John Donne - Delphi Poets Series (65 page)

XX. MEDITATION

THOUGH counsel seeme rather to consist of
spirituall parts
, than
action
, yet
action
is the
spirit
and the
soule
of
counsell
.
Counsels
are not alwaies determined in
Resolutions;
wee cannot alwaies say,
this was concluded; actions
are alwaies determined in
effects;
wee can say
this was done
. Then have
Lawes
their
reverence
, and their
majestie
, when we see the
Judge
upon the
Bench
executing them. Then have
counsels of warre
their
impressions
, and their
operations
, when we see the
seale
of an
Armie
set to them. It was an ancient way of celebrating the
memorie
of such as deserved well of the
State
, to afford them that kinde of
statuarie representation
, which was then called
Hermes;
which was,
the head and
shoulders of a man, standing upon a Cube
, but those
shoulders
without
armes
and
hands
. All together it figured a
constant supporter of the State
, by his
counsell:
But in this
Hieroglyphique
, which they made without
hands
, they passe their consideration no farther, but that the
Counsellor
should bee without
hands
, so farre as
not to reach out his hand to forraigne tentations of bribes, in matters of Counsell
, and that it was not necessary, that the
head
should employ
his owne hand;
that
the same men
should serve in the
execution
, which assisted in the
Counsell;
but that there should not belong
hands
to every
head, action
to every
counsell
, was never intended, so much as in
figure
, and
representation
. For, as
Matrimonie
is scarce to bee called
Matrimonie
, where there is a
resolution
against the
fruits of
matrimonie
, against the having of
Children
, so
counsels
are not
counsels
, but illusions, where there is from the beginning no purpose to execute the determinations of those
counsels
. The
arts
and
sciences
are most properly referred to the
head;
that is their proper
Element
and
Spheare;
but yet the
art
of
proving, Logique
, and the art of
perswading, Rhetorique
, are deduced to the
hand
, and
that
expressed by a
hand
contracted into a
fist
, and
this
by a
hand
enlarged, and expanded; and evermore the
power of man
, and the
power of God
himselfe is expressed so,
All things
are in his hand;
neither is
God
so often presented to us, by names that carry our consideration upon
counsell
, as upon
execution
of
counsell;
he is oftener called the
Lord of Hosts
, than by all other
names
, that may be referred to the other signification. Hereby therefore wee take into our
meditation
, the slipperie condition of
man
, whose
happinesse
, in any kinde, the defect of
any one thing
, conducing to that
happinesse
, may
ruine;
but it must have
all the peeces
to make it up. Without
counsell
, I had not got thus farre; without
action
and
practise
, I should goe no farther towards
health
. But what is the present necessary action? purging: A
withdrawing
, a violating of
Nature, a farther weakening: O deare price
, and
O
strange way
of
addition
, to doe it by
substraction;
of
restoring
Nature,
to violate
Nature;
of
providing strength
, by
increasing weaknesses!
Was I not
sicke
before? And is it a
question of comfort
to be asked now, Did
your Physicke make you
sicke?
Was that it that my
Physicke
promised, to make me
sicke?
This is another
step
, upon which we may stand, and see farther into the
miserie of man
, the
time
, the
season
of his
Miserie;
It must bee done
now: O over-cunning, over-watchfull,
overdiligent
, and
over-sociable misery of man
, that seldome comes alone, but then when it may accompanie other
miseries
, and so put one another into the higher
exaltation
, and better
heart!
I am ground even to an
attenuation
, and must proceed to
evacuation
, all waies to exinanition and annihilation. 

XXI. MEDITATION

IF MAN had beene left
alone
in this
world
, at first, shall I thinke, that he would not have
fallen?
If there had beene no
Woman
, would not man have served, to have beene his own
Tempter?
When I see him now, subject to infinite weaknesses, fall into
infinite sinne
, without any
forraine tentations
, shall I thinke, hee would have had
none
, if hee had beene
alone? God
saw that Man needed a
Helper
, if hee should bee well; but to make
Woman
ill, the
Devill
saw, that there needed no
third
. When God, and
wee
were
alone
, in
Adam
, that was not enough; when the
Devill
and wee were
alone
, in
Eve
, it was enough. O what a
Giant
is
Man
, when he fights against himselfe, and what a
Dwarfe
when hee
needs
, or
exercises
his owne assistance for himselfel I cannot
rise
out of my bed, till the
Physitian enable
mee, nay I cannot tel, that I am able to rise, till
hee
tell me so. I
doe
nothing, I
know
nothing of myselfe: how little, and how impotent a peece of the
world
, is any
Man
alone! and how much lesse a peece of
himselfe
is
that Man!
So little, as that when it falls out, (as it falls out in some cases) that more
misery
, and more
oppression
, would be an
ease
to a
man
, he cannot give himselfe that
miserable
addition
, of
more misery;
a
man
that is
pressed to death
, and might be eased by more
weights
, cannot lay those more
weights
upon himselfe: Hee can sinne
alone
, and suffer
alone
, but not
repent
, not bee
absolved
, without
another
. Another tels mee,
I may rise;
and
I doe
so. But is every
raising a preferment?
or is every present
Preferment a station?
I am readier to fall to the
Earth
, now I am up, than I was when I
lay
in the bed: O
perverse way
,
irregular motion of Man;
even
rising
it selfe is the way to
Ruine
. How many
men
are raised, and then doe not
fill
the place they are raised to? No
corner
of any place can bee
empty;
there can be no
vacuity;
If that
Man
doe not fill the place,
other men
will; complaints of his
insufficiency
will
fill
it; Nay, such an abhorring is there in
Nature
, of
vacuity
, that if there be but an
imagination
of not
filling
, in any
man
, that which is but
imagination
neither, will
fill
it, that is
rumor
and
voice
, and it will be
given out
, (upon no ground, but
Imagination
, and no man knowes
whose
imagination) that hee is
corrupt
in his place, or
insufficient
in his place, and another prepared to
succeed
him in his place. A man
rises
, sometimes, and
stands
not, because hee doth not, or is not beleeved to fill his place; and sometimes he
stands
not, because hee
overfills
his place: Hee may bring so much
vertue
, so much
Justice
, so much
integrity
to the place, as shall
spoile
the place,
burthen
the place; his
integrity
may bee a
Libell
upon his
Predecessor
, and cast an
infamy
upon him, and a
burthen
upon his
successor
, to proceede by
example
, and to bring the place itselfe to an
under-value
, and the
market
to an
uncertainty
. I am up, and I seeme to
stand
, and I goe
round;
and I am a new
Argument
of the new
Philosophie
, That the
Earth
moves round; why may I not beleeve, that the
whole earth
moves in a
round motion
, though that seeme to mee to
stand
, when as I seeme to
stand
to my Company, and yet am carried, in a giddy, and
circular motion
, as I
stand?
Man hath no
center
but
misery; there
and onely
there
, hee is
fixt
, and sure to finde himselfe. How little soever hee bee
raised
, he
moves
, and moves in a
circle
, giddily; and as in the
Heavens
, there are but a few
Circles
, that goe about the whole world, but many
Epicircles
, and other lesser
Circles
, but yet
Circles
, so of those men, which are
raised
, and put into
Circles
, few of them move from
place
to
place
, and passe through many and beneficiall places, but fall into little
Circles
, and, within a step or two, are at their
end
, and not so well, as they were in the
Center
, from which they were
raised
. Every thing serves to
exemplifies
to
illustrate
mans
misery
. But I need goe no farther, than
my selfe:
for a long time, I was not able to
rise;
At last, I must bee
raised
by others; and now I am
up
, I am ready to sinke
lower
than before.

XXII. MEDITATION

HOW
ruinous
a
farme
hath man taken, in taking
himselfe!
How ready is the
house
every day to fall downe, and how is all the
ground
overspread with
weeds
,
all
the body with
diseases!
where not onely every
turfe
, but every
stone
, beares
weeds;
not onely every
muscle
of the
flesh
, but every
bone
of the
body
, hath some
infirmitie;
every little
flint
upon the
face
of this
soile
, hath some
infectious
weede
, every
tooth
in our
head
, such a paine as a
constant man
is afraid of, and yet
ashamed
of that
feare
, of that sense of the paine. How
deare
, and how
often
a
rent
doth Man pay for this
farme!
hee paies
twice a day
, in
double meales
, and how little time he hath to
raise his rent!
How many
holy daies
to call him from his labour! Every day is
halfe-holy day
, halfe spent in
sleepe
. What
repararations
, and
subsidies
, and
contributions
he is put to, besides his
rent!
What
medicines
, besides his
diet!
and what
Inmates
he is
faine
to take in, besides his owne
families
what
infectious diseases
, from
other men! Adam
might have had
Paradise
for
dressing
and
keeping
it; and
then
his
rent
was not
improved
to such a
labour
, as would have made his
brow sweat
; and yet he gave it over; how farre greater a
rent
doe wee pay for this farme, this
body
, who pay
our selves
, who pay the
farme it
selfe
, and cannot
live
upon it! Neither is our
labour
at an end, when wee have cut downe some
weed
, as soone as it sprung up, corrected some
violent
and dangerous
accident
of a
disease
, which would have destroied
speedily;
nor when wee have pulled up that
weed
, from the very
root
, recovered
entirely
and
soundly
, from that
particular disease;
but the whole
ground
is of an
ill nature
, the whole soile
ill
disposed;
there are inclinations, there is a propensenesse to
diseases
in the
body
, out of which without any other
disorder
,
diseases
will grow, and so wee are put to a continuall labour upon this
farme
, to a continuall studie of the whole
complexion
and
constitution
of our
body
. In the
distempers
and
diseases
of
soiles, sourenesse,
drinesse, weeping
, any kinde of
barrennesse
, the
remedy
and the
physicke
, is, for a great part, sometimes in
themselves;
sometime[s] the very
situation
releeves them; the
hanger
of a
hill
, will purge and vent his owne
malignant moisture;
and the burning of the upper
turfe
of some ground (as
health
from
cauterizing
) puts a
new
and a
vigorous youth
into that
soile
, and there rises a kinde of
Phœnix
out of the
ashes
, a
fruitfulnesse
out of that which was
barren
before, and
by that
, which is the barrennest of all,
ashes
. And where the
ground
cannot give itselfe
Physicke
, yet it receives
Physicke
from other grounds, from other soiles, which are not the worse, for having contributed that helpe to them, from
Marle
in other
hils
, or from
slimie sand
in other
shoares: grounds
helpe
themselves
, or hurt not other
grounds
, from whence they receive
helpe
. But I have taken a
farme
at this
hard rent
, and upon those
heavie covenants
, that it can afford it selfe no
helpe;
(no part of my
body
, if it were cut off, would
cure
another part; in some cases it might
preserve
a sound part, but in no case
recover
an infected) and, if my
body
may have any
Physicke
, any
Medicine
from another
body
, one
Man
from the flesh of another
Man
(as by Mummy, or any such
composition
,) it must bee from a man that is dead, and not, as in other
soiles
, which are never the worse for contributing their
Marle
, or their fat slime to my
ground
. There is nothing in the same
man
, to helpe
man
, nothing in
mankind
to helpe
one another
(in this sort, by way of
Physicke
) but that hee who
ministers
the
helpe
, is in as ill case, as he that
receives
it would have beene, if he had not had it; for hee from whose
body
the
Physicke
comes, is
dead
. When therefore I tooke this
farme
, undertooke this body, I undertooke to
draine
, not a marish, but a
moat
, where there was, not water
mingled
to offend, but all was
water;
I undertooke to
perfume dung
, where no one part, but all was equally
unsavory;
I undertooke to make such a thing
wholsome
, as was not
poison
by any manifest quality,
intense heat
, or
cold
, but
poison
in the
whole substance
, and in the
specifique forme
of it. To cure the
sharpe accidents
of
diseases
, is a great worke; to cure the
disease it selfe
is a greater; but to cure the
body
, the
root
, the
occasion
of
diseases
, is a worke reserved for the great Phisitian, which he doth never any other way, but by
glorifying
these
bodies
in the next world.