| MY naked simple Life was I; | |
| That Act so strongly shin’d | |
| Upon the earth, the sea, the sky, | |
| It was the substance of my mind; | |
| The sense itself was I. | 5 |
| I felt no dross nor matter in my soul, | |
| No brims nor borders, such as in a bowl | |
| We see. My essence was capacity, | |
| That felt all things; | |
| The thought that springs | 10 |
| Therefrom’s itself. It hath no other wings | |
| To spread abroad, nor eyes to see, | |
| Nor hands distinct to feel, | |
| Nor knees to kneel; | |
| But being simple like the Deity | 15 |
| In its own centre is a sphere | |
| Not shut up here, but everywhere. | |
| It acts not from a centre to | |
| Its object as remote, | |
| But present is when it doth view, | 20 |
| Being with the Being it doth note | |
| Whatever it doth do. | |
| It doth not by another engine work, | |
| But by itself; which in the act doth lurk. | |
| Its essence is transformed into a true | 25 |
| And perfect act. | |
| And so exact | |
| Hath God appeared in this mysterious fact, | |
| That ’tis all eye, all act, all sight, | |
| And what it please can be, | 30 |
| Not only see, | |
| Or do; for ’tis more voluble than light, | |
| Which can put on ten thousand forms, | |
| Being cloth’d with what itself adorns. | |
| |
| This made me present evermore | 35 |
| With whatsoe’er I saw. | |
| An object, if it were before | |
| My eye, was by Dame Nature’s law, | |
| Within my soul. Her store | |
| Was all at once within me; all Her treasures | 40 |
| Were my immediate and internal pleasures, | |
| Substantial joys, which did inform my mind. | |
| With all she wrought | |
| My soul was fraught, | |
| And every object in my heart a thought | 45 |
| Begot, or was; I could not tell, | |
| Whether the things did there | |
| Themselves appear, | |
| Which in my Spirit truly seem’d to dwell; | |
| Or whether my conforming mind | 50 |
| Were not even all that therein shin’d. | |
| But yet of this I was most sure, | |
| That at the utmost length. | |
| (So worthy was it to endure) | |
| My soul could best express its strength | 55 |
| It was so quick and pure, | |
| That all my mind was wholly everywhere, | |
| Whate’er it saw, ’twas ever wholly there; | |
| The sun ten thousand legions off, was nigh: | |
| The utmost star, | 60 |
| Though seen from far, | |
| Was present in the apple of my eye. | |
| There was my sight, my life, my sense, | |
| My substance, and my mind; | |
| My spirit shin’d | 65 |
| Even there, not by a transient influence: | |
| The act was immanent, yet there: | |
| The thing remote, yet felt even here. | |
| |
| O Joy! O wonder and delight! | |
| O sacred mystery! | 70 |
| My Soul a Spirit infinite! | |
| An image of the Deity! | |
| A pure substantial light! | |
| That Being greatest which doth nothing seem! | |
| Why, ’twas my all, I nothing did esteem | 75 |
| But that alone. A strange mysterious sphere! | |
| A deep abyss | |
| That sees and is | |
| The only proper place of Heavenly Bliss. | |
| To its Creator ’tis so near | 80 |
| In love and excellence, | |
| In life and sense, | |
| In greatness, worth, and nature; and so dear, | |
| In it, without hyperbole, | |
| The Son and friend of God we see. | 85 |
| A strange extended orb of Joy, | |
| Proceeding from within, | |
| Which did on every side, convey | |
| Itself, and being nigh of kin | |
| To God did every way | 90 |
| Dilate itself even in an instant, and | |
| Like an indivisible centre stand, | |
| At once surrounding all eternity. | |
| ’Twas not a sphere, | |
| Yet did appear, | 95 |
| One infinite. ’Twas somewhat every where, | |
| And though it had a power to see | |
| Far more, yet still it shin’d | |
| And was a mind | |
| Exerted, for it saw Infinity. | 100 |
| ’Twas not a sphere, but ’twas a might | |
| Invisible, and yet gave light. | |
| |
| O wondrous Self! O sphere of light, | |
| O sphere of joy most fair | |
| O act, O power infinite; | 105 |
| O subtile and unbounded air! | |
| O living orb of sight! | |
| Thou which within me art, yet me! Thou eye, | |
| And temple of His whole infinity! | |
| O what a world art Thou! A world within! | 110 |
| All things appear, | |
| All objects are | |
| Alive in Thee! Supersubstantial, rare, | |
| Above themselves, and nigh of kin | |
| To those pure things we find | 115 |
| In His great mind | |
| Who made the world! Tho’ now eclipsed by sin | |
| There they are useful and divine, | |
| Exalted there they ought to shine. | |
