The mind sees the former lying in "cold
obstruction," rotting, changed from a "sensible warm motion" to a
"kneaded clod," every circumstance leaving the impression of dull, dead
weight, deprived of force and motion. The spirit, on the other hand, is
imagined under circumstances that give the most vivid picture
conceivable of utter powerlessness:
"Imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendant world."
To call the spirit here "delighted," in our sense of the term, would be
absurd; and no explanation of the passage in this sense, however
ingenious, is intelligible. That it is intended to represent the spirit
simply as _lightened_, made light, relieved from the weight of matter, I
am convinced, and this is my view of the meaning of the word in the
present instance.
_Delight_ is naturally formed by the participle _de_ and _light_, to
make light, in the same way as "debase," to make base, "defile," to make
foul. The analogy is not quite so perfect in such words as "define,"
"defile" (file), "deliver," "depart," &c.; yet they all may be
considered of the same class. The last of these is used with us only in
the sense of _to go away_; in Shakspeare's time (and Shakspeare so uses
it) it meant also _to part_, or _part with_. A correspondent of Mr.
Knight's suggests {114} for the word _delight_ in this passage, also, a
new derivation; using _de_ as a negation, and _light (lux), delighted_,
removed from the regions of light.
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