He saw Heaven o’er his head, and knew from whence
He came condemned hither,
And, as first Love draws strongest, so from hence
His mind sure progressed thither.”
Henry Vaughan, Silex Scintillans.
Mr. Reed also quotes a passage from Vaughan’s poem Childehood; but a more apposite passage may be found in The Retreate, in Silex Scintillans.
Happy those early dayes, when I
Shined in my Angell-infancy!
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,