That night, Psyche sees in a vision, the Palace of the Pure in Heart: and her Prince walking among and talking with its inhabitants.

The third canto opens with the next morning. Psyche, awaking, tells of her grief at not really being with Him Whom she loves; and compares her own lot with that of the eaglets, who can unweariedly gaze on the sun. The stanzas are exquisite :

"You, perched on some safe rock, can sit and see

When the young morn unlocks his ruby gate

How, from the morning's bed of roses, he
Lovelier than it, doth rise: what robe of state
That day he chooseth; and what tire of light
He on his temples binds,-there to grow bright.
"Into his chariot of flaming gold

You see him mount, and give his purple steeds
Leave to draw out the day you see him rolled
Upon his diamond wheels, whose bounty breeds
That populous family of pearls, which dwells

On eastern shores close in their mother shells."

While engaged in such thoughts, she is visited by Phylax, who brings her from the Prince a girdle as a token of His love. He describes its manufacture; and concludes by saying, in the wretched taste of the times,

""Tis now the second hour since when I took

It and my leave."

The embroidery represents the life of S. John Baptist, which is described at length. He is introduced as say. ing, while in the desert:

"Here with myself I do converse; a rare

And painful thing when men in crowds do dwell:
When upon those who crowd them still they stare,
Having no space to see themselves, until
Well skilled in all their neighbour company,
But unacquainted with themselves, they die.

"The rest of my acquaintance are on high,
Beyond my eye's reach, but within my heart's:
For with what speed the lightning down doth fly,
Through every stage of Heaven this upward darts;
Nor will its sprightly journey bounded be

By any rampart but infinity."

Psyche, by wearing this girdle, becomes more and more detached from the world, and devoted to her LORD. This, in the fourth Canto, the senses are determined to oppose to which end they call a Council. Opsis, (the Sight) speaks first. After describing her habitation, (much in the style of Phinehas Fletcher's Purple Island,) she proceeds to exhibit her power by causing certain pageants to appear. The seasons first pass: the picture of Winter is pretty :

"At last came drooping Winter slowly on :

The frost hung heavy on his heels; the year
Looked pale and wan in him, and almost gone :
He quaked and shivered through his mantle's fur:
For still which way soever he did creep
He's to the knees in snow at every step.
For snow was all things now."

Acoe, (the Hearing) proceeds to speak; commencing her address in the same way as her sister. A grove, filled with every kind of singing bird springs up: all listen with delight:

"Till Philomel's diviner anthems drowned

The rest in a full ocean of sweet sound."

Then follow the greatest poets-Homer, Virgil, and Tasso and at a distance, Spenser,

"Though manacled in thick and peevish rhyme."

The poet then apostrophizes some friend, then absent on his travels, and says of him that he had an equal genius with any of these, as would some day appear. If

Milton-also a Cambridge man,-be meant, it is a remarkable prophecy.

Osphresis (the Smell) speaks next: all kinds of flowers rise around her, and she shows, in its funeral pile,

"The bird that sweetly teacheth death to live."

She is followed by Geusis, (the Taste) who, speaking of her castle, says in a conceit so pretty that it may be forgiven :

"And for my house, it may be commendation
Sufficient, what the whole world doth express
In its ambition but its door to kiss.

That door is of two leaves, two rose's leaves."

Haphe (Touch) briefly concludes the whole. War is resolved; and the Passions are enlisted among the troops. Agenor, (Pride) takes the command. At this juncture, Psyche is left by Charis and by Phylax. She retreats into her strongest fort; and thence despatches Logos (Reason) to treat with the insurgents. He, however, is made prisoner; and she is then unwillingly compelled to send Thelema to them, who goes over to their side.

This is the beginning of the fifth canto ;

"What boots it man that nature's courtesy
Hath lift his awful looks up high to heaven,
And built his temples up with majesty,
And to his hand imperial power given ?

What royal mockery is a diadem

Abroad, for one that's not at home supreme!

"How does the world mock at him, when it lays

Its universal pleasures at his feet:

Whom whilst the earth, the air, the sea obeys

A rebel pack of passions dares to meet
With plain defiance, and presume with hope
His empire shall go down,—their pleasures up !"

Psyche is bitterly reproached by Syneidesis for having allowed matters to arrive at this pass. On the other

hand, the rebels call a Council, when Suspicion

exhorted to caution, for she very truly observes,

"That, where the path is difficult, to run

Is only with more speed to be undone."

By her advice it is decided that Love shall be sent on a flattering but false message to Psyche. In her speech our poet is evidently ridiculing the professions of the Long Parliament, that they fight, not against King Charles, but against his ministers. She prevails so far as to induce Psyche to agree to parley: and she listens to the rebels from a window of the castle. Accordingly, Agenor,

"Whose sword looked lightning through its crystal sheath,

leads up his forces, and dwells on the injustice done to the Passions by the strict laws which their mistress has imposed on them. By an odd comparison, he says,

"I could no more

To their provoked impatience treason lay,
Than to the dark earth, if in chinks she ope

Her mouth at Phoebus, who her flowers burns up."

In the end, Psyche opens her gates, throws Logos and Syneidesis into prison, and engages to admit neither Phylax nor Charis, should they endeavour again to approach her. Agenor presents her with a mirror, in which all her beauties are magnified tenfold; and the arrogance she assumes leads her to throw Syneidesis into the deepest dungeon in the Castle.

"O miserable privilege, that man

Should able be to muffle up the sight

Which shows him to himself, and only can

Through rocks and shelves point out his course aright!
Unhappy strength! The feeblest weakness is

Nothing so weak and faint a thing as this!"

The poet ends the canto with contrasting the pride of his heroine with

"Humility, that art ennobled by

His own profession Whom the Heav'ns adore ;
Himself He lowest made Who was most high,

And, of the richest King, became most poor."

But Psyche was not to be left for long. Phylax and Charis are, in the sixth canto, ordered by the Prince to her assistance. They obey: Phylax, on meeting her, is silent.

"And speaks not by his mouth, but by his look.

"This is the strongest dialect of love,

Which, when the fruitless tongue hath said his say,
With soul-commanding power doth plead, and prove
That eloquence doth reign in eyes; for they
Who to the bottom of the heart would speak,
In looking lines must their orations make.

"Oh what a long, long story he ran over

In that short ocular discourse! how fast
Did he his bosom and her own discover,

And what of old, and what of late had passed!"'

He begins by threatening: but to no purpose. length

"Fear's darts repulsed, he shot the darts of love."

Thelema instantly gives way:

"Oh noble triumph of immortal grace!

How uncontrolled is its wondrous art!

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