“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume..."

Suncook River, Pittsfield NH: 9/15/11                   J. Stimmell ©2011

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; 

when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, 

but translated into a better language..."

This transcendent truth comes from John Donne’s Meditation 17 in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and  blows the socks off our modern conceit about the existence of individual selves and solitary genius.