God's Geometry: Motion in the English Poetry of George Herbert

God's Geometry: Motion in the English Poetry of George Herbert by Thomas Ramey Watson As John Freccero has discovered, "Plato's geometric analogy for the three 'motions' of the soul, circular (divine), spiral (human) and rectilinear (animal), from which is derived his theory of microcosm and macrocosm, enjoyed a great vogue in subsequent neoplatonic writings."1 The spiral was considered by many a harmonization of rectilinear motion with circularity. The pseudo-Dionysius repeats such notions, talking of the three "conversions" characteristic of the heavens, angels, and the human soul (Dediv. nom. 4.8-9). St Bonaventure similarly comments that the human soul can turn directly to God by divine intuition, supra nos, or to the outside world, extra nos; but since the unitive way is given to few, most must proceed to God by a combination of those two motions in intra nos, the spiral emblematic of the incarnate soul whose inner life is a continual contemplation of God in spite of worldly vicissitudes (ltiner. mentis ad Deum 1.2). Marsilio Ficino likewise describes the three movements of the soul: "De motu angelí et animae triplici, id est, circulari, recto, obliquo" (Comment, on Div. nom. 2.1062-3). Elsewhere he uses the same words to describe celestial motion (Appendix Comment, in Timaeum, cap. 19). Such theories of motion are echoed in diverse writings, including, as Freccero has averred, Donne's "Valediction Forbidding Mourning."2 George Herbert also employs geometrical motions in a group of poems that come, for the most part, near the middle of The Temple; and he employs these theories again in "The Church Militant."3 The most obvious use of such motion theories is found in "Coloss. 3.3," which begins: 18Thomas Ramey Watson My words & thoughts do both expresse this notion, That Life hath with the sun a double motion. The first Is straight, and our diurnall friend, The other Hid and doth obliquely bend. One life is wrapt In flesh, and tends to earth: The other winds towards Him . . .(II. 1-6)4 Herbert, we note, reserves purely circular motion for God, since no human soul after the Fall is able to partake only of God's motion: at best human motion is spiral, and enhanced by the Incarnation in which God was enwrapped in flesh, as Herbert has enwrapped the biblical text in his poem. "The Pearl. Matth. 13.45" also contains such geometrical motions. The persona, who has gained some wisdom in spiritual things, enumerates the various kinds of knowledge he has gained in moving through his life — in learning, honor, and pleasure. He devotes a stanza to each category of knowledge, ending each stanza with "yet I love thee," to indicate that he is no longer the naive Christian who has just entered the corporate life of the Christian church, as he was once. In the fourth stanza the persona summarizes what he has so far learned, his language echoing the business metaphor that Christ employs in the parable for which the poem is named: Therefore not sealed, but with open eyes I flie to thee, and fully understand Both the main sale, and the commodities; And at what rate and price I have thy love; With all the circumstances that may move . . . (II. 32-36) But that is not enough. Salvation and sanctification are more than mere business transactions whereby the individual can climb to heaven without the aid of grace, as Diana Benet aptly reminds us in her recent book Secretary of Praise: The Poetic Vocation of George Herbert* Straight lines do not automatically spiral toward God. As Augustine formulates it (De Genesi ad Litteram 11.15, 20; De Civitate Dei 14), only God's grace enables the will to turn upward in "conversion," rather than downward in "aversion." Such grace must precede the will, and continue its action — as this still-maturing persona at the end of the poem realizes: MOTION IN HERBERT'S POETRY19 Yet through these labyrinths, not my groveling wit, But thy silk twist let down from heav'n to me, Did both conduct and teach me, how by it To climbe to thee. (II. 37-40) Even God's grace comes through the spiraling...