Book V IV

Quondam porticus attulitObscuros nimium senesQui sensus et imaginesE corporibus extimisCredant mentibus imprimi,Vt quondam celeri stiloMos est aequore paginae,Quae nullas habeat notas,Pressas figere litteras.Sed mens si propriis uigensNihil motibus explicat,Sed tantum patiens iacetNotis subdita corporumCassasque in speculi uicemRerum reddit imagines,Vnde haec sic animis uigetCernens omnia notio?Quae uis singula perspicitAut quae cognita diuidit?Quae diuisa recolligitAlternumque legens iterNunc summis caput inserit,Nunc decedit in infima,Tum sese referens sibiVeris falsa redarguit?Haec est efficiens magisLonge causa potentiorQuam quae materiae modoImpressas patitur notas.Praecedit tamen excitansAc uires animi mouensViuo in corpore passio.Cum uel lux oculos feritVel uox auribus instrepit,Tum mentis uigor excitusQuas intus species tenetAd motus similes uocansNotis applicat exterisIntrorsumque reconditisFormis miscet imagines.

Cloudy old prophets of the Porch once taughtThat sense and shape presented to the thoughtFrom outward objects their impression take,As when upon a paper smooth and plainOn which as yet no marks of ink have lainWe with a nimble pen do letters make.But if our minds to nothing can applyTheir proper motions, but do patient lieSubject to forms which do from bodies flow,As a glass renders empty shapes of things,Who then can show from whence that motion springsBy force of which the mind all things doth know?Or by what skill are several things espied?And being known what power doth them divide,And thus divided doth again unite,And with a various journey oft aspiresTo highest things, and oft again retiresTo basest, nothing being out of sight,And when she back unto herself doth move,Doth all the falsehoods by the truth reprove?This vigour needs must be an active cause,And with more powerful forces must be deckt,Than that which from those forms, that do reflectFrom outward matter, all her virtue draws.And yet in living bodies passion's mightDoth go before, whose office is to incite,And the first motions in the mind to make.As when the light unto our eyes appears,Or some loud voice is sounded in our ears,Then doth the strength of the dull mind awakeThose phantasies which she retains within;She stirreth up such notions to begin,Whose objects with their natures best agree,And thus applying them to outward things,She joins the external shapes which thence she bringsWith forms which in herself included be.

The Porch, i.e. the Painted Porch ([Greek: stoa poikilae]) atAthens, the great hall adorned with frescoes of the battle of Marathon,which served as lecture-room to Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect.

Multa modis multis nulla ui cassaque sensu.