[3]. Weigh me the Fire. 2 Esdras, iv. 5, 7; v. 9, 36: "Weigh me ... the fire, or measure me ... the wind," etc.
[4]. God ... is the best known, not.... August. de Ord. ii. 16: [Deus] scitur melius nesciendo.
[5]. Supraentity, τὸ ὑπερόντως ὄν, Plotinus.
[7]. His wrath is free from perturbation. August. de Civ. Dei, ix. 5: Ipse Deus secundum Scripturas irascitur, nec tamen ullâ passione turbatur. Enchir. ad Laurent. 33: Cum irasci dicitur Deus, non significatur perturbatio, qualis est in animo irascentis hominis.
[9]. Those Spotless two Lambs. "This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord: two lambs of the first year without spot, day by day, for a continual burnt-offering." (Numb. xxviii. 3.)
[17]. An Anthem sung in the Chapel of Whitehall. This may be added to Nos. [96-98], and [102], the poems on which Mr. Hazlitt bases his conjecture that Herrick may have held some subordinate post in the Chapel Royal.
[37]. When once the sin has fully acted been. Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 10: Perfecto demum scelere, magnitudo ejus intellecta est.
[38]. Upon Time. Were this poem anonymous it would probably be attributed rather to George Herbert than to Herrick.
[41]. His Litany to the Holy Spirit. We may quote again from Barron Field's account in the Quarterly Review (1810) of his cross-examination of the Dean Prior villagers for Reminiscences of Herrick: "The person, however, who knows more of Herrick than all the rest of the neighbourhood we found to be a poor woman in the 99th year of her age, named Dorothy King. She repeated to us, with great exactness, five of his Noble Numbers, among which was his beautiful 'Litany'. These she had learnt from her mother, who was apprenticed to Herrick's successor at the vicarage. She called them her prayers, which she said she was in the habit of putting up in bed, whenever she could not sleep; and she therefore began the 'Litany' at the second stanza:—
'When I lie within my bed,' etc."