What leaves are they? impart the matter wholly.

Are holy leaves the Echo, then, of blisse?

ECHO. Holy.10

ECHO. Yes.

Then tell me, what is that supreme delight?

ECHO. Light.

Light to the minde: what shall the will enjoy?

15

ECHO. Joy.

But are there cares and businesse with the pleasure?

ECHO. Leisure.

Light, joy, and leisure; but shall they persever?

ECHO. Ever. 20

160.LOVE.

=durt, dirt

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

If I lack'd any thing.

'A guest,' I answer'd, worthy to be here:' Love said, 'You shall be he.'

'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, I cannot look on Thee.'

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, 'Who made the eyes but I?'

VOL. I.

EE

5

ΙΟ

Truth, Lord; but I have marr'd them; let my shame Go where it doth deserve.'

'And know you not,' says Love, Who bore the blame?' 'My dear, then I will serve.'

'You must sit down,' says Love, and taste My meat.' So I did sit and eat.

FINIS.

Glorie be to God on High,

and on earth

Peace, good will towards men.

I. VARIOUS READINGS

FROM THE WILLIAMS LIBRARY AND THE BODLEIAN MSS.

IN our Essay we give an account of the two Manuscripts whence the following Various Readings, with occasionally considerable additions-none hitherto printed-are drawn. We follow the order of the successive poems as given in the Ms.: but the number prefixed to each corresponds with that in our text, so that the given poem can readily be turned up thereby. It seemed expedient to adhere to the order of the мs. in giving its various readings, especially as at the same time it shows the sequence as well as the contents of the MS. Except in a few noticeable instances mere differences of orthography are passed over; but the opening stanza of 'The Church,' which is headed The Dedication' in the two мss., from the Williams мs., may be here given as a specimen of its orthography. The italicised letters show the differences as compared with 1632-3 texts and later:

THE DEDICATION.

Lord, my first fruits present themselves to thee:
Yet not myne neither, for from thee they came
And must returne: accept of them and mee,

And make rs strize who shall sing best thy name.
Turne their eyes hither, who shall make a gaine;
Theirs who shall hurt themselues or me, refrain.'

It will be observed that the pronoun is spelled 'me' and 'mee;' and so throughout arbitrarily, and also in the addition or nonaddition of a final e and y for i, and i for y. Those in the Bodleian мs. follow the Williams.

Whose twigs are pleasures, and they whip thee bare:

It spoils an Angel: robs thee of thy God.

How dare those eyes vpon a bible looke,

Much lesse towards God, whose Lust is all their book?

Abstaine or wedd: if thou canst not abstaine,

Yet Wedding marrs thy fortune, fast and pray:

If this seeme Monkish, think wch brings most paine,
Need or Incontinency: the first way,

If thou chuse brauely & rely on God,

He'ele make thy wife a blessing, not a rodd.

Let not each fancy make thee to detest

motion

A Virgin-bed, weh hath a speciall crowne

If it concurr wth vertue: doe thy best,

And God will show thee how to take the towne,
And winn thy selfe: Compare the ioyes, & so

If rottennes haue more, Lett heauen goe.

Drink not the third glass,' &c.

In the third stanza above motion' is originally written, and

fancy' placed over it (erased) by Herbert himself, who has also in second stanza 1. 2 corrected' mares' into 'marrs.'

St. v. ll. 5, 6:

The Drunkard forfeits man, & doth devest

All worldlie right saue what hee hath by Beast.'

St. vi. 1. 2, 'his rains:' Herbert erases his,' and writes above the.'

St. vi. 1. 3, 'kinds' for 'kinde'-which I have adopted.
Ib. 11. 5, 6:

'Hee that has ill, & can haue no good

Because no knowledg, is not earth, but mudd.'

St. vii. 1. 4, A paine in that:'of' is originally written,

andin' put above it (erased) by Herbert.

St. x. 1. 3, 'cheating' for avarice.'

xiv. 1. 3. If those bee all thy day. . . .'

xv. 1. 3, 'chawes' for 'jawes.' See Bodleian Ms. readings

at close of these Williams Ms. readings.

St. xv. 1. 4, employment' for employments--which I have adopted.

After xv. is this stanza, not hitherto printed:

'If thou art nothing, think what thou wouldst bee:
Hee that desires is more then halfe ye way:
But if thou coole, then take some shame to thee,
Desire and shame will make thy labour play.
This is Earth's language, for if heauen come in
Thou hast run all thy race ere thou beginn.'

St. xvi. 1. 1, 0 England, full of all sinn, most...

...'

xx. 1. 3,

sowre' for 'stowre.' See Notes and Illustra

tions in the place. I adopt 'sowre.'

St. xx. 1. 6, And though hee bee a ship, is his owne shelf:' adopted. Hitherto What nature made a ship, he makes a

'Yett in thy pursing still thy self distrust,
Least gaining gaine on thee, & fill thy hart:
Wch if it cleaue to coine, one common rust
Will canker both, yett thou alone shallt smart:

One common waight will press downe both, yet so
As that thy self alone to hell shall goe.'

St. xxx. 1. 4, clothes' for 'cloth'-which I adopt.

Ib. 1. 5. See Notes and Illustrations.

St. xxxiv. 1. 2, Learn this it hath' originally Herbert

erases it,' and writes

St. xxxviii. 1. 6,

as=

xxxix. 1. 4,

xliii. 1. 1,

that.'

cleanly, is fame's interest.'

thou thy mirth inhance.'

respectfull' for 'respective.'

xlv. 1. 1, base menace' for 'basenesse is.'

xlvi. 1. 5, 'art' for 'way'-which I adopt; albeit 'way,' the road of life which friends travel together, gives a good meaning. But art' is finer and deeper, and suggests the culture and consideration needed.

St. xlvii. 1. 3, 'nor:' originally written not,' corrected by Herbert into 'nor.'

St. xlix. 1. 4, 'at' for 'in'-which I adopt. It must be borne in mind, however, that Herbert may have been looking to symmetry in his in.' We have by . . . . . by' in line above, and here in . . . . in.' Still 'at' is preferable.

St. liii. 11. 5, 6:

'that Bow doth hitt

No more then passion, when shee talkes of it.'

St. lv. 1. 2, 'Need and bee glad, and wish thy presence still.'

, lviii. ll. 5, 6. In 1. 5 originally, 'I give those for gone:' Herbert erases 'those,' and inserts it before 'I give.' Line 6 reads: