* * * * *

  So that if Man would be unvariable,
    He must be God, or like a rock or tree;
  For ev’n the perfect angels were not stable,
    But had a fall more desperate than we.

The poem contains much excellent argument in mental science as well as in religion and metaphysics; but with that department I have nothing to do.

I shall now give an outlook from the highest peak of the poem—­to any who are willing to take the trouble necessary for seeing what another would show them.

The section from which I have gathered the following stanzas is devoted to the more immediate proof of the soul’s immortality.

  Her only end is never-ending bliss,
    Which is the eternal face of God to see,
  Who last of ends and first of causes is;
    And to do this, she must eternal be.

  Again, how can she but immortal be,
    When with the motions of both will and wit,
  She still aspireth to eternity,
    And never rests till she attains to it?

  Water in conduit-pipes can rise no higher
    Than the well-head from whence it first doth spring;
  Then since to eternal God she doth aspire,
    She cannot but be an eternal thing.

  At first her mother-earth she holdeth dear,
    And doth embrace the world and worldly things;
  She flies close by the ground, and hovers here,
    And mounts not up with her celestial wings.

  Yet under heaven she cannot light on ought
    That with her heavenly nature doth agree
  She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought,
    She cannot in this world contented be.

  For who did ever yet, in honour, wealth,
    Or pleasure of the sense, contentment find? 
  Whoever ceased to wish, when he had health
    Or having wisdom, was not vexed in mind

  Then as a bee, which among weeds doth fall,
    Which seem sweet flowers, with lustre fresh and gay—­
  She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all,
    But, pleased with none, doth rise, and soar away;

  So, when the soul finds here no true content,
    And, like Noah’s dove, can no sure footing take,
  She doth return from whence she first was sent,
    And flies to him that first her wings did make.

  Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause ascends,
    And never rests till it the first attain;
  Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends,
    But never stays till it the last do gain.

  Now God the truth, and first of causes is;
    God is the last good end, which lasteth still;
  Being Alpha and Omega named for this: 
    Alpha to wit, Omega to the will.

  Since then her heavenly kind she doth display
    In that to God she doth directly move,
  And on no mortal thing can make her stay,
    She cannot be from hence, but from above.

One passage more, the conclusion and practical summing up of the whole: