University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Poems On several Choice and Various Subjects

Occasionally Composed By An Eminent Author. Collected and Published by Sergeant-Major P. F. [i.e. James Howell]

collapse section
 
collapse section
 
The Progress of the Human Soul:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Progress of the Human Soul:

OR, The whole History of Man.

Man is that great Amphibium, which enrouls
Within himself a Trinity of Souls:
He runs through all Creations by degrees;
First, he is onely Matter on the Lees;
Whence he proceeds to be a Vegetal;
Next Sensitive; (and so Organical.)
Then, by Divine Infusion, a third Soul,
The Rational doth the two first controul:

2

But when this Soul comes in, and where she dwells,
Distinct from th' other, no Dissector tells.
Now, which no Creture els can say, that state
Makes her (by Grace) to be Regenerate.
She then becomes a Spirit: so at last
A Devil, or a Saint, when She hath cast
That clog of Flesh, which yet she takes again,
To perfect her Felicity or Pain.
Thus Man from first to last, is kin to all
Cretures, in Heav'n, in Earth, and Hells Black Hall.