Anatomy of the Brain

How Fear hides its uncertain head, and consults for itself in vain, and is already being torn from its own shadows: how Sleep, nodding, sustains the body with difficulty; how Laughter strengthens the flank with his right hand; whence joys dilate the loosened spirits, when the stream departs with a full flood, and it delights to loosen all the ropes. Where Reason, sitting on high through the empty theater, holds and manages the reins with the right hand of the nerves. The Goddess now exults, she sees the faces and the homes, and recognizes her own; and she for whom nature has indulged the power to protect and to report the gods, now rises more joyfully from the summit, and looks upon her kindred stars more erect. And now the deaths and fates are aiding. This stylus expiates the wounds of the cruel iron, so often guilty. Libitina herself establishes new triumphs from herself; the fork and crosses are pleasing, and the robber is a spectacle twice over. Let him who has been the first to claim to have moved the pools of blood boast, having gained a fame perennial with the fountain of life: let the latex of lymph or milk praise him, let the gland praise him. Let others have sought a name from a vile and dissected corpse: your better page strives to have shown the man, and the mind breathing the ether.

Philippus Fell, Master of Arts and Fellow of All Souls College in the University of Oxford.