Digital Donne: the Online Variorum
The 1654 Prose Letters Letter 17, cont. (p.44) |
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mon, and mutual necessity of one ano- ther; and therefore naturally in our de- fence, and subventions we first flie to our selves; next, to that which is likest, other men. Then, naturall and inborn charity, beginning at home, which perswades us to give, that we may receive: And legall charity, which makes us also forgive. Then an ingraffing in one another, and growing together by a custome of society: and last of all, strict friendship, in which band men were so presumed to be coupled, that our Confessor King had a law, that if a man be killed, the murderer shall pay a sum felago suo, which the interpreters call, fide li- gato, et comite vitæ. All these bands I willing- ly receive, for no man is lesse of himself then I: nor any man enough of himself. To be so, is all one with omnipotence. And it is well marked, that in the holy Book, wheresoever they have rendered Almighty, the word is Self-sufficient. I think some- times that the having a family should re- move me farre from the curse of Væ soli. [CW: But] |
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