Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
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A20619
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An anatomy of the vvorld Wherein, by occasion of the vntimely death of Mistris Elizabeth Drury the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented.
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Donne, John, 1572-1631.
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1611
(1611)
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STC 7022; ESTC S105367
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10,269
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32
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But yet their various and perplexed course Obseru'd in diuers ages doth enforce Men to finde out so many Eccentrique parts Such diuers downe-right lines such ouerthwarts As disproportion that pure forme It teares The Firmament in eight and fortie sheeres And in those constellations then arise New starres and old do vanish from our eyes As though heau'n suffred earth-quakes peace or war When new Towres rise and olde demolish'd are They haue empayld within a Zodiake The free-borne Sunne and keepe twelue signes awake To watch his steps the Goat and Crabbe controule And fright him backe who els to eyther Pole Did not these Tropiques fetter him might runne For his course is not round nor can the Sunne Perfit a Circle or maintaine his way One inche direct but where he rose to day He comes no more but with a cousening line Steales by that point and so is Serpentine And seeming weary with his recling thus He meanes to sleepe being now falne nearer vs. So of the stares which boast that they do runne In Circle still none ends where he begunne All their proportion's lame it sinks it swels For of Meridians and Parallels Man hath weau'd out a net and this net throwne Vpon the Heauens and now they are his owne Loth to goe vp the hill or labor thus To goe to heauen we make heauen come to vs. We spur we raine the stars and in their race They 're diuersly content t' obey our pace But keepes the earth her round proportion still Doth not a Tenarif or higher Hill Rise so high like a Rocke that one might thinke The floating Moone would shipwracke there and sink Seas are so deepe that Whales being strooke to day Perchance to morrow scarse at middle way Of their wish'd iourneys end the bottom dye And men to sound depths so much line vntie As one might iustly thinke that there would rise At end thereof one of th'Antipodies If vnder all a Vault infernall be Which sure is spacious except that we Inuent another torment that there must Millions into a strait hote roome be thrust Then solidnes and roundnes haue no place Are these but warts and pock-holes in the face Of th' earth Thinke so But yet confesse in this The worlds proportion disfigured is That those two legges whereon it doth relie Reward and punishment are bent awrie And Oh it can no more be questioned That beauties best proportion is dead Since euen griefe it selfe which now alone Is left vs is without proportion Shee by whose lines proportion should bee Examin'd measure of all Symmetree Whom had that Ancient seen who thought soules made Of Harmony he would at next haue said That Harmony was shee and thence infer That soules were but Resultances from her And did from her into our bodies go As to our eyes the formes from obiects flow Shee who if those great Doctors truely said That th'Arke to mans proportions was made Had beene a type for that as that might be A type of her in this that contrary Both Elements and Passions liu'd at peace In her who caus'd all Ciuill warre to cease Shee after whom what forme soe're we see Is discord and rude incongruitee Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowst this Thou knowst how vgly a monster this world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomie That here is nothing to enamor thee And that not onely faults in inward parts Corruptions in our braines or in our harts Poysoning the fountaines whence our actions spring Endanger vs but that if euery thing Be not done fitly'nd in proportion To satisfie wise and good lookers on Since most men be such as most thinke they bee They 're lothsome too by this Deformitee For good and well must in our actions meete Wicked is not much worse then indiscreet But beauties other second Element Colour and lustre now is as neere spent And had the world his iust proportion Were it a ring still yet the stone is gone As a compassionate Turcoyse which doth tell By looking pale the wearer is not well As gold fals sicke being â—lung with Mercury All the worlds parts of such complexion bee When nature was most busie the first weeke Swadling the new-borne earth God seemd to like That she should sport herselfe sometimes and play To mingle and vary colours euery day And then as though she could not make i now Himselfe his various Rainbow did allow Sight is the noblest sense of any one Yet sight hath onely color to feed on And color is decayd summers robe growes Duskie and like an oft dyed garment showes Our blushing redde which vs'd in cheekes to spred Is inward sunke and onely our soules are redde Perchance the world might haue recouered If she whom we lament had not beene dead But shee in whom all white and redde and blue Beauties ingredients voluntary grew As in an vnuext Paradise from whom Did all things verdure and their lustre come Whose composition was miraculous Being all color all Diaphanous For Ayre and Fire but thicke grosse bodies were And liueliest stones but drowsie and pale to her Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowst this Thou knowst how wan a Ghost this our world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomee That it should more affright then pleasure thee And that since all faire color then did sinke T is now but wicked vanity to thinke To color vitious deeds with good pretence Or with bought colors to illude mens sense Nor in ought more this worlds decay appeares Then that her influence the heau'n forbeares Or that the Elements doe not feele this The father or the mother barren is The clouds conceiue not raine or doe not powre In the due birth-time downe the balmy showre Th' Ayre doth not motherly sit on the earth To hatch her seasons and giue all things birth Spring-times were common cradles but are toombes And false-conceptions fill the generall wombs Th' Ayre showes such Meteors as none can see Not onely what they meane but what they bee Earth such new wormes as would haue troubled me Th'Egyptian Mages to haue made more such What Artist now dares boast that he can bring Heauen hither or constellate any thing So as the influence of those starres may bee Imprisond in an Herbe or Charme or Tree And doe by touch all which those starres could do The art is lost and correspondence too For heauen giues little and the earth takes lesse And man least knowes their trade and purposes If this commerce twixt heauen and earth were not Embarr'd and all this trafique quite forgot Shee for whose losse we haue lamented thus Would worke more fully ' and pow'rfully on vs. Since herbes and roots by dying lose not all But they yea Ashes too are medicinall Death could not quench her vertue so but that It would be if not follow'd wondred at And all the world would be one dying Swan To sing her funerall prayse and vanish than But as some Serpents poison
they headlong come and fall vpon An ominous precipitation How witty's ruine how importunate Vpon mankinde It labour'd to frustrate Euen Gods purpose and made woman sent For mans reliefe cause of his languishment They were to good ends and they are so still But accessory and principall in ill For that first mariage wâ—s our funerall One woman at one blow then kill'd vs all And singly one by one they kill vs now We doe delightfully our selues allow To that consumption and profusely blinde We kill our selues to propagate our kinde And yet we doe not that we are not men There is not now that mankinde which was then When as the Sunne and man did seeme to striue â—â—yâ—t tenants of the world who should suruiue When Stag and Rauen and the long-liu'd tree Compar'd with man dâ—de in minoritee When if a sâ—oâ— pacâ—â— starre had stolne away From the obseruers marking he might stay Two or three hundred yeares to see 't againe And then make vp his obseruation plaine When as the age was long the sise was great Mans grouth confess'd and recompenc'd the meat So spacious and large that euery soule Did a faire Kingdome and large Realme controule And when the very stature thus erect Did that soule a good way towards Heauen direct Where is this mankind now who liues to age Fit to be made Methusalem his page Alas we scarse liue long enough to trie Whether a new made clocke runne right or lie Old Grandsires talke of yesterday with sorrow And for our children we reserue to morrow So short is life that euery peasant striues In a torne house or field to haue three liues And as in lasting so in length is man Contracted to an inch who wâ—s a span For had a man at first in Forrests stray'd Or shipwrack'd in the Sea one would haue laid A wager that an Elephant or Whale That met him would not hastily assaile A thing so equall to him now alas The Fayries and the Pigmies well may passe As credible mankind decayes so soone We 're scarse our Fathers shadowes cast at noone Onely death addes t' our length nor are we growne In stature to be men till we are none But this were light did our lesse volume hold All the old Text or had we chang'd to gold Their siluer or dispos'd into lesse glas Spirits of vertue which then scattred was But 't is not so w' are not retir'd but dampt And as our bodies so our mindes are cramp't 'T is shrinking not close-weaning that hath thus In minde and body both bedwarfed vs. We seeme ambitious Gods whole worke t' vndoe Of nothing he made vs and we striue too To bring our selues to nothing backe and we Do what we can to do 't so soone as hee With new diseases on our selues we warre And with new phisicke a worse Engin farre Thus man this worlds Vice-Emperor in whom All faculties all graces are at home And if in other Creatures they appeare They 're but mans ministers and Legats there To worke on their rebellions and reduce Them to Ciuility and to mans vse This man whom God did wooe and loth t' attend Till man came vp did downe to man descend This man so great that all that is is his Oh what a trifle and poore thing he is If man were any thing he 's nothing now Helpe or at least some time to wast allow T' his other wants yet when he did depart With her whom we lament he lost his hart She of whom th' Auncients seem'd to prophâ—sie When they call'd vertues by the 〈◊〉 of shee She in whom vertue 〈◊〉 so much â—efiâ—â—d That for Allay vnto so pure a minde Shee tooke the weaker Sex â—h that coâ—ld dâ—â—ue The poysonous tincture and the stayne of Eue Out of her thoughts and deeds and purifie All by a true religious Alchimy Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is And learn'st thus much by our Anatomee The heart being perish'd no part can be free And that except thou seed not banquet on The supernaturall food Religion Thy better Grouth growes withered and scant Be more then man or thou' rt lesse then an Ant. Then as mankindâ— so is the worlds whole frame Quite out of ioynt almost created lame For before God had made vp all the rest Corruption entred and deprau'd the best It seis'd Angels and then first of all The world did in her Cradle take a fall And turn'd her braines and tooke a generall maime Wronging each ioynt of th'vniversall frame The noblest part man felt it first and than Both beasts and plants curst in the curse of man So did the world from the first houre decay That euening was beginning of the day And now the Springs and Sommers which we see Like sonnes of women after fifty bee And new Philosophy cals all in doubt The Element of fire is quite put out The Sunne is lost and th' earth and no mans wit Can well direct him where to looke for it And freely men confesse that this world 's spent When in the Planets and the Firmament They seeke so many new they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomis 'T is all in pieces all cohaerence gone All iust supply and all Relation Prince Subiect Father Sonne are things forgot For euery man alone thinkes he hath got To be a Phoenix and that then can bee None of that kinde of which he is but hee This is the worlds condition now and now She that should all parts to reunion bow She that had all Magnetique force alone To draw and fasten sundred parts in one She whom wise nature had inuented then When she obseru'd that euery sort of men Did in their voyage in this worlds Sea stray And needed a new compasse for their way Shee that was best and first originall Of all faire copies and the generall Steward to Fate shee whose rich eyes and brest Guilt the West Indies and perfum'd the East Whose hauing breath'd in this world did bestow Spice on those Isles and bad them still smell so And that rich Indie which doth gold interre Is but 〈◊〉 single money coyn'd from her She to whom this world must it selfe refer As Suburbs or the Microcosme of her Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowst this Thou knowst how lame a cripple this world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomy That this worlds generall sickenesse doth not lie In any humour or one certaine part But as thou sawest it rotten at the hart Thou seest a Hectique feuer hath got hold Of the whole substance not to be contrould And that thou hast but one way not t' admit The worlds infection to be none of it For the worlds subtilst immateriall parts Feele this consuming wound and ages darts For the worlds beauty is decayd or gone Beauty that 's colour and proportion We thinke the heauens enioy their Sphericall Their round proportion embracing all