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Philosophicall fancies

Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish (1624?-1674)

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A Dedication to FAME.

An Epistle to Time.

A Request to Time.

An Epistle to my BRAINE.

AN EPISTLE To a troubled FANCY.

An Epistle to Contemplation.

An Epistle to my Musefull Thoughts.

Another to the Thoughts.

Reason, and the Thoughts.

No Judge In Nature.

Of Inequalities.

There is no Vacuity.

Of Thin, and Thick Matter.

Similizing the Spirits, or Innate Matter.

Of the Working of severall Motions of Nature.

Of the Motions of the Spirits.

Of Sense and Reason exercised in their different shapes.

Of the flowing of the Spirits.

Of the Motion of the Planets.

The Motion of the Sea.

A Dialogue between the Body, and the Minde.

A Request to my Friends.

[But be it bad, or good, it is my owne]

[Lord how the World delight to tell a Lye!]

[For had my Braine as many Fancies in't]

A Farewell to the MUSES.

[Great God, from Thee all Infinities do flow]

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A Request to Time.

Time , prethee be content, and let me write;
Ile use thee better then the Carpet Knight,
Or Amorous Ladies, which doe dance, and play,
Casting their Modesty, and Fame away.
I humbly cast mine eyes downe to the ground,
Or shut them close, while I a Fancy found.
And in a Melancholy posture sit,
With musing Thoughts, till I more Fancies get.

Besides, deare Time, Nature doth not me give
Such store of Health, to hope I old shall live.
Then let me give my Youth the most content,
Which is to write, and send it to the Print.
If any like my Fancies when they'r read,
My time's rewarded, though my Body's dead.
If they do not, my Soule will lye at rest,
Because my Life did think, what's harmlesse, best.