The Lantern

Book 311

PG

This also shows the nature of the same,

How nice its texture, in how small a space

'Twould go, if once compacted as a pellet:

When death's unvexed repose gets hold on man

And mind and soul retire, thou markest there

From the whole body nothing ta'en in form,

Nothing in weight. Death grants ye everything,

But vital sense and exhalation hot.

Thus soul entire must be of smallmost seeds,

Twined through the veins, the vitals, and the thews,

Seeing that, when 'tis from whole body gone,

The outward figuration of the limbs

Is unimpaired and weight fails not a whit.

Just so, when vanished the bouquet of wine,

Or when an unguent's perfume delicate

Into the winds away departs, or when

From any body savour's gone, yet still

The thing itself seems minished naught to eyes,

Thereby, nor aught abstracted from its weight--

No marvel, because seeds many and minute

Produce the savours and the redolence

In the whole body of the things. And so,

Again, again, nature of mind and soul

'Tis thine to know created is of seeds

The tiniest ever, since at flying-forth