The Pulley Mechanism

Herbert's title names a simple machine, but you don't see how it works until the final line. A pulley uses rope and wheels to lift heavy objects—pull down on one end, the other end rises. Here, the rope is human restlessness. The weight being lifted is humanity itself, 'tossed' toward God's breast.

The engineering is precise: God gives strength, beauty, wisdom, honor, pleasure—everything except rest (line 10). That one withheld blessing creates permanent dissatisfaction. Humans get 'rich and wearie' (line 18)—materially blessed but existentially exhausted. The weariness isn't a bug; it's the designed feature that pulls us upward.

The word 'rest' works three ways: what remains in the bottom of the glass, the peace/contentment God withholds, and the theological concept of resting in God versus resting 'in Nature' (line 14). Herbert's pun makes the mechanism work—the thing left over is the thing we lack is the thing that would let us stop seeking God.

Herbert's God Talks Like a Craftsman

This God doesn't thunder commandments; he thinks out loud like someone solving an engineering problem. 'Let us... poure on him all we can' (line 3) sounds like a generous impulse. Then 'God made a stay' (line 8)—he pauses mid-pour, noticing what's left at the bottom. The voice is deliberative, almost conversational.

CONTEXT Herbert was a country parson writing in the 1620s-30s, but before ordination he was a Cambridge scholar and briefly a Member of Parliament. His poems treat theology as intellectual puzzles to solve, not mysteries to worship passively. 'The Pulley' reads like a thought experiment: *what if* God's generosity required one strategic withholding?

The phrase 'both should losers be' (line 15) is startling—God imagines himself losing if humans achieve self-sufficiency. It's not jealous; it's mechanical. If the creature 'rest[s] in Nature, not the God of Nature,' the relationship breaks. The pulley only works if one end stays weighted with longing. Herbert's God engineers human desire the way you'd design any tool: for a specific function.

George Herbert (1593-1633)

The Pulley

When God at first made man,

glasse of blessings

A glass container holding liquid—God literally pouring out gifts like wine. The physical image sets up the pulley mechanism: what stays at the bottom matters.

Having a glasse of blessings standing by;

Let us (said he) poure on him all we can:

Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,

Contract into a span.

Contract into a span

A 'span' is the distance from thumb to pinky—about nine inches. God's compressing the entire world's riches into one human body.

So strength first made a way;

Then beautie flow'd, then wisdome, honour, pleasure:

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that alone of all his treasure

Rest in the bottome

Double meaning: 'rest' as peace/contentment, and 'rest' as what's left over. The one blessing God deliberately doesn't pour out.

Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)

Bestow this jewell also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts in stead of me,

adore my gifts in stead of me

The theological problem: if humans have everything including satisfaction, they'll worship creation instead of creator. God's withholding rest is strategic.

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature,

So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,

repining restlesnesse

'Repining' means complaining, fretting. The gifts come with built-in dissatisfaction—you get strength, beauty, wisdom, but never peace with them.

But keep them with repining restlesnesse:

Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,

If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse

May tosse him to my breast.

May tosse him to my breast

The pulley image finally clicks: human restlessness is the rope that pulls us toward God. Weariness does the mechanical work goodness should do.