Last week I was reading some of the works of John Donne (1572-1631), the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets. Meditation XVII from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions contains the often-quoted line, "No man is an island." Being a lover of books, I was impressed with the beauty of another part of that piece.
All mankind is of one Author and is one volume;
When one 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.
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