"My simple System shall suppose, / That Alma enters at the Toes; / That then She mounts by just Degrees / Up to the Ancles, Legs, and Knees: / Next, as the Sap of Life does rise, / She lends her Vigor to the Thighs: / And, all these under-Regions past,/ She nestles somewhere near the Waste."
Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind.
Searching in ECCO and ESTC (1718, 1720, 1721, 1725, 1728, 1733, 1734, 1741, 1751, 1754, 1755, 1759, 1768, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1771, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1784, 1790, 1798). See also Prior's <u>Poetical Works</u> (1777, 1779, 1784, 1798). Found in <u>A Collection of English Poets</u>, vol. 10 (1776), <u>The British Poets</u>, vol. 18 (1778), and <u>The Works of the English Poets</u> (1779, 1790). I haven't yet been able to confirm that <u>Alma</u> is in 2 vol. <u>Poems</u> of 1755, 1766, 1767 (texts not available in ECCO).<br>
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See Prior's <u>Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos</u> published in <u>Poems on Several Occasions</u> (London: Printed for J. Tonson and J. Barber, 1718). &lt<a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=viva_uva&tabID=T001&docId=CW3311476283&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">Link to ECCO</a>&gt;<br>
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Searching text from <u>Poems on Several Occasions</u>, ed. A. R. Waller (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1905). Reading <u>The Literary Works of Matthew Prior</u>, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears. 2 vols. 2nd Edition (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1971).