'T-inflameth also; and anon becomes
A new strange Star, presaging wofull dooms.
Sylvester's Du Bartas. Second Day of the First Weeke.
i.e. a Meteor below the middle region, it becomes a Comet above.
l. 189 to Page 257, l. 206. Donne summarizes in these lines the old concentric arrangement of the Universe as we find it in Dante. Leaving the elements of earth and water the soul passes through the regions of the air (including the central one where snow and hail and meteors are generated), and through the element of fire to the Moon, thence to Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Firmament of the fixed stars. He has already indicated (p. [237], ll. 205 f.) how this arrangement is being disturbed by 'the New Philosophy'.
l. 192. Whether th'ayres middle region be intense. Compare:
The Storme, p. [175], l. 14.th'ayres middle marble roome.
Page 257, ll. 219-20. This must, my Soule, &c. This is the punctuation of 1612-25: 1633 and all the later editions change as in the note. Chambers and Grolier follow suit. It is clearly a corruption. The 'long-short Progresse' is the passage to heaven which has been described. A new thought begins with 'T'advance these thoughts'. Grosart puts a colon after (l. 219) 'bee', but as he also places a semicolon after (l. 220) 'T'advance these thoughts' it is not quite clear how he reads the lines. The mistake seems to have arisen from forgetting that the 'she' whose progress has been described is not Elizabeth Drury but the poet's own soul emancipated by death.
Page 258, ll. 236-40. The Tutelar Angels, &c. 'And it is as imperfect which is taught by that religion which is most accommodate to sense ... That all mankinde hath one protecting Angel; all Christians one other, all English one other, all of one Corporation and every civill coagulation of society one other; and every man one other.' Letters, p. 43. Aquinas insists (Summa I. cxiii) on the assignment of a guardian angel to every individual. He mentions also, following St. Gregory, the guardian angel assigned to the Kingdom of the Persians (Dan. x. 13).