excerpt from John Donne's Meditation XVII No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod b

excerpt from John Donne's Meditation XVII No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.