For Whom the Bell Tolls...John Donne poem
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XVII. MEDITATION.
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No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a
Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor
of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
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PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill,
as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance
I may think myself so much better than I am, as that
they who are about me, and see my state, may have
caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church
is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she
does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that
action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected
to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into
that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries
a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one
author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one
chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into
a better language; and every chapter must be so
translated; God employs several translators; some
pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some
by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every
translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered
leaves again for that library where every book shall lie
open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to
a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the
congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how
much more me, who am brought so near the door
by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit
(in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation,
were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring
to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined,
that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we
understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our
evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising
early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his,
whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it
doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that
that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who
casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes
off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends
not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but
who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece
of himself out of this world?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away
by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own
were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am
involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know
for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call
this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though
we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch
in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of
our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if
we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath
enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured
and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man
carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none
coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as
he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not
current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer
our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick
to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a
mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his
affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this
consideration of another's danger I take mine own into
contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse
to my God, who is our only security.
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here is a link to...William Shakespeare quotes and pictures
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