Joyn now the world unto the Deity.
What? is there added no more entitie
By this conjunction, then there was before?
Is the broad breasted earth? the spacious skie
Spangled with silver light, and burning Ore?
And the wide bellowing seas, whose boyling billows roar,

35

Are all these nothing? But you will reply;
As is the question so we ought restrain
Our answer unto Corporeity.
But that the phantasie of the body’s vain
I did before unto you maken plain.
But that no man depart unsatisfi’d
A while this Universe here will we feigne
_Corporeall_, till we have gainly tride.
If ought that’s bodily may infinite abide.

36

What makes a body saving quantity?
What quantitie unlesse extension?
Extension if ’t admit infinity
Bodies admit boundlesse dimension.
That some extension forward on doth run
Withouten limits, endlesse, infinite
Is plane from Space, that ever paceth on
Unstop’d, unstaid, till it have filled quite
That immense infinite Orb where God himself doth sit.

37

But yet more sensibly this truth to show
If space be ended set upon that end
Some strong arm’d Archer with his Parthian bow,
That from that place with speedy force may send
His fleeter shafts, and so still forward wend.
Where? When shall he want room his strength to trie?
But here perversly subtill you’l contend
Nothing can move in mere vacuity,
And space is nought, so not extended properly.

38

To solve these knots I must call down from high
Some heavenly help, feather with angels wing
The sluggish arrow. If it will not flie,
Sent out from bow stiff-bent with even string,
Let angels on their backs it thither bring
Where your free mind appointed had before,
And then hold on, till in your travelling
You be well wearied, finding ever more
Free passage for their flight, and what they flying bore.

39

Now to that shift that sayes Vacuity
Is nought, and therefore not at all extent
We answer thus: There is a distancy
In empty space, though we be well content
To balk that question (for we never meant
Such needlesse niceties) whether that it be
A reall being; yet that there’s parts distent
One from another, no mans phantasie
Can e’re reject if well he weigh’t and warily.

40

For now conceive the aire and azure skie
All swept away from Saturn to the Sunne,
Which each is to be wrought by him on high.
Then in this place let all the Planets runne
(As erst they did before this feat was done)
If not by nature, yet by divine power,
Ne one hairs breadth their former circuits shun
And still for fuller proof, th’ Astronomer
Observe their hights as in the empty heavens they scoure.

41

Will then their Parallaxes prove all one
Or none, or different still as before?
If so, their distances by mortall men
Must be acknowledg’d such as were of yore,
Measur’d by leagues, miles, stades, nor lesse nor more
From circuit unto circuit shall be found
Then was before the sweeping of the floor.
That distance therefore hath most certain ground
In emptinesse we may conclude with reason sound.

42

If distance now so certainly attend
All emptinesse (as also mensuration
Attendeth distance) distance without end
Is wide disperst above imagination
(For emptinesse is void of limitation)
And this unbounded voidnesse doth admit
The least and greatest measures application;
The number thus of the greatest that doth fit
This infinite void space is likewise infinite.

43

But what so e’re that infinite number be,
A lesser number will a number give
So farre exceeding in infinity
That number as this measure we conceive
To fall short of the other. But I’ll leave
This present way and a new course will trie
Which at the same mark doth as fully drive
And with a great deal more facility.
Look on this endlesse Space as one whole quantity.

44

Which in your mind int’ equall parts divide,
Tens, hundreds, thousands or what pleaseth best.
Each part denominate doth still abide
An infinite portion, else nor all the rest
Makes one infinitude.
For if one thousandth part may be defin’d
By finite measures eas’ly well exprest,
A myriad suppose of miles assign’d
Then to a thousand myriads is the whole confin’d.

45

Wherefore this wide and wast Vacuity,
Which endlesse is outstretched thorough all,
And lies even equall with the Deity,
Nor is a thing meerly imaginall,
(For it doth farre mens phantasies forestall
Nothing beholden to our devicefull thought)
This inf’nite voidnesse as much our mind doth gall
And has as great perplexities ybrought
As if this empty space with bodies were yfraught.

46

Nor have we yet the face once to denie
But that it is although we mind it not;
For all once minded such perplexity
It doth create to puzzled reason, that
She sayes and unsayes, do’s she knows not what.
Why then should we the worlds infinity
Misdoubt, because when as we contemplate
Its nature, such strange inconsistency
And unexpected sequels, we therein descry?

47

Who dare gainsay but God is every where
Unbounded, measurelesse, all infinite;
Yet the same difficulties meet us here
Which erst us met and did so sore affright
With their strange vizards. This will follow right
Where ever we admit infinity
Every denominated part proves streight
A portion infinite, which if it be,
One infinite will into myriads multiply.

48

But with new argument to draw more near
Our purpos’d end. If God’s omnipotent
And this omnipotent God be every where,
Where e’re he is then can he eas’ly vent
His mighty virtue thorough all extent.
What then shall hinder but a roscid aire
With gentle heat each where be ’sperst and sprent.
Unlesse omnipotent power we will empair,
And say that empty space his working can debarre.

49

Where now this one supposed world is pight
Was not that space at first all vain and void?
Nor ought said; no, when he said, _Let ’t be light_.
Was this one space better then all beside,
And more obedient to what God decreed?
Or would not all that endlesse emptinesse
Gladly embrac’d (if he had ever tride)
His just command? and what might come to passe
Implies no contradictious inconsistentnesse.

50

Wherefore this precious sweet Ethereall dew
For ought we know God each where did distill,
And thorough all that hollow voidnesse threw
And the wide gaping drought therewith did fill,
His endlesse overflowing goodnesse spill
In every place; which streight he did contrive
Int’ infinite severall worlds, as his best skill
Did him direct and creatures could receive
For matter infinite needs infinite worlds must give.

51

The Centre of each severall world’s a sunne
With shining beams and kindly warming heat,
About whose radiant crown the Planets runne,
Like reeling moths around a candle light,
These all together, one world I conceit.
And that even infinite such worlds there be,
That inexhausted Good that God is bight
A full sufficient reason is to me,
Who simple Goodnesse make the highest Deity.

52

Als make himself the key of all his works
And eke the measure of his providence;
The piercing eye of truth to whom nought lurks
But lies wide ope unbar’d of all pretense.
But frozen hearts! away! flie farre from hence,
Unlesse you’l thaw at this celestiall fire
And melt into one minde and holy sense
With Him that doth all heavenly hearts inspire,
So may you with my soul in one assent conspire.

53

But what’s within, uneath is to convey
To narrow vessels that are full afore.
And yet this truth as wisely as I may
I will insinuate, from senses store
Borrowing a little aid. Tell me therefore
When you behold with your admiring eyes
Heavens Canopie all to bespangled o’re
With sprinkled starres, what can you well devize
Which causen may such carelesse order in the skies?

54

A peck of peasen rudely poured out
On plaister flore, from hasty heedlesse hond
Which lie all carelesse scattered about,
To sight do in as seemly order stond,
As those fair glistering lights in heaven are found.
If onely for this world they were intended,
Nature would have adorn’d this azure round
With better art, and easily have mended
This harsh disord’red order, and more beauty lended.

55