nothing can be added, especially by me; I will sustain myself with the honour of being Your servant extraordinary, And without place, JOHN DONNE. London, July 23, 1607. To the worthiest Lady, MRS. MAGDALEN HERBERT. Madam, As we must die before we can have full glory and happiness, so before I can have this degree of it, as to see you by a letter, I must almost die, that is, come to London, to plaguy London; a place full of danger, and vanity, and vice, though the court be gone. And such it will be, till your return redeem it. Not that the greatest virtue in the world, which is you, can be such a marshal, as to defeat, or disperse all the vice of this place; but as higher bodies remove, or contract themselves when better come, so at your return we shall have one door open to innocence. Yet, madam, you are not such an Ireland, as produceth neither ill, nor good; no spiders, nor nightingales, which is a rare degree of perfection; but you have found and practised that experiment, that even nature, out of her detesting of emptiness, if we will make that our work, to remove bad, will fill us with good things. To abstain from it, was therefore but the childhood, and minority of your soul, which had been long exercised since, in your manlier active part, of doing good. Of which since I have been a witness and subject, not to tell you sometimes, that by your influence and example I have attained to such a step of goodness, as to be thankful, were both to accuse your power and judgment of impotency and infirmity. Your ladyship's in all services, August 2, 1607. On MR. GEORGE HERBERT'S Book, intitled The Temple of Sacred Poems, sent to a Gentlewoman. Know you, fair, on what you look ? Expecting fire from your eyes, When your hands untie these strings, To wait upon each morning sigh; Of your well-perfumed prayer. These white plumes of his he'll lend you, To the Right Honourable the Lady ANNE, Countess of PEMBROKE and MONTAGUE', at Court. Madam, What a trouble hath your goodness brought on you, by admitting our poor services? Now they creep in a vessel of metheglin, and still they will be presenting or wishing to see if at length they may find out something not unworthy of those hands at which they aim. In the mean time a priest's blessing, though it be none of the courtstile, yet doubtless madam, can do you no hurt. Wherefore the Lord make good the blessing of 5 Montague.] An error for Montgomery; Anne Clifford, sole daughter and heir to George, earl of Cumberland, widow of Richard, earl of Dorset, and afterwards wife of Philip, earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. "She was the oldest, but the most independent courtier in the kingdom: had known and admired queen Elizabeth: had refused what she deemed an iniquitous award of king James; rebuilt her dismantled castles in defiance of Cromwell; and repelled, with disdain, the interposition of a profligate minister under Charles the Second."-Whitaker's Craven. your mother upon you, and cause all her wishes, diligence, prayers and tears, to bud, blow and bear fruit in your soul, to his glory, your own good, and the great joy of Dec. 10, 1631, Bemerton. Madam, Your most faithful servant GEORGE HERBERT. Madam, your poor colony of servants present their humble duties. |