we partake so both earth and heaven for as our bodies glorified shall be capable of spirituall joy so our souls demerged into those bodies are allowed to partake earthly pleasure Our soul is not sent hither onely to go back again we have some errand to do here nor is it sent into prison because it comes innocent and he which sent it is just As we may not kill our selves so we may not bury our selves which is done or indangered in a dull Monastick sadness which is so much worse then jollity for upon that word I durst And certainly despair is infinitely worse then presumption both because this is an excesse of love that of fear and because this is up that down the hill easier and more stumbling Heaven is expressed by singing hell by weeping And though our blessed Saviour be never noted to have laughed yet his countenance is said ever to be smiling And that even moderate mirth of heart and face and all I wish to my self and perswade you to keep This alacrity is not had by a generall charity and equanimity to all mankind for that is to seek fruit in a wildernesse nor from a singular friend for that is to fetch it out of your own pocket but the various and abundant grace of it is good company in which no rank no number no quality but ill and such a degree of that as may corrupt and poyson the good is exempt For in nearer then them your friend and somewhat nearer then he in your self you must allow some inordinatenesse of affections and passions For it is not true that they are not naturall but stormes and tempests of our bloud and humours for they are naturall but sickly And as the Indian priests expressed an excellent charity by building Hospitalls and providing chirurgery for birds and beasts lamed by mischance or age or labour so must we not cut off but cure these affections which are the bestiall part To Sir H. Goodere SIR EVery Tuesday I make account that I turn a great hour-glass and consider that a weeks life is run out since I writ But if I ask my self what I have done in the last watch or would do in the next I can say nothing if I say that I have passed it without hurting any so may the Spider in my window The primitive Monkes were excusable in their retirings and enclosures of themselves for even of them every one cultivated his own garden and orchard that is his soul and body by meditation and manufactures and they ought the world no more since they consumed none of her sweetnesse nor begot others to burden her But for me if I were able to husband all my time so thriftily as not onely not to wound my soul in any minute by actuall sin but not to rob and couzen her by giving any part to pleasure or businesse but bestow it all upon her in meditation yet even in that I should wound her more and contract another guiltinesse As the Eagle were very unnaturall if because she is able to do it she should pearch a whole day upon a tree staring in contemplation of the majesty and glory of the Sun and let her young Eglets starve in the nest Two of the most precious things which God hath afforded us here for the agony and exercise of our sense and spirit which are a thirst and inhiation after the next life and a frequency of prayer and meditation in this are often envenomed and putrefied and stray into a corrupt disease for as God doth thus occasion and positively concurre to evil that when a man is purposed to do a great sin God infuses some good thoughts which make him choose a lesse sin or leave out some circumstance which aggravated that so the devil doth not onely suffer but provoke us to some things naturally good upon condition that we shall omit some other more necessary and more obligatory And this is his greatest subtilty because herein we have the deceitfull comfort of having done well and can very hardly spie our errour because it is but an insensible omission and no accusing act With the first of these I have often suspected my self to be overtaken which is with a desire of the next life which though I know it is not meerly out of a wearinesse of this because I had the same desires when I went with the tyde and enjoyed fairer hopes then now yet I doubt worldly encumbrances have increased it I would not that death should take me asleep I would not have him meerly seise me and onely declare me to be dead but win me and overcome me When I must shipwrack I would do it in a Sea where mine impotency might have some excuse not in a sullen weedy lake where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming Therefore I would fain do something but that I cannot tell what is no wonder For to choose is to do but to be no part of any body is to be nothing At most the greatest persons are but greatwens and excrescences men of wit and delighfull conversation but as moles for ornament except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole This I made account that I begun early when I understood the study of our laws but was diverted by the worst voluptuousnesse which is an Hydroptique immoderate desire of humane learning and languages beautifull ornaments to great fortunes but mine needed an occupation and a course which I thought I entred well into when I submitted my self into such a service as I thought might imploy those poor advantages which I had And there I stumbled too yet I would try again for to this hour I am nothing or so little that I am scarce subject and argument good enough for one of mine own letters yet I fear that doth not ever proceed from a good root that I am so well content to be lesse that is dead You Sir are far enough from these descents your vertue keeps you secure and your naturall disposition to mirth will preserve you but lose none of these holds a slip is often as dangerous as a bruise and though you cannot fall to my lowness yet in a much lesse distraction you may meet my sadness for he is no safer which falls from an high Tower into the leads then he which falls from thence to the ground make therefore to your self some mark and go towards it alegrement Though I be in such a planetary and erratick fortune that I can doe nothing constantly yet you may finde some constancy in my constant advising you to it Your hearty true friend J. Donne I came this evening from M. Jones his house in Essex where M. Martin hath been and left a relation of Captain Whitcocks death perchance it is no news to you but it was to me without doubt want broke him for when M. Hollands Company by reason of the plague
have nothing to present to him but sins and misery yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of my self but as I am in my Saviour and hath given me even at this time some testimonies by his holy Spirit that I am of the number of his Elect I am full of joy and shall die in peace I must here look so far back as to tell the Reader that at his first return out of Essex his old Friend and Physician Dr. Fox a man of great worth came to him to consult his health who after a sight of him and some queries concerning his distempers told him That by Cordials and drinking milk twenty dayes together there was a probability of his restauration to health but he passionately denied to drink it Neverthelesse Dr. Fox who loved him most intirely wearied him with solicitations till he yielded to take it for ten dayes at the end of which time he told Dr. Fox he had drunk it more to satisfie him than to recover his health and that he would not drink it ten dayes longer upon the best morall assurance of having twenty years added to his life for he loved it not and he was so far from fearing death which is the King of terrours that he longed for the day of his dissolution It is observed that a desire of glory or commendation is rooted in the very nature of man and that those of the severest and most mortified lives though they may become so humble as to banish self-flattery and such weeds as naturally grow there yet they have not been able to kill this desire of glory but that like our radicall heat it will both live and die with us and many think it should do so and we want not sacred examples to justifie the desire of having our memory to out-live our lives which I mention because Dr. Donne by the perswasion of Dr. Fox yielded at this very time to have a Monument made for him but Dr. Fox undertook not to perswade how or what it should be that was left to Dr. Donne himself This being resolved upon Dr. Donne sent for a Carver to make for him in wood the figure of an Urn giving him directions for the compasse and height of it and to bring with it a board of the height of his body These being got and without delay a choice Painter was in a readiness to draw his picture which was taken as followeth Severall Charcole-fires being first made in his large study he brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand and having put off all his clothes had his sheet put on him and so tied with knots at his head and feet and his hands so placed as dead bodies are usually fitted for the grave Upon this Urn he thus stood with his eyes shut and so much of the sheet turned aside as might shew his lean pale and death-like face which was purposely turned toward the East from whence he expected the second coming of our Saviour Thus he was drawn at his just height and when the picture was fully finished he caused it to be set by his bed-side where it continued and became his hourly object till his death and was then given to his dearest friend and Executor Dr. King who caused him to be thus carved in one entire piece of white Marble as it now stands in the Cathedrall Church of S. Pauls and by Dr. Donn's own appointment these words were to be affixed to it as his Epitaph JOHANNES DONNE Sac. Theol. Professor Post varia Studia quibus ab annis tenerrimis fideliter nec infeliciter incubuit Instinctu impulsu Sp. Sancti Monitu Hortatu REGIS JACOBI Ordines Sacros amplexus Anno sui Iesu 1614. suae aetatis 42. Decanatu hujus Ecclesiae indutus 27. Novembris 1621. Exutus morte ultimo Die Martii 1631. Hiclicet in Occiduo Cinere Aspicit Eum Cujus nomen est Oriens Upon Monday following he took his last leave of his beloved Study and being sensible of his hourly decay retired himself to his bed-chamber and that week sent at severall times for many of his most considerable friends with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell commending to their considerations some sentences usefull for the regulation of their lives and dismist them as good Iacob did his sons with a spirituall Benediction The Sunday following he appointed his servants that if there were any businesse undone that concerned him or themselves it should be prepared against Saturdy next for after that day he would not mix his thoughts with any thing that concerned this world nor ever did But as Iob so he waited for the appointed time of his dissolution And now he had nothing to do but die to do which he stood in need of no longer time for he had studied long and to so happy a perfection that in a former sickness he called God to witness * he was that minute ready to deliver his soul into his hands if that minute God would determine his dissolution In that sickness he begg'd of God the constancy to be preserved in that estate forever and his patient expectation to have his immortall soul disrob'd from her garment of mortality makes me confident he now had a modest assurance that his Prayers were then heard and his Petition granted He lay fifteen dayes earnestly expecting his hourly change and in the last hour of his last day as his body melted away and vapoured into spirit his soul having I verily believe some revelation of the Beatificall Vision he said I were miserable if I might not die and after those words closed many periods of his faint breath by saying often Thy kingdome come thy will be done His speech which had long been his ready and faithfull servant left him not till the last minute and then forsook him not to serve another Master but died before him for that it was become uselesse to him that now conversed with God on earth as Angels are said to do in heaven onely by thoughts and looks Being speechless he did as S. Stephen look stedfastly towards heaven till he saw the Son of God standing at the right hand of his Father and being satisfied with this blessed sight as his soul ascended and his last breath departed from him he closed his own eyes and then disposed his hands and body into such a posture as required no alteration by those that came to shroud him Thus variable thus vertuous was the Life thus excellent thus exemplary was the Death of this memorable man He was buried in that place of S. Pauls Church which he had appointed for that use some yeares before his death and by which he passed daily to pay his publick Devotions to Almighty God who was then served twice a day by a publick form of Prayer and Praises in that place but he was not buried privately though he desired it for beside an unnumbred number
of generall Learning natural eloquence and Christian humility that they deserve a Commemoration by a pen equall to their own which none hath exceeded And in this enumeration of his friends though many must be ommitted yet that man of primitive piety Mr. George Herbert may not I mean that George Herbert who was the Author of the Temple or Sacred Poems and Ejaculations A book in which by declaring his own spirituall Conflicts he hath raised many a dejected and discomposed soul and charmed them into sweet and quiet thoughts A book by the frequent reading whereof and the assistance of that Spirit that seemed to inspire the Author the Reader may attain habits of peace and piety and all the gifts of the Holy Ghost and Heaven and by still reading still keep those sacred fires burning upon the Altar of so pure a heart as shall be freed from the anxieties of this world and fixt upon things that are above betwixt him and Dr. Donne there was a long and dear friendship make up by such a' Sympathy of inclinations that they coveted and joyed to be in each others Company and this happy friendship was still maintained by many sacred indearments of which that which followeth may be some Testimony To Mr. George Herbert with one of my Seales of the Anchor and Crest A sheafe of Snakes used heretofore to be my Seal the Crest of our poor Family Qui prius assuetus serpentum falce tabellas Signare haec nostrae Symbola parva domus Adscitus domui domini Adopted in Gods family and so My old Coat lost into new Arms I go The Crosse my seal in Baptism spread below Does by that form into an Anchor grow Crosses grow Anchors bear as thou should'st do Thy Crosse and that Crosse grows an Anchor too But he that makes our Crosses Anchors thus Is Christ who there is crucify'd for us Yet with this I may my first Serpents ho'd God gives new blessings and yet leaves the old The Serpent may as wise my pattern be My poyson as he feeds on dust that 's me And as he rounds the earth to murder sure He is my death but on the Cross my cure Crucifie nature then and then implore All grace froÌ„ him crucify'd there before When all is Crosse and that Crosse Anchor grown This seales a Catechisme not a seal alone Under that little seal great gifts I send Both workes and prayers pawnes and fruits of a friend Oh may that Saint that rides on our great Seal To you that beare his names large bounty deal I Donne In Sacram Anchoram Piscatoris GEO. HERBERT Quod Crux nequibat fixa Clavique additi Tenere ChristuÌ„ scilicet ne ascenderet Tuive Christum Although the Cross could not Christ here detain When nail'd unto 't but he ascends again Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still But onely whilst thou speak'st this Anchor will Nor canst thou be content unless thou to This certain Anchor add a seal and so The water and the earth both unto thee Do owe the Symbole of their certaintie Let the world reel we all ours stand sure This Holy Cable 's from all storms secure Love neere his death desir'd to end With kind expressions to his friend He writ when 's hand could write no more He gave his soul and so gave o're G. HERBERT I return to tell the Reader that besides these verses to his dear Mr. Herbert and that Hymne that I mentioned to be sung in the Quire of S. Pauls Church he did also shorten and beguile many sad hours by composing other sacred Ditties and he writ an Hymn on his death-bed which beares this title An Hymn to God my God in my sicknsse March 23. 1630. If these fall under the censure of a soul whose too much mixture with earth makes it unfit to judge of these high illuminations let him know that many holy devout men have thought the soul of Prudentius to be most refined when not many dayes before his death he charged it to present his God each morning and evening with a new and spirituall song justified by the example of King David and the good King Hezekâ—as who upon the renovation of his years paid his thankfull vowes to Almighty God in a royall Hymn which he concludes in these words The Lord was ready to save therefore I will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the dayes of my life in the temple of my God The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study for as he usually preached once a week if not oftner so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest till he had chosen out a new Text and that night cast his Sermon into a forme and his Text into divisions and next day betook himself to consult the Fathers and so commit his meditations to his memory which was excellent But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weary burthen of his weeks meditations and spent that day in visitation of friends and other diversions of his thoughts and would say that he gave both his body and mind that refreshment that he might be enabled to do the work of the day following not faintly but with courage and cheerfulness Nor was his age onely so industrious but in the most unsetled days of his youth his bed was not able to detain him beyond the hour of four in a morning and it was no common business that drew him out of his chamber till past ten All which time was employed in study and if it seem strange it may gain a belief by the visible fruits of his labours some of which remain as testimonies of what is here written for he left the resultance of 1400. Authors most of them abridged and analysed with his own hand he left also sixscore of his Sermons all written with his own hand also an exact and laborious Treatise concerning self-murther called Biathanatos wherein all the Lawes violated by that Act are diligently surveyed and judiciously censured a Treatise written in his younger dayes which alone might declare him then not onely perfect in the Civil and Canon Law but in many other such studies and arguments as enter not into the consideration of many that labour to be thought great Clerks and pretend to know all things Nor were these onely found in his study but all businesses that past of any publick consequence either in this or any of our neighbour-nations he abbreviated either in Latine or in the Language of that Nation and kept them by him for a memoriall So he did the copies of divers Letters and cases of Conscience that had concerned his friends with his observations and solutions of them and divers other businesses of importance all particularly and methodically digested by himself He did prepare to leave the world before life left him making his will when no faculty of his soul was damp'd or made defective by sickness or
of others many persons of Nobility and of eminency for Learning who did love and honour him in his life did shew it at his death by a voluntary and sad attendance of his body to the grave where nothing was so remarkable as a publick sorrow To which place of his Buriall some mournful Friend repaired and as Alexander the Great did to the grave of the famous Achilles so they strewed his with an abundance of curious and costly Flowers which course they who were never yet known continued morning and evening for many dayes not ceasing till the stones that were taken up in that Church to give his body admission into the cold earth now his bed of rest were again by the Masons art levelled and firmed as they had been formerly and his place of buriall undistinguishable to common view Nor was this all the Honour done to his reverend Ashes for as there be some persons that will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts himself a debter persons that dare trust God with their Charity and without a witness so there was by some gratefull unknowne friend that thought Dr. Donne's memory ought to be perpetuated an hundred Marks sent to his two faithfull Friends * and Executors towards the making of his Monument It was not for many years known by whom but after the death of Dr. Fox it was known that he sent it and he lived to see as lively a representation of his dead friend as Marble can express a Statue indeed so like Dr. Donne that as his friend Sir Henry Wotton hath expressed himself it seems to breath faintly and Posterity shall look upon it as a kind of artificiall Miracle He was of Stature moderately tall of a straight and equally-proportioned body to which all his words and actions gave an unexpressible addition of Comelinesse The melancholy and pleasant humor were in him so contempered that each gave advantage to the other and made his Company one of the delights of mankind His fancy was unimitably high equalled onely by his great wit both being made usefull by a commanding judgement His aspect was cheerfull and such as gave a silent testimony of a clear knowing soul and of a Conscience at peace with it self His melting eye shewed that he had a soft heart full of noble compassion of too brave a soul to offer injuries and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others He did much contemplate especially after he entred into his Sacred Calling the mercies of Almighty God the immortality of the soul and the joyes of Heaven and would often say Blessed be God that he is God divinely like himself He was by nature highly passionate but more apt to reluct at the excesses of it A great lover of the offices of humanity and of so mercifull a spirit that he never beheld the miseries of mankind without pity and relief He was earnest and unwearied in the search of knowledge with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied and imployed in a continued praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body which once was a Temple of the Holy Ghost and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust But I shall see it reinanimated J. W. To all my friends Sir H. Goodere SIR I Am not weary of writing it is the course but durable garment of my love but I am weary of wanting you I have a mind like those bodies which have hot Livers and cold stomachs or such a distemper as travelled me at Paris a Fever and dysentery in which that which is physick to one infirmity nourishes the other So I abhor nothing more then sadnesse except the ordinary remedy change of company I can allow my self to be Animal sociale appliable to my company but not gregale to herd my self in every troup It is not perfectly true which a very subtil yet very deep wit Averroes says that all mankind hath but one soul which informs and rules us all as one Intelligence doth the firmament and all the Stars in it as though a particular body were too little an organ for a soul to play upon And it is as imperfect which is taught by that religion which is most accommodate to sense I dare not say to reason though it have appearance of that too because none may doubt but that that religion is certainly best which is reasonablest That all mankind hath one protecting Angel all Christians one other all English one other all of one Corporation and every civill coagulation or society one other and every man one other Though both these opinions expresse a truth which is that mankind hath very strong bounds to cohabit and concurre in other then mountains and hills during his life First common and mutuall necessity of one another and therefore naturally in our defence and subventions we first fly to our selves next to that which is likest other men Then naturall and inborn charity beginning at home which perswades us to give that we may receive and legall charity which makes us also forgive Then an ingraffing in one another and growing together by a custome of society and last of all strict friendship in which band men were so presumed to be coupled that our Confessor King had a law that if a man be killed the murderer shall pay a summe felago suo which the interpreters call fide ligato comiti vitae All these bands I willingly receive for no man is less of himself then I nor any man enough of himself To be so is all one with omnipotence And it is well marked that in the holy Book wheresoever they have rendred Almighty the word is Self-sufficient I think sometimes that the having a family should remove me far from the curse of Vaesoli But in so strict obligation of Parent or Husband or Master and perchance it is so in the last degree of friendship where all are made one I am not the lesse alone for being in the midst of them Therefore this oleum laetitiae this balme of our lives this alacrity which dignifies even our service to God this gallant enemy of dejection and sadnesse for which and wickednesse the Italian allows but one word Triste And in full condemnation whereof it was prophesied of our blessed Saviour Non erit tristis in his conversation must be sought and preserved diligently And since it grows without us we must be sure to gather it from the right tree They which place this alacrity onely in a good conscience deal somewhat too roundly with us for when we ask the way they shew us the town afar off Will a Physician consulted for health and strength bid you have good sinews and equal temper It is true that this conscience is the resultance of all other particular actions it is our triumph and banquet in the haven but I would come towards that also as Mariners say with a merry wind Our nature is Meteorique we respect because