John Donne - Delphi Poets Series (61 page)

VIII. MEDITATION

STILL when we return to that
Meditation
, that
Man
is a
World
, we find new
discoveries
. Let him be a
world
, and him self will be the
land
, and
misery
the
sea
. His misery (for misery is his, his own; of the happinesses of this world hee is but
Tenant
, but of misery the
Free-holder;
of happines he is but the
farmer
, but the
usufructuary
, but of misery, the
Lord
, the
proprietary
) his misery, as the
sea
, swells above all the hilles, and reaches to the remotest parts of this
earth
,
Man;
who of himselfe is but
dust
, and coagulated and kneaded into earth, by
teares;
his
matter
is
earth
, his
forme
,
misery
. In this
world
, that is
Mankinde
, the highest ground, the eminentest
hils
, are
Kings;
and have they line, and lead enough to fadome this
sea
, and say, My misery is but this deepe? Scarce any misery equal to
sicknesse;
and they are subject to that equally, with their lowest subject. A glasse is not the lesse brittle, because a
Kings
face is represented in it; nor a King the lesse brittle, because
God
is represented in him. They have
Phisicians
continually about them, and therfore
sicknesses
, or the worst of sicknesses, continuall feare of it. Are they
gods?
He that calld them so, cannot flatter. They are
Gods
, but
sicke gods;
and
God
is presented to us under many human affections, as far as
infirmities;
God is called
Angry
, and
Sorry
, and
Weary
, and
Heavy;
but never a
sicke God:
for then hee might
die
like men, as our
gods
do. The worst that they could say in reproch, and scorne of the
gods
of the
Heathen
, was, that perchance they were
asleepe;
but Gods that are so sicke, as that they cannot sleepe, are in an infirmer condition. A
God,
and need a Phisician? A
Jupiter
and need an
Æsculapius?
that must have
Rheubarbe
to purge his
choller
, lest he be too angry, and
Agarick
to purge his
flegme
, lest he be too drowsie; that as
Tertullian
saies of the
Ægyptian gods,
plants
and
herbes
,
That God was beholden to Man, for growing in his Garden
, so wee must say of these gods,
Their eternity, (an eternity
of three score and ten yeares) is in the
Apothecaryes
shop, and not in the
Metaphoricall Deity
. But their
Deitye
is better expressed in their
humility
, than in their
heighth;
when abounding and overflowing, as
God
, in means of doing good, they descend, as
God
, to a communication of their abundances with men, according to their necessities, then they are
Gods
. No man is well, that understands not, that values not his being well; that hath not a cheerefulnesse, and a joy in it; and whosoever hath this
Joy
, hath a desire to communicate, to propagate that, which occasions his happinesse, and his
Joy
, to others; for every man loves witnesses of his happinesse; and the best witnesses, are experimentall witnesses; they who have tasted of that in themselves, which makes us happie: It consummates therefore, it perfits the happinesse of
Kings
, to confer, to transfer, honor, and riches, and (as they can) health, upon those that need them.

IX. MEDITATION

THEY have seene me, and heard mee, arraign’d mee in these fetters, and receiv’d the
evidence;
I have cut up mine
Anatomy
, dissected my selfe, and they are gon to
read
upon me. O how manifold, and perplexed a thing, nay, how wanton and various a thing is
ruine
and
destruction!
God presented to
David
three kinds,
War, Famine
, and
Pestilence; Satan
left out these, and brought in,
fires from heaven
, and
windes from the wilderness
. [As] if there were no
ruine
but
sickness
wee see, the Masters of that
Art
, can scarce
number
, nor
name
all sicknesses; every thing that
disorders
a faculty, and the function of that is a sicknesse: The names wil not serve them which are given from the
place affected
, the
Plurisie
is so; nor from the
effect
which it works, the
falling sicknes
is so; they cannot have names enow, from
what it does
, nor
where it is
, but they must extort names from what
it is like
, what it
resembles
, and but in some one thing, or els they would lack names; for the
Wolf
, and the
Canker
, and the
Polypus
are so; and that question,
whether there be more names or things
, is as perplexd in sicknesses, as in any thing else; except it be easily resolvd upon that side, that there are more
sicknesses
than
names
. If
ruine
were reduc’d to that one way, that Man could perish noway but by
sickness
yet his danger were infinit; and if
sicknes
were reduc’d to that one way, that there were no
sicknes
but a
fever
, yet the way were infinite still; for it would overrode, and oppress any naturall, disorder and discompose any artificiall
Memory
, to deliver the
names
of severall
fevers;
how intricate a worke then have they, who are gone to
consult,
which of these
sicknesses
mine is, and then which of these
fevers
, and then what it would do, and then how it may be countermand. But even in
ill
, it is a degree of
good
, when the
evil
wil admit
consultation
. In many
diseases
, that which is but an
accident
, but a
symptom
of the main
disease
, is so violent, that the
Phisician
must attend the cure of that, though hee pretermit (so far as to intermit) the cure of the
disease
it self. Is it not so in
States
too? somtimes the insolency of those that are great, put[s] the people into
commotions;
the great disease, and the reatest danger to the
Head,
is the
insolency of the great ones;
and yet, they execute
Martial law
, they come to present executions upon the people, whose commotion was indeed but a
symptom
, but an
accident
of the maine
disease;
but this
sympton
, grown so violent, would allow no, time for a
consultation
. Is it not so in the accidents of the
diseases
of our
mind
too? Is it not evidently so in our
affections
, in our
passions?
If a
cholerick
man be ready to strike, must I goe about to puree his
choler
, or to breake the blow? But where there is room for
consultation
, things are not desperate. They
consult;
so there is nothing
rashly, inconsideratly
done; and then they
prescribe
, they
write
, so there is nothing
covertly, disguisedly, unavowedly
done. In
bodily diseases
it is not alwaies so; sometimes, as soon as the
Phisicians
foote is in the
chamber
, his
knife
is in the patients
arme;
the disease would not allow a
minutes
forbearing of
blood
, nor
prescribing
of other remedies. In States and matter of government it is so too; they are somtimes surprizd with such
accidents
, as that the
Magistrat
asks not what may be done by
law
, but does that, which must
necessarily
be don in that case. But it is a degree of
good
, in
evill
, a degree that carries hope and comfort in it, when we may have recourse to that which is
written
, and that the proceedings may be apert, and ingenuous, and candid, and avowable, for that gives satisfaction, and acquiescence. They who have received my
Anatomy
of my selfe,
consult
, and end their
consultation
in
prescribing
, and in prescribing
Phisick
; proper and convenient remedy: for if they should come in again, and chide mee, for some disorder, that had occasioned, and inducd, or that had hastned and exalted this
sickness
or if they should begin to write now rules for my
dyet
, and
exercise
when I were well, this were to
antidate
, or to
postdate
their
Consultation
, not to give
Phisicke
. It were rather a vexation, than a reliefe, to tell a condemnd prisoner, you might have liv’d if you had done this; and if you can get pardon, you shal do wel, to take this, or this course hereafter. I am glad they know (I have hid nothing from them) glad they consult, (they hide nothing from one another) glad they write (they hide nothing from the world) glad that they write and prescribe
Phisick
, that there are
remedies
for the present case.

X. MEDITATION

THIS is
Natures nest of Boxes;
The Heavens containe the
Earth
, the
Earth
,
Cities, Cities, Men
. And all these are
Concentrique;
the common center to them all, is decay, ruine; only that is Eccentrique, which was never made; only that place, or garment rather, which we can
imagine
, but not
demonstrate
, That light, which is the very emanation of the light of
God
, in which the
Saints
shall dwell, with which the Saints shall .be appareld, only that bends not to this
Center
, to
Ruine;
that which was not made of
Nothing
, is not threatned with this annihilation. All other things are; even
Angels
, even our
soules;
they move upon the same
poles
, they bend to the same
Center;
and if they were not made immortall by
preservation
, their
Nature
could not keep them from sinking to this
center, Annihilation
. In all these (the
frame of the heavens
, the
States upon earth
, and
Men in
them
, comprehend all) Those are the greatest mischifs, which are least discerned, the most insensible in their
wayes
come to bee the most sensible in their
ends
. The
Heavens
have had their
Dropsie
, they drownd the world, and they shall have their
Fever
, and burn the world. Of the
dropsie
, the flood, the world had a foreknowledge yeares before it came; and so some made provision against it, and were saved; the
fever
shall break out in an instant, and consume all; The
dropsie
did no harm to the
heavens
, from whence it fell, it did not put out those
lights
, it did not quench those
heates;
but the
fever
, the fire shall burne the
furnace
it selfe, annihilate those
heavens
, that breath it out; Though the
Dog-Starre
have a pestilent breath, an infectious exhalation, yet because we know when it wil rise, we clothe our selves, and wee diet our selves, and we shadow our selves to a sufficient prevention; but
Comets
and
blazing starres
, whose effects, or significations no man can interrupt or frustrate no man foresaw: no
Almanack
tells us, when a
blazing starre
will break out, the matter is carried up in secret; no
Astrologer
tels us when the effects will be accomplished, for thats a secret of a higher spheare, than the other; and that which is most
secret
, is most
dangerous
. It is so also here in the
societies
of men, in
States
, and
Commonwealths
. Twentie
rebellious drums
make not so dangerous a noise, as a few
whisperers
, and secret plotters in corners. The
Canon
doth not so much hurt against a wal, as a
Myne
under the wall; nor a thousand enemies that threaten, so much as a few that take an
oath
to say
nothing
. God knew many heavy sins of the people, in the wildernes and after, but still he charges them with that one, with
Murmuring, murmuring
in their
hearts
, secret disobediences, secret repugnances against his declar’d wil; and these are the most deadly, the most pernicious. And it is so too, with the
diseases
of the
body;
and that is my case. The
pulse
, the
urine
, the
sweat
, all have sworn to say nothing, to give no
Indication
, of any dangerous
sicknesse
. My forces are not enfeebled, I find no decay in my strength; my provisions are not cut off, I find no abhorring in mine appetite; my counsels are not corrupted or infatuated, I find no false apprehensions, to work upon mine understanding; and yet they see, that invisibly, and I feele, that insensibly the
disease
prevailes. The
disease
hath established a
Kingdome
, an
Empire
in mee, and will have certaine
Arcana Imperii
,
secrets of
State
, by which it will proceed, and not be bound to
declare
them. But yet against those secret conspiracies in the State, the
Magistrate
hath the
rack
; and against the insensible diseases,
Phisicians
have their
examiners;
and those these employ now.