In 1625 John Donne said: ‘As Manna tasted to every man like that he liked best, so doe the Psalmes administer instruction, and satisfaction, to every man, in every emergency and occasion.’
I’m not sure where Donne got this idea about manna, but I wonder whether C.S. Lewis had it in mind when he wrote in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe about Turkish delight that was enchanted, so ‘anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves’.
Anyway, when Donne spoke of an emergency he did not mean something out of ER, but more a circumstance or juncture, indeed an occasion. He had paired the two words in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Severall Steps in my Sicknes, in which we find ‘No Man is an Iland’ (as it was spelt, correctly enough, since the word does not derive, like isle, from Latin insula).
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in