Digital Donne: the Online Variorum

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Previous image Next image The 1654 Prose Letters  Letter 36 (p.109)




To Sr H. G.

I send not my Letters as tribute, nor inte-
rest, not recompense, nor for commerce,
nor as testimonials of my love, nor provo-
kers of yours, nor to justifie my custome of
writing, nor for a vent and utterance of my
meditations; for my Letters are either a-
bove or under all such offices; yet I write
very affectionately, and I chide and accuse
my self of diminishing that affection which
sends them, when I ask my self why: one-
ly I am sure that I desire that you might
have in your hands Letters of mine of all
kindes, as conveyances and deliverers of me
to you, whether you accept me as a friend,
or as a patient, or as a penitent, or as a
beadsman, for I decline no jurisdiction,
or refuse any tenure. I would not open any
doore upon you, but look in when you
open it. Angels have not, nor affect not
other knowledge of one another, then they
lift to reveal to one another. It is then in
this onely, that friends are Angels, that they
[CW: are]
p.109

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