A small orange bird presses against the glass inside a corked bottle resting on slate.

Original artwork, not a still

The Holy State and the Profane State · 1642

Thomas Fuller

He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The description pictures a thin man whose restless spirit seems so impatient with his body that it wants to gnaw its way out. It's a vivid metaphor: the body is a heavy obstacle, and the soul's eagerness shows in how lean he looks.

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