Dr. Donne, than in that admirable character of him drawn up by Mr. Isaac Walton, which I shall present to the reader entire as I find it. He was of stature moderately tall, of a straight and well-proportioned body; to which all his words and actions gave an unexpressible addition of comeliness. The melancholy and pleasant humor were in him so contempered that each gave advantage to the other, and made his company one of the delights of mankind. His fancy was unimitably high, equalled only by his great wit; both being made useful by a commanding judgment. His aspect was cheerful, and such as gave a silent testimony of a clear knowing soul, and of a conscience at peace with itself. His melting eye showed that he had a soft heart, full of noble compassion; of too brave a soul to offer injuries, and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others. He did much contemplate (especially after he had entered into his sacred calling) the mercies of Almighty God, the immortality of the soul, and the joys of heaven; and would often say, in a kind of sacred ecstasy, Blessed be God, that he is God only, and divinely like himself. He was by nature highly passionate, but more apt to reluct at the excesses of it; a great lover of the offices of humanity, and of so merciful a spirit that he never beheld the miseries of mankind without pity and relief. He was earnest and unwearied in the search of Knowledge; with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied, and employed in a continual praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body; that body which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust. But I shall see it reanimated. I. W. EPISTLES TO SEVERAL PERSONAGES. THE STORM. TO MR. CHRISTOPHER BROOK, FROM THE ISLAND VOYAGE WITH THE EARL OF ESSEX. THOU, which art I ('tis nothing to be so) Thou, which art still thyself, by this shalt know Part of our passage; and a hand, or eye, By Hilliard* drawn, is worth a history By a worse painter made; and (without pride) Honour and misery have one face, one way,) *Nicholas Hilliard, born at Exeter, 1547, died 1619. He imitated Holbein. His portrait of Mary Queen of Scots was much applauded, and Queen Elizabeth sat to him several times. † Var. gainsay. Such strong resistance, that itself it threw them then. Then like two mighty kings which, dwelling far Asunder, meet against a third to war, The south and west winds joined, and, as they blew, Waves like a rolling trench before them threw. Sooner than you read this line, did the gale, Like shot not feared till felt, our sails assail, And what at first was called a gust, the same Hath now a storm's, anon a tempest's name. Jonas, I pity thee, and curse those men, [then: Who, when the storm raged most, did wake thee Sleep is pain's easiest salve, and doth fulfil All offices of death, except to kill. But when I waked, I saw that I saw not. I and the Sun, which should teach me, 'had forgot *Farr. Had the world lasted, that it had been day. Thousands our noises were, yet we amongst all There note they the ship's sicknesses, the mast Seas into seas thrown, we suck in again: |