OBSERVATIONS ON THE 22. STANZA IN THE 9th. CANTO OF the 2d. Book of Spencer's fairy Queen. Full of excellent Notions concerning the Frame of Man, and his rational Soul.  
Written by the Right Noble and Illustrious Knight Sir Kenelme Digby, at the request of a Friend.  
LONDON: Printed for Daniel Frere Bookseller, at the Red-Bull in Little Britain. 1643.   

OBSERVATIONS on the 22. Stanza in the 9th. Canto of the 2d. Book of Spencer's fairy Queen, written by the Request of a Friend.  
My most honoured Friend,  
I Am too well acquainted with the weaknesses of mine abilities (far unfit to undergo such a Task as I have in hand) to flatter myself with the hope I may either inform your understanding, or do myself honour by what I am to write. But I am so desirous you should be possessed with the true knowledge of what a bent will I have upon all occasions to do you service, that obedience to your command weigheth much more with me, than the lawfulness of any excuse can, to preserve me from giving you in writing such a testimony of my ignorance and erring fantasy as I fear this will prove. Therefore without any more circumstance, I will, as I can, deliver to you in this paper, what th'other day I discoursed to you upon the 22. Staff of the ninth Canto in the second Book of that matchless Poem, The fairy Queen, written by our English Virgil; whose words are these: 
The Frame thereof seemed partly Circular,  
And part Triangular: O work divine!  
Those two the first and last proportions are;  
The one, imperfect, mortal, feminine;  
Th'other immortal, perfect, masculine;  
And twixt them both a Quadrate was the Base,  
Proportioned equally by seven and nine;  
Nine was the Circle set in heaven's place,  
All which compacted made a goodly Diapase.   
In this staff the Author seems to me to proceed in a different manner from what he doth elsewhere generally through his whole Book. For in other places, although the beginning of his Allegory or mystical sense, may be obscure, yet in the process of it, he doth himself declare his own conceptions in such sort as they are obvious to any ordinary capacity: But in this, he seems only to glance at the profoundest notions that any Science can deliver us, and then on a sudden (as it were) recalling himself out of an enthusiasm, he returns to the gentle Relation of the allegorical History he had begun, leaving his Readers to wander up and down in much obscurity, & to come within much danger of erring at his Intention in these lines? Which I conceive to be dictated by such a learned Spirit, and so generally a knowing Soul, that were there nothing else extant of Spencer's writing, yet these few words would make me esteem him no whit inferior to the most famous men that ever have been in any age: as giving an evident testimony herein, that he was throughly versed in the mathematical Sciences, in Philosophy, and in Divinity, to which this might serve for an ample Theme to make large Commentaries upon. In my praises upon this subject, I am confident that the worth of the Author will preserve me from this Censure, that my Ignorance only begets this Admiration, since he hath written nothing that is not admirable. But that it may appear I am guided somewhat by my own Judgement (tho' it be a mean one) and not by implicit Faith, and that I may in the best manner I can, comply with what you expect from me, I will no longer hold you in suspense, but begin immediately, (tho' abruptly) with the declaration of what I conceive to be the true sense of this place, which I shall not go about to adorn with any plausible discourses, or with Authorities and examples drawn from others writings (since my want both of conveniency and learning would make me fall very short herein) but it shall be enough for me to intimate mine own conceptions, and offer them up to you in their own simple and naked form, leaving to your better Judgement the examination of the weight of them, and after perusal of them, beseeching you to reduce them and me if you perceive us erring.  
'tis evident that the author's intention in this Canto is to describe the body of a man informed with a rational soul, and in prosecution of that design he sets down particularly the several parts of the one and of the other: But in this Stanza he comprehends the general description of them both, as (being joined together to frame a complete Man) they make one perfect compound, which will the better appear by taking a survey of every several clause thereof by itself.  
The Frame thereof seemed partly Circular,  
And part Triangular—  
By these Figures, I conceive that he means the mind and body of Man; the first being by him compared to a Circle, and the latter to a Triangle. For as a Circle of all Figures is the most perfect, and includeth the greatest space, and is every way full and without Angles, made by the continuance of one only line: so man's soul is the noblest and most beautiful Creature, that God hath created, and by it we are capable of the greatest gifts that God can bestow, which are Grace, Glory, and hypostatical Union of the human nature to the Divine, and she enjoyeth perfect freedom and liberty in all her Actions, and is made without composition which no Figures are that have Angles (for they are caused by the coincidence of several lines) but of one pure substance which was by God breathed into a Body made of such compounded earth as in the preceding Stanza the Author describes. And this is the exact Image of him that breathed it, representing him as fully as 'tis possible for any creature which is infinitely distant from a Creator. For, as God hath neither beginning nor ending: so, neither of these can be found in a Circle, although that being made of the successive motion of a line, it must be supposed to have a beginning somewhere: God is compared to a Circle whose centre is everywhere, but his circumference nowhere: But man's soul is a Circle, whose circumference is limited by the true centre of it, which is only God. For as a circumference doth in all parts alike respect that indivisible Point, and as all lines drawn from the inner side of it, do make right Angles within it, when they meet therein: so all the interior actions of man's soul ought to have no other respective Point to direct themselves unto, but God; and as long as they make right Angles, which is, that they keep the exact middle of virtue, and decline not to either of the sides where the contrary vices dwell, they cannot fail, but meet in their centre. By the Triangular Figure he very aptly designs the body: for as the Circle is of all other Figures the most perfect and most capacious: so the Triangle is most imperfect, and includes least space. It is the first and lowest of all Figures; for fewer than 3 right Angles cannot comprehend and enclose a superficies, having but 3 angles they are all acute (if it be equilateral) and but equal to 2 right; in which respect all other regular Figures consisting of more than 3 lines, do exceed it.  
(May not these be resembled to the 3 great compounded Elements in man's body, to wit, Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, which mingled together make the natural heat and radical moisture, the 2 qualities whereby man liveth?) For the more lines that go to comprehend the Figure, the more and the greater the Angles are, and the nearer it comes to the perfection and capacity of a Circle. A Triangle is composed of several lines, and they of Points, which yet do not make a quantity by being contiguous to one another: but rather the motion of them doth describe the lines. In like manner the Body of man is compounded of the four Elements which are made of the four primary qualities, not compounded of them (for they are but Accidents) but by their operation upon the first matter. And as a Triangle hath three lines, so a solid Body hath three dimensions, to wit, Longitude, Latitude and profundity. But of all bodies, Man is of the lowest rank, (as the Triangle is among Figures) being composed of the Elements which make it liable to alteration and corruption. In which consideration of the dignity of bodies, I divide them by a general division, into sublunary (which are the elementated ones) and aethereal, which are supposed to be of their own nature, incorruptible, and peradventure there are some other species of corporeal substances, which is not of this place to dispute.  
O work divine!  
Certainly of all God's works, the noblest and perfectest is Man, and for whom indeed all others were done. For, if we consider his soul, it is the very Image of God. If his body, it is adorned with the greatest beauty and most excellent symmetry of parts, of any created thing: whereby it witnesseth the perfection of the Architect, that of so drossy mould is able to make so rare a fabric: If his operations, they are free: If his end, it is eternal glory. And if you take all together, Man is a little world, an exact type of the great world, and of God himself. But in all this, methinks, the admirablest work is the joining together of the two different and indeed opposite substances in Man, to make one perfect compound; the Soul and the Body, which are of so contrary a nature, that their uniting seems to be a Miracle. For how can the one inform and work in the other, since there's no mean of operation (that we know of) between a spiritual substance and a corporeal? yet we see that it doth: as hard it is to find the true proportion between a Circle and a Triangle; yet, that there is a just proportion, and that they may be equal, Archimedes hath left us an ingenious demonstration; but in reducing it to a problem, it fails in this, that because the proportion between a crooked line and a straight one, is not known, one must make use of a mechanic way of measuring the periphery of the one, to convert it to the side of the other.  
These two the first and last proportions are.  
What I have already said concerning a Circle and a Triangle, doth sufficiently unfold what is meant in this verse. Yet 'twill not be amiss to speak one word more hereof in this place. All things that have existence, may be divided into three Classes; which are, either what is pure and simple in itself, or what hath a nature compounded of what is simple, or what hath a nature compounded of what is compounded. In continued quantity this may be exemplified by a Point, a line, and a superficies in Bodies: and in numbers, by an unity, a Denary, and a Centenary. The first, which is only pure & simple, like an indivisible point, or an unity, hath relation only to the Divine nature: That point then moving in a spherical manner (which serves to express the perfection of God's actions) describes the Circles of our souls, and of Angels, and intellectual substances, which are of a pure and simple nature, but receiveth that from what is so, in a perfecter manner, and that hath his, from none else. Like lines that are made by the flowing of points; or Denaries that are composed of Unities: beyond both which there is nothing. In the last place, Bodies are to be ranked, which are composed of the Elements: and they likewise suffer composition, and may very well be compared to the lowest of the Figures which are composed of lines, that owe their being to Points (and such are Triangles) or to Centenaries that are composed of Denaries, and they of Unities. But if we will compare these together by proportion, God must be left out, since there is as infinite distance between the simplicity and Perfection of his nature, and the composition and imperfection of all created substances, as there is between an indivisible Point and a continuate quantity, or between a simple unity and a compounded number. So that only the other two kinds of substance do enter into this consideration: and of them I have already proved, that man's Soul is of the one the noblest, (being dignified by hypostatical Union above all other intellectual substances) and his elementated Body, of the other the most low and corruptible. Whereby it is evident, that those two are the first and last Proportions, both in respect of their own Figure, and of what they expressed.  
The one imperfect, mortal, Feminine:  
Th'other immortal, perfect, Masculine.  
Man's Body hath all the proprieties of imperfect matter. It is but the Patient: of itself alone, it can do nothing: it is liable to corruption and dissolution if it once be deprived of the form which actuates it, and which is incorruptible and immortal. And as the feminine Sex is imperfect, and receives perfection from the masculine: so doth the Body from the Soul, which to it is in lieu of a male. And as in corporal generations the female affords but gross and passive matter, to which the Male gives active heat and prolifical virtue: so in spiritual generations (which are the operations of the mind) the body administers only the Organs, which if they were not employed by the Soul, would of themselves serve for nothing. And as there is a mutual appetence between the Male and the Female, between matter and form; So there is between the body and the soul of Man, but what ligament they have, our Author defineth not (and it may be Reason is not able to attain to it) yet he tells us what is the foundation that this Machine rests on, and what keeps the parts together; in these words.  
And twixt them both, a Quadrate was the Base.  
By which Quadrate, I conceive, that he meaneth the four principal humours in man's body, viz. Choler, Blood, Phleme, and Melancholy: which if they be distempered and unfitly mingled, dissolution of the whole doth immediately ensue: like to a building which falls to ruin, if the foundation and Base of it be unsound or disordered. And in some of these, the vital spirits are contained and preserved, which the other keep in convenient temper; and as long as they do so, the soul and body dwell together like good friends: so that these four are the Base of the conjunction of the other two, both which he saith, are 
Proportioned equally by seven and nine.   
In which words, I understand he means the influences of the superior substances (which govern the inferior) into the two differing parts of Man; to wit, of the stars (the most powerful of which, are the seven Planets, into his body: and of the Angels divided into nine Hierarchies or Orders) into his soul: which in his Astrophel, he saith is 
By sovereign choice from th`heavenly Quires select,  
And lineally deriu`d from angel's race.   
And as much as the one govern the Body, so much the other do the mind. Wherein is to be considered, that some are of opinion, how at the instant of a child's conception, or rather more effectually at the instant of his Birth, the conceived sperm or tender Body doth receive such influence of the Heavens as then reign over that place, where the conception or birth is made: And all the stars or virtual places of the celestial orbs participating the qualities of the seven Planets (according to which they are distributed into so many Classes, or the compounds of them) it comes to pass, that according to the variety of the several Aspects of the one and of the other, there are various inclinations and qualities in men's bodies, but all reduced to seven general heads and the compounds of them, which being to be varied innumerable ways, cause as many different effects, yet the influence of some one Planet continually predominating. But when the matter in a woman's womb is capable of a soul to inform it, than God sendeth one from Heaven into it.  
— Eternal God,  
In Paradise whilom did plant this Flower,  
Whence he it fetched out of her native place,  
And did in Stock of earthly flesh inrace.  
And this opinion the Author more plainly expresses himself to be of, in another work, where he saith: 
There she beholds with high aspiring thought  
The cradle of her own Creation;  
Amongst the seats of Angels heavenly wrought.   
Which whether it have been created ever since the beginning of the world, and reserved in some fit place till due time, or be created on emergent occasion; no man can tell: but certain it is, that it is immortal, according to what I said before, when I spoke of the Circle which hath no ending, and an uncertain beginning. The messengers to convey which soul into the body, are the Intelligences which move the orbs of Heaven, who according to their several natures communicate to it several proprieties: and they most, who are governors of those stars at that instant, who have the superiority in the planetary aspects. Whereby it comes to pass, that in all inclinations there's much affinity between the Soul and the Body, being that the like is between the Intelligences and the stars, both which communicate their virtues to each of them. And these Angels, being, as I said before, of nine several Hierarchies, there are so many principle differences in human souls, which participate most of their proprieties, which whom in their descent they made the longest stay, and that had most active power to work on them, and accompanied them with a peculiar Genius (which is according to their several Governments) like the same kind of water that running through various conduits wherein several aromatike and odoriferous things are laid, do acquire several kinds of tastes and smells. For it is supposed, that in their first Creation, all Souls are alike, and that their differing proprieties arrive to them afterwards when they pass through the spheres of the governing Intelligences. So that by such their influence, it may truly be said, that 
Nine was the Circle set in heaven's place.   
Which verse, by assigning this office to the nine, and the proper place to the Circle, gives much light to what is said before. And for a further confirmation that this is the author's opinion, read attentively the sixt Canto of the 3. Book, where most learnedly and at large he delivers the Tenets of this philosophy; and for that. I commend to you to take particular notice of the 2d. and thirty two Stanza's: as also the last of his Epithalamion: and surveying his works, you shall find him a constant disciple of Plato's School.  
All which compacted, made a goodly Diapase.  
In Nature there is not to be found a more complete and more exact Concordance of all parts, than that which is between the compaction and conjunction of the Body and Soul of Man: Both which although they consist of many and most different faculties and parts, yet when they keep due time with one another, they altogether make the most perfect Harmony that can be imagined. And as the nature of sounds, that consist of friendly consonancies and accords, is to mingle themselves with one another, and to slide into the ear with much sweetness, where by their unity they last a long time and delight it: where as contrarily, discords continually jar, and fight together, and will not mingle with one another: but all of them striving to have the victory, their reluctation and disorder gives a speedy end to their sounds, which strike the ear in a harsh and offensive manner, and there die in the very beginning of their Conflict: In like manner, when a man's Actions are regular, and directed towards God, they become like the lines of a Circle, which all meet in the centre, than his music is most excellent and complete, and all together are the Authors of that blessed harmony which maketh him happy in the glorious vision of God's perfections, wherein the mind is filled with high knowledges and most pleasing contemplations; and the senses, as it were, drowned in eternal delight; and nothing can interrupt this Joy, this happiness, which is an everlasting Diapase: Whereas on the contrary, if a man's actions be disorderly, and consisting of discords, (which is, when the sensitive part rebels and wrestles with the rational, striving to oppress it) than this music is spoiled, and instead of eternal life, pleasure and joy, it causeth perpetual death, horror, pain, and misery. Which infortunate estate the Poet describes elsewhere; as in the conclusion of this staff he intimates: the other happy one, which is the never-failing Reward of such an obedient body, and ethereal and virtuous mind, as he makes to be the feat of the bright Virgin Alma, man's worthiest inhabitant, Reason. Her I feel to speak within me, and chide me for my bold Attempt, warning me to stray no further. For what I have said (considering how weakly it is said) your Command is all the excuse that I can pretend. But since my desire to obey that, may be seen as well in a few lines, as in a large Discourse, it were indiscretion in me to trouble you with more, or to discover to you more of my Ignorance. I will only beg pardon of you for this blotted and interlined paper, whose Contents are so mean that it cannot deserve the pains of a Transcription, which if you make difficulty to grant to it, for my sake, let it obtain it for having been yours.  
And now I return to you also the Book that contains my Text, which yesterday you sent me, to fit this part of it with a Comment, which peradventure I might have performed better, if either I had afforded myself more time, or had had the conveniency of some other books apt to quicken my Invention, to whom I might have been beholding for enlarging my understanding in some things that are treated here, although the Application should still have been my own: With these helps perhaps I might have dived further into the author's Intention (the depth of which cannot be sounded by any that is less learned than he was) But I persuade myself very strongly, that in what I have said there's nothing contradictory to it, and that an intelligent and well learned man proceeding on my grounds might compose a worthy and true commentary on this Theme: Upon which I wonder how I stambled, considering how many learned men have failed in the Interpretation of it, and have all at the first hearing, approved my opinion.  
But it was Fortune that made me fall upon it, when first this Stanza was read to me for an indissoluble Riddle. And the same Discourse I made upon it, the first half quarter of an hour that I saw it, I send you here, without having reduced it to any better form, or added any thing at all unto it. Which I beseech you receive benignly, as coming from  
Your most affectionate Friend and humble Servant, Kenelm Digby.  
FINIS.