But as cold hands are angrie with the fire,
And mend it still, -

So I do lay the want of my desire
Not on my siunes, or coldnesse, but Thy will.

5

10

Yet heare, O God, onely for His bloud's sake,
Which pleads for me:
For though sinnes plead too, yet, like stones,'
they make

His bloud's sweet current much more loud to be.

38. THE CHURCH FLOORE.

ARK you the floore? that square and speckled stone,

Which looks so firm and strong,

IS PATIENCE:

And th' other black and grave, wherewith each one Is checker'd all along,

HUMILITIE:

The gentle rising, which on either hand

Leads to the quire above,

IS CONFIDENCE:

5

But the sweet cement, which in one sure band 10 Ties the whole frame, is LOVE

And CHARITIE.

1 stones in a stream check and cause the stream to roar louder or murmur musically.

Hither sometimes Sinne steals, and staing
The marble's neat1 and curious veins;
But all is cleansed when the marble weeps.

Sometimes Death, puffing at the doore,
Blows all the dust about the floore;

5

But while he thinks to spoil the room, he sweeps.

Blest be the Architect Whose art

Could build so strong in a weak heart!

39. ¶ THE WINDOWS.

ORD, how can man preach Thy eternall word?

He is a brittle crazie glasse;

Yet in Thy temple Thou dost him
afford

This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window through Thy grace.

5

But when Thou dost anneal 2 in glasse Thy storie, Making Thy life to shine within

The holy preachers, then the light and glorie
More rev'rend grows, and more doth win;
Which else shows watrish, bleak, and thin. 10
Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one

When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and aw; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the eare, not conscience, ring.

15

annealing is heating glass, that the colours may be fixed.

WILLMOTT.

40. T TRINITIE SUNDAY.

ORD, Who hast form'd me out of mud,
And hast redeem'd me through
Thy bloud,

And sanctifi'd me to do good,

Purge all my sinnes done heretofore;
For I confesse my heavie score,
And I will strive to sinne no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charitie,
That I may runne, rise, rest with Thee.

41. T CONTENT.

EACE, mutt'ring thoughts, and do not grudge to keep

Within the walls of your own breast: Who cannot on his own bed sweetly sleep,

Can on another's hardly rest.

Gad not abroad at ev'ry quest1 and call
Of an untrainèd hope or passion;

To court each place or fortune that doth fall
Is wantonnesse in contemplation.

5

Search, or act of searching. Milton uses the word in the "Arcades"

"Fair silver-buskin'd Nymphs as great and good:

I know this quest of yours."

WILLMOTT. Rather asking, seeking, i. e. questing or requesting by another-here by each untrained hope or passion-of the help or companionship of such person.

CONTENT.

Mark how the fire in flint doth quiet lie,
Content and warm t' it self alone;
But when it would appeare to others' eye,
Without a knock it never shone.

93

IO

Give me the pliant minde, whose gentle measuro Complies and suits with all estates;

Which can let loose to a crown,' and yet with pleasure

Take up within a cloister's gates.

15

This soul doth span the world, and hang content
From either pole unto the centre ;
Where in each room of the well-furnisht tent

He lies warm, and without adventure.
The brags of life are but a nine-dayes wonder;
And after death the fumes that spring
From private bodies make as big a thunder
As those which rise from a huge king.

Onely thy chronicle is lost: and yet

Better by worms be all once spent

Then to have hellish moths still gnaw and fret Thy name in books which may not rent.

20

25

When all thy deeds, whose brunt thou feel'st alone, Are chaw'd by others' pens and tongue, 30

And as their wit is, their digestion,

Thy nourisht fame is weak or strong,

Then cease discoursing, soul; till thine own ground; Do not thyself or friends impórtune:

He that by seeking hath himself once found, 35 Hath ever found a happie fortune.

Probably a reference to Charles V., whose story has been recently effectively told by Sir William S. Maxwell, of Keir. Though the primary sense of the perhaps intentionally ambiguous phrase, "let loose," is different from the historical reference, and refers to the

letting loose"-according to the technical phrase in ar hery-of un arrow (at any given mark), that is, which can aim at a crown, yet takes up with a cloister. Cf. use of loose "in "The Church Porch," vii. 5 and note.

42. THE QUIDDITIE.1

M

Y God, a verse is not a crown,
No point of honour, or gay suit,
No hawk, or banquet, or renown,
Nor a good sword, nor yet a lute.

It cannot vault, or dance, or play,
It never was in France or Spain,
Nor can it entertain the day
With a great stable or demain.

It is no office, art, or news,
Nor the Exchange, or busie hall:
But it is that which, while I use,

I am with Thee: and "MOST TAKE ALL.” 2

43. ¶ HUMILITIE.

SAW the Vertues sitting hand in hand
In sev'rall ranks upon an azure throne,
Where all the beasts and fowls, by
their command,

Presented tokens of submission :

Humilitie, who sat the lowest there,

To execute their call,

When by the beasts the presents tendred were, Gave them about to all.

5

1 Originally a school term for the nature or essence of a thing; but often used as a synonyme for a quip or quirk.-WILLMOTT. See the Memoir, as before, for various readings.

This is written large in the Williams MS. It has the sound of some proverb; but I do not see its application here. Sone misprint "must." Is the saying founded on St. Mark iv. 25 ? and Herbert's meaning: "Do Thou, Who art Most' [and Who already possesseth the most of me] take all of me"?