As I said before, the King of Might would be worshipped by two kinds of beings, angel and man. Adam was created, therefore, to make the tenth order, which Lucifer tried to destroy. Adam was not made of earth alone, but of four elements: his blood of water, his flesh of earth, his heat of fire, and his breath of air. His head has two eyes. The sky has sun and moon that, as men know, are set for sight; so man’s eyes serve as sun and moon of light. Seven chief stars are fixed in heaven, and man’s head has seven holes, which, if you think about it, you may find with little labor. This breath that man draws so often betokens the wind that blows aloft, of which thunder and lightning are created, as breath is bred in the breast with a cough. All waters sink into the sea, so man’s stomach drinks all liquors. His feet bear him up from falling, as the earth upholds all things. The upper fire gives man his sight, the upper air his power of hearing, the under wind gives him breath, the earth gives him his taste, feeling, and touch; the hardness of bone that man has comes to him from the nature of stones. From the earth grow trees and grass; and from man’s flesh, nails and hair. With dumb beasts man has his share of things which he likes ill or well. Of these things, I have heard said, Adam’s body was put together. For this reason that you have heard, man is called the lesser world.
But you have not yet heard the story of how man’s soul was wrought. A ghostly light man says it is that God has made in His likeness; as print of a seal is fixed in wax, so man has God’s likeness. He has wrought him as friend and companion, since nothing is so dear to Him. His Godhead is the Trinity, so a soul has properly three powers: the perception of what is, was, and shall be. It has pure understanding of what is seen and unseen; it has, also, wisdom of will to take the good and leave the evil. All the powers that may be dwell in that Holy Trinity. As God, who is one and three, may by no kind of creature be understood nor overtaken, but He overtakes each one, so the soul, without spot, is unseen, though it has sight of all things. To see the soul you have no power. Now have I shown you how two things hold man together; — the soul, a thing spiritual, and the body, which is flesh and skin.
This introductory bit of mediæval lore is translated from “Cursor Mundi” (Over-runner of the World), a long poem, probably written in the early fourteenth century. The author says plainly at the beginning of his work that he is vying with romances and other secular tales which draw the thoughts of men away from spiritual matters. The poem, written in 24,000 verses in the short couplet, tells the history of the seven ages of the world, from the Creation to Doomsday, covering very much the same matter as that presented in the miracle plays. The “Cursor Mundi” has been edited by R. Morris for the Early English Text Society. Lines 511-584 are here translated.