Of Harington, Wiffen, in his Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, says: 'Whilst he devoted much of his time to literary study he is reported to have uniformly begun and closed the day with prayer ... and to have been among the first who kept a diary wherein his casual faults and errors were recorded, for his surer advancement in happiness and virtue.' Wiffen's authority is probably The Churches Lamentation for the losse of the Godly Delivered in a Sermon at the funerals of that truly noble, and most hopefull young Gentleman Iohn Lord Harington, Baron of Exton, Knight of the noble order of the Bath etc. by R. Stock. 1614. To this verses Latin and English by I. P., F. H. D. M., and Sir Thomas Roe are appended. The preacher gives details of Harington's religious life. The D. N. B. speaks of two memorial sermons. This is a mistake.
l. 15. Thou seest me here at midnight, now all rest; Chambers by placing a semicolon after 'midnight' makes 'now all rest' an independent, rhetorical statement:
Thou seest me here at midnight; now all rest;
The Grolier Club editor varies it:
Thou seest me here at midnight now, all rest;
But surely as punctuated in the old editions the line means 'at midnight, now when all rest', 'the time when all rest'. 'I watch, while others sleep.'
Donne's description of his midnight watch recalls that of Herr Teufelsdroeckh: 'Gay mansions, with supper rooms and dancing rooms are full of light and music and high-swelling hearts, but in the Condemned Cells the pulse of life beats tremulous and faint, and bloodshot eyes look out through the darkness which is around and within, for the light of a stern last morning,' &c. Sartor Resartus, i. 3.
Page 272, l. 38. Things, in proportion fit, by perspective. It is by an accident, I imagine, that 1633 drops the comma after 'fit', and I have restored it. The later punctuation, which Chambers adopts, is puzzling if not misleading:
Things, in proportion, fit by perspective.
It is with 'proportion' that 'fit' goes. Deeds of good men show us by perspective things in a proportion fitted to our comprehension. They bring the goodness or essence of things, which is seen aright only in God, down to our level. The divine is most clearly revealed to us in the human.