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WHEN blessed Marie wip�d her Saviours feet, (Whose precepts she had trampled on before) And wore them for a jewell on her head, Shewing his steps should be the street, Wherein she thenceforth evermore With pensive humblenesse would live and tread :  She being stain�d herself, why did she strive To make him clean, who could not be defil�d? Why kept she not her tears for her own faults, And not his feet? Though we could dive In tears like seas, our sinnes are pil�d Deeper than they, in words, and works, and thoughts. Deare soul, she knew who did vouchsafe and deigne To bear her filth ; and that her sinnes did dash Ev�n God himself ; wherefore she was not loth, As she had brought wherewith to stain, So to bring in wherewith to wash : And yet in washing one, she washed both. Source: Herbert, George. The Poetical Works of George Herbert. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1857. 221-222. Engraving designed by John Clayton ; Engraved by Dalziel Brothers.
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