Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
The ElixirGeorge Herbert (15931633)
T
In all things thee to see;
And, what I do in any thing,
To do it as for thee:
To run into an action;
But still to make thee prepossessed,
And give it his perfection.
On it may stay his eye;
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with this tincture, for thy sake,
Will not grow bright and clean.
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that, and the action, fine.
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.