The Elixer
Seeing God in Every Task
The soul prays to see God in all things, to act with right intention rather than haste, and learns to look through the ordinary into heaven.
Teach me, my God and King, to see you in all things, and whatever I do in anything, to do it as for you:✦ Do not rush into a deed roughly, like a beast, but always put You first in it, and so give that deed its perfection.1 A man who looks at glass may rest his eye on it; or if he prefers, he may look through it and then catch sight of heaven.
The Elixir That Transforms
Nothing is too lowly for God's tincture; even menial work becomes divine, for God's touch turns all to gold.
All may partake of you: Nothing can be so lowly That with his tincture (for your sake) Will not grow bright and clean.23 A servant with this principle turns even drudgery into something divine: whoever sweeps a room as if in obedience to your laws makes both the work and the action worthy.✦4 This is the famous stone that turns everything to gold: for whatever God touches and owns cannot be valued at less.5
Read the original English
Teach me, my God and King, In all things thee to see, And what I do in any thing, To do it as for thee:
Not rudely, as a beast, To runne into an action; But still to make thee prepossest, And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glasse, On it may stay his eye; Or if he pleaseth, through it passe, And then the heav'n espie.
All may of thee partake: Nothing can be so mean, Which with his tincture (for thy sake) Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause Makes drudgerie divine: Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine.
This is the famous stone That turneth all to gold: For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for lesse be told.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩Source 'prepossest' (prepossessed): make God the prior occupant/claimant of the action before it is done. 'his perfection' uses Early Modern neuter 'his' = 'its,' referring to the action.
- 2 ↩Early modern 'mean' here is 'base/lowly/ordinary,' not 'unkind.' Rendered 'lowly' to prevent the modern misreading.
- 3 ↩Kept Herbert's alchemical 'tincture' (the elixir's transforming stain/quality) rather than paraphrasing as mere 'touch' or 'influence,' since the poem's governing metaphor is the philosopher's stone.
- 4 ↩Herbert's 'clause' means the governing condition or proviso (doing the work for God's sake / by his law), not a grammatical clause; rendered as 'principle'.
- 5 ↩Early modern 'told' here means valued/appraised (as in a reckoning of worth), not narrated; 'for lesse be told' = valued at anything less than gold.
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