OF MANS SOULE. Chap.III. 



reall things, and of this machine of heaven and earth, with all 

 that they enclofe, cannot quench the unlimited thirft of a noble 

 mind, once fet on fire with the beauty and love of Truth. 



infceltXy angvfto limite nwndi, 

 Vt GJATA clauftuffofulis, pArvaqttfferipho. 



But fuch heroick fpirits , caft their fubtile nets into another 

 .world,after the winged inhabitants of the heavens; and finde 

 meanes to bring them ilfo into account, and to ferve them (how 

 imperceptible ioever they be to the fenfes) as dainties at the 

 foules table. They enquire after a maker of the world we fee,and 

 areourfelves amainepartof ; and having found him, they con- 

 clude him (out ohhc force of contradidion) to be eternall, infi- 

 nite, omnipotent, oirnifcienr, immutable, andathonfand other 

 admirable qualities they determine of him. They fearch after his 

 tooles and inftrumer.ts, wherewith he built this vaft and admira- 

 ble pallace, and feeke to grow acquainted with the officers and 

 ftcwards, that under him go verne this orderly and numerous fa- 

 mily They find them to be invifible creatures, exalted above us 

 more then we can eftimate , yet infinitely farther fhort of their 

 and our Maker, then we are of them. If this doeoccatlon them 

 to caft their thooghts upon man himfelfe, they find a nature in 

 him (it is trae) much infer four to thefe admirable Intelligences, 

 yet fuch an one, as they hope may one day arrive unto the like- 

 Tiefle of thecn :and that even at the prefent, is of fo noble a mould, 

 as nothing is too big for it to faddome, nor any thing too fmall 

 for it to difcerne. 



Thus we fee knowledge hath no limits ; nothing efcapeth the 

 toyles of fcicnce ; all that ever was, that is, or can ever be, is by 

 them circled in : their extent is fo vaft, that oar very thoughts and 

 ambitions are too weak and too poorc to hope for, or to ay me at 

 what by them may be compared. And if any man, that is not 

 inured to raife his thoughts above the pitch of the outward 

 objects heconvcrfeth dayly with, fhoukl fufpeftthat what I 

 have now (aid, is rather like the longing dreames of paffionate 

 lovers, whofe 'defires feed them with impoffibilities , then 

 that it is any reall truth ; or (hould imagine that it is but a 

 Poctikeldeaof fcience , that never was nor will be in-acT: : cr 

 if any other, that hath his difcouriing faculty vitiated and 



