George Herbert AFFLICTION. (III) MY heart did heave, and there came forth, “O God !” By that I knew that Thou wast in the grief, To guide and govern it to my relief,                 Making a sceptre of the rod :                     Hadst Thou not had Thy part, Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart. But since Thy breath gave me both life and shape, Thou know'st my tallies ;* and when there’s assigned So much breath to a sigh, what’s then behind?           Or if some years with it escape,               The sigh then only is A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss. Thy life on earth was grief, and Thou art still Constant unto it, making it to be A point of honour, now to grieve in me,           And in Thy members suffer ill.               They who lament one cross, Thou dying daily, praise Thee to Thy loss.   * Reckonings, which were anciently kept by two notched sticks corresponding to each other, each person being a party to the account of having one.   There is a popular old superstition that every time we sigh, we lose a drop of blood from the heart, and thus impair our strength. See “Hamlet,” Act IV., Scene 7 :                                                 “ A Spendthrift sigh                   That hurts by easing.” Source: Herbert, George. The Works of George Herbert in Prose and Verse. New York: John Wurtele Lovell, 1881. 158-159. to Works of George Herbert Site ©1996-2001 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved. Created by Anniina Jokinen on June 30, 2001.