which are the waters above our firmament as opposed to the land or earthly waters which are the tears of passion. The 'these' of the MSS. seems necessary for clearness of references: 'For, Lacrymae sunt sudor animae maerentis, Teares are the sweat of a labouring soule, ... Raine water is better then River water; The water of Heaven, teares for offending thy God, are better then teares for worldly losses; But yet come to teares of any kinde, and whatsoever occasion thy teares, Deus absterget omnem lacrymam, there is the largeness of his bounty, He will wipe all teares from thine eyes; But thou must have teares first: first thou must come to this weeping, or else God cannot come to this wiping; God hath not that errand to thee, to wipe teares from thine eyes, if there be none there; If thou doe nothing for thy selfe, God finds nothing to doe for thee.' Sermons 80. 54. 539-40.
The waters above the firmament were a subject of considerable difficulty to mediaeval philosophy—so difficult indeed that St. Augustine has to strengthen himself against sceptical objections by reaffirming the authority of Scripture: Maior est Scripturae huius auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas. Unde quoquo modo et qualeslibet aquae ibi sint, eas tamen ibi esse, minime dubitamus. Aquinas, who quotes these words from Augustine, comes to two main conclusions, himself leaning to the last. If by the firmament be meant either the firmament of fixed stars, or the ninth sphere, the primum mobile, then, since heavenly bodies are not made of the elements of which earthly things are made (being incorruptible, and unchangeable except in position), the waters above the firmament are not of the same kind as those on earth (non sunt eiusdem speciei cum inferioribus). If, however, by the firmament be meant only the upper part of the air where clouds are condensed, called firmament because of the thickness of the air in that part, then the waters above the firmament are simply the vaporized waters of which rain is formed (aquae quae vaporabiliter resolutae supra aliquam partem aeris elevantur, ex quibus pluviae generantur). Above the firmament waters are generated, below they rest. Summa I. 68.
If I follow him, Donne to some extent blends or confounds these views. Tears shed for our sins differ in kind from tears shed for worldly losses, as the waters above from those below. But the extract from the sermon identifies the waters above the firmament with rain-water. 'Rain water is better than River-water.' It is purer; but it does not differ from it in kind.
l. 12. Wee, after Gods Noe, drowne our world againe. I think the 'our' of the majority of the MSS. must be correct. From the spelling and punctuation both, it is clear that the source from which 1633 printed closely resembled D, H49, Lec, which read 'our'. The change to 'the' was made in the spirit which prompted the grosser error of certain MSS. which read 'Noah'. Donne has in view the 'microcosm' rather than the 'macrocosm'. There is, of course, an allusion to the Flood and the promise, but the immediate reference is to Christ and the soul. 'After Christ's work of redemption and his resurrection, which forbid despair, we yet yield to the passion of sorrow.' We drown not the world but our world, the world within us, or which each one of us is. This sense is brought out more clearly in Cy's version, which is a paraphrase rather than a version:
Wee after Gods mercy drowne our Soules againe.
l. 22. Porcelane, where they buried Clay. 'We are not thoroughly resolved concerning Porcelane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of Earth, which lieth in preparation about an hundred years under ground; for the relations thereof are not only divers, but contrary, and Authors agree not herein.' Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 5. Browne quotes some of the older opinions and then points out that a true account of the manufacture of porcelain had been furnished by Gonzales de Mendoza, Linschoten, and Alvarez the Jesuit, and that it was confirmed by the Dutch Embassy of 1665. The old physical theories were retained for literary purposes long after they had been exploded.
l. 29. They say, the sea, when it gaines, loseth too. 'But we passe from the circumstance of the time, to a second, that though Christ thus despised by the Gergesens, did, in his Justice, depart from them; yet, as the sea gaines in one place, what it loses in another, his abundant mercy builds up more in Capernaum, then his Justice throwes downe among the Gergesens: Because they drave him away, in Judgement he went from them, but in Mercy he went to the others, who had not intreated him to come.' Sermons 80. 11. 103.
'They flatly say that he eateth into others dominions, as the sea doth into the land, not knowing that in swallowing a poore Iland as big as Lesbos he may cast up three territories thrice as big as Phrygia: for what the sea winneth in the marshe, it looseth in the sand.' Lyly, Midas v. 2. 17.
Compare also Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 2, Sect 2, Mem. 3.