en 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 reflect
From outward matter, all her virtue draws.
And yet in living bodies passion's might
Doth 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 awake
Those 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 brings
With forms which in herself included be.

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

[176] Cf. Quin potius noscas rerum simulacra uagari
Multa modis multis nulla ui cassaque sensu.

"But rather you are to know that idols or things wander about many in
number in many ways, of no force, powerless to excite sense."--Lucr. iv.
127, 128 (trans. Munro).

V.

Quod si in corporibus sentiendis, quamuis afficiant instrumenta sensuum
forinsecus obiectae qualitates animique agentis uigorem passio corporis
antecedat quae in se actum mentis prouocet excitetque interim quiescentes
intrinsecus formas, si in sentiendis, inquam, corporibus animus non
passione insignitur, sed ex sua ui subiectam corpori iudicat passionem,
quanto magis ea quae cunctis corporum affectionibus absoluta sunt, in
discernendo non obiecta extrinsecus sequuntur, sed actum suae mentis
expediunt? Hac itaque ratione multiplices cognitiones diuersis ac
differentibus cessere substantiis. Sensus enim solus cunctis aliis
cognitionibus destitutus immobilibus animantibus cessit quales sunt conchae
maris quaeque alia saxis haerentia nutriuntur, imaginatio uero mobilibus
beluis quibus iam inesse fugiendi appetendiue aliquis uidetur affectus,
ratio uero humani tantum generis est sicut intellegentia sola diuini. Quo
fit ut ea notitia ceteris praestet quae suapte natura non modo proprium sed
ceterarum quoque notitiarum subiecta cognoscit. Quid igitur, si
ratiocinationi sensus imaginatioque refra