To —— —

I send you here a sort of allegory,

(For you will understand it) of a soul,

A sinful soul possess'd of many gifts,

A spacious garden full of flowering weeds,

A glorious Deal, large in heart and brain.

That did love Beauty only, (Beauty seen

In all varieties of mould and mind)

And Knowledge for its beauty; or if Good,

Good only for its beauty, seeing not

That Beauty, Good, and Knowledge, are three sisters

That doat upon each other, friends to man.

Living together under the same roof,

And never can be sunder'd without tears.

And he that shuts Love out, in turn shall be

Shut out from Love, and on her threshold lie

Howling in outer darkness. Not for this

Was common clay ta'en from the common earth,

Moulded by God, and temper'd with the tears

Of angels to the perfect shape of man.