A Circle and a Line

O eternal and most gracious God, who, considered in thyself, art a circle, first and last, and altogether; but, considered in thy working upon us, art a direct line, and leadest us from our beginning, through all our ways, to our end, enable me by thy grace to look forward to mine end, and to look backward too, to the considerations of thy mercies afforded me from the beginning; that so by that practice of considering thy mercy, in my beginning in this world . . . and thy mercy in the beginning in the other world, when thou writest me in the book of life . .. I may come to a holy consideration of thy mercy in the beginning of all my actions here.



John Donne (1572-1631)