The gods through human bodies did disperse
An heavenly soul, to guide this universe,
That man, when he of heavenly bodies saw
The order, might from thence a pattern draw: 
Nor this to me did my own dictates show,
But to the old philosophers I owe. 830
I heard Pythagoras, and those who came
With him, and from our country took their name;
Who never doubted but the beams divine,
Derived from gods, in mortal breasts did shine. 
Nor from my knowledge did the ancients hide
What Socrates declared the hour he died;
He th’immortality of souls proclaim’d,
(Whom th’oracle of men the wisest named)
Why should we doubt of that whereof our sense
Finds demonstration from experience? 840
Our minds are here, and there, below, above;
Nothing that’s mortal can so swiftly move. 
Our thoughts to future things their flight direct,
And in an instant all that’s past collect. 
Reason, remembrance, wit, inventive art,
No nature, but immortal, can impart. 
Man’s soul in a perpetual motion flows,
And to no outward cause that motion owes;
And therefore that no end can overtake,
Because our minds cannot themselves forsake. 850
And since the matter of our soul is pure
And simple, which no mixture can endure
Of parts, which not among themselves agree;
Therefore it never can divided be. 
And Nature shows (without philosophy)
What cannot be divided, cannot die. 
We even in early infancy discern
Knowledge is born with babes before they learn;
Ere they can speak they find so many ways
To serve their turn, and see more arts than days:  860
Before their thoughts they plainly can express,
The words and things they know are numberless;
Which Nature only and no art could find,
But what she taught before, she call’d to mind,
These to his sons (as Xenophon records)
Of the great Cyrus were the dying words;
’Fear not when I depart (nor therefore mourn)
I shall be nowhere, or to nothing turn: 
That soul which gave me life, was seen by none,
Yet by the actions it design’d was known; 870
And though its flight no mortal eye shall see,
Yet know, for ever it the same shall be. 
That soul which can immortal glory give
To her own virtues must for ever live. 
Can you believe that man’s all-knowing mind
Can to a mortal body be confined? 
Though a foul foolish prison her immure
On earth, she (when escaped) is wise and pure. 
Man’s body when dissolved is but the same 879
With beasts, and must return from whence it came;
But whence into our bodies reason flows,
None sees it when it comes, or where it goes. 
Nothing resembles death so much as sleep,
Yet then our minds themselves from slumber keep. 
When from their fleshly bondage they are free,