by Coleridge · Cluster: Self-Knowledge · Immortality · Self-Reliance
Abstract
Donne’s lines (altered by Coleridge for The Friend) on the recluse hermit knowing heaven’s glory, with man as an epitome of God’s book of creatures.
Connections
Topoi: Book of Nature, Contemptus Mundi Motifs: Book Reading Themes & Concepts: Faith Forms & Genres: Fragment
Testo integrale / Full text
So reclused Hermits oftentimes do know
More of Heaven’s glory than a worldly can:
As Man is of the World, the Heart of Man
Is an Epitome of God’s great Book
Of Creatures, and Men need no further look.
These lines are quoted by Coleridge in The Friend, 1818, i. 192; 1850,
i. 147. The first two lines run thus:
The recluse Hermit oft’ times more doth know
Of the world’s inmost wheels, than worldlings can, &c.
The alteration was first pointed out in an edition of The Friend
issued by H. N. Coleridge in 1837.