The Elixir

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee.

Not rudely, as a beast,

To run into an action;

But still to make thee prepossest,

And give it his perfection.

A man that looks on glass,

On it may stay his eye;

Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,

And then the Heaven espy.

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 drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,

Makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold;

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for less be told.

George Herbert

1593-1633

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