xlviii INTRODUCTION 



theme, which looks as if he accepted the Doctrine of 



Signatures : 



Nor can this Head-like Nut, shap'd like the Brain 



Within, be said that Form by chance to gain, 



Or Caryon 1 call'd by learned Greeks in vain. 



For Membranes soft as Silk, her Kernel bind, 



Whereof the inmost is of tendrest kind, 



Like those which on the Brain 2 of Man we find ; 



All which are in a Seam-join'd Shell enclos'd, 



Which of this Brain the Skull may be suppos'd. 



This very Skull envelop'd is again 



In a green Coat, his Pericranion. 



Lastly, that no Objection may remain, 



To thwart her near Alliance to the Brain ; 



She nourishes the Hair, remembring how 



Herself deform'd without her leaves does show : '- 



On barren Scalps she makes fresh Honours grow. J 



I ought to add that Cowley wrote the poem in 

 Latin, and the translation of Book V., from which 

 the above is extracted, was the work of Nahum Tate, 

 who succeeded Shad well as Poet- Laureate in 1690, 

 having in 1697 published a poem on the "Art of 

 Angling " which went into several editions, but which 

 I do not remember Mr. Andrew Lang baiting his 

 literary hook with. 



Cowley's ashes were deemed worthy to rest in. 

 Westminster Abbey, near those of Chaucer and 



1 Kdpvuv = a nut. 



2 Mater pia and dura Mater. Cowley's Note. 



