If thou dost give me wealth, I will restore
    All back unto thee by the poor. 
  If thou dost give me honour, men shall see
    The honour doth belong to thee. 
  I will not marry; or if she be mine,
    She and her children shall be thine. 
  My bosom-friend, if he blaspheme thy name,
    I will tear thence his love and fame. 
  One half of me being gone, the rest I give
    Unto some chapel—­die or live. 
  As for my Passion[102]—­But of that anon,
      When with the other I have done. 
  For thy Predestination, I’ll contrive
      That, three years hence, if I survive,[103]
  I’ll build a spital, or mend common ways,
      But mend my own without delays. 
  Then I will use the works of thy creation,
      As if I used them but for fashion. 
  The world and I will quarrel; and the year
      Shall not perceive that I am here. 
  My music shall find thee, and every string
      Shall have his attribute to sing, its.
  That all together may accord in thee,
      And prove one God, one harmony. 
  If thou shall give me wit, it shall appear;
      If thou hast given it me, ’tis here. 
  Nay, I will read thy book,[104] and never move
      Till I have found therein thy love—­
  Thy art of love, which I’ll turn back on thee: 
      O my dear Saviour, Victory! 
  Then for my Passion—­I will do for that—­
      Alas, my God!  I know not what.

With the preceding must be taken the following, which comes immediately after it.

  THE REPRISAL.

  I have considered it, and find
  There is no dealing with thy mighty Passion;
  For though I die for thee, I am behind: 
      My sins deserve the condemnation.

    O make me innocent, that I
  May give a disentangled state and free;
  And yet thy wounds still my attempts defy,
    For by thy death I die for thee.

    Ah! was it not enough that thou
  By thy eternal glory didst outgo me? 
  Couldst thou not grief’s sad conquest me allow,
    But in all victories overthrow me?

    Yet by confession will I come
  Into the conquest:  though I can do nought
  Against thee, in thee I will overcome
    The man who once against thee fought.

Even embracing the feet of Jesus, Mary Magdalene or George Herbert must rise and go forth to do his will.

It will be observed how much George Herbert goes beyond all that have preceded him, in the expression of feeling as it flows from individual conditions, in the analysis of his own moods, in the logic of worship, if I may say so.  His utterance is not merely of personal love and grief, but of the peculiar love and grief in the heart of George Herbert.  There may be disease in such a mind; but, if there be, it is a disease that will burn itself out.  Such disease is, for men constituted like him, the only path to health.