as no need to plead
for any extension of the infinite ("a contradiction," and also, it would
seem, a fruitless inquiry); but he soon changed his mind. The preface to
_Democritus Platonissans_ reproduces those stanzas of the earlier poem
which deny infinity (34 to the end of the canto) with a new (formerly
concluding) stanza 39 and three further stanzas "for a more easie and
naturall leading to the present Canto," _i.e._, _Democritus
Platonissans_, which More clearly intended to be an addition, a fifth
canto to _Psychathanasia_ (Book III); and although _Democritus
Platonissans_ first appeared separately, More appended it to
_Psychathanasia_ in the second edition of his collected poems, this time
with English titles, the whole being called _A Platonick Song of the
Soul_ (1647).

There is little relationship between _Democritus Platonissans_ and the
rest of More's poetry; even the main work to which it supposedly forms a
final and conclusive canto provides only the slightest excuse for such a
continuation. Certainly, in _Psychathanasia_, More is excited by the new
astronomy; he praises the Copernican system throughout Book III, giving
an account of it according to the lessons of his study of Galileo's
_Dialogo_, which he may have been reading even as he wrote.[2] Indeed,
More tries to harmonize the two poems--his habit was always to look for
unity. But even though _Democritus Platonissans_ explores an
astronomical subject, just as the third part of _Psychathanasia_ also
does, its attitude and theme are quite different; for More had meanwhile
been reading Descartes.

More's theory of the infinity of worlds and God's plenitude evidently
owed a great deal to Descartes' recent example; More responds
exuberantly to him, especially to his _Principes de la Philosophie_
(1644); for in him he fancied having found a true ally. Steeped in
Platonic and neo-Platonic thought, and determined to reconcile Spirit
with the rational mind of man, More thought he had discovered in
Cartesian 'intuition' what was not necessarily there. Descartes had
enjoyed an ecstatic illumination, and so had Plotinus; but this was not
enough, as More may have wanted to imagine, to make Descartes a
neo-Platonist.[3] But the Platonic element implicit in Descartes, his
theory of innate ideas, and his proof of the existence of God from the
idea of God, all helped to make More so receptive to him. Nevertheless,
More did not really need Descartes, nor, as he himse