(j4- 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 # # 
 
 1559^ 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. f 
 
 f 
 
\^r. J{c'-r/^?^. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT 
 
 .^:^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 GEOKGE L. DUYOKI-E'CK, 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CKenetal 33votestant Hpfscojpal Suntiarj Sdjool saition, 
 aiitj €:|)uvri) aSook Society, 
 
 762 BROADWAY. 
 
 1859. 
 
?R 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, 
 
 By the General Peotestant Episcopal Sunday School Union, 
 AND Church Kook Society, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Distr3''t Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New Yorlc . 
 
 "William Denyse, Pudney & Eussell, 
 
 btereotyper and electeotyper, printers, 
 
 188 William Street, N. Y. 79 John-st., N. Y. 
 
PUBLISHED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDEEJST 
 
 ST. THOMAS' CHUECH, 
 
 EW YOEK, 
 
TO 
 
 THE VEEY EEVEEEND 
 
 RICHARD CHENEYIX TRENCH, D.D. 
 
 DEAN" OF WESTMINSTER, 
 
 LIKE GEOEGE HEEBEET A PEIEST AND POET 
 
 OF 
 
 "OUE MOTHEE, THE OHITEOH OF ENGLAND," 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 IS EESPECTFIJLLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It has been the endeavor in the following pages to pre- 
 sent the beautiful career of ' ' holy Mr. Herbert, ' ' with a 
 Bimplicity of style and fulness of detail which should in 
 some degree meet the requirements both of youthful and 
 mature readers. 
 
 The Life by Izaak Walton has furnished our chief 
 authority. We have frequently quoted the words of this 
 admirable -writer, not only as better than any which we 
 could ourselves offer, but from a desire to introduce a 
 class of readers — many of whom, it is reasonable to sup- 
 pose, -will, in the following pages, make their first 
 acquaintance with old English literature — to one of the 
 purest and most delightful authors of our language. 
 
 Much information of an interesting and important 
 character, respecting Mr. Herbert's ancestors and imme- 
 diate family connections, has been derived from other 
 sources. Foremost amongst these ranks the picturesque 
 Autobiography of his eldest brother, Lord Herbert of 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 Cherbury. We are indebted for valuable details respect- 
 ing the career of Nicholas Ferrar to the Life by Peckard, 
 reprinted in "Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, and 
 for information respecting Mr. Herbert's other friends to 
 the notes in Prebendary Zouch's edition of Walton's 
 Lives. We have also to record our obligations to the 
 Lives of Sacred Poets, by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, 
 to Sir Egerton Brydges' " Restituta," and the contempo- 
 rary pages of "Notes and Queries." ,^ 
 Ne-w York, April 26, 1858. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAGB 
 
 The Herbert family— Sir Eichard of Colebrook — The capture of 
 Harlech Castle — A true knight — The seven brothers and their 
 mother— Sir Kichard Herbert the suppressor of thieves, out- 
 laws, and rebels— Edward Herbert— His capture of an outlaw 
 — Black-Hall— Sir Eichard Herbert, justice of the peace, and 
 Magdalen his wife— The parents of George Herbert 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Montgomery Castle, its history— George Herbert's birth — His 
 brothers, Edward, Eichard, "William, Charles, Henry, and 
 Thomas— His sisters, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Frances 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The mother of George Herbert— Her mother, Margaret Newport 
 — Death of George Herbert's father — His early education — 
 Westminster School— His master's anticipations— Cambridge — 
 His first poem — Mrs. Herbert's intimacy with Dr, Donne— The 
 Autumnal Beauty — History of their friendship — Mrs. Herbert's 
 residence at Oxford— Donne's lines to Edward Herbert— Mrs. 
 Herbert's care of her children 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Mrs. Herbert's marriage to Sir John Danvers— George Herbert 
 at Cambridge— Made a Fellow of Trinity College— His deport- 
 ment — Prevalent love of dress — Herbert's desire for books — 
 State of his health— His brother Henry and sick sister— Distri- 
 bution of his father's estate— His income— Sir John Danvers' 
 liberality — " Favors come on horseback" 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Mr. Herbert Orator of the University — His letter to King James 
 — The Basilicon Doron — Andrew Melvin — Lord Bacon and 
 Bishop Andrews— Herbert's Greek letter— Herbert's courtier 
 tastes and hopes — His sinecure — Mrs. Herbert's views — Disap- 
 pointment—Social position of the clergy— Herbert's views on 
 the subject 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Mr. Herbert ordained Deacon— Prebendary of Leighton— Ees- 
 toration of the parish church — His mother's objections — The 
 Earl of Pembroke— " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother" — 
 Death of Mrs. Herbert— Dr. Donne's funeral sermon— Mr. 
 Herbert's verses to his mother's memory — Dr. Donne's rings — 
 " The anchor and Christ" 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mr. Herbert's illness— Visits to Woodford and Dauntsey— Epi- 
 taph on Lord Danvers— His poem, " Affliction"— Jane Dan- 
 vers changes her name into Herbert— Walton's account of their 
 married life— Bishop Sanderson 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Bemerton— King Charles' admiration of Herbert— " Spiritual 
 conflicts" — Bishop Laud— Mr. Herbert's induction—" Tolling 
 the bell"— A retrospect— The " minister's wife"— Comfortable 
 speech to an old woman— The parish church and parsonage 
 repaired— The first sermon 9T 
 
CONTEXTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 in 1839— Wilton H 
 Temple" — A peep tlirougli a window. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 A Sunday at Bemerton in 1839 — "Wilton Hall— The new Herbert 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mr. Herbert's companions at Cambridge—" The Pearl''— Daily 
 prayers at Bemerton— " Mr. Herbert's Saint's bell"— Church 
 music — "Wayside teachings — Catechising — The "poor man 
 with a poorer horse" — "Music at midnight" — Mr. Herbert's 
 reverence and love for the Bible 116 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The country parson — "Shavings of gold"— The parson's apparel 
 and housekeeping — " The walls not idle"— The parson's Sun- 
 day work— "Wasting of disease 127 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. Nicholas Ferrar — The Virginia Company— Little Gidden — 
 Devotional exercises— The tablet—" Abused as Papists and as 
 Puritans" — John Valdesso — Mr. Ferrar's prayer — Mr. Dun- 
 con's visit—" What prayers ?"— Manuscript of the Temple 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mr. Woodnot — The past and the future — Mr, Herbert's last Sun- 
 day — "Church music'* — Good works — The death-bed— Mr. 
 Herbert's burial — Mrs. Herbert's widowhood — Loss of Mr. 
 Herbert's manuscripts 149 
 
 CHAPITER XIV. 
 
 Cornaro on Temperance — Proverbs — Walton's description of The 
 Temple— Character of the work—" The Church Porch" — " The 
 Altar"—" Sin"—" Virtue"—" The British Church"—" Peace". 159 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 License for the publication of The Temple— Eeligion and Ameri- 
 ca — The Virginia and New England emigrations— Mr. Ferrar's 
 Introduction to The Temple -Popularity of the work— The 
 Synagogue— Christopher Harvey— "Walton's lines—" The Book 
 of Common Prayer"— Herbert's Proverbs 171 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Izaak Walton— Lives of Donne and "Walton— The Complete 
 Angler— Allusions to Mr. Herbert— Lives of Hooker and Her- 
 bert—Prefaces to his Life of Herbert— Woodford's lines on 
 Herbert and Donne— Cotton's tribute to Herbert— Duport's 
 Latin lines— Life of Sanderson— Wordsworth's sonnet— Wal- 
 ton's death— Crashaw's poem on The Temple— Warton and 
 Pope — Campbell, Coleridge, and Mrs. Browning— Portrait— 
 Norris of Bemerton and Archdeacon Coxe— Conclusion 179 
 
THE LIFE OP 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE HEEBEET FAMILY — SIR EICHAED OF COLEBEOOK — THE 
 
 CAPTUEE OF HAELECH CASTLE A TEUE KNIGHT THE 
 
 SEVEN BEOTHEES AND. THEIE MOTHEE — SIR EICHAED 
 HEEBEET THE SUPPRESSOR OF THIEVES, OUTLAWS, 
 
 AND EEBELS EDWAED HERBERT HIS CAPTURE OF AN 
 
 OUTLAW BLACK-HALL SIR EICHAED HEEBEET, JUS- 
 TICE OF THE PEACE, AND MAGDALEN HIS WIFE THE 
 
 PAEENTS OF GEOEGE HEEBEET. 
 
 GEOEGE HEEBEET, whose works and 
 memory form one of the best posses- 
 sions of our Church, was a member of a 
 family which had held a high rank and 
 eminent position for many generations in the 
 history of their native England. 
 
 The first of his ancestors of whom we have 
 
14 SIEGE OF IIARLECII CASTLE. 
 
 an account was his grandfather's grand- 
 father, Sir Eichard Herbert, of Colebrook. 
 He was a very brave man in battle, the 
 chief employment of those days. It is said 
 of Sir Kichard that he " twice passed through 
 a great army of northern men alone, with his 
 pole or battle-axe in his hand, and returned 
 without any mortal hurt." 
 
 We have another story which illustrates 
 the good knight's honorable regard for his 
 promise. He was employed by King Ed- 
 ward the Fourth to besiege Harlech Castle, 
 in Merionethshire, in "Wales. The castle was 
 held by a brave captain who had served for 
 many years in France. It was his boast that 
 he " had kept a castle in France so long that 
 he made the old women in Wales talk of 
 him, and that he would keep the castle so 
 long that he would make the old w^omen in 
 France talk of him." He made good his 
 word by an obstinate defence. The position 
 of the castle was so strong as to render it 
 
siE kichard's wokd. 15 
 
 almost impossible to overcome its imnates, 
 except by starvation. To induce a sm-render 
 Sir Richard promised to urge King Edward 
 the Fom'th to spare the captain's life, which 
 had been forfeited by his rebellion. The 
 knight soon after brought his prisoner before 
 the king and represented the circumstances 
 of the surrender. The king replied that he 
 had given no authority to his officer to hold 
 out any hopes of mercy, and that the latter 
 having nsed his best exertions to save his 
 foeman's life, had satisfied his pledged word. 
 But Sir Eichard would not be tempted from 
 his obligation. " Grant me, I pray," he en- 
 treated his sovereign, " one of two things. 
 Either place this brave man back in his 
 castle and send some one else to subdue him, 
 or else take my life in place of his whom I 
 have promised to do my utmost to have 
 spared." The king was so impressed by this 
 honorable devotion that he granted the pris- 
 oner's life. 
 
16 THE SEVEN BKOTHEES. 
 
 There is another example of Sir Kichard's 
 love of mercy. He had, with his brother, 
 the Earl of Pembroke, captured, in the island 
 of Anglesea, seven brothers, who had, in 
 the simple but expressive words of the nar- 
 rative, " done many mischiefs and murders." 
 The Earl "thinking it fit to root out so 
 wicked a progeny," ordered them all to be 
 hanged. Their mother came to the captors 
 and begged that two, or at least one, of her 
 offspring might be spared to her, urging that 
 the execution of the others would be a suf- 
 ficient atonement to justice. Sir Richard 
 seconded the mother's petition ; but the Earl 
 decided that all having been equally guilty, 
 all should suffer the same penalty. His 
 sentence, that they should all be executed 
 together, so enraged their mother with grief 
 that she knelt down and cursed the judge, 
 praying that he might suffer defeat or mishap 
 in the next battle in which he should be en- 
 gaged. This incident was soon afterwards 
 
RICHARD HERBERT. 17 
 
 followed by the encouiiter at Edgecofce, in 
 wliicli both brothers were taken prisoners. 
 Sir Richard, still magnanimous, entreated 
 his captors to sj^are, not his own life, but his 
 brother's. Both w^ere afterward set at liberty. 
 
 The good knight's son, also named Richard, 
 was steward, in the reign of King Henry the 
 Eighth, of the lordshij)s and marches of 
 ]^orth AVales, East "Wales, and Cardiganshire, 
 a large and important district, throughout 
 which he exercised sovereign power over the 
 lives of offenders. It is recorded to his credit 
 that though " a great suppressor of rebels, 
 thieves, and outlaws, he was just and con- 
 scionable." He might have amassed great 
 wealth by an unjust exercise of the powers 
 of his office, but he wisely preferred to be- 
 queath to his descendants the better heritage 
 of a good name. 
 
 His son Edward, the grandfather of George 
 Herbert, after running a successful career as 
 a soldier, acquiring wealth as well as honor, 
 2^ 
 
18 
 
 settled down in the family castle of Mont- 
 gomery, in Wales. He was justice of the 
 peace, and a great terror to the outlaws and 
 thieves who infested the mountainous coun- 
 try in which he lived, frequently attacking 
 and capturing them in their strongholds. 
 The desperate nature of these miscreants 
 may be inferred from an anecdote which we 
 will give in the words of Edward Herbert's 
 grandson, Lord Herbert of Cherbury : 
 
 " Some outlaw^s being lodged in an ale- 
 house upon the hills of Llandinam, my grand- 
 father and a few servants coming to appre- 
 hend them, the principal outlaw shot an 
 arrow against my grandfather, which stuck 
 in the pommel of his saddle, whereupon my 
 grandfather coming up to him with his sword 
 in his hand, and taking him prisoner, he 
 showed him the said arrow, bidding him look 
 what he had done, whereof the outlaw was 
 no further sensible than to say he was sorry 
 that he left his better bow at home, which 
 
BLACK-IIALL CHEEE. 19 
 
 he conceived would have carried his shot to 
 his body ; but the outlaw, being brought to 
 justice, suffered for it." 
 
 The judge took great delight in the exer- 
 cise of the virtue of hospitality, "having a 
 very long table twice covered every meal 
 with the best meats that could be gotten, and 
 a very great family." His good cheer was 
 so celebrated, that it was a favorite saying in 
 the country around, wdien a fowl rose : " Fly 
 where thou w^ilt, thou wilt light at Black- 
 hall !" — Black-hall being the name of a resi- 
 dence, described as a " low building, but of 
 great capacity," erected during the latter 
 part of his life. 
 
 In the next generation we again meet the 
 familiar family name of Richard in the per- 
 son of the father of George Herbert. This 
 gentleman v/as also a justice of the peace, and 
 so resolute in the discharge of his duties that 
 he was once severely wounded in an attempt 
 to secure an offender who had defied the 
 
20 MAQDAI^EN HERBERT. 
 
 ordinary process of law. He married Mag- 
 dalen, daughter of Sir Ricliard and Margaret 
 !N^ewport, a lady also descended from an 
 ancient family, and, as we shall see, well 
 qualified to adorn the honorable position in 
 which she was placed. 
 
CHAPTEK n. 
 
 MOXTGOMERY CASTLE, ITS IIISTOEY GEOEGE HERBEET'S 
 
 BIETH — HIS BE0THEE3, EDWAED, EICHAED, WILLIAM, 
 CHAELES, HEXET, AXD THOMAS HIS SISTEES, ELIZA- 
 BETH, MAEGAEET, AXD FEAXCES. 
 
 THE Herbert family had for many genera- 
 tions inhabited the castle of Montgom- 
 ery, a noted stronghold, which was, even in 
 their time, invested with the interest of an- 
 tiquity. The oldest portion was erected by 
 Baldwin, a companion of William the Con- 
 queror. It was afterwards in the j^ossession 
 of Koger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrews- 
 bury, by whom it was greatly enlarged and 
 strengthened. As it was on the border be- 
 tween England and Wales, it was a strong- 
 hold of great imj)ortance, especially during 
 the contests between the British and the Sax- 
 
22 MOKTGOMEKY CASTLE. 
 
 ons. During the middle portion of the four- 
 teenth century it became the property of the 
 House of York, and subsequently, through 
 that royal line, of the Crown, by whom it was 
 granted, in the following century, to the Her- 
 bert family. At the outset of the civil war 
 which raged for many years of the seven- 
 teenth century, it w^as garrisoned by the 
 King's party, but soon sun-endered to the 
 Parliamentary forces, by whose order it was 
 demolished. The picturesque remains of its 
 round keep and outer walls still interest the 
 traveller. 
 
 George Heebert was born in the old castle 
 whose varied fortunes we have just traced, 
 on the third of April, 1593. He was prob- 
 ably named after an uncle George, of 'New 
 College, Oxford, who, as Lord Herbert of 
 Cherbury informs us, " was very learned, of 
 a pious life, and died in a middle age of a 
 dropsy." He was the fifth son of a family 
 to which others were afterwards added, so 
 
EDWARD UERBEKT. • 23 
 
 that his mother, to quote her fiivorite enu- 
 meration of her oiFsj^ring, finally jDossessed 
 "Job's number and Job's distribution" — 
 seven sons and three daughters. They all 
 grew up, under her religious care, to occuj^y 
 stations of honor and usefulness. Edward, 
 the eldest, early attached himself to the 
 Court. He passed many years in foreign 
 travel, and was for a long period the Am- 
 bassador of his country in France, where he 
 made himself obnoxious to the party in 
 povrer by his sympathy with the persecuted 
 Protestants of that country. On his return 
 he w^as made Baron of Cherbury, in Shrop- 
 shire, by King James. He was the author of 
 a book in the Latin language, on the Chris- 
 tian Religion, in which he compares the doc- 
 trines and duties of our blessed Faith with 
 those of the idolatrous systems of antiquity. 
 He also wrote a History of the Reign of King 
 Henry the Eighth, and his Autobiograj^hy — 
 an extremely candid and interesting record of 
 
24 AUTOBIOGEAPHY AND POEMS. 
 
 the varied incidents of his life. It was writ- 
 ten after he had passed his sixtieth year. He 
 died in 1648. His Autobiography, to which 
 we have been indebted for the facts narrated 
 in our first chapter, remained in manuscript 
 until 1YG4, when it was printed, with a preface, 
 by Horace "Walpole, at his private press at 
 Strawbeny Hill. It was reprinted by Dods- 
 ley in 1Y70, and a third edition, edited by 
 Sir "Walter Scott, has since been published. 
 
 A volume of his poems appeared in 1665, 
 after his death, with the title, " Occasional 
 Yerses of Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of 
 Cherbury and Castle Island, deceased in Au- 
 gust, 1618." "We extract the best of the few 
 specimens given of the collection in Sir Eger- 
 ton Brydges' Ttestituta."^^' 
 
 TO TUB C. OF D.f 
 
 Since in your face, as in a beauteous sphere, 
 Delight and state so sweetly mix' d appear, 
 That love's not light, nor gravity severe, 
 
 « Vol. II., p. 426. t Probably the Countess^of Dorset. 
 
EICHAED IIEKBERT. 26 
 
 All your attractive graces seem to draw, 
 
 A modest vigor keepeth so in aw, 
 
 That in their turns each of them gives the law. 
 
 Therefore, though chaste and vertuous desire 
 Through that your native mildness may aspire 
 TJntill a just regard it doth acquire ; 
 
 Yet if love, thence, a forward hope project, 
 You can, by virtue of a sweet neglect. 
 Convert it straight to reverend respect. 
 
 Thus, as in your rare temper we may find 
 
 An excellence so perfect in each kind, 
 
 That a fair body hath a fairer mind ; 
 So all the beams you diversly do dart. 
 As well on th' understanding as the heart, 
 Of love and honour equal cause impart. 
 
 The brothers next in age, Eichard and "Wil- 
 liam, after receiving a liberal education, be- 
 came soldiers. Eichard engaged in the serv- 
 ice of the United Provinces of Holland, and 
 died while em23lojed in the struggle for re- 
 ligious and civil liberty, which afterwards re- 
 sulted in the emancipation of tliat country 
 from the superstition and tyranny of Spain. 
 His body, when carried to the grave at Ber- 
 gen-op-Zoom, bore, it is said, the scars of four- 
 3 
 
26 WILLIAM AND CHARLES HEEBEET. 
 
 and-twentj wounds. "William, like his broth- 
 ers, maintained the warlike character of his 
 house. He commenced service in Denmark, 
 '' where, fighting a single combat, and having 
 his sword broken, he not only defended him- 
 self with that piece w^hich remained, but, clos- 
 ing with his adversary, threw him down and 
 so held him, until company came in." He 
 next went to the Netherlands, where his ca- 
 reer soon after closed. 
 
 Charles, the fourth brother, became a Fel- 
 low of JSTew College, Oxford. A Fellow is 
 one of a limited number of persons educated 
 at an English college, who receive, as a re- 
 ward for their application to study, and as an 
 incentive to continue in the same useful pur- 
 suit, the free occupancy of apartments and 
 a regular support from the institutions in 
 which they have distinguished themselves. 
 He did not long enjoy his honors and advan- 
 tages, dying, at an early age, at Ms college, 
 after having given bright promise of future 
 
A SEA-FIGHT. 2Y 
 
 usefulness. George, the fifth son, will form 
 the subject of our biography. 
 
 Hemy, the sixth son, became Gentleman of 
 the King's Privy Chamber, and Master of the 
 Revels, or director of the amusements of the 
 Court of King James, an office which he re- 
 tained for fifty years. He married a wealthy 
 lady and amassed a large estate. 
 
 The seventh and youngest son, Thomas, 
 was born a few wrecks after his father's death. 
 He was page to Sir Edward Cecil, com- 
 mander of the English forces in the German 
 wars, and displayed great daring at the siege 
 of Juliers, in the year 1610. On his return 
 he was naturally attracted to the ocean as a 
 field of adventure, and sailed for the East 
 Indies under the command of Captain Joseph. 
 On the voyage the captain, falling in with 
 and engaging " a great Spanish shi})," was 
 killed in the encounter. This misfortune 
 naturally disheartened his men, but, on being 
 rallied by Thomas Herbert, they renewed 
 
28 THE ALGEKINES. 
 
 the fight with such energy and success, as to 
 run aground and completely riddle their op- 
 ponent. He remained a year in the Indies 
 and then returned with the fleet to England. 
 He next engaged under Sir Eobert Mansell, 
 in the fleet sent by King James against the 
 Algerines. These piratical inhabitants of the 
 south-western shores of the Mediterranean 
 were then the terror of Euro^^e, on account 
 of their relentless attacks upon the shipping 
 and coasts of that sea, and their practice of 
 consigning all captives who were unable to 
 pay a costly ransom, to a hopeless and cruel 
 bondage. 
 
 Thomas Herbert, in the hearty words of 
 Izaak Walton, " did show a fortunate and 
 true English valor" in the punishment of 
 these miscreants. The fleet being, on one oc- 
 casion, in great want of money and provis- 
 ions, the ships separated in the hope that 
 they might thus fall in with and capture one 
 or more of the enemy's vessels, and thus ex- 
 
A SHIPWEECK. 29 
 
 peditiouslj provide for the necessities of the 
 whole. Thomas Herbert had the good for- 
 tune to realize these exj)ectations by secur- 
 ing a prize which yielded supplies to the 
 value of eighteen hundred pounds. 
 
 His last recorded exj)loit displays the kind- 
 ness which is the almost constant accom- 
 paniment of true bravery. While conduct- 
 ing Count Mansfelt to Holland, the vessel in 
 which they were embarked ran aground. It 
 was not far from the shore. The Count with 
 his train were placed in the long boat, Her- 
 bert refusing to accompany them, that he 
 might remain to assist the master in his 
 efforts to save the vessel. He was the last, 
 with the exception of the captain, after the 
 hopelessness of these exertions became ap- 
 parent, to abandon the wreck. It must have 
 been a dangerous service, as the captain, re- 
 fusing to leave, was lost with the ship. 
 
 The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, seems to 
 have shared the feeble constitution of her 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 brother George. "The latter end of her 
 time," says Lord Herbert, "was the most 
 sickly and miserable that hath been known 
 in onr times. For the space of about four- 
 teen years she languished and pined away to 
 skin and bones." She married "Sir Henry 
 Jones, of Albemarles." Margaret, the next 
 daughter, became the wife of a Welsh neigh- 
 bor, John Yaughan, of Llwydiart. Frances, 
 the youngest, married Sir John Brown, 
 " Knight in Lincolnshire." These ladies all 
 became exem^^lary matrons. 
 
CHAPTEE in. 
 
 THE MOTHER OF GEORGE HERBERT — HER MOTHER, MAR- 
 GARET NEWPORT DEATH OF GEORGE HERBERT'8 FA- 
 THER HIS EARLY EDrCATIOX— WESTMINSTER SCHOOL 
 
 HIS master's ANTICIPATIONS CAMBRIDGE —HIS FIRST 
 
 POEM — MRS. Herbert's intimacy with dr. donne — 
 
 THE AUTUMNAL BEAUTY HISTORY OF THEIR FRIEND- 
 SHIP — MRS. Herbert's residence at oxford — donne's 
 
 LINES TO EDWARD HERBERT MRS. HERBERT'S CARE OF 
 
 HER CHILDREN. 
 
 THE mother of the large and gifted 
 family, whose varied and eventful for- 
 tunes we have briefly sketched, was one well 
 fitted to bear the important duties of her 
 position. She had herself enjoyed the ad- 
 vantages of careful maternal training, her 
 mother, Lady Margaret IS^ewport, who be- 
 came a widow at an early age, devoting her 
 entire attention to the care of her family and 
 
32 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 
 
 to works of piety and benevolence. We read 
 of her as ^' most assiduous and devout in her 
 daily, both private and public, prayers," and 
 that, in addition to a bountiful hospitality, 
 ^' she used ever after dinner to distribute 
 with her own hands to the poor, wlio re- 
 sorted to her in great numbers, alms in 
 money, to every one of them more or less, as 
 she thought they needed it." 
 
 Mrs. Herbert, under somewhat similar cir- 
 cumstances, exhibited kindred maternal vir- 
 tues. She furnishes one of the many ex- 
 amples among the mothers of great men, of 
 the possession of the eminent virtues and 
 talents which have won the admiration and 
 affection of the world. Fortunately for our 
 readers, she will often appear in these pages. 
 
 "We now return to George Herbert. At 
 the early age of four years he had the mis- 
 fortune to lose his father, who had for some 
 time suffered from a lingering, wasting dis- 
 ease. George received, under the super- 
 
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 33 
 
 vision of his mother, the rudiments of 
 education from a tutor who resided in the 
 family. When he was twelve years old he 
 entered Westminster School, a celebrated 
 institution of learning connected with the 
 world-renowned Abbey. 
 
 By the kind influence of Dr. ISTeale, Dean 
 of Westminster, he was especially com-' 
 mended to the care of the head master, Mr. 
 Ireland. He soon gained the respect and 
 affection of this gentleman, and of the other 
 teachers, as well as of his fellow-scholars, by 
 his gentle and winning manners. He already 
 began to do good in the world by helping 
 others, and by the quiet influence of a good 
 example. By applying himself earnestly to 
 his studies his duty became his pleasure, and, 
 strange as it may appear to lazy schoolboys, 
 he learned to love Latin and Greek. At the 
 age of fifteen he was elected, on account of 
 his good scholarship, a student of Tiinity 
 College, Cambridge. He quitted West- 
 
34 CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 minster in company with Jolm Hacket, 
 afterward Bisliop of Lichfield. Mr. Ireland, 
 foreseeing the future eminence from the 
 present promise of his two pupils, remarked 
 to them at parting, "that he expected to 
 have credit from them two at the University, 
 or he would never hope for it afterwards 
 while he lived." 
 
 Cambridge, like Oxford, derives its fame 
 and importance almost entirely from the 
 many institutions of learning gathered within 
 its boundaries. The colleges stand for the 
 most part side by side, facing a long and 
 handsome street. Their walls do not toach, 
 for each possesses grounds of beautifully ver- 
 dant and closely shorn greensward, almost 
 as soft to the foot as a bed of moss. Back 
 of these flows the Cam, a placid stream of 
 only a few yards in width. It is spanned by 
 several fine bridges w^hich afford ready 
 access to beautiful lawns and gardens. As 
 the entire space is devoted to pleasure 
 
COLLEGE LAWNS. 35 
 
 grounds, an uninterrupted view is afforded 
 of tlie colleges, with their noble towers and 
 pinnacles, the high-ridged roofs of their 
 chapels and halls, the ivy-clad walls of their 
 quadrangles (the large court around which 
 rise the buildings for the residence and in^ 
 struction of the students), and beautifully 
 carved portals whose thresholds were even 
 then worn by the footsteps of successive 
 generations. The only interruption to the 
 free range of the spectator's glance is an en- 
 hancement rather than a diminution of his 
 pleasure. Trees of noble growth are scat- 
 tered over the grounds or border stately 
 avenues. "We may wander in comfort at hot 
 noontide beneath their shelter, or admire the 
 effect of the long shadows over lawn and 
 gable at eventide. 
 
 Most of these charms were present to the 
 eye of the scholar of Herbert's day, as to 
 the generation which happily still peoples 
 these retreats. His was not a mind to neg- 
 
36 A NEW year's gift. 
 
 lect siicli advantages. The scenes of his 
 childhood had trained his taste for the bean 
 ties of art and natnre, and his Maker had 
 endowed him with the happy faculty by 
 which his mental enjoyments could be im- 
 parted to others. 
 
 The first of his poems of which we find an 
 account in his biographer Walton, was ad- 
 dressed to his mother on the first E'ew Year's 
 day after his establishment at Cambridge. 
 In the letter accompanying these verses, 
 after lamenting that the writers of his day 
 devoted their time and talents to trivial and 
 often wicked themes, he says, " For my own 
 part, my meaning (dear mother) is, in these 
 sonnets, to declare my resolution to be, that 
 my poor abilities in poetry shall be all and 
 ever consecrated to God's glory." 
 
 We extract " these sonnets" for their own 
 merits, in addition to the interest con- 
 nected with them as the first recorded pro- 
 duction of their author. The true " ancient 
 
SONNETS. 37 
 
 heat" of poetry as well as devotion glows 
 in them. 
 
 My God where is that ancient heat towards thee 
 Wherewith whole shoals of martyi-s once did hum, 
 
 Besides their other flames ? Doth poetry- 
 Wear Venus' livery ? only serve her turn ? 
 
 Why are not sonnets made of thee ? and lays 
 Upon thine altar burnt ? Cannot thy love 
 
 Heighten a spirit to sound out thy praise 
 As well as any she ? Cannot thy dove 
 
 Outstrip their Cupid easily in flight ? 
 
 Or, since thy ways are deep, and still the same, 
 Will not a verse run smooth that hears thy name ? 
 
 Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might 
 Each breast does feel, no braver fewel choose » 
 
 Than that, which one day worms may chance refuse. 
 
 Sure, Lord, there is enough in thee to dry 
 
 Oceans of ink ; for, as the deluge did 
 Cover the earth, so doth thy Majesty : 
 
 Each cloud distils thy praise, and doth forbid 
 Poets to turn it to another use. 
 
 Roses and lilies speak thee ; and to make 
 A pair of cheeks of them is thy abuse. 
 
 Why should I women's eyes for crystal take ? 
 Such poor invention burns in their low mind 
 
 Whose fire is wild and doth not upward go 
 
 To praise, and on thee, Lord, some ink bestow. 
 Open the bones, and you shall nothing find 
 
 In the best face but filth ; when, Lord, in thee 
 
 The beauty lies in the discovery. 
 
 4 
 
38 THE AUTUMNAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The mother could not fail to appreciate 
 and encourage the exertions of her son. Her 
 brilliant natural acquirements had been cul- 
 tivated by intercourse with some of the most 
 gifted men of the age. She was an intimate 
 friend of Dr. John Donne, afterwards Dean 
 or chief pastor of St. Paul's Cathedral in 
 London, one of the most esteemed poets of 
 his day, and a learned and eloquent divine. 
 The verses addressed to her by Donne show 
 his high estimate of her mental qualifications. 
 Avoiding the low flattery by which a com- 
 mon mind would perhaps have striven to 
 make the object of his praises forgetful of 
 the advances of age, he styles her, with sim- 
 plicity and sincerity, The Autumnal Beauty. 
 A few of his best turned lines and compli- 
 ments may be given : 
 
 No Spring, nor Summer's beauty hath such grace, 
 As I have seen in one autumnal face. 
 
 «- c- 5;;5 c- » 
 
 Were her first year? the golden age ? that's true ; 
 But now she's gold oft tried, and ever new. 
 
MRS. HEEBEKT AT OXFORD, 39 
 
 That was her torrid and inflaming time ; 
 
 This is her habitable tropic clime. 
 
 Fair eyes, who asks more heat than comes from hence, 
 
 He in a fever wishes pestilence. 
 
 a ?f w « « 
 
 In all her words, unto all hearers fit, 
 You may at revels, you at councils sit.-^ 
 
 The circumstancea which led to this 
 pleasant friendship throw so much light on 
 the noble character of this Christian mother 
 that it would be unpardonable to omit the 
 narration. It arose during her residence in 
 Oxford, to which place she had removed in 
 order to superintend the training of her 
 eldest son Edward, who had entered Queen's 
 College in that city. She provided him with 
 a well-qualified tutor and remained near, 
 that the quiet influence of her presence and 
 the pleasure of her society might guard and 
 divert him from the temptations to which 
 youth are liable. In the words of Walton, 
 " She continued there with him, and still 
 kept him in a moderate awe of herself, and 
 <* Donne's Poems. Boston, 1855, p. 344. 
 
40 EDUCATION. 
 
 SO much under her own eye, as to see and 
 converse with him daily; but she managed 
 this power over him without any such rigid 
 sourness as might make her company a tor- 
 ment to her child, but with such a sweetness 
 and compliance with the recreations and 
 pleasures of youth, as did incline him wil- 
 lingly to spend much of his time in the com- 
 pany of his dear and careful mother ; which 
 was to her great content, for she would often 
 say, ' That as our bodies take a nourishment 
 suitable to the meat on which we feed, so our 
 souls do as insensibly take in vice by the ex- 
 ample or conversation with wicked com- 
 pany.' And would, therefore, as often say, 
 'That ignorance of vice was the best pre- 
 servative of virtue ; and that the very knowl- 
 edo-e of wickedness w^as as tinder to inflame 
 and kindle sin, and to keep it burning.' For 
 these reasons she endeared him to her own 
 company, and continued with him in Oxford 
 four years." 
 
THE FRIENDS. 41 
 
 It was during this long residence that she 
 became acquainted with Mr., afterwards Dr., 
 John Donne. He had not yet entered the 
 ministry. " She not only aided him by her 
 counsel and sympathy, but also with her 
 purse, an assistance rendered necessary by 
 the frequent exhaustion of his slender means 
 in the support of his wife and seven children. 
 His letters as w^ell as poems bear evidence 
 of his appreciation of these kindnesses, and 
 his future eminence shows the aid to have 
 been wisely appropriated. 
 
 The friendship was life-long, and was ex- 
 tended as warmly to her sons as to herself. 
 He addresses the eldest, Edward, at the 
 Siege of Juliers, at the close of a poetical 
 epistle : 
 
 As brave as true is that profession than, 
 Which you do use to make ; that you know man. 
 This makes it credible you've dwelt upon 
 All worthy books, and now are such a one ; 
 Actions are authors, and of those in you 
 Your friends find every day a mart of new. 
 
 4* 
 
42 SWIMMING AND OBEDIENCE. 
 
 He was also, as we shall see, the con- 
 stant friend and ardent admirer of onr 
 hero. 
 
 A curious instance of Mrs. Herbert's care 
 of her children is given in her son, Lord 
 Herbert of Cherbnry's Autobiography, and 
 may be fitly inserted here. He is enu- 
 umerating the essentials of a liberal educa- 
 tion : 
 
 " It will be fit for a gentleman also to learn 
 to swim, unless he be given to cramps and 
 convulsions ; howbeit I must confess in my 
 own particular that I cannot swim, for as I 
 was once in danger of drowning by learning 
 to swim, my mother upon her blessing 
 charged me never to learn swimming, tell- 
 ing me further, that she had heard of more 
 drowned than saved by it, which reason, 
 though it did not prevail with me, yet her 
 commandment did." "We may, like the son, 
 be unconvinced by the " reason," but it is im- 
 possible not to admire the example of obedi- 
 
OBEDIENCE. 43 
 
 ence. It is a liappy illustration of the poet's 
 time, 
 
 When a parent's will 
 
 Was sacred still, 
 
 As a law by his children heeded. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 MES. HEEBEEt's MAEEIAGE TO 8IE JOHN DANVEES — • 
 
 GEOEGE HEEBEET AT CAMBEIDGE MADE A FELLOW OF 
 
 TEINITY COLLEGE HIS DEPOETMENT PEEVALENT 
 
 LOVE OF DEESS — HEEBEEt's DESIEE FOE BOOKS STATE 
 
 OF HIS HEALTH HIS BEOTHEB HENEY AND SICK 
 
 SISTER — DISTEIBUTION OF HIS FATHEE's ESTATE HIS 
 
 INCOME SIE JOHN DANYEES' LIBEEALITY " FAVOES 
 
 COME ON HOESEBACK." 
 
 MES. HERBERT did not, as in the case 
 of lier son Edward, accompany George 
 to college, her recent marriage to Sir 
 John Danvers — ^brother and heir to Lord 
 Danvers, Earl of -I>erhy — imposing new 
 duties elsewhere. It was probably also felt 
 that the youth's feet were already set in the 
 ways of a pleasantness to which earthly 
 temptations could offer no counter attraction, 
 and that he could thus be safely left in some 
 
ArrolNTED A MINOR FELLOW. 45 
 
 measure to tlie guidance of his own judg- 
 ment. His mother's care and influence, 
 however, procured for him the protection of 
 Dr. IN'evil, Dean of Canterbury and master 
 of his college. He was hospitably enter- 
 tained by this gentleman, and provided with 
 a tutor to aid and direct his studies. 
 
 " I need not declare," says Walton of 
 George Herbert at this time, " that he was a 
 strict student, because that he was so, there 
 will be many testimonies in the future part 
 of his life." He passed through his col- 
 legiate course with honor, and in the year 
 1612 received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
 On the 3d of October, 1614, he obtained the 
 appointment of Minor Fellow of his college. 
 
 Herbert was at this time somewhat re- 
 served in his deportment. He associated 
 with but few persons, but these were selected 
 for their sterling worth. One of his most in- 
 timate friends was Mr. Mcholas Ferrar, then 
 a student of Clare Hall. We shall have occa- 
 
46 FOPPISHNESS. 
 
 sion to speak of him at length, at a later 
 period of his career. 
 
 "We can hardly expect to find any young 
 man entirely free from the foibles of those by 
 whom he is surrounded. Extravagance in 
 attire is a frequent weakness with college 
 students, and one from which Herbert does 
 not appear to have been exempt. It was a 
 prevalent folly of the age, indulged in not 
 only by inexperienced youth, but by many 
 of the first men of the state. " Courtiers," it 
 is said, "placed fiowers behind their ears, 
 and one of the most elegant noblemen of the 
 age, William, Earl of Pembroke, a kinsman 
 of Herbert, wore ear-rings."* The Chandos 
 portrait of Shakspeare shows that he in- 
 dulged in the same questionable ornament. 
 It attained such a height among the unthink- 
 ing youth at the universities, that a curious 
 regulation was issued by the Yice-Chancellor 
 
 « Willmott's Lives of Sacred Poets. 
 
MASTER OF ARTS. 47 
 
 of Cambridge, in 1614, forbidding " strange 
 pekadivelas, vast bands, huge cuffs, shoe 
 roses, tufts, locks and topps of hair, unbe- 
 seeming the modesty and carridge of stu- 
 dents in so renowned an Universitje," under 
 penalty of a fine of six shillings and eight- 
 pence, with a month's imprisonment. The 
 close cropped hair and " sad coloured" 
 clothes of the Puritans were a natural though 
 excessive protest against the prevalent ex- 
 travagance. 
 
 In March, 1615, Mr. Herbert was made a 
 Major Fellow of his college. In the follow- 
 ing year he received the degree of Master of 
 Arts. A letter, bearing date March 18, 
 1617, addressed to his/ather-in4aw, furnishes 
 us with some interesting particulars relating 
 to his position at the time. It opens with an 
 appeal for aid in the purchase of books. 
 
 "You know, sir," he says, " how I am now 
 setting foot in divinity, to lay the platform 
 of my future life, and shall I then be fain al- 
 
48 A PLEA FOR BOOKS. 
 
 ways to borrow books, and build on an- 
 other's foundation ? "What tradesman is there 
 who will set up without his tools ?" 
 
 His next plea is an adroit one : " My friends 
 would have been forward to say, if I had 
 taken ill courses, 'Follow your book, and 
 you shall want nothing.' You know, sir, it 
 is their ordinary speech, and now let them 
 make it good ; for since, I hope, I have not 
 deceived their expectation, let them not de- 
 ceive mine. But; perhaps, they will say, 
 ' You are sickly ; you must not study too 
 hard.' It is true (God knows) I am weak, 
 yet not so but that every day I may step 
 one step towards my journey's end ; and I 
 love my friends so well, that if all things 
 proved not well, I had rather the fault should 
 lie on me than on them." 
 
 His weak health has, he urges, forced him 
 to expenditures. " You know I was sick last 
 vacation ; neither am I yet recovered, so 
 that I am fain, ever and anon, to buy some- 
 
STRAITENED CIRCUMSTANCES. 49 
 
 what tending towards mj health, for in- 
 firmities are both painful and costly. JN'ow, 
 this Lent, I am forbid utterly to eat any fish, 
 so that I am fain to diet in my chambers at 
 my own cost ; for in our public halls, you 
 know, is nothing but fish and w^hite meats. 
 Out of Lent, also, twice a week, on Fridays 
 and Saturdays, I must do so, which yet some- 
 times I fast. Sometimes also I ride to IS'ew- 
 market, and there lie a day or two for to 
 refresh me ; all wdiich tend to avoiding cost- 
 lier matters if I should fall absolutely sick. 
 I protest and vow I even study thrift, and 
 yet I am scarce able, with much ado, to 
 make one half year's allow^ance shake hands 
 with the other ; and yet, if a book of four or 
 five shillings come in my way, I buy it, 
 though I fast for it ; yea, sometimes of ten 
 shillings. But, alas, sir, what is that to those 
 infinite volumes of divinity which yet every 
 day swell and grow bigger?" 
 
 " Noble sir," he earnestly concludes, " par- 
 5 
 
50 BOOKS FKOM ABEOAD. 
 
 don my boldness, and consider but these 
 three things. First, the bulk of divinity ; 
 secondly, the time when I desire this (which 
 is now when I must lay the foundation of 
 my whole life) ; thirdly, what I desire, and 
 to what end — not vain pleasures, nor to a 
 vain end. If, then, sir, there be any course, 
 either by engaging my future annuity, or 
 any other way, I desire you, sir, to be my 
 mediator with them on my behalf. IN'ow I 
 write to you, sir, because to you I have ever 
 opened my heart, and have reason, by the 
 patent of your perpetual favor, to do so still, 
 for I am sure you love 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " Geoege Heebeet." 
 
 In a second letter, without date, but writ- 
 ten about the same time, he informs his 
 father-in-law. that his brother Henry has pur- 
 chased a parcel of books for him on the Con- 
 tinent, and that they are now on the way 
 
WAYS AND MEANS. 61 
 
 home. He proposes to pay for these in part 
 by calling upon his sister for the sum of five 
 or six pounds which she had previously of- 
 fered him for the increase of his library ; but 
 which he had at the time declined, as the 
 books he required could not be obtained in 
 the country. To meet the remaining indebt- 
 edness, he proposes that his annuity from his 
 father's estate should be doubled, on condi- 
 tion that when he shall have obtained a 
 benefice or parish, it shall entirely cease. 
 This accomplished, "I shall forever after 
 cease my clamorous and greedy bookish re- 
 quests. It is high time," he concludes, " that 
 I should be no more a burden to you, since I 
 can never answer what I have already re- 
 ceived ; for your favors are so ancient that 
 they prevent my memory, and yet still grow 
 upon " Your humble servant, 
 
 "Geokge Herbekt." 
 
 "I remember," he adds in a postscript, 
 
52 ANNUITIES. 
 
 " my most humble duty to my mother ; 1 
 have wrote to my dear sick sister this week 
 already, and therefore now I hope may be 
 excused." 
 
 The sister was the invalid Lady Jones, of 
 whom we have already spoken. We learn 
 the circumstances of the annuity from Lord 
 Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography. 
 
 " My father made either no will, or such 
 an imperfect one, that it was not proved. 
 My mother, though she had all my father's 
 leases and goods, which were of great value, 
 yet she desired me to undertake that burden 
 of providing for my brothers and sisters, 
 which, to gratify my mother as well as those 
 so near me, I was voluntarily content to pro- 
 vide thus far as to give my six brothers 
 thirty pounds apiece yearly during their lives, 
 and my three sisters a thousand pounds 
 apiece, which portions married them to those 
 I have above-mentioned." 
 
 In addition to this thirty pounds a year, 
 
A KIND F^THEll-IX-LAW. 53 
 
 Mr. Herbert was in the receipt of a smaller 
 annual stipend from his fellowship. The 
 total income is estimated by Mr. Willmott* 
 as a fair allowance for the wants of a student 
 at the period, money being then worth at 
 least treble its present value. The some- 
 what rash proposal respecting the annuity 
 was probably not entertained. 
 
 These letters furnish us with pleasant evi- 
 dence of the kind relations existing between 
 Herbert and Sir John Danvers. Another 
 instance of the step-father's liberality and 
 the student's gratitude will be found in the 
 following quaintly worded acknowledgment 
 of the gift of a horse : 
 
 " Sm — Though I had the best wit in the 
 world, yet it would easily tire me to find out 
 variety of thanks for the diversity of your 
 favors, if I sought to do so ; but I pro- 
 fess it not ; and, therefore, let it be sufficient 
 
 « Lives of Sacred Poets, p. 239. 
 5^ 
 
54 FAVOES COME ON HOKSEBACK. 
 
 for me that the heart which you have won 
 long since, is still true to you, and hath noth- 
 ing else to answer your infinite kindnesses 
 but a constancy of obedience ; only, here- 
 after, I will take heed how I propose my 
 desires unto you, since I find you so willing 
 to yield to my requests ; for since your favors 
 come on horseback, there is reason that my 
 desires should go on foot. ISTeither do I 
 make any question but that you have per- 
 formed your kindness to the full, and that 
 the horse is every way fit for me, and I will 
 strive to imitate the completeness of your 
 love," etc. 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 MR. HERBERT ORATOR OF THE UlSriVERSITY HIS LETTER 
 
 TO KINa JAMES THE BASILIOOX DOROX ANDREW 
 
 MELVIjST LORD BACON AND BISHOP ANDREWS HER- 
 BERT'S GREEK LETTER HERBERT'S COURTIER TASTES 
 
 AND HOPES HIS SINECURE MRS. HERBERT'S YIEWS 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT — SOCIAL POSITION OF THE CLERGY 
 
 HERBERT'S VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT. 
 
 OIT the 21st of October, 1619, Mr. Her- 
 bert was appointed Orator of the Uni- 
 versity. He explains the duties and priv- 
 ileges of his new office in a letter written 
 about this time to Sir John Danvers. 
 
 " The orator's place (that jou may under- 
 stand what it is) is the finest place in the 
 University, though not the gainfullest ; yet 
 that will be about £30 per annum, but the 
 commodiousness is beyond the revenue ; for 
 
56 B A SILICON DORON. 
 
 the orator writes all the University letters, 
 makes all the orations, be it to King, Prince, 
 or whatever comes to the University ; to re- 
 quite these pains, he takes place next the 
 doctors, is at all their assemblies and meet- 
 ings, and sits above the proctors, is regent, 
 or non-regent at his pleasm-e, and such like 
 gaynesses, which will please a young man 
 well." 
 
 Herbert soon distinguished himself in his 
 office. King James, who prided himself on 
 his scholarship and literary ability, presented 
 to the University a copy of a book which he 
 had written, entitled, '' Basilicon Doron ; or. 
 His Majesty's Instruction to his dearest son, 
 Henry the Prince." It was published, some 
 time after the date of its composition, in 
 1599. Its good sense and w^ise counsel did 
 much (it is said by Archbishop Spotswood 
 and the great antiquarian Camden) to secure 
 its author's accession to the throne of En- 
 gland. It is the best of the King's numerous 
 
THE JEWEL OF THE tTNIVERSITY. 57 
 
 writings. Henry the Prince was the eldest 
 brother of Charles the First. He died in 
 1612, at the age of nineteen. 
 
 A fitting acknowledgment had, of course, 
 to be rendered for the royal gift. The del- 
 icate duty fell upon Mr. Herbert. His 
 Latin letter of thanks was so well written, 
 and its complimentary phrases so happily 
 turned, that the monarch, greatly delighted, 
 inquired of William, Earl of Pembroke, 
 about its author. The nobleman replied, 
 " That he knew him very well, and that he 
 was his kinsman ; but he loved him more for 
 his learning and virtue than for that he was 
 of his name and family." "At which 
 answer," says "Walton, " the King smiled, 
 and asked the Earl leave 'That he might 
 love him too ; for he took him to be the 
 jewel of that University.' " 
 
 The good opinion thus formed was in- 
 creased as the King became personally ac- 
 quainted with the orator. The royal visits 
 
68 EEPLY TO ANDREW MELVIN. 
 
 to the University were, of course, occasions 
 of great ceremony. The Orator was the 
 spokesman of the learned body, and acquit- 
 ted himself so much to the satisfaction of his 
 hearer, that he was, on one occasion, sum- 
 moned to attend the monarch during a hunt- 
 ing excursion at Koyston, an estate not far 
 distant from Cambridge. The King was so 
 well pleased with his companion's conversa- 
 tion that he afterwards remarked to the Earl 
 of Pembroke, "That he found the Orator's 
 learning and wisdom much above his age or 
 wit." 
 
 Mr. Herbert could, on occasion, blame as 
 well as praise, satirize as well as compliment. 
 His Latin verses in reply to certain bitter 
 attacks on the English liturgy and ordinances 
 by Andrew Melvin, a distinguished clergy- 
 man of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 
 were regarded as happy in style and success- 
 ful in argument. They were published in 
 1662 by James Duport, Greek Professor of 
 
LETTER TO MRS. HERBERT. 69 
 
 Cambridge, Dean of Peterborough and Master 
 of Magdalen College, at the close of a volume 
 of Latin verses from bis own pen. The pref- 
 ace contains a brief but emphatic testimony 
 from this eminent scholar and divine to the 
 ability, learning, and piety of their author. 
 
 A letter written at this period by Mr. Her- 
 bert to his mother, then suffering from severe 
 and long-continued illness, presents us with 
 a beautiful evidence of his reverent and 
 grateful affection. We quote a portion : 
 
 " For myself, dear mother, I always feared 
 sickness more than death ; because sickness 
 hath made me unable to perform those offices 
 for which I came into the world, and must 
 yet be kept in it ; but you are freed from 
 that fear, who have already abundantly dis- 
 charged that part, having both ordered your 
 family and so brought up your children that 
 they have attained to the years of discretion 
 and competent maintenance. So that now, 
 if they do not well, the fault cannot be 
 
60 THE USE OF RICHES. 
 
 cliarged on yon, whose example and care of 
 them will jnstify yon both to the world and 
 yonr own conscience ; insomnch that whether 
 you turn your thoughts on the life past, or 
 on the joys that are to come, you have 
 strong preservatives against all disquiet. 
 And for temporal affections I beseech you 
 consider, all that can happen to you are 
 either afflictions of estate, or body, or mind. 
 For those of estate, of what poor regard ought 
 they to be, since if we had riches we are 
 commanded to give them away ? so that the 
 best use of them is, having, not to have 
 them. But, perhaps, being above the com- 
 mon people, our credit and estimation calls 
 on us to live in a more splendid fashion. 
 But, O God! how easily is that answered, 
 when we consider that the blessings in the 
 holy Scripture are never given to the rich, 
 but to the poor. I never find, ' Blessed be 
 the rich,' or ' Blessed be the noble ;' but 
 Blessed he the mee'k^ and Blessed he the poor^ 
 
AFFLICTIONS OF BODY AND SOUL. 61 
 
 and Blessed he the laourners^for they shall 
 he comforted. And yet, O God ! most cany 
 tliemselves so as if they not only not desired, 
 but even feared to be blessed. And for af- 
 flictions of tlie body, dear Madam, remember 
 the holy martyrs of God, how they have 
 been burned by thousands, and have endured 
 such other tortures as the very mention of 
 them might beget amazement; but their 
 fiery trials have had an end, and yours 
 (which praised be God, are less) are not like 
 to continue long. I beseech you, let such 
 thoughts as these moderate your present fear 
 and sorrow ; and know that if any of yours 
 should prove a Goliah-like trouble, yet you 
 may say with David, That God^ who de- 
 livered me out of the i^aios of the lion and 
 hear^ will also deliver me out of the hands of 
 this xmcircumcised Philistine. Lastly, for 
 those afflictions of the soul, consider that 
 God intends that to be as a sacred temple for 
 himself to dwell in, and will not allow any 
 6 
 
62 REJOICE ALWAY. 
 
 roo n there for such an inmate as grief, or 
 allow that any sadness shall be his com- 
 petitor. And, above all, if any care of future 
 things molest you, remember those admirable 
 words of the Psalmist : Cast thy care on the 
 Lord^ and he shall nourish thee. (Psalm Iv.) 
 To Avhich join that of St. Peter: Casting all 
 your care on him^ for he careth for you. 
 (1 Peter v. 7.) What an admirable thing is 
 this, that God puts his shoulder to our burden, 
 and entertains our care for us that we may 
 the more quietly intend his service ! To con- 
 clude, let me commend only one place more 
 to you (Philip, iv. 4) ; St. Paul saith there, 
 Rejoice in the Lord alway. And again I 
 say^ rejoice. He doubles it to take away 
 the scruple of those that might say, ' What ! 
 shall we rejoice in afflictions ? Yes, I say 
 again rejoice ; so that it is not left to us to 
 rejoice or not rejoice ; but whatsoever befals 
 us, we must always, at all times, rejoice in 
 the Lord, who taketh care for us. And it 
 
LORD BACON. 63 
 
 follows in the next verse : Let your rnodera- 
 tion appear unto all men: The Lord is at 
 hand : Be careful for nothing. What can 
 be said more comfortably? Trouble not 
 yourselves; God is at hand to deliver ns 
 from all, or in all. Dear Madam, pardon my 
 boldness, and accept the good meaning of 
 " Your most obedient son, 
 
 " Geokge Hekbeet." 
 
 During one of the King's visits to the Uni. 
 versity he was accompanied by Lord Bacon, 
 and Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winchester. 
 Both of these great men became acquainted 
 with Mr. Herbert, and were soon warmly at- 
 tached to him. Lord Bacon was afterwards 
 accustomed to solicit Mr. Herbert's opinion 
 before sending the manuscript of his works 
 to the printer, and gave a public proof of his 
 esteem by dedicating his translation of a por- 
 tion of the Psalms of David to " his very 
 good friend, Mr. George Herbert." 
 
64 BISHOP Andrews' letter. 
 
 Bishop Andrews testified his respect by 
 carrying about Avitli bim a letter written by 
 Mr. Herbert in the Greek language after a 
 long conversation between the two on " pre- 
 destination and sanctity of life." " The 
 Bishop," to quote the warm-hearted words of 
 Walton, ''put it into his bosom, and did 
 often show it to many scholars, both of this 
 and foreign nations ; but did always return 
 it back to the place where he first lodged it, 
 and continued it so near his heart till the last 
 day of his life." 
 
 The favorable estimation in which the 
 Orator was held by royalty easily led to fre- 
 quent visits to the Court. It was but natural 
 that a well-endowed young man, of good 
 family, should be attracted to public life. 
 He had every prospect of success. The King- 
 had already bestowed upon him a sinecure, 
 with a salary of two hundred j)ounds a year, 
 an incident which connects his name pleas- 
 antly with that of another gallant gentleman 
 
TOO SHAKP A WIT. 65 
 
 and good Christian, Sir Pliilip Sidney, who 
 had held the same easy office by the favor 
 and in the days of " good Queen Bess." He 
 could safely hope for other benefactions from 
 the same high source. He saw his brothers 
 already entering upon the wished-for career. 
 He had the natural desire of a young and 
 educated mind to visit foreign countries. 
 His slight frame suffered from the effects of 
 severe study and mental exertion. In his 
 own words, " He had too thoughtful a wit ; 
 a wit, like a pen-knife in too narrow a sheath, 
 too sharp for his body." 
 
 It must also be admitted that he betrayed 
 some of the weaknesses of a courtier. Ac- 
 cording to Bishop Williams in his " Life of 
 Archbishop Hacket," "Mr. Herbert," on a 
 public occasion in 1618, " passed by those 
 fluent orators that domineered in the pulpits 
 of Athens and Eome, and insisted to read 
 upon an oration of IGng James, which he 
 analyzed, showed the concinnity of the parts. 
 
66 COURTLY AMBITION. 
 
 the propriety of the phrase, the height and 
 power of it to move the affections, the style 
 "Utterly unknown to the ancients, who could 
 not conceive what Mngly eloquence was ; in 
 respect of which those noted demagogi were 
 but hirelings and tributary rhetoricians." 
 
 "We also find that he absented himself 
 from his college. "He seldom looked to- 
 wards Cambridge," says "Walton, " nnless the 
 King were there, but then he never failed." 
 He looked, however, to a conrt life of public 
 duty rather than of private ease, his ambi- 
 tion pointing him to the office of Secretary 
 of State, a position which had been held by 
 earlier membei-s of his family. His mother, 
 whose wise forethought had already, as we 
 shall soon see, anticipated his appropriate 
 career, " would by no means allow him to 
 leave the University or to travel ; and though 
 be inclined very much to both, yet he wonld 
 by no means satisfy his own desires at so 
 dear a rate as to prove an nndutiful son to so 
 
THE CHOICE. 07 
 
 affectionate a motlier ; but did always submit 
 to her wisdom." 
 
 A liiglier power was, however, to settle 
 the question. While thus undecided as to 
 his future career, the death of two of his 
 most j)owerful and attached friends, Lodo- 
 wick, Duke of Eichmond, and James, Mar- 
 quis of Hamilton, followed soon after by that 
 of the King, removed the tempting hopes of 
 court preferment. We next hear of him in 
 the retirement of a friend's country residence 
 in the pleasant county of Kent, near Lon- 
 don, where he passed through his last debate 
 between a court and a clerical life. We now 
 find his mother exerting her powerful in- 
 fluence in favor of the latter. His choice 
 was made not long after. The ^'painted 
 pleasures of a court life," still attractive, 
 for he still possessed good position, and 
 could command powerful influence, were 
 abandoned for the highest of earthly voca- 
 tions. 
 
68 SOCIAL POSITION OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 , The ministry was not then held in the 
 same social esteem as at present. Mr. Her- 
 bert was urged by " a court friend" in Lon- 
 don to give up his proposed calling '' as too 
 mean an employment, and too much below 
 his birth, and the excellent abilities and en- 
 dowments of his mind." His reply was in 
 these earnest, sensible, and memorable 
 words: "It hath been formerly adjudged 
 that the domestic servants of the King of 
 heaven should be of the noblest families on 
 earth ; and though the iniquity of the late 
 times have made clergymen meanly valued, 
 and the sacred name of Priest contemptible ; 
 yet I w^ill labor to make it honorable by con- 
 secrating all my learning and all my poor 
 abilities to advance the glory of that God 
 that gave them ; knowing that I can never 
 do too much for him that hath done so much 
 for me as to make me a Christian. And I 
 will labor to be like my Saviour, by making 
 humility lovely in the eyes of all men, and 
 
POSITION OF THE CLERGY. 69 
 
 by following the merciful and meek ex- 
 ample of my dear Jesus." 
 
 Tliis j)assage is interesting not only as 
 showing us the struggle in Herbert's mind, 
 but also as throwing light upon the position 
 of the clergy at that time. In studying 
 biography we must always strive to identify 
 ourselves with the age in which the hero of 
 our story lived. The passage we have quot- 
 ed was written near the commencement of 
 the reign of Charles the First. It was not 
 long since Protestantism had been estab- 
 lished in England. The Church had been 
 disturbed by those who sided with the views 
 of the Continental reformers. The gift of 
 livings, or " calls," as we term them, was in 
 the hands of the nobles and landed pro- 
 prietors, and favoritism could hardly fail to 
 be exercised in the appointments to bene- 
 fices. All of these circumstances affected 
 the social rank of the clergy. 
 
CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 MR. HEEBERT 0RDAI]S:ED DEACON — PREBENDARY OF LEIGH- 
 TON RESTORATION OF THE PARISH CHURCH — HIS MO- 
 THER'S OBJECTIONS THE EARL OF PEMBROKE " SID- 
 NEY'S SISTER, Pembroke's mother" — death of mrs. 
 
 HERBERT DR. DONNe's FUNERAL SERMON MR. HER- 
 BERT'S VERSES TO HIS MOTHER's MEMORY DR. DONNE'S 
 
 RINGS "the anchor AND CHRIST." 
 
 MK. HEKBEET at once commenced his 
 divinity studies, and was, within a few 
 months, ordained Deacon. He was soon 
 after appointed Prebendary of Leighton, a 
 village in the county of Huntingdon. 
 
 A Prebendary is one of the officers of a ca- 
 thedral, and is so called " from the assistance 
 which the Church afforded him in meat, 
 drink, and other necessaries," a prebend being 
 " an endowment in land, or pension in 
 money, given to a cathedral or conventual 
 
"Ill ii. 
 
 'igiiiSi iiir'""!' 
 
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 71 
 
 cliurcli in jprcebendutn : that is, for a main- 
 tenance of a secular priest or regular canon, 
 wlio was a Prebendary, as supported by the 
 said prebend." The office in Mr. Herbert's 
 time could be held by a layman, as it was 
 not until the thirteenth year of the reign of 
 King Charles the Second that the law re- 
 quiring all persons holding such offices to be 
 in priests' orders, was passed.* 
 
 By the acceptance of this prebend Mr. 
 Herbert became connected with the Cathedral 
 of Lincoln, one of the largest and most im- 
 portant of the great religious endowments of 
 England. These, founded long before the 
 Reformation, were fortunately preserved, 
 during the unavoidable confusion attending 
 that great and happy change for the benefit 
 of the national Church. 
 
 The church of the parish in which Mr. 
 Herbert's prebend was situated had for 
 
 * Bum's Ecclesiastical Law, II., 88. 
 
72 RESTORATION OF LEIGHTON CHURCH. 
 
 twenty years past remained in such a di- 
 lapidated condition as to be almost useless. 
 Some slight attempts had been made to pro- 
 vide the means to put it in a proper con- 
 dition for the celebration of public worship, 
 but without success. Mr. Herbert at once 
 resolved to undertake this important matter. 
 His careful mother endeavored to restrain 
 him. " It is not," she said, " for your weak 
 body and empty purse to undertake to build 
 churches." He in reply desired her to grant 
 him a day's delay for consideration. This 
 obtained and passed, he returned to her. 
 Having asked and received her blessing, he 
 begged "That she would, at the age of 
 thirty-three years, allow him to become an 
 undutiful son; for he had made a vow to 
 God, that if he were able he would rebuild 
 that church." He then explained his plan 
 to her with such happy success that she be- 
 came a contributor to the good work, and 
 obtained a subscription of fifty pounds from 
 
ARTHUR WOOBNOT. 73 
 
 a wealthy and generous kinsman, William, 
 Earl of Pembroke. This gentleman was the 
 son of Mary, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, 
 a lady highly esteemed for her virtues and 
 accomplishments. Her character is well ex- 
 pressed in her epitaph, one of the most cele- 
 brated compositions of its class : 
 
 Underneath this marble hearse 
 Lies the subject of all verse, 
 Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother. 
 Death, ere thou hast slain another, 
 Wise, and fair, and good as she, 
 Time shall throw a dart at thee. 
 
 Another liberal contributor was Mr. Arthur 
 Woodnot. Mr. Walton introduces this gen- 
 tleman to us in these happy words : 
 
 " He was a man that had considered over- 
 grown estates do often require more care 
 and watchfulness to preserve than get them ; 
 and considered that there be many discon- 
 tents that riches cure not, and did therefore 
 set limits to himself as to desire of wealth ; 
 and having attained so much as to be able to 
 7 
 
^^ LIBERAL CHURCHMEN. 
 
 show some mercy to the poor, and preserve 
 a competence for himself, he dedicated the 
 remaining part of his life to the service of 
 God, and to be nseful for his friends ; and 
 he proved to be so to Mr. Herbert, for beside 
 his own bounty, he collected and returned 
 most of the money that was paid for the re- 
 building of that church ; he kept all the ac- 
 count of the charges, and would often go down 
 to state them, and see all the workmen paid." 
 Mr. Herbert's friend, ]^icholas Ferrar, was 
 also a contributor. A letter in the poet's 
 handwriting warmly acknowledging this as- 
 sistance, is still preserved.* Other friends 
 gave their aid ; the Prebendary drew largely 
 from his private means, and the sacred 
 edifice was gradually so repaired and beau- 
 tified as to be excelled by few of its class in 
 the land. A recent contributor to "Notes 
 and Queries" informs us that he made a 
 
 * Notes and Queries, X., 68. 
 
CHURCH ARRANGEMENTS. 75 
 
 journey to Leighton for the express purpose 
 of visting an edifice so prominently connected 
 with the career of George Herbert. His in- 
 teresting narrative traces from the unerring 
 indications of architectural style the " resto- 
 rations" made by the poet. The edifice was 
 new roofed throughout, a tower built, four 
 windows placed in the chancel, and a font, 
 pulpit, reading-desk, and seats provided by 
 his pious care. The internal arrangements, 
 made, of course, under his supervision, fur- 
 nish important evidence respecting his taste 
 in these respects. Tlie seats, both in the 
 nave and transept, are open, and so arranged 
 that the occupants in service-time all face 
 the chancel and officiating clergyman. The 
 font is placed at the west end of the nave, 
 near the entrance. The chancel is raised 
 one step above the nave. The communion 
 table stands three steps higher.* 
 
 o Notes and Queries, III., 178. 
 
■:&»£ 
 
78 
 
 from the severe illness during whicli her son 
 addressed to her the beautiful letter already 
 familiar to us. Her friend Dr. Donne 
 preached, on the first of July, her funeral 
 sermon at the parish church of Chelsea, then 
 a pleasant village on the banks of the 
 Thames, a little above London, now well- 
 nigh absorbed in the solid advance of the 
 monster city. We extract a few passages, 
 for their biographical interest, and the noble 
 example they present of a Christian life, 
 from this eloquent discourse. 
 
 " She lived in a time wherein the proph- 
 ecy of St. Peter was over-abundantly per- 
 formed, that there should be scoffers, jesters 
 in divine things, and matters appertaining to 
 God and his religion. ^ ■^' This being the 
 air and the complexion of the wit of her 
 times, and her inclination and conversation 
 naturally cheerful and merry, and loving fa- 
 cetiousness and sharpness of wit ; neverthe- 
 less, who ever saw her, who ever heard 
 
WEEK-DAT PRAYERS. 7^ 
 
 her countenance a profane speech, how sharp 
 soever, or take part with wit, to the prejudice 
 of godliness ? From this I testify her holy 
 cheerfulness and religious alacrity (one of 
 the best evidences of a good conscience), that 
 as she came to this place, God's house of 
 prayer, duly, not only every Sabbath, when 
 it is the house of other exercises, as well as 
 of prayer, but even in those week-days, 
 when it was only a house of prayer, as often 
 as these doors were open for a holy convoca- 
 tion ; and, as she ever hastened her family 
 and her comj^any hither with that cheerful 
 provocation. For God's sake let us go ; for 
 God's sake let us be there at the confession ; 
 so herself, with her whole family (as a church 
 in that elect lady's house, to whom John 
 wrote the Second Epistle) did, every Sab- 
 bath, shut up the day, at night, with a cheer- 
 ful singing of psalms ; this act of cheerfulness 
 was still the last act of that family, united in 
 itself, and with God. God loves a cheerful 
 
80 CHARITIES. 
 
 giver — mucli more, a cheerful giver of him- 
 self. Truly, he that can close his eyes in a 
 holy cheerfulness, every night, shall meet no 
 distempered, no inordinate, no irregular sad- 
 ness then, when God, by the hand of death, 
 shall close his eyes at last. -^^ ^ * * * 
 
 " She gave not at some great days or some 
 solemn goings abroad, but, as God's true 
 almoners, the sun and moon, that pass on in 
 a continual doing of good, as she received 
 her daily bread from God, so daily she dis- 
 tributed and imparted it to others. In which 
 office, though she never turned her face from 
 those who, in a strict inquisition, might be 
 called idle and vagrant beggars ; yet she 
 ever looked first upon them who laboured, 
 and whose labours could not overcome the 
 difficulties, nor bring in the necessities of this 
 life ; and to the sweat of their brows she con- 
 tributed even her wine, and her oil, and any- 
 thing that was, and anything that might be, 
 if it were not prepared for her own table. 
 
CARE OF THE SICK. 81 
 
 And as her house was a court, in the conver- 
 sation of the best, and an ahnshouse in feed- 
 ing the poor, so was it also an hospital in 
 ministering relief to the sick. And truly the 
 love of doing good in this kind, of minister- 
 ing to the sick, was the honey that was 
 spread over all her bread ; the air, the per- 
 fume that breathed over all her house ; the 
 disposition that dwelt in those her children, 
 and those her kindred which dwelt with her, 
 so bending this way that the studies and 
 knowledge of one, the hand of another, and, 
 purse of all, and a joint faculty and open- 
 ness, and accessibleness to persons of the 
 meanest quality, concurred in this blessed 
 act of charity to minister relief to the sick, 
 of which, myself, who at that time had the 
 favour to be admitted into that family, can 
 and must testify this, that when the late 
 heavy visitation fell hotly upon this town, 
 when every door was shut up, and lest death 
 should enter into the house, every house was 
 
82 THE SCRIPTURE AND THE CHURCH. 
 
 made a sepulchre of them that were in it, 
 then, then, in that time of infection, divers 
 persons visited with that infection, had their 
 relief, and relief applicable to that very in- 
 fection from this house. * ^ * * * 
 
 " As the rule of all her civil actions was 
 religion, so the rule of her religion was the 
 Scripture ; and her rule for her particular 
 understanding of the Scripture was the 
 Church. She never diverted towards the 
 papist in undervaluing the Scripture, nor 
 towards the separatist, in undervaluing the 
 Church. But in the doctrine and discipline 
 of that Church in which God sealed her to 
 himself in baptism, she brought up her chil- 
 dren, she assisted her family, she dedicated 
 her soul to God in her life, and surrendered 
 it to him in her death ; and in that form of 
 common prayer which is ordained by that 
 Church, and to which she had accustomed 
 herself with her family twice every day, she 
 joined with that company, which was about 
 
83 
 
 her death -bed, in answering to every part 
 thereof, which the congregation is directed to 
 answer to, with a clear understanding, with 
 a constant memory, with a distinct voice, not 
 two hours before she died. According to 
 this promise, that is, the will of God mani- 
 fested in the Scriptures, she expected this, 
 that she hath received God's physic, and 
 God's music, a Christianly death. * * * 
 " How may we think she was joyed to see 
 that face that angels delight to look upon, 
 the face of her Saviour, that did not abhor 
 the face of her faithfulest messenger, death ? 
 She showed no fear of his face, in any 
 change of her own, but died without any 
 change of countenance or posture, with- 
 out any struggling, any disorder ; but her 
 death-bed was as quiet as her grave. To 
 another Magdalen* Christ said upon earth. 
 Touch me not, for I am not ascended. Being 
 
 - This, it will be remembered, was Lady Danvers' 
 Christian name. 
 
S4 RESURRECTION. 
 
 ascended now to liis glory, and she being 
 gone np to liim, after she had awaited her 
 leisure so many years, as that more would 
 soon have grown to be vexation and sorrow, 
 as her last words here were, I submit my 
 will to the will of God ; so we doubt not 
 but the first word which she heard there was 
 that euge^ from her Saviour, Well done, good 
 and faithful servant, enter into thy Master's 
 
 lOV. * 4f * -Sf * 4f * 
 
 In which expectation (of the resurrection) 
 she returns to her former charity; she will 
 not have that till we all shall have it as well 
 as she. She ate not her morsels alone, in her 
 life (as Job speaks'^") ; she looks not for the 
 glory of the resurrection alone, after her 
 death ; but when we all shall have been 
 mellowed in the earth many years, or 
 changed in the air, in the twinkling of an 
 eye (God knows which), that body upon 
 
 * Job xxxi. 17. 
 
ETERNITY. 85 
 
 which you tread now — that body which 
 now, whilst I speak, is mouldering and 
 crumbling into less and less dust, and so 
 hath some motion, though no life ; that 
 body, which was the tabernacle of a holy 
 soul, and a temple of the Holy Ghost ; that 
 body, which was eyes to the blind and 
 hands and feet to the lame whilst it lived, 
 and being dead, is so still, by having been so 
 lively an example to teach others to be so, 
 that body, at last, shall have her last expec- 
 tation satisfied, and dwell bodily, with that 
 righteousness, in these new heavens and new 
 earth, forever and ever, and ever, and in- 
 finite and super-infinite evers." 
 
 Isaak Walton "saw and heard" — he in- 
 forms us — " Mr. John Donne weep and 
 preach" this sermon. It was published in 
 the same year, with some Latin and Greek 
 verses by George Herbert, to the memory of 
 his parent. Our extracts are taken from 
 the reprint in the sixth volume of the com- 
 8 
 
86 A LONG AND DEAR FKIENDSHEP. 
 
 plete edition of Donne's Works, edited by 
 the Rev. Henry Alford, Dean of Canter- 
 bury.* 
 
 The preacher survived the lady whose 
 virtues he so eloquently commemorated 
 about three years. His intimacy witli her 
 son continued unimpaired to the last. " It 
 was," "Walton remarks, " a long and dear 
 friendship, made up by such a sympathy of 
 inclinations, that they coveted and joyed to 
 be in each other's company ; and this happy 
 friendship was still maintained by many sa- 
 cred endearments." One of these was the 
 presentation by Donne, not long before his 
 death, to Herbert, of one of a few seals, of 
 heliotrope or bloodstone, on which he had 
 caused to be engraved " a figure of the body 
 of Christ extended upon an anchor." These 
 were sent to his particular friends, among 
 
 * The verses are reprinted in the excellent edition of 
 Herbert's "Remains," published at London, in 1835, 
 by William Pickering. 
 
A PRESENT. 87 
 
 whom are enumerated the great names of Sir 
 Hemy Wotton, Bishop Hall, Dr. Duppa, 
 Bishop King, and George Herbert. The seal 
 sent to Herbert was accompanied by some 
 verses, a portion of which we extract. 
 
 TO ME. GEORGE HERBERT, 
 
 SENT HIM WITH ONE OP MY SEALS OF THE ANCHOR AND 
 CHRIST. 
 
 Adopted in God's family, and so 
 My old coat lost, into new arms I go. 
 The cross my seal in baptism spread below, 
 Does by that form into an anchor grow. 
 Crosses grow anchors, bear as thou shouldst do 
 Thy cross, and that cross grows an anchor too. 
 
 This gift was found, after Mr. Her- 
 bert's death, wrapped up with these 
 couplets : 
 
 ' * When my dear friend conld write no more. 
 He gave this seal, and so gave o'er. 
 When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure 
 This anchor keeps my faith, thxit me secure.' ' 
 
 Our engraving of the seal is copied from 
 a drawing in the London Gentleman's Mag- 
 
88 THE SEAL. 
 
 azine, said to have been taken from an im- 
 pression of the one actually presented by Dr. 
 Donne to Mr. Herbert. It differs in shape 
 only from the small oval representation en- 
 graved in the editions of Walton's Life. 
 
CHAPTEK YH. 
 
 MR. HEEBERT's illness — VISITS TO WOODFORD AND 
 
 DAHNTSEY EPITAPH ON LORD DANVERS HIS POEM, 
 
 "affliction" JANE DANVERS CHANGES HER NAME 
 
 INTO HERBERT — WALTON's ACCOUNT OF THEIR MAR- 
 RIED LIFE — BISHOP SANDERSON. 
 
 WE next hear of Mr. Herbert in the year 
 1629, when he was obliged, in conse- 
 quence of a severe ague, to seek a change of 
 air. He became the guest of his brother, Sir 
 Henry Herbert, at Woodford, Essex, where 
 he passed a twelvemonth. He suffered at 
 times severely from his disease, but always 
 preserved patience and resignation, showing 
 himself, in the happy phrase of Walton, " in- 
 clinable to bear the sweet yoke of Christian 
 discipline." He is said to have mastered his 
 disease by forbearing from the use of any 
 8* 
 
90 LORD DAJ^^VERS. 
 
 but salted meats. The ague was, howeyer, 
 succeeded by a worse malady, symptoms of 
 consumption manifesting themselves. To 
 combat this new evil, he removed to 
 Dauntsey, in Wiltshire, " a noble house 
 which stands in a clioice air," the resi- 
 dence of his friend Henry Danvers, Earl of 
 Danby. 
 
 The poet commemorated his friend in the 
 following lines. They were fortunately not 
 needed for their apparent purpose until long 
 after the time of their composition, as the 
 Earl did not die before the twentieth day of 
 Janu? y, 1673. 
 
 ON LORD DANVEES. 
 Sacred marble, safely keep 
 His dust, who under thee must sleep 
 Until the years again restore 
 Their dead, and time shall be no more. 
 Meanwhile, if he (which all things wears) 
 Does ruin thee, or if thy tears 
 Are shed for him, dissolve thy frame, 
 Thou art requited ; for his fame, 
 His virtue, and his worth shall be 
 Another monument to thee. 
 
AFFLICTION. 91 
 
 The " choice air" of Daimtsey, aided by 
 moderate exercise, careful diet, and mental 
 repose, soon produced its usual beneficial 
 effect. 
 
 One of his finest poems, entitled Afflic- 
 tion, was, it is thought, composed about this 
 time : 
 
 When first thou did'st entice to thee my heart, 
 
 I thought the service brave ; 
 So many joys I writ down for my part, 
 
 Besides what I might have 
 Out of my stock of natural delights, 
 Augmented with thy gracious benefits. 
 
 « «- c- o « 
 
 At first thou gavest me milk and sweetnesses ; 
 
 I had my wish and way : 
 My days were strew' d with flowers and happiness ; 
 
 There was no month but May. 
 But with my years sorrow did twist and grow, 
 And made a party unawares for woe. 
 
 My flesh began unto my soul in pain, 
 
 Sicknesses clave my bones, 
 Consuming agues dwell in every vein, 
 
 And turn my breath to groans : 
 Sorrow was all my soul ; I scarce believed. 
 Till grief did tell me roundly, that I lived. 
 
92 EMPLOYMENT, AND IMAN. 
 
 Whereas my birth and spirit rather took 
 The way that takes the town, 
 
 Thou didst betray nie to a lingering book, 
 And wrap me in a gown : 
 
 I was entangled in the world of strife. 
 
 Before I had the power to change my life. 
 
 <S O O Q o 
 
 Now I am here, what thon wilt do with me 
 None of my books will show : 
 
 I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree ; 
 For sure then I should grow 
 
 To fruit or shade : at least some bird would trust 
 
 Her household to me, and I should be just. 
 
 Yet, though thou troublest me, I must be meek ; 
 
 In weakness must be stout. 
 Well, I will change the service, and go seek 
 
 Some other master out. 
 Ah, my dear God ! though I am clean forgot, 
 Let me not love thee, if I love thee not. 
 
 Several of liis poems exhibit a similar 
 
 vein of feeling. In "Employment" he nobly 
 
 remarks : 
 
 Life is a business, not good cheer ; 
 Ever in wars. 
 
 In "Man:" 
 
 More servants wait on man 
 Than he'll take notice of ; in every path 
 He treads down that which doth befriend him, 
 When sickness makes him pale and wan. 
 
CHARLES DANVEES. 
 
 as 
 
 In " Frailty" he strikingly contrasts ^^ both 
 regiments :" 
 
 The world's and Thine, 
 Thine clad with simpleness and sad events, 
 The other fine.-' 
 
 It was during his stay at Dauntsey that Mr. 
 Herbert first met his future wife. The story 
 of the wooing and winning is a pleasant one. 
 
 The lady, Jane Danvers, was one of the 
 nine daughters of Mr. Charles Danvers, of 
 Bainton, a gentleman of fortune and high 
 social position, a near relative and neigh- 
 bor of the Earl of Danby. He was inti- 
 mately acquainted with Mr. Herbert, and 
 60 much pleased with his manners and char- 
 acter, that he frequently expressed a hope 
 that his young friend might marry one of his 
 daughters, "but rather his daughter Jane 
 
 • «- How the blessed names of those who have suffered 
 and died in defence of our religion, arise to our remem- 
 brance, when we read these words ! We think of Lati- 
 mer, of Cranmer, and Eidley, and the glorious company 
 of sainted martyrs, whom they guided unto eternal glory. 
 — WiUmoU'S Lives of -the Sacred Poets. 
 
94 A PREPARATION FOR A MARRIAGE. 
 
 than any other, because Jane was his be- 
 loved daughter." He praised Jane to Mr. 
 Herbert and Mr. Herbert to Jane, and ex- 
 pressed his wishes freely to both. This, as 
 Mr. "Walton remarks, was " a fair preparation 
 for a marriage." The father, however, died 
 before any other steps were taken in the 
 matter, and before Mr. Herbert removed to 
 Dauntsey. Some friends of the family, how- 
 ever, remembering the father's wishes, and 
 agreeing in his opinion, in this respect, of the 
 fitness of things, procured a meeting between 
 the two. 
 
 The lady is described by Aubrey, a rela- 
 tive, who probably knew her well, in quaint 
 old terms of high commendation, as a "hand- 
 some hona ro'ba'^ and generose." The same 
 
 ■•'■ Aubrey applies the same teim to the celebrated 
 beauty, Lady Venetia Stanley, the wife of Sir Kenelm 
 Digby . * ' She had a perfect healthy constitution ; strong ; 
 good skin ; well proportioned ; enclining to a, Bona Eoba." 
 (Lives, etc., II., 332.) He seems to mean by it a fuU, 
 well-rounded figure. 
 
A HAPPY PAIR. 95 
 
 writer informs us tliat Mr. Herbert possessed 
 " a very fine complexion." He is portrayed 
 to us by "Walton as being " of a stature inclin- 
 ing towards tallness ; his body was very 
 straight, and so far from being cumbered 
 with too much flesh, that he was lean to an 
 extremity." 
 
 The result soon proved that the pair liked 
 one another as much as had been anticipated, 
 for on the third day after this first interview 
 the lady " changed her name into Herbert." 
 The romantic marriage "turned out" most 
 happily. ''The eternal lover of mankind," 
 "Walton beautifully remarks, " made them 
 happy in each other's mutual and equal 
 affections and compliance ; indeed, so happy 
 that there never was any opposition betwixt 
 them, unless it were a contest which should 
 most incline to a compliance with the other's 
 desires. And though this begot, and con- 
 tinued in them, such a mutual love, and joy, 
 and content, as was no way defective ; yet 
 
96 
 
 tMs mutual content, and love, and joj, did 
 receive a daily augmentation, by such daily 
 obligingness to each otlier as still added such 
 new affluences to the former fulness of these 
 divine souls, as was only improvable in 
 heaven, where they now enjoy it." We may 
 be allowed to add to this passage another by 
 the same writer, equally happy in applica- 
 tion and expression, on the marriage of his 
 friend. Bishop Sanderson. " The Giver of 
 all good things was so good to him as to give 
 him such a wife as was suitable to his own 
 desires ; a wife that made his life haj)py, by 
 being always content when he was cheerful ; 
 that was always cheerful when he was con- 
 tent; that divided her joys with him, and 
 abated of his sorrow, by bearing a part of 
 that burden; a wife that demonstrated her 
 affection by a cheerful obedience to all his 
 desires, during the whole course of his life ; 
 and at his death, too, for she outlived him. 
 
CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 BEMEETON — KING CHAELES' ADMIEATION OF HERBERT — 
 " SPIRITUAL conflicts" BISHOP LAUD MR. HER- 
 BERT'S INDUCTION " TOLLING THE BELL" A RETRO- 
 SPECT THE "minister's WIFE " COMFORTABLE 
 
 SPEECH TO AN OLD WOMAN THE PARISH CHURCH AND 
 
 PARSONAGE REPAIRED THE FIRST SERMON. 
 
 A BOUT three months after Mr. Herbert's 
 /X marriage, the parish of Bemerton be- 
 came vacant by the appointment of the rector, 
 Dr. Curie, to the Bishopric of Bath and 
 "Wells. Philip, Earl of Pembroke (the suc- 
 cessor of William, now dead), requested the 
 King to bestow the living on his kinsman, 
 Herbert. " Most willingly to Mr. Herbert, 
 if it be worth his acceptance," was the kind 
 reply. It shows the monarch's high appre- 
 ciation of the poet and scholar. We meet 
 with another proof of this feeling many years 
 9 
 
98 SPIKITUAJ. CONFLICTS. 
 
 after. During the King's imprisonment by 
 the parliamentarian party, then in power, 
 the Poems of George Herbert, with the Bible 
 and two or three other books, were his con- 
 stant comj^anions.* 
 
 Mr. Herbert seems to have been much 
 perplexed as to whether he should accept or 
 decline the position tendered to him. The 
 responsibility of the care of souls weighed 
 heavily on his conscientious and sensitive 
 mind. He considered the question, with 
 fasting and prayer, for over a month, suffer- 
 ing, as he often remarked, "such spiritual 
 conflicts as none can think but only those 
 that have endured them." 
 
 Mr. Herbert was at this time spending the 
 pleasant season following his marriage with 
 his white's relations at Bainton. Here he 
 
 « Willmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets. The King's 
 copy of Herbert is said to have been preserved, and was 
 at one time in the library of "Tom Martin of Palgrave." 
 — Dibdin's Library Companion. 
 
BISHOP LAUD. 99 
 
 received the congratulations of " liis own and 
 his father's friend," Mr. Arthur Woodnot, 
 who had made a journey expressly on this 
 pleasant errand. After the friends had " re- 
 joiced together some few days," they visited 
 Wilton Hall, the noble country seat of the 
 Pembrokes, w^liere the Earl was at that time 
 entertaining the King and court. Mr. Her- 
 bert, in presenting his thanks to the Earl for 
 the appointment to Bemerton, acquainted 
 him with his doubts as to his acceptance. 
 The Earl, sensible of his kinsman's fitness, 
 laid the matter before Dr. Laud, then Bishop 
 of London, who afterwards, as Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, suffered on the scaffold for his 
 attachment to the Church of England, and 
 his occasionally unwise administration of her 
 affairs. 
 
 The earnest prelate had an interview the 
 next day with Mr. Herbert, and, says Wal- 
 ton, " did so convince Mr. Herbert that the 
 refusal of it was a sin, that a tailor was sent 
 
100 CANONICAL CLOTHES. 
 
 for to come s]3eedily from Salisbury to Wil- 
 ton, to take measure and make liim canonical 
 clothes against (that is, for) next day ; which 
 the tailor did." If, as we may infer from 
 this, we owe Herbert's acceptance of Bemer- 
 ton to Archbishop Laud's influence, it is a 
 service to the Church which should not be 
 forgotten in our estimate of his career. 
 Prompt action followed the delayed decision. 
 Herbert, arrayed in the dress a]3propriate to 
 his profession, which he does not aj)pear to 
 have previously assumed, probably following 
 in this respect the custom of the day, ob- 
 served by those only in Deacon's orders, 
 applied immediately to Dr. Davenant, the 
 Bishop of the diocese, for institution. The 
 request was promptly complied wdth, and he 
 w^as on the same day, April 26, 1630, induct- 
 ed into " the good, and more pleasant than 
 healthful. Parsonage of Bemerton." 
 
 After his induction the new Pector was, in 
 compliance with a legal requirement, left 
 
Remerton Church. 
 
 Gi:0 IlEIJBERT, 
 
 Page lOo. 
 
TOLLING THE BELL. 101 
 
 alone in the cliurch to toll tlie bell.* His 
 friend Mr. Woodnot, who with others was 
 waiting for him outside, noticing that he re- 
 mained mnch beyond the usual time, looked 
 in at the window and saw him prostrate on 
 the ground before the altar ; " at which time 
 and place (as he after told Mr. Woodnot) he 
 set some rules to himself for the future man- 
 
 - ' * The induction is to be made according to the tenor 
 and language of the mandate, by vesting the incumbent 
 with full possession of all the profits belonging to the 
 church. Accordingly the inductor usually takes the clerk 
 by the hand and lays it upon the key, or upon the ring 
 of the church door, or if the key cannot be had, and there 
 is no ring on the door, or if the church be ruinated, then 
 on any part of the wall of the church or church-yard, and 
 saith to this effect : ' By virtue of this mandate, I do in- 
 duct you into the real, actual, and corporal possession of 
 this church of C, with all the rights, profits, and appur- 
 tenances thereto belonging.' After which the inductor 
 opens the door, and puts the person inducted into the 
 church, who usually tolls a bell to make his induction 
 public and known to the parishioners— which being done, 
 the clergyman who inducted indorseth a certificate of his 
 induction on the archdeacon's mandate, and they who 
 were presentdo testify the same under their hands." — 
 Johns. y 77 ; Wats., c. 15 ; Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, 8th 
 Ed., 1824, Vol. I., 173. 
 
 9* 
 
102 LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FOEWAED. 
 
 age of liis life ; and then and there made a 
 vow to labor and keep them." 
 
 The two friends passed the evening of the 
 eventful day together. In the course of their 
 conversation, Mr. Herbert expressed himself 
 earnestly respecting his past life and the 
 career now opening before him. " I now 
 look back upon my aspiring thoughts," he 
 said, " and think myself more happy than if 
 I had attained what then I so ambitiously 
 thirsted for. And I can now behold the 
 court with an impartial eye, and see plainly 
 that it is made np of fraud, and titles, and 
 flattery, and many other such empty, imag- 
 inary, painted pleasures — pleasures that are 
 BO empty as not to satisfy when they are en- 
 joyed. But in God and his service is a ful- 
 ness of all joy and pleasure and no satiety. 
 And I will now use all my endeavours to 
 bring my relations and dependants to a love 
 and reliance on Him who never fails those 
 that trust him. But above all, I will be sure 
 
A peiest's wife. 103 
 
 to live well, because tlie virtuous life of a cler- 
 gyman is the most powerful eloquence to 
 persuade all that see it to reverence and love, 
 and this I will do, because I know we live in 
 an age that hath more need of good exam- 
 ples than precepts." 
 
 The third day after his induction he re- 
 turned with Mr. Woodnot to Bainton, and 
 after saluting his wife, said to her, " You are 
 now a minister's wife, and must now so far 
 forget your father's house as not to claim a 
 precedence of any of your parishioners ; for 
 you are to know that a Priest's wife can 
 challenge no precedence or place but that 
 which she purchases by her obliging humil- 
 ity ; and I am sure places so purchased do 
 best become them. And let me tell you that 
 I am so good a herald as to assure you that 
 this is truth." " And she," says Walton, 
 was so meek a wife as to assure him it was 
 no vexing news to her, and that he should 
 see her observe it with a cheerful willing- 
 
104 THE TIMID OLD WOMAN. 
 
 ness. And, indeed, her unforced humility, 
 that humility that was in her so original as 
 to be born with her, made her so happy as 
 to do so ; and her doing so begat her an un- 
 feigned love, and a serviceable respect from 
 all that conversed with her ; and this love 
 followed her in all places as inseparably as 
 shadows follow substances in sunshine." 
 
 He soon after returned to Bemerton to 
 make arrangements to repair the chancel of 
 the church, and rebuild a great portion of the 
 parsonage, which had fallen into a ruinous 
 condition, in consequence of the former rec- 
 tor having resided at a better house at Minal, 
 some sixteen or twenty miles distant. While 
 occupied about this examination, he was ac- 
 costed by an old woman w^ho came to him 
 for relief for her troubles of body and mind, 
 but was so humble and timid, that " after she 
 had spoke some few words to him she was 
 surprised with a fear, and that begot a short- 
 ness of breath, so that her spirits and speech 
 
COMFOET AND CASH. 105 
 
 failed her." Mr. Herbert perceiving this, 
 took her by the hand and reassured her with 
 these kind words : " Speak, good mother ; 
 be not afraid to speak to me, for I am a man 
 that will hear you with patience, and will re- 
 lieve your necessities too, if I be able ; and 
 this I will do willingly ; and therefore, moth- 
 er, be not afraid to acquaint me with what 
 you desire." " After which comfortable 
 speech," says Walton, '' he again took her by 
 the hand, made her sit down by him, and 
 understanding she was of his parish, he told 
 her ' he would be acquainted with her, and 
 take her into his care ;' and having with pa- 
 tience heard and understood her wants (and 
 it is some relief for a poor body to be but 
 heard with patience), he, like a Christian 
 clergyman, comforted her by his meek be- 
 havior and counsel ; but because that cost 
 him nothing, he relieved her with money too, 
 and so sent her home with a cheerful heart, 
 praising God and praying for him." On his 
 
106 INSCRIPTION IN THE PARSONAGE. 
 
 return to Bainton in the evening, lie men- 
 tioned tlie incident to liis wife ; she, like a 
 good lielp-mate, sjmpatliizing with and aid- 
 ing her husband in his good endeavors, went 
 the next day to Salisbury, where she pur- 
 chased a pair of blankets, which were sent to 
 the old woman, who, in this comfortable 
 plight, disa]3pears from our history. 
 
 The parish church, under Mr. Herbert's 
 active supervision, was soon repaired. He 
 also constructed, on the ruins of the old par- 
 sonage, a new and commodious edifice of 
 brick, with a handsome garden. The follow- 
 ing inscription was placed, by his direction, 
 over the mantel of the chimney in the hall. 
 
 TO MY SUCCESSOR. 
 If thou chance for to find 
 A new house to thy mind, 
 And built without thy cost : 
 
 Be good to the poor, 
 
 As God gives thee store, 
 And then my labor's not lost. 
 
 Mr. Herbert received Priest's orders soon 
 
A FmST SEEMON. 107 
 
 after his induction, his friend Dr. Humphrey 
 Henchman, afterwards Bishop of London, 
 taking part in the ceremonies. 
 
 The new rector took the text for his first 
 sermon from the Proverbs of Solomon, " Keep 
 thy heart with all diligence." It was, says 
 "Walton, " delivered after a most florid man- 
 ner, both with great learning and eloquence." 
 At its close he told his hearers " That should 
 not be his constant way of preaching ; for 
 since Almighty God does not intend to lead 
 men to heaven by hard questions, he would 
 not therefore fill their heads with unnecessary 
 notions, but that, for their sakes, his language 
 and his expressions should be more plain and 
 practical in his future sermons." He then 
 dismissed them, with an urgent request to be 
 constant in their attendance on the afternoon 
 service and catechising. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SUNDAY AT BEMEETON IN 1839 — WILTON HALL — THE 
 NEW HEEBEET " TEMPLE " A PEEP THEOUGn A WIN- 
 DOW. 
 
 BEMEETON, in wliicli we have now found 
 Mr. Herbert firmly established, is a little 
 hamlet near Salisbury, a town made mem- 
 orable by the possession of one of the largest 
 and most beautiful cathedrals in England or 
 the world. Tlie yillage church is as humble 
 as the place, being but forty-five feet in 
 length by eighteen in breadth. 
 
 An American lover of Herbert who at- 
 tended divine service at the Bemerton 
 church on a pleasant Sunday morning in the 
 autumn of 1839, describes the place as "a 
 collection of houses and hay-stacks heaped 
 together over a meadow, to the left of the 
 
BEMEKTON HOUSES. 109 
 
 road. They looked appropriate, and I was 
 willing to accept them for the spot. It was 
 Bemerton. A rudely-ke23t cart-track led 
 down to a little irregular street of thatched 
 houses, inclosed in farm-yards that made up 
 all the pretensions of the parish. It was 
 humble, to be sure ; but it was j)icturesque. 
 The thatch, it could not be disputed, was 
 graceful, covering the windows and gables 
 like a heavy eyebrow or a huge, projecting 
 snowdrift. I took the left turning, and in a 
 few steps reached the suburbs, alighting on 
 a diminutive wooden bridge, which spans 
 the Neder, a stream that guides the foot-pas- 
 senger to Salisbury. It commanded a level 
 view over deep green meadow patches to 
 Salisbury Cathedral, pointing high in the air 
 with surpassing beauty. But the church 
 was not visible. On turning again it ap- 
 peared, immediately beyond, a little pinched, 
 old-fashioned stone buildinor, the noisv bell 
 ringing, and old people crowding the porch. 
 10 
 
110 A CONDENSED CLEEK. 
 
 The edifice stands at a triangular corner of 
 the road, fenced off from the foot-path by 
 gray, sunken tomb-stones. There was no 
 spire, but a short, ventilated kind of chimney, 
 out of which the bell twanged its coarse 
 tones wdth a cracked, nasal utterance. With- 
 in, the appearance was not less curious. 
 It was the most diminutive of all parish 
 churches. The preacher's sounding board 
 projected from the very eaves of the spring- 
 ing roof, and left no space below for the tip- 
 toe eloquence common with many energetic 
 divines. The clerk, condensed beneath in 
 the smallest com]3ass, seemed to bolster both 
 reading-desk and pulpit. The congregation 
 may have numbered fifty persons ; the 
 younger portion of the villagers were, doubt- 
 less, withdrawn to the more imposing scenery 
 of the cathedral. The clergyman wore the 
 Oxford hood, and preached a practical, plain 
 sermon worthy of Herbert himself At the 
 time of singing the psalm and hymn there 
 
TUENING TO THE EAST. Ill 
 
 was, instead, a decent pause for several 
 minutes. At the Creed, all turned to the east 
 and bowed.* The children of the parish 
 were gathered about the chancel, and after 
 the service, were directly questioned on 
 the Catechism — an institution that Herbert 
 in his ' Countrj Parson' lays much stress 
 upon."f 
 
 It was the good fortune of the present 
 writer to visit Bemerton on a pleasant morn- 
 ing of July, 1848. It was the crowning 
 pleasure of a day crowded with enjoyment. 
 I rose at an early hour to accomplish betimes 
 the long ride to Stonehenge. On my return 
 I diverged from my route to visit the 
 localities made interesting to me by their 
 connection with the career of Geor2:e Iler- 
 
 ■'■^ The reverential and beautifully significant custom of 
 facing the East during the recital of the Creed is observed 
 in all the cathedrals and many of the parish, churches of 
 England. 
 
 fArcturus. Vol. I., p. 268. 
 
112 WILTON HALL. 
 
 bert, as well as their own intrinsic attrac- 
 tions. I visited Wilton Hall, to wliicli the 
 reader has been already introduced. Great 
 changes have been made in the edifice ; but it 
 is still in the possession of the Herberts. The 
 ancient courteous kindness has descended 
 with the ancient domain to the present own- 
 ers. The family being at home at the time of 
 my visit, the house was not, as at other sea- 
 sons, open to the curious gaze of the tourist ; 
 but an exception was made in favor of the 
 remote and honored birtliplace of the trav- 
 eller, and I was permitted to examine at will 
 the pictures and other treasures of art gath- 
 ered under the ancestral roof by the success- 
 ive generations of tasteful occujDants. One 
 of the apartments contained, as I fancied, a 
 mute evidence of the courtesy of which I 
 have spoken. A work-basket, with its house- 
 ' -ifely appurtenances, and a piece of needle- 
 work, with the bright little implement of 
 female industry arrested in mid career, 
 
WILTON CHUECH. 113 
 
 soemed to indicate that a lady had hastily 
 vacated her own parlor to afford an un- 
 known stranger the opportunity of studying 
 in unembarrassed ease the matchless paint- 
 ings which clothed its walls. 
 
 A twin wonder with Wilton Hall is the 
 new church, erected from the unaided re- 
 sources of his private fortune by a member 
 of this noble family, Mr. Sidney Herbert, 
 who combines in his name the memory of 
 two of the most distinguished among his 
 honored ancestors. The edifice is in the 
 early Italian style, with round arches and a 
 square, lofty campanile or tower connected 
 with the church by a short covered passage. 
 It is enriched with mosaics from Rome, 
 choice foreign and native marbles ; with 
 w^alls and windows brilliant with gilding and 
 color, formmg a combination of grandeur 
 and beauty almost unsurpassed even in 
 richly-stored England. It seemed an em- 
 bodiment of the poetical "Temple" of 
 
114 A GLIMPSE. 
 
 George Herbert, to which we shall soon in- 
 troduce our readers. 
 
 A short ride brought me to the turn in the 
 road within whose protecting elbow stands 
 the little chapel of Herbert. My brother's 
 brief description has given the reader, in 
 sufficient detail, the simple features of the 
 edifice. There was no one at hand to unlock 
 the door; the exigencies of my journey per- 
 mitted but a brief delay, and I had to cqij^ 
 tent myself with a glimpse through the small 
 windows placed one on each side of the 
 edifice. The entrance, as usual in English 
 parish churches, is through a porch. I could 
 see nothing within but plain walls and wood- 
 work ; but these, in their bare simplicity, 
 were clothed with beauty from the memories 
 which hung about them. 
 
 The church has been much altered since 
 Herbert's day. Two decorated Gothic win- 
 dows, dating from about the commencement 
 of the fourteenth century, on the south and 
 
CHURCH AND PARSONAGE. 115 
 
 west sides, still remain. The east window is 
 modern. Tlie walls have been repaired with 
 brick work. The bell in the little turret is 
 of the fourteenth century, and twenty-four 
 inches in diameter. The font is also ancient. 
 The sittings are modern, and of " unpainted 
 deal."^ 
 
 The parsonage is only forty feet (the width 
 of the road in Mr. Herbert's time) from the 
 church. The parts rebuilt by Herbert can still 
 be traced ; but his inscription has disappeared. 
 A grass plot on the south side slopes down 
 to the river, and commands a fine view of 
 Salisbury Cathedral in the distance. A fig- 
 tree at the end of the house and a medlar in 
 the garden, are said to have been planted by 
 Mr. Herbert.f 
 
 » Notes and Queries, II., 414. f lb., II., 460. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 ME. HEEBEET's companions AT CAMBEIDGE " TIIB 
 
 PEAEL" DAILY PEATEES AT BEMEETON — " ME. HEE- 
 
 BEET's saint's bell" CHUECn MUSIO — WAYSIDE 
 
 TEACHINGS CATECHISING THE " POOE MAN WITH A 
 
 POOEEE HOESE" "music AT MIDNIGHT" — ME. HEE- 
 
 BEET'S EEVEEENCE and LOVE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 M 
 
 E. HEEBEET'S removal to Bemerton 
 severed his connection with Cambridge. 
 The separation must have been painful ; the 
 sacrifice felt. He gave up the great libraries 
 dear to an inquiring student, and a society 
 of living men equal in attractiveness to these 
 silent companions of his bookish hours. 
 Milton and Jeremy Taylor were inmates of 
 its classic halls, fair yonths, already giving 
 bright promise of their future glory. Thomas 
 Fuller was commencing his career as a great 
 
COLLEGE EKIENDS. 117 
 
 scholar, and enlivening his fellows by his 
 rare wit. Herrick, the song writer, Giles 
 and his brother Pliineas Fletcher, both to be 
 afterwards known as sacred poets, were 
 among his contemporaries, and not improb- 
 ably his friends.* John Cotton, Thomas 
 Hooker, and several others, men of worth 
 and intellect, -who were, a few years later, to 
 take a prominent part in the history of our 
 country, and give to our first college the 
 revered name of their beloved Alma Mater, 
 were also there, receiving the kindly culture 
 of the Church, in w^hose doctrine and fellow- 
 ship, but for the unwise rigor of men in 
 power, they would probably have continued 
 to their lives' end. 
 
 In one of his choicest productions, written 
 probably about this period, our poet has 
 alluded to these past experiences of his 
 life : 
 
 ^ Willmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets. 
 
118 THE PEARL. 
 
 THE PEAEL. 
 Matt. xiii. 
 I know the ways of learning ; both the head 
 And pipes that feed the press, and make it run ; 
 What reason hath from nature borrowed, 
 Or of itself, like a good housewife, spun 
 In laws and policy ; what the stars conspire, 
 What willing nature speaks, what forced by fire ; 
 Both the old discoveries and the new found seas,* 
 The stock and surplus, cause, and history ; 
 All these stand open, or I have the keys : 
 Yet I love thee. 
 
 I know the ways of honor, what maintains 
 The quick returns of courtesy and wit : 
 In view of favours whetherf party gains. 
 When glory swells the heart and mouldeth it 
 To all expressions both of hand and eye, 
 Which on the world a true-love knot may tie, 
 And bear the bundle, wheresoe'er it goes : 
 How many drams of spirit there must be 
 To sell my life unto my friends or foes : 
 
 Yet I love thee. 
 
 I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains. 
 The lullings and the relishes of it ; 
 The propositions of hot blood and brains ; 
 What mirth and music mean ; what love and wit 
 
 ^' One of many allusions to the American discoveries, 
 which were regarded by all the great men of the time as 
 one of the cliief glories of their age. 
 
 f Whichever. 
 
TEXTS FKOM THE GOSPELS. 119 
 
 Have done these twenty hundred years and more : 
 I know the projects of unbridled store : 
 My stuff is flesh, not brass ; my senses live, 
 And grumble oft, that they have more in me 
 Than he that curbs them, being but one to five : 
 Yet I love thee. 
 
 I know all these, and have them in my hand : 
 Therefore not sealed, but with open eyes, 
 I fly to thee, and fully understand 
 Both the main sale, and the commodities ; 
 And at what rate and price I have thy love ; 
 With all the circumstances that may move : 
 Yet through the labyrinths, not my groveling wit, 
 But thy silk-twist let down from Heaven to me, 
 Did both conduct and teach me, how by it, 
 To climb to thee. 
 
 Mr. Herbert devoted himself with un- 
 tiring energy to the duties of his calling. 
 The text of his weekly sermon — the Cate- 
 chism taking the place of a discourse in 
 the afternoon service — was always selected 
 from the Gospel for the day. He took 
 especial pains to explain to his hearers the 
 significancy of the various portions of the 
 Church services, and of the different seasons 
 of the ritual year. His instructions are set 
 
120 
 
 forth by Walton in a beautiful passage, justly 
 regarded as one of the finest expositions of 
 the Church service, and the manner in which 
 
 As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year. 
 
 His chapel was opened every day for 
 morning and evening prayer " at the ca- 
 nonical hours of ten and four." His own 
 family were constant in their attendance, 
 and their good example was generally fol- 
 lowed by the parishioners. Some of the 
 humble farm laborers, we are told, " did so 
 love and reverence Mr. Herbert that they 
 would let their plough rest when Mr. Her- 
 bert's Saint's bell rung to prayers, that they 
 might also offer their devotions to God with 
 him ; and w^ould then return back to their 
 plough. And his most holy life was such 
 that it begot such reverence to God and to 
 him, that they thought themselves the happier 
 when they carried Mr. Herbert's blessing 
 back with them to their labour." His brother 
 Edward writes to the same effect : " His life 
 
PKAYEK AND CATHEDRAL MUSIC. 121 
 
 was most holy and exemj^laiy, in so much 
 that about Salisbury, where he lived bene- 
 ficed for many years, he was little less than 
 sainted." 
 
 The recreations of a good man take their 
 tone from his duties, and thus advance, 
 rather than retard, as is often the case with 
 the selfish pleasures of the world, his pro- 
 gress in holiness. Mr. Herbert delighted in 
 the angelic gratification of music. " H. Al- 
 len, of Dauntsey, who was well acquainted 
 with him," told Aubrey, " that he had a very 
 good hand on the lute, and that he sett his 
 own ly ricks or sacred poems." He usually 
 walked twice in every week to Salisbury to 
 join in the choral service of the Cathedral, 
 and was wont to say on his return, ''That his 
 time spent in prayer and cathedral music 
 elevated his soul, and was his heaven upon 
 earth." He would frequently, before return- 
 ing from Salisbury, " sing and play his part 
 at an appointed private music meeting ;" re- 
 11 
 
122 SERMON HEAKEES AND FISH. 
 
 marking often that " Religion does not ban- 
 ish mirth, but only moderates and sets rules 
 to it." 
 
 His ordinary walks even seem, like all the 
 actions of his life, to have been the means 
 of good to others. It was his courteous 
 practice to enter into conversation with those 
 he met by the way. On one occasion we 
 find him overtaking a gentleman belonging 
 to Salisbury, and engaging in rehgious con- 
 versation, with the happy remark, " that 
 there be some sermon-hearers that be like 
 those fishes that always live in salt water, 
 and yet are always fresh." Mr. Herbert, we 
 are told, " asked him some needful questions, 
 and having received his answer, gave him 
 such rules for the trial of his sincerity, and 
 for a practical piety, and in so loving and 
 meek a manner that the gentleman did so 
 fall in love with him and his discourse, that 
 he would often contrive to meet him in his 
 walk to Salisbury or to attend him back to 
 
THE DUTY OF CATECHISING. 123 
 
 Bemerton, and still mentions the name of 
 Mr. George Herbert with veneration, and 
 still praiseth God for the occasion of knowing 
 him." 
 
 At another time we find him falling in 
 with a brother clergyman, and in the course 
 of their conversation on " the decay of piety 
 and too general contempt of the clergy," 
 urging that " one cure for these distempers 
 would be for the clergy themselves to keep 
 the Ember weeks strictly, and beg of their 
 parishioners to join with them in fasting and 
 prayers for a more religious clergy. 
 
 " And another cure," he continues, " would 
 be for themselves to restore the great and 
 neglected duty of catechising, on which the 
 salvation of so many of the poor and igno- 
 rant lay-people does depend ; but principally 
 that the clergy themselves would be sure to 
 live unblamably." 
 
 The third of these pleasant Avayside in- 
 cidents is so delightfully related by Wal* 
 
124 DISRESPECT TO THE CLOTH. 
 
 ton, that sve must borrow Lis entire nar- 
 rative : 
 
 " In another walk to Salisbury he saw a 
 poor man with a poorer horse, that was fallen 
 under his load ; they were both in distress, 
 and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert 
 perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and 
 helped the poor man to unload, and after to 
 load his horse. The poor man blessed him 
 for it, and he blessed the poor man ; and was 
 so like the good Samaritan, that he gave him 
 money to refresh both himself and his horse ; 
 and told him, ' that if he loved himself he 
 should be merciful to his beast.' Thus he 
 left the poor man, and at his coming to his 
 musical friends at Salisbury, they began to 
 wonder that Mr. George Herbert, who used 
 to be so trim and clean, came into that com- 
 pany so soiled and discomposed ; but he told 
 them the occasion. And wdien one of the 
 company told him ' he had disparaged him- 
 self by so dirty an employment,' his answer 
 
MUSIC AT MIDNIGHT. 125 
 
 was * that the thought of what he had done 
 would ]3rove music to him at midnight ; and 
 that the omission of it woukl have upbraided 
 and made discord in his conscience, whenso- 
 ever he should pass by that p)lace. For if I 
 be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I 
 am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in 
 my power, to practise what I pray for. And 
 though I do not wish for the like occasion 
 every day, yet let me tell you, I would not 
 willingly pass one day of my life without 
 comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy ; 
 and I praise God for this occasion. And 
 now let us tune our instruments.' " 
 
 An interesting addition to our biographical 
 knowledge of Mr. Herbert is given us by his 
 friend Ferrar. "To testify," he says, "his 
 independency uj)on all others, and to quicken 
 his diligence in this kind [his Christian call- 
 ing], he used, in his ordinary speech, when he 
 made mention of the blessed name of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, to add, My Master. 
 11^ 
 
126 LOVE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 " J^ext God, he loved that which God hhn- 
 self hath magnified above all things — that is, 
 his "Word : so, as he hath been heard to make 
 solemn protestation, that he would not part 
 "with one leaf thereof for the whole world, if 
 it were offered him in exchange."^ 
 
 ^ Preface to The Temple. 
 
CHAPTEE XL 
 
 THE COUXTEY PARSON " SHAYIXGS OF GOLd" THE 
 
 parson's apparel and nOITSEKEEPING " THE 
 
 WALLS NOT idle" — THE PARSON's SUNDAY WORK — 
 WASTING OF DISEASE. 
 
 IT was during this period that Mr. Herbert 
 wrote his admirable little prose work, " A 
 Priest to the Temple ; or, the Country Par- 
 son, his Character and Pule of Holy Life." 
 It was written solely with a view to his own 
 improvement in the duties of his sacred call- 
 ing. " I have resolved," he says in the brief 
 preliminary address of " The Author to the 
 Peader," '' to set down the form and character 
 of a true pastor, that I may have a mark to 
 aim at ; which also I will set as high as I 
 can, since he shoots higher that threatens the 
 
128 SHAVINGS OF GOLD. 
 
 moon, than he that aims at a tree.* ]S'ot 
 that I thmk that if a man do not all which 
 is here expressed, he presently sins and dis- 
 pleases God ; bnt that it is a good strife to 
 go as far as we can in pleasing of him who 
 hath done so much for ns." 
 
 This little volume was not published until 
 1652. Fuller, writing a little before this date 
 remarks, in his Church History, "It much 
 contenteth me that I am certainly informed 
 that the posthume remains (shavings of gold 
 are carefully to be kept) of that not less pious 
 than witty writer, are shortly to be put forth 
 into print." The " Country Parson" has 
 been several times " put forth into print" 
 within the present century, and can be ob- 
 tained at a moderate price. It is a book for 
 
 «^* His Church Porch in "The Temple" contains the 
 same fancy : 
 
 " Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high ; 
 So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be : 
 Sink not in spirit : who aimeth at the sky 
 Shoots higher much than he that means a tree, ' ' 
 
APPAKEL AND FUllNITURE. 129 
 
 the laity as well as the clergy, for most if not 
 all of the incidents of parochial life have a 
 common interest and impose a common ob- 
 ligation. 
 
 The volume furnishes many valuable hints 
 to the biographer ; for Herbert has drawn 
 many of the traits of his '' Country Parson" 
 from his own tastes. The parson's apparel 
 is "plain, but reverend and clean, without 
 spots, or dust, or smell; the purity of his 
 mind breaking out, and dilating itself even 
 to his body, clothes, and habitation."^ " The 
 furniture of his house is very plain, but 
 clean, whole, and sweet — as sweet as his 
 garden can make ; for he hath no money for 
 such things, charity being his only perfume, 
 which deserves cost when he can spare it. 
 His fare is plain and common, but whole- 
 
 ■•5 This was a favorite idea, which he has also expressed 
 among the counsels of "The Church Porch :" 
 
 " Let thy mind's sweetness have his operation 
 Upon thy body, clothes, and habitation," 
 
130 INSTRUCTION. 
 
 some ; what he hath is little, but very good. 
 It consisteth most of mutton, beef, and veal ; 
 if he adds anything for a great day or a 
 stranger, his garden or orchard supplies it, 
 or his barn and yard. He goes no further 
 for any entertainment, lest he go into the 
 world, esteeming it absurd that he should 
 exceed who teacheth others temperance." 
 
 " Those (of his servants) that can read are 
 allowed times for it, and those that cannot 
 are taught ; for all in his house are either 
 teachers, or learners, or both, so that his 
 family is a school of religion, and they all 
 account, that to teach the ignorant is the 
 greatest alms. Even the walls are not idle ; 
 but something is written or painted there, 
 which may excite the reader to a thought of 
 piety; especially the 101st Psalm, which is 
 expressed in a fair table as being the rule of 
 a family." 
 
 This idea of turning walls to a good in- 
 structive account was a favorite with him. 
 
TEXTS UrON WALLS. 131 
 
 We have already spoken of his legacy of ad- 
 vice to his successor in the Parsonage. His 
 church was similarly ornamented. " In the 
 chancel," says Aubrey, " are many apt sen- 
 tences of the Scripture. At his wife's seat, 
 ' My life is hid with Christ in God.' (Coloss. 
 iii. 3.) Above, in a little window blinded, 
 within a veil, 'Thou art my hiding-place.'" 
 The first-named passage has also furnished a 
 text for one of his poems. 
 
 "The Country Parson, as soon as he 
 awakes on Sunday morning, presently falls 
 to work, and seems to himself so as a market- 
 man is, when the market-day comes, or a 
 shop-keeper, when customers use to come in. 
 His thoughts are full of making the best of 
 the day, and contriving it to his best gains. 
 To this end, besides his ordinary prayers, he 
 makes a peculiar one for a blessing on the 
 exercises of the day. This done, he sets him- 
 self to the consideration of the duties of the 
 day, and if there be any extraordinary addi- 
 
132 SUNDAY EMrLOYMENT. 
 
 tioii to the customary exercises, either from 
 the time of the year, or from the state, or 
 from God, by a child born or dead, or any 
 other accident, he contrives how, and in 
 what manner, to induce it to the best ad- 
 vantage. Afterwards, when the hour calls, 
 with his family attending him, he goes to 
 church, at his first entrance humbly adoring 
 and worshipping the invisible majesty and 
 presence of Almighty God, and blessing the 
 people either openly or to himself. Then 
 having read divine service twice fully, and 
 preached in the morning and catechized in 
 the afternoon, he thinks he hath, in some 
 measure, according to poor and frail man, 
 discharged the public duties of the congrega- 
 tion. The rest of the day he spends either 
 in reconciling neighbours that are at variance, 
 or in visitino; the sick, or in exhortations to 
 some of his flock by themselves, whom his 
 sermons cannot, or do not, reach. And 
 every one is more awaked when we come 
 
SUNDAY EVENINGS. 133 
 
 and say : ' Tlioii art the man.' This way he 
 finds exceeding useful and winning ; and 
 these exhortations he calls his privy purse, 
 even as princes have theirs, besides their 
 public disbursements. At night he thinks it 
 a very fit time, both suitable to the joy of 
 the day, and without hindrance to public 
 duties, either to entertain some of his neigh- 
 bours, or to be entertained of them, where 
 he takes occasion to discourse of such things 
 as are both profitable and pleasant, and to 
 raise up their minds to apprehend God's 
 good blessing to our Church and State ; that 
 order is kept in the one and peace in the 
 other, without disturbance or interruption of 
 public divine offices. As he opened the day 
 with prayer, so he closeth it, humbly beseech- 
 ing the Almighty to pardon and accept our 
 poor services, and to improve them, that we 
 may grow therein, and that our feet may be 
 like hinds' feet, ever climbing up higher and 
 higher unto him." 
 
 12 
 
134 ' DECAY. 
 
 Did our plan permit, we might, in this 
 manner, follow the Country Parson through 
 his weekly round of duties, well assured that 
 in doing so we should still be in the com- 
 pany of Mr. George Herbert, as we shall 
 never find him far behind his own or any 
 other's ideal of a Christian walk and con- 
 versation. We have quoted enough, we 
 hope, to make the reader wish lor more^ and 
 he will, we trust, not be satisfied until he 
 has sought, found, and read Mr. Herbert's 
 little book from beginning to end. 
 
 Unfortunately for the world, this life of 
 goodness was to be of short duration. Con- 
 sumptive symptoms again appeared. Mr. 
 Herbert became so weak as to be unable to 
 read prayers twice a day without painful 
 effort. His wife perceiving that he was thus 
 exhausting his little strength, told him that 
 it " wasted his spirits and weakened him." 
 He confessed that this was so ; but added, 
 " his life could not be better spent than in 
 
ME. BOSTOCK. 135 
 
 the service of his Master, Jesus, who had 
 done aud suffered so much for him. But," 
 said he, " I will not be wilful ; for, though 
 my spirit be willing, yet I find my flesh is 
 weak ; and therefore Mr. Bostock shall be 
 appointed to read prayers for me to-morrow, 
 and I will be now only a hearer of them, till 
 this mortal shall put on immortality." Mr. 
 Bostock was an old friend of Mr. Herbert's, 
 and his curate or assistant at Fulston parish 
 church, to which Bemerton was a chapel. 
 He undertook the assigned duty on the fol- 
 lowing day, and continued it until Mr. Her- 
 bert's decease. 
 
CHAPTEK Xn. 
 
 ME. NICHOLAS FEKEAE THE VIEGINIA COMPANY LITTLE 
 
 GIDDEN DEVOTIONAL EXEECISES THE TABLET 
 
 "abused as papists and as PUEITANS" JOHN VAL- 
 
 DESSO ME. FEEEAe's PEAYEE^ — ME. DFNCON's YISIT 
 
 " WHAT PEAYEES ?" MANUSOEIPT OF THE TEMPLE. 
 
 MR. HERBEET had maintained for many 
 years a warm friendship with an as- 
 sociate of his University days, Mr. Nicholas 
 Ferrar.^ 
 
 Cf I i 'piiere is another thing (some will call it a paradox) 
 which I learned from him (and Mr. Ferrar) in the 
 managery of their most cordial and Christian friendship. 
 That this may be maintained in vigour and height with- 
 out the ceremonies of visits and compliments ; yea, with- 
 out any trade of secular courtesies, merely in order to 
 spiritual edification of one another in loVe. I know they 
 loved each other most entirely, and their very souls 
 cleaved together most intimately, and drove a large 
 stock of Christian intelligence together long before their 
 deaths ; yet saw they not each other in many years, I 
 think, scarce ever, but as members of one University, in 
 their whole lives." — OZey's Life of Herbert. 
 
THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 137 
 
 Mr. Ferrar, a gentleman of good family 
 and fortune, was born on the twenty-second 
 of N"ovember, 1592. He displayed, from 
 his earliest years, great mental activity and 
 deep devotional feeling. After completing 
 his studies at Cambridge he passed some years 
 in extensive foreign travel. On his return 
 he took an active part in the management of 
 the Virginia Company, conducting the corre- 
 spondence with the colony, and defending 
 the association from the attacks of its ene- 
 mies until its arbitrary and imjust dissolu- 
 tion, through the influence of the Spanish 
 ambassador, by the King. He now resolved 
 to withdraw from public affairs to the life of 
 retirement which he had long desired. 
 
 Mr. Ferrar pm-chased land yielding an in- 
 come of from four to five hundred pounds a 
 year, at Little Gidden, about eighteen miles 
 from Cambridge, and from four to six from 
 Huntingdon. His house was close to the 
 parish church. Having taken Deacon's 
 12* 
 
138 
 
 orders, he resolved to devote tlie remainder 
 of Ms life to religious duties. His execution 
 of this resolve was somewhat peculiar. 
 
 His family numbered about thirty persons, 
 a portion of whom were in no way related to 
 him. The household formed a sort of college 
 or brotherhood. The daily routine estab- 
 lished about the year 1630 was as follows: 
 At the hours of ten and four Mr. Ferrar read 
 prayers in the parish church, which he had 
 repaired and decorated at his own expense. 
 He also conducted morning service at six, in 
 the church or the oratory of his house, re- 
 maining often for several hours after the con- 
 clusion to sing hymns and anthems with 
 members of his family. They assembled 
 during the day for prayer and the reading 
 of the Psalms and other portions of the 
 Bible, and gathered together at night to read 
 the Psalms wliicli had been omitted during 
 the day. When those in attendance became 
 exhausted, the bell was rung " sometimes be- 
 
GEDDEN HALL. 139 
 
 fore and sometimes after midniglit," and their 
 places supplied by others who were in their 
 turn relieved, the service being continued 
 until morning, and the entire Psalter in this 
 manner said or sung once in every twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 These remarkable devotional exercises, ac- 
 companied by an abstemious mode of life 
 and liberal charities to the poor, became 
 celebrated, and Gidden Hall was often 
 visited by members of the clergy and others, 
 who would pass a week or more with Mr. 
 Ferrar, joining in the routine of the house. 
 During the winter the exercises of the night 
 were conducted in a parlor, warmed and ar- 
 ranged for the purjDose. This, in common 
 with the other apartments of the house, was 
 decorated with moral sentences and passages 
 from Scripture on the walls. A tablet of 
 brass was, at the suggestion of Mr. Herbert, 
 displayed in this room, with the following 
 significant inscription, approved by him : 
 
140 
 
 THE TABLET. 
 
 b g g g 
 
 S g H g 
 
 o w ei 
 
 s a 5 
 
 H iz; o 5 ;^ 
 
 P5 o o < a 
 
 a 
 
 MB S W 
 
 ^ 2 w " 
 
 a 
 
 K PM ^ P <i 
 
 o o o3 
 
 n p^ H (^ 
 £ H o 
 
 1^ 
 
 W o S S S o 
 
PAPISTS AND PURITANS. 141 
 
 Mr. Herbert's approval of this inscription, 
 interesting from its dignified simplicity, 
 furnishes a good example of his fair and 
 candid mode of dealing in matters open to 
 controversy. The erection of this tablet 
 gave rise, like the other proceedings of the 
 family, to much comment. They were op- 
 posed, as is often the case, by persons of the 
 most opposite opinions. "By some," says 
 the biographer, '^ they were abnsed as Pa- 
 pists ; by others, as Puritans."^ 
 
 An engraved portrait from a contemporary 
 picture of Mr. Ferrar now lies before ns. It 
 represents a singularly prepossessing counte- 
 nance. The brow is amj)le, the features 
 regular, the hair, dark and abundant, combed 
 back from the forehead ; the eye singularly 
 large and mild. The impression conveyed 
 by th-Q face is that of one of those quiet en- 
 thusiasts who pursue their course apart 
 
 * Peckard's Life of Ferrar. 
 
142 HOLY FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 from the main current of human affairs, but 
 with undeviating aim and a strength of pur- 
 pose that current's wildest surge cannot de- 
 flect a hair's breadth. The engraved seems 
 an endorsement of the printed page, and, like 
 many a fine portrait, furnishes one of the 
 most trustworthy of our biographical author- 
 ities. 
 
 Mr. Ferrar died on the second of De- 
 cember, 163Y. The family remained to- 
 gether, until dispersed by the parliamentary 
 party during the civil wars, 
 
 "Mr. Ferrar's and Mr. Herbert's devout 
 lives were both so noted," says Walton, " that 
 the general report of their sanctity gave 
 them occasion to renew that slight acquaint- 
 ance which was begun at their being con- 
 temporaries in Cambridge ; and this new holy 
 friendship was long maintained without any 
 interview, but only by loving and endearing 
 letters." As " one testimony of their friend- 
 ship and pious designs," he mentions, that 
 
JOHN VALDESSO. 143 
 
 Mr. Ferrar submitted to Mr. Herbert a trans- 
 lation which he had made of "The Con- 
 siderations of John Yaldesso," a work he had 
 met with on his travels. Yaldesso was a 
 favorite courtier of the Emperor Charles the 
 Fifth. After following his sovereign through 
 his many long wars, he retired with him 
 from the world to the monastery of Yuste, 
 where he wrote the work mentioned above, 
 and a translation of all St. Paul's Epistles, 
 from the original into Spanish. Mr. Herbert 
 returned the manuscript with many valuable 
 marginal notes, and a letter, both pf which 
 were printed with the volume. 
 
 " On Friday," Mr. Ferrar writes, the date 
 not being given, " Mr. Mapletoft brought us 
 word that Mr. Herbert was said to b« past 
 hope of recovery, which was very giievous 
 news to us, and so much the more so, being 
 altogether unexpected. "We presently there- 
 fore made our public supplication for his 
 health in the words and manner following :" 
 
144 PEAYER FOE ME. HERBEET. 
 
 We extract a portion of tlie prayer, as an 
 evidence of tlie respect and affection with 
 wliicli Mr. Herbert was regarded : 
 
 " O most miglity God, and merciful 
 Father, we most humbly beseech thee, if it 
 be thy good pleasure, to continue to us that 
 singular benefit which thou hast given ns in 
 the friendship of thy servant, our dear 
 brother, who now lieth on the bed of sick- 
 ness. Let him abide with ns yet awhile, for 
 the furtherance of our faith. We have 
 indeed deserved by our ingratitude, not 
 only the loss of him, but whatever other 
 opportunities thou hast given ns for the at- 
 tainment of our salvation. ^ '^ "^^ * * 
 Lord, thou hast willed that our delights 
 should be in the saints on earth, and in such 
 as excel in virtue ; how then should we not 
 be afflicted, and mourn when thou takest 
 them away from us ! Thou hast made him 
 a great help, and furtherance of the best 
 things amongst us, how then can we but 
 
145 
 
 esteem the loss of him a chastisement from 
 thy displeasm-e ! O Lord, we beseech thee, 
 that it may not be so ; we beseech thee, if it 
 be thy good pleasure, restore unto us our 
 dear brother, by restoring to him his health ; 
 so will we praise and magnify thy name and 
 mercy with a song of thanksgiving. Hear 
 us, O Lord, for thy dear Son's sake, Jesus 
 Christ our Saviour. Amen." 
 
 Mr. Ferrar sent Mr. Edward Duncon to 
 visit Mr. Herbert, and bring back a full 
 account of his condition. On Mr. Duncon's 
 entrance, Mr. Herbert, who was lying down 
 much exhausted, raised himself, and in- 
 quired respecting Mr. Ferrar's health. His 
 solicitude satisfied, after some conversation 
 about the holy life of his friend, he said to 
 Mr. Duncon, " Sir, I see by your habit that 
 you are a priest, and I desire you to pray 
 with me." Mr. Duncon, expressing his 
 willingness, asked, what prayers ? " O sir," 
 was the reply, '' the prayers of my mother, 
 13 
 
146 MAJESTY AND HUMILITY RECONCILED. 
 
 the Cliurch of England, no other prayers are 
 equal to them !^ but at this same time I beg 
 of you to pray only the Litany, for I am 
 weak and faint." Mr. Duncon complied, 
 and remained Mr. Herbert's guest for the 
 night, leaving him on the morrow with a 
 promise to return within five days. This 
 was about a month before Mr. Herbert's 
 death. Mr. Duncon, describing the inter- 
 view to Walton, told him, "that at his first 
 view of Mr. Herbert, he saw majesty and 
 humility so reconciled in his looks and be- 
 haviour as begot in him an awful reverence 
 for his person. He added, that his discourse 
 
 ■^•' "At once both commending them, and his soul to God 
 in them, immediately before his dissolution, as some 
 martyrs did, Mr. HuUier by name, vicar of Babram, 
 burnt to death in Cambridge, who, having the common 
 prayer-book in his hand instead of a censer, and using 
 the prayers as incense, offered himself up as a whole 
 burnt sacrifice to God ; with whom the very book itself 
 suffered martyrdom, when fallen out of his consumed 
 hands, it was by the executioners thrown into the fire and 
 burnt as an heretical book." — Oley's Life of Herbert. 
 
HOPE AND PATIENCE. 147 
 
 was SO pious and his motions so gentle and 
 meek, that, after almost forty years, yet they 
 remain still fresh in his memory." 
 
 On the fifth day Mr. Dmicon retm-ned. 
 He found Mr. Herbert much weaker than 
 before, so that he could converse for a short 
 time only. As his guest rose to depart, Mr. 
 Herbert said, " Sir, I pray give my brother 
 Ferrar an account of the decaying condition 
 of my body, and tell him I beg him to con- 
 tinue his daily prayers for me. And let him 
 know that I have considered that God only is 
 what he would he; and that I am, by his 
 grace, become now so like him, as to be 
 pleased with what pleaseth him; and tell 
 him, that I do not repine, but am pleased 
 with my want of health; and tell him my 
 heart is fixed on that place where true joy is 
 only to be found ; and tliat I long to be 
 there, and do wait for my appointed change 
 with hope and patience. Having said this," 
 continued Walton, " he did, with so sweet a 
 
a -rwTTi TXi-nTiTriTk -or\r\x> c/-\ttt c " 
 
 148 A GIFT TO " DEJECTED, POOR SOULS 
 
 humility as seemed to exalt him, bow down 
 to Mr. Dimcon, and with a thoughtful and 
 contented look say to him, "Sir, I pray 
 deliver this little book to my dear brother 
 Ferrar, and tell him he shall find in it a 
 picture of the many spiritual conflicts that 
 have passed betwixt God and my soul, before 
 I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my 
 Master ; in wiiose service I have now found 
 perfect freedom ; desire him to read it ; and 
 then, if he can think it may turn to the ad- 
 vantage of any dejected, poor soul, let it be 
 made public ; if not, let him burn it, for I 
 and it are less than the least of God's mer- 
 cies." The work thus humbly spoken of 
 -was "The Temple, or Sacred J^oems and 
 Private Ejaculations," destined not only to 
 comfort thousands of "dejected, poor souls," 
 but to place the author high among the 
 glorious company of the English poets, and 
 to endear him for all time to the hearts of 
 all good men. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 ME. WOODNOT — THE PAST AND THE FUTUEE — ME. HEE- 
 
 beet's LAST SUNDAY " CHUECH MUSIc" GOOD 
 
 WOEKS THE DEATH-BED ME. HEEBEET's BUEIAL 
 
 MES. HEEBEET's "WIDOWHOOD LOSS OF ME. HEEBEET's 
 
 MANTJSCEIPTS. 
 
 M 
 
 K. DUE'COE' was succeeded a day or 
 two after in his solemn watch at Mr. 
 Herbert's bedside, by the poet's old friend, 
 Mr. "Woodnot, who remained until all was 
 over. During this brief period of three 
 weeks, Mr. Herbert was often visited and 
 prayed with by the Bishop and Prebendaries 
 of Salisbury and the rest of the neighboring 
 clergy. His wife and his three nieces, with 
 Mr. Woodnot, were constant in their atten- 
 dance. He would often speak to them to 
 this effect : " I now look back upon the plea- 
 13* 
 
150 PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 
 
 sures of my life past, and see the content I 
 have taken in beauty, in wit, and music, and 
 pleasant conversation, are now all past by me 
 like a dream, or as a shadow that retm-ns not, 
 and are now all become dead to me, or I to 
 them ; and I see that, as my father and gen- 
 eration hath done before me, so I shall now 
 suddenly (with Job) make my hed also in the 
 dark; and I praise God I am prepared for 
 it ; and I praise Him that I am not to learn 
 patience, now I stand in such need of it ; and 
 that I have practised mortification and endea- 
 vored to die daily, that I might not die eter- 
 nally ; and my hope is, that I shall shortly 
 leave this valley of tears, and be free from 
 all fevers and pain, and, which will be a more 
 happy condition, I shall be free from sin 
 and all the temptations and anxieties that at- 
 tend it; and this being past, I shall dwell 
 in the l!^ew Jerusalem — dwell there with 
 men made perfect — dwell where these eyes 
 shall see my Master and Saviour Jesus, and 
 
THE DAY MOST CALM, MOST BKIGHT. 151 
 
 with Him see my dear motlier, and all my 
 relations and friends. But I must die or not 
 come to that happy place, and this is my con- 
 tent, that I am going daily toward it, and 
 that every day which I have lived hath taken 
 a part of my appointed time from me, and 
 that I shall live the less time, for having lived 
 this and the day past." 
 
 On the Sunday before his death, he rose 
 suddenly from his couch, and calling for one 
 of his musical instruments tuned it, and sang 
 to its accompaniment the fifth stanza of his 
 poem on Sunday. As this is one of the 
 finest of his productions, and can nowhere be 
 more fitly cited than here, we give the entire 
 composition : 
 
 SUNDAY. 
 
 day most calm, most bright, 
 The fruit of this, the next world's bud, 
 The indorsement of supreme delight, 
 Writ by a friend, and with his blood ; 
 The couch of time ; care's balm and bay ; 
 The week were dark, but for thy light ; 
 
 Thy torch doth shoAV the way. 
 
152 SILN^DAT. 
 
 The other days and thou 
 Make up one man ; whose face thou art, 
 Knoclcing at Heaven with thy brow : 
 The working days are the back part ; 
 The burden of the week lies there, 
 Making the whole to stoop and bow, 
 
 Till thy release appear. 
 
 Man had straightforward gone 
 To endless death ; but thou dost pull 
 And turn us round to look on one, 
 Whom, if we were not very dull, 
 We could not choose but look on still ; 
 Since there is no place so alone 
 
 The which he doth not fill, 
 
 Sundays the pillars are, 
 On which Heaven's palace arched lies : 
 The other days fill up the spare 
 And hollow room with vanities. 
 They are the fruitful beds and borders 
 In God's rich garden ; that is bare 
 
 Which parts their ranks and orders. 
 
 The Sundays of man's life, 
 Thredded together on time's string, 
 Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
 Of the eternal glorious King, 
 On Sunday Heaven's gate stands ope ; 
 Blessings are plentiful and rife, 
 
 More plentiful than hope. 
 
FROM SEVEN TO SEVEN. 153 
 
 This day my Saviour rose, 
 And did enclose this light for his, 
 That as each beast his manger knows, 
 Man might not of his fodder miss. 
 Christ hath took in this piece of ground, 
 And made a garden there for those 
 
 Who want herbs for their wound. 
 
 The rest of our Creation 
 Our great Redeemer did remove, 
 With the same shake, which at his passion 
 Did the earth and all things with it move. 
 As Samson bore the doors away, 
 Christ's hands, though nail'd, wrought our v,tivatic«i, 
 
 And did unhinge that day. 
 
 The brightness of that day 
 We sullied by our foul offence : 
 Wherefore that robe we cast away, 
 Having a new at His expense, 
 Whose drops of blood paid the full price, 
 That was required to make us gay. 
 
 And fit for Paradise. 
 
 Thou art a day of mirth : 
 And where the week days trail on ground, 
 Thy flight is higher, as thy birth : 
 Oh, let me take thee at the bound. 
 Leaping with thee from seven to seven, 
 Till that we both, being toss'd from earth, 
 
 Fly hand in hand to Heaven ! 
 
154 SWEETEST OF SWEETS. 
 
 The beautiful incideut just related, recalls 
 another of Herbert's poems. In the rapt 
 enjoyment of devotional melody he seems 
 almost to anticipate the scene before us. 
 
 CHURCH MUSIC. 
 
 Sweetest of sweets, I thank you ; when displeasure 
 Did through my body wound my mind, 
 
 You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure, 
 A dainty lodging me assigned. 
 
 Now I in you without a body move, 
 
 Eising and falling with your wings ; 
 We both together sweetly live and love, 
 
 Yet say sometimes, " God help poor kings." 
 
 Comfort, I'll die ; for if you post from me, 
 
 Sure I shall do so, and much more ; 
 But if I travel in your company. 
 
 You know the way to Heaven's door. 
 
 On the day of his death he said to Mr. 
 Woodnot: "My dear friend, I am sorry I 
 have nothing to present to my merciful God 
 but sin and misery ; but the first is pardoned, 
 and a few hours will now put a period to the 
 latter, for I shall suddenly go hence and be no 
 
THE LAST STKUGGLE. 155 
 
 rebuilding of Leigliton cliurcli, and some of 
 his otlier acts of charity. "They be good 
 works," was the reply, " if they be sprinkled 
 with the blood of Christ, and not otherwise." 
 After this he became restless. As his wife 
 and nieces kept their mournful watch at his 
 bedside they perceived that he breathed 
 faintly and with effort. A sudden agony 
 fell upon him. His wife, in a paroxysm of 
 grief, asked him how he felt. He replied, 
 " that he had passed a conflict with his last 
 enemy, and had overcome him by the merits 
 of his Master Jesus." Looking up, he saw 
 his wife and nieces weeping. He entreated 
 them, " if they loved him, to withdraw into 
 the nex,t room, and there pray, every one 
 alone for him ; for nothing but their lament- 
 ations could make his death uncomfortable." 
 They "yielded him a sad obedience" and 
 tearfully withdrew, leaving only Mr. Wood- 
 not and Mr. Bostock with him. Pointing 
 out a cabinet to the latter, he requested him 
 
156 DEATH. 
 
 to take from it his will. Keceiving the docu- 
 ment, he placed it in the hands of Mr. 
 "Woodnot. " My old friend," he said, " I 
 here deliver yon my last will, in which you 
 will find that I have made you my sole exec- 
 iitor, for the good of my wife and nieces ; 
 and I desire you to show kindness to them, 
 as they shall need it. I do not desire you to 
 be just, for I know you will be so for your 
 own sake ; but I charge you, by the religion 
 of our friendship, to be careful of them." 
 Having received Mr. Woodnot's assent, he 
 said : " I am now ready to die ;" and after a 
 space : " Lord, forsake me not, now my 
 strength faileth me ; but grant me mercy for 
 the merits of my Jesus. And now. Lord — 
 Lord, receive my soul." 
 
 " With these words, he breathed forth his 
 divine soul, without any apparent disturb- 
 ance, Mr. Woodnot and Mr. Bostock attend- 
 ing his last breath, and closing his eyes." 
 
 Mr. Herbert was buried on the third of 
 
THE BIJEIAL SERVICE. 157 
 
 March, 1632, beneath the chancel of his 
 church, the choristers of Salisbury, in com- 
 pliance with his expressed wishes, attending 
 and chaunting in the service for the burial 
 of the dead. There is something beautiful 
 in this request. It marks his love of music 
 and his love to the Church. He asked for 
 no funeral pomp, no eulogy, no monumental 
 marble; but he did require that the noble 
 service of our ritual should be given in all 
 its beauty — ^that it might do its full work by 
 impressing the living as well as honoring 
 the dead. 
 
 Mrs. Herbert remained a widow for six 
 years. She then married Sir Kobert Cook, 
 of Highnam, Gloucestershire, by whom she 
 had a daughter. She died in 1663, having 
 survived Sir Eobert fifteen years. She re- 
 tained an affectionate reverence for Mr. 
 Herbert to the last. She would often take 
 occasion to mention his name, and say, "that 
 name must live in her memory till she put 
 14 
 
1§8 LOST MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 off mortality." Walton says, that she " had 
 preserved many of Mr. Herbert's private 
 writings, which she intended to make pub- 
 lic, but they and Highnam House were burnt 
 together, by the late rebels, and so lost to pos- 
 terity." Another authority, John Aubrey, 
 the gossiping antiquary, gives a different ac- 
 count. He says that Mr. Herbert " writ a 
 folio in Latin, which, because the parson of 
 Hineham could not read it, his widowe (then 
 wife to Sir Eobert Cook) condemned to the 
 uses of good housewifry." "We wish, for 
 Lady Cook's and the parson's sake, that the 
 Btory were not as authentic as we fear it is. 
 
CHAPTEE XIY. 
 
 COKNAEO ON TEMPERANCE — PEOYEEBS WALTON's DE- 
 
 SCEIPTION OF THE TEMPLE CHAEACTEE OF THE WOEK 
 
 THE "CHUECH POECH" " THE ALTAE" " SIN" 
 
 "vIETUe" THE "bETTISH CHUECH" " PEACE." 
 
 IN addition to tlie works we have already 
 mentioned, Mr. Herbert translated Cor- 
 naro's Treatise on Temperance, an excellent 
 little volume, wliich is still frequently printed. 
 It appeared at Cambridge, in 1634, in tlie same 
 volume with a translation, by Mr. Xicbolas 
 Ferrar, of tlie Hygiasticon ; or, The Right 
 Course of Preserving Health, by Leonard 
 Lessius, and is included, with several notes 
 on Lessius' treatise, in the poet's " Eemains." 
 He also formed a collection of Proverbs, 
 published in 1640, with the title, " Jacula 
 Prudentum 'y or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sen- 
 
160 A MAN HIS OWN PHYSIC. 
 
 tences, etc., selected by Mr. George Herbert, 
 late Orator of the University of Cambridge." 
 Others were added in the second edition, 
 1651. The whole are included in the "Ee- 
 mains." The translations appear to have 
 been popular, and to have passed through 
 several editions. The contemporary poet, 
 Richard Crashaw, has rendered a fine trib- 
 ute to Lessius' labors. It is itself redolent 
 with the beauty of hearty, vigorous health. 
 
 IN mAiSE OP lessius' eule of health. 
 
 «f c- -is tt '.■} « 
 
 Hark hither, reader, would' st thou see 
 Nature her own physician he ? 
 Would' st see a man all his own wealth, 
 His own physic, his own health ? 
 A man whose sober soul can tell 
 How to wear her garments well ? 
 
 o o o a * » 
 
 A happy soul, that all the way 
 
 To heaven hath a summer's day ? 
 
 Would' st see a man whose well- warmed blood 
 
 Bathes him in a genuine flood ? 
 
 A man whose tuned humours be 
 
 A seat of rarest harmony ? 
 
 Would' st sec blithe looks, fresh cheeks beguile 
 
 Age ? Would' st see December smile ? 
 
FIRST EDITION OF THE TEMPLE. 161 
 
 Would' st see a nest of roses grow 
 
 In a bed of reverend snow ? 
 
 Warm thought, free spirits, flattering 
 
 Winter's self into a spring ? 
 
 In sum, would' st see a man that can 
 
 Live to be old and still a man ? 
 
 Whose latest, and most leaden hours, 
 
 Fall with soft wings, stuck with soft flow'rs ; 
 
 And, when life's sweet fable ends, 
 
 Soul and body part like friends : — 
 
 No quarrels, murmurs, no delay ; 
 
 A kiss, a sigh, and so away ? 
 
 This rare one, reader, would' st thou see, 
 
 Hark hither ; and — thyself be he ! 
 
 The first edition of The Temple, " by Mr. 
 George Herbert, late Orator of the Univer- 
 Bitj of Cambridge," bears no date.* The 
 second appeared in 1633. It is a book, as 
 "Walton, in his Life of Donne, with his 
 wonted happy warmth remarks, " in which, 
 by declaring his own spiritnal conflicts, 
 he hath comforted and raised many deject- 
 ed souls, and charmed them into sweet 
 
 ^- This first edition, a thin duodecimo, is very rare. A 
 copy sold at Sotheby's auction-room, in London for £19 
 17s. 6d. 
 
 14* 
 
162 SACEED POEMS. 
 
 and quiet thoughts ; a book, by the frequent 
 reading whereof, and the assistance of that 
 spirit that seemed to inspire the author, the 
 reader may attain habits of peace and piety, 
 and all the gifts of the Holy Ghost and 
 heaven, and may by still reading, still keep 
 those sacred fires burning upon the altar of 
 so pure a heart, as shall free it from the 
 anxieties of this world, and keep it fixed 
 upon things that are above." 
 
 The sub-title of The Temple — " Sacred 
 Poems and Private Ejaculations" — ^forms, 
 perhaps, the best description of, and com- 
 mentary on, its contents. The poems are 
 truly sacred. A divine repose, a church- 
 like quiet, pervades the whole. There is no 
 eff'ort at display — no ambitious attempt to 
 portray the scenes of Holy Writ. Each 
 poem is an expression of the author's indi- 
 vidual thought. Many are prayers in verse, 
 the "private ejaculations" of the author's 
 closet. But though remote from the turmoil 
 
CHARITY AND SUNDAYS. 163 
 
 and strife of the world, they bear ample evi- 
 dence that their writer knew its trials and 
 temptations, sympathized with its sufferings, 
 was not insensible to its honorable re- 
 wards. Herbert's entire life lies before us 
 in its pages. 
 
 The Temple opens with "The Church 
 Porch," a series of maxims for the general 
 conduct of life, displaying thorough knowl- 
 edge of the world and human nature. Many 
 of these are expressed with great beauty. 
 Thus he remarks on Charity : 
 
 Join hands with God to make a man to live. 
 
 On Sundays : 
 
 Sundays observe : think when the bells do chime, 
 'Tis angels' music. 
 
 He says of behavior in church : 
 
 Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part : 
 Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither. 
 Christ purged his temple ; so must thou thy heart. 
 All worldly thoughts are but thieves met together 
 To cozen thee. Look to thy actions well ; 
 For churches either are our heaven or hell. 
 
164 PLAY THE MAN. 
 
 He draws a lively moral from a dull ser- 
 mon : 
 
 Do not grudge 
 To pick out treasures from an earthen pot. 
 The worst speak something good : if all want sense, 
 God takes a text, and preacheth patience. 
 
 The Chmxli Porcli concludes witli tlie fol- 
 lowing incentive to duty : 
 
 In brief, acquit thee bravely ; play the man. 
 
 Look not on pleasures as they come, but go. 
 
 Defer not the least virtue : life's poor span 
 
 Make not an ill, by trifling in thy woe. 
 If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pain : 
 If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remain. 
 
 Passing within, our glance naturally rests 
 upon the Altar. The holy table is commem- 
 orated in a fanciful manner, much in favor 
 with the poets of Herbert's day, by wdiich 
 the lines of the composition are so arranged 
 that the printed page shall bear a resem- 
 blance to its subject matter. We quote 
 the poem as a curious illustration of this 
 practice : 
 
THE PARTS OF THE TEMPLE. 165 
 THE ALTAR. 
 
 A BROKEN ALTAR, LORD, THY SERVANT REARS, 
 
 MADE OF A HEART, AND CEMENTED WITH TEARS : 
 
 WHOSE PARTS ARE AS THY HAND DID FRAME ; 
 
 NO workman's TOOL HATH TOUCh'd THE SAME. 
 
 A HEART ALONE 
 
 IS SUCH A STONE, 
 
 AS NOTHING BUT 
 
 THY POWER DOTH CUT. 
 
 WHEREFORE EACH PART 
 
 OP MY HARD HEART 
 
 MEETS IN THIS FRAME, 
 
 TO PRAISE THY NAME : 
 
 THAT IF I CHANGE TO HOLD MY PEACE, 
 
 THESE STONES TO PRAISE THEE MAY NOT CEASE. 
 
 O LET THY BLESSED SACRIFICE BE MINE, 
 
 AND SANCTIFY THIS ALTAR TO BE THINE. 
 
 The consideration of The Sacrifice follows, 
 a series of reflections npon the different 
 scenes of the Passion. The spiritual Temple 
 thus entered, the poet dwells in turn upon 
 the sacraments and ritual, the holy seasons 
 and ceremonies, the occasions of prayer and 
 praise, the various parts of the sacred edifice, 
 the joys and sorrows of the Christian life. 
 We select four of these poems, which we 
 
166 SIN AND VLRTTJE. 
 
 consider, with those abeady quoted, as the 
 most beautiful of the author's productions. 
 
 SIN. 
 
 Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round ! 
 Parents first season us : then schoolmasters 
 Deliver us to laws ; they send us bound 
 
 To rules of reason, holy messengers. 
 
 Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin. 
 Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes. 
 Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, 
 
 Bibles laid open, millions of surprises, 
 
 Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness, 
 The sound of Glory ringing in our ears ; 
 Without, our shame ; within, our consciences : 
 
 Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears. 
 
 Yet all these fences and their whole array 
 One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away. 
 
 VIETUE. 
 
 Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, 
 The bridal of the earth and sky, 
 The dew shall weep thy fall to-night ; 
 For thou must die. 
 
 Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave. 
 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, 
 Thy root is ever in its grave, 
 
 And thou must die. 
 
THE BRITISH CHURCH. 167 
 
 Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, 
 A box where sweets compacted lie, 
 My music shows ye have your closes. 
 And all must die. 
 
 Only a sweet and virtuous soul, 
 Like season' d timber, never gives ; 
 But though the whole world turn to coal, 
 Then chiefly lives. 
 
 THE BRITISH CHUECH. 
 
 I joy, dear mother, when I view 
 Thy perfect lineaments, and hue 
 
 Both sweet and bright : 
 Beauty in thee takes up her place, 
 And dates her letters from thy face, 
 
 When she doth write. 
 
 A fine aspect in fit array. 
 
 Neither too mean, nor yet too gay. 
 
 Shows who is best : 
 Outlandish looks may not compare ; 
 For all they either painted are, 
 
 Or else undrest. 
 
 She on the hills, which wantonly 
 AUureth all in hope to be 
 
 By her preferr'd. 
 Hath kiss'd so long her painted shrines, 
 That e'en her face by kissing shines, 
 
 For her reward. 
 
168 PEACE. 
 
 She in the valley is so shy 
 
 Of dressing, that her hair doth lie 
 
 About her ears : 
 While she avoids her neighbour's pride, 
 She wholly goes on the other side, 
 
 And nothing wears. 
 
 But, dearest mother, (what those miss) 
 The mean thy praise and glory is, 
 
 And long may be. 
 Blessed be God, whose love it was 
 To double-moat thee with his grace. 
 
 And none but thee. 
 
 PEACE. 
 
 Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell ? I humbly crave, 
 Let me once know. 
 I sought thee in a secret cave. 
 And ask'd if Peace were there. 
 A hollow wind did seem to answer, No : 
 Go seek elsewhere. 
 
 I did ; and going, did a rainbow note : 
 Surely, thought I, 
 This is the lace of Peace's coat : 
 
 I will search out the matter. , 
 
 But while I look'd, the clouds immediately 
 Did break and scatter. 
 
 Then went I to a garden, and did spy 
 A gallant flower, 
 
THE PEINCE OF OLD. 1^9 
 
 The crown imperial. Sure, said I, 
 Peace at the root must dwell. 
 But when I digg'd, I saw a worm devour 
 What show'd so well. 
 
 At length I met a reverend good old man, 
 Whom when for Peace 
 I did demand, he thus began : 
 There was a prince of old 
 At Salem dwelt, who lived with good increase 
 Of flock and fold. 
 
 He sweetly lived ; yet sweetness did not save 
 His life from foes. 
 But after death out of his grave 
 
 There sprang twelve stalks of wheat : 
 Which many wondering at, got some of those 
 To plant and set. 
 
 It prosper' d strangely, and did soon disperse 
 Through all the earth : 
 For they that taste it do rehearse, 
 That virtue lies therein ; 
 A secret vu-tue, bringing peace and mir.th 
 By flight of sin. 
 
 Take of this grain, which in my garden grows, 
 And grows for you ; 
 Make bread of it : and that repose 
 And Peace, which everywhere 
 With so much earnestness you do pursue. 
 Is only there. 
 
 Several of the poems of The Temple are 
 15 
 
170 OBSCURITIES. 
 
 disfigured by conceits or similes the meaning 
 of wMcli is not readily apparent, and when 
 obtained often out of harmony with the rest 
 of the composition. An example of this 
 fault occurs in the concluding verses of the 
 poem on Virtue. Other passages may be 
 found in which the train of thought is in- 
 volved and the meanmg obscure. A little 
 patience will, however, always overcome the 
 difficulty, and it will be well to bear in mind 
 Dr. Johnson's remark, in a somewhat similar 
 vein, upon the i3oets of Herbert's school, 
 " that, if their conceits were far-fetched, they 
 were often worth the carriage."* 
 
 « Life of Cowley. 
 
CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 LICENSE FOE THE PUBLICATION OF THE TEMPLE — EE- 
 LIGION AND AMEEICA — THE VIEGINIA AND NEW EN- 
 GLAND EMIGEATIONS — ME. FEEEAE's INTRODTJCTION 
 TO THE TEMPLE — POPULAEITT OF THE WOEK — THE 
 SYNAGOGUE — CHEISTOPHEE HAEVEY — TVALTON's LINES 
 
 "the book of COMMON PEAYEE" — HEEBEEt's 
 
 PEOVEEBS. 
 
 ¥HEK Mr. Ferrar applied at Cambridge 
 to obtain a license for the publication 
 of The Temple, the Yice Chancellor refused 
 his consent, unless the first couplet of the 
 following lines should be omitted : 
 
 Keligion stands on tiptoe in our land, 
 Ready to pass to the American strand. 
 "When height of malice, and prodigious lusts, 
 Impudent sinning, witchcrafts and distrusts. 
 The marks of future bane, shall fill our cup 
 Unto the brim, and make our measure up ; 
 When Seine shall swallow Tiber ; and the Thames, 
 By letting in them both, pollutes her streams ; 
 
172 RELIGION IN AMERICA. 
 
 When Italy of us shall have her will, 
 
 And all her calendars of sins fulfil, 
 
 Whereby one may foretell what sins next year, 
 
 Shall both in France and England domineer : 
 
 Then shall Eeligion to America flee ; 
 
 They have their times of gospel ev'n as we.-»- 
 
 Mr. Ferrar, however, insisted that the work 
 should be published as left by Mr. Herbert, 
 and the Yice Chancellor finally yielded, with 
 the remark, " I knew Mr. Herbert well, and 
 know that he had many heavenly specula- 
 tions, and was a divine poet ; but I hope the 
 world will not take him to be an inspired 
 prophet, and therefore I license the whole 
 book." 
 
 These lines have a peculiar interest to 
 American readers. They show that the 
 thoughts of Herbert had dwelt on one of the 
 great events of his age, the colonization of 
 our beloved country. From the prominent 
 position of his friend Mr. Ferrar in the Yir- 
 ginia Company, he is likely to have been fa- 
 
 « The Church Militant. 
 
DEDICATION. 173 
 
 miliar witli tliat noble enterprise, conceived 
 and executed in a missionary no less tlian a 
 mercantile spirit ;'^' and tie was, as we have 
 seen, a contemporary at Cambridge with 
 some of the future founders of 'New England. 
 Herbert did not, however, attach any pro- 
 phetic significance to the lines. 
 
 Mr. Ferrar prefixed to The Temple a brief 
 address by "The Printer to the Eeader." 
 " The dedication of this work," he finely re- 
 marks, " having been made by the author to 
 the Divine Majesty only, how should we now 
 presume to interest any mortal man in the 
 patronage of it ? Much less think we it meet 
 to seek recommendation of the Muses, for that 
 which himself was confident to have been 
 
 ■-• This is abundantly evident from the minute account 
 of the proceedings of the company given in the Life of 
 Ferrar, and other early records. A noble sermon, preach- 
 ed by Dr. Donne on the 30th of November, 1622, bears 
 eloquent testimony to the same effect. It is vrell known 
 that the daily service of their Church vras regularly cel- 
 ebrated by the early colonists. 
 
174 THE SYNAGOGUE. 
 
 inspired by a diviner breath than flows from 
 Helicon. The world, therefore, shall receive 
 it in that naked simplicity with which he left 
 it, without any addition either of support or 
 ornament, more than is inclosed in itself. We 
 leave it free and unforestalled to every man's 
 judgment, and to the benefit that he shall 
 find by perusal." 
 
 The Temple was received with great favor 
 by the public, and at once attained a wide 
 popularity. Twenty thousand copies had 
 been sold when "Walton's Life of the author 
 was written. The edition published in 1640 
 was accompanied by a collection of poems 
 similar in character, but far inferior in merit, 
 to those of Herbert, entitled, " The Syna- 
 gogue, or the Shadow of the Temple, Sacred 
 Poems and Private Ejaculations, in imitation 
 of Mr. George Herbert." They were pub- 
 lished anonymously, but the authorship has 
 generally been attributed to the Pev. Chris- 
 topher Harvey, on the authority of Izaak 
 
CHRISTOPHER HARVEY. 175 
 
 "Walton, who addresses his " reverend friend, 
 the Author of The Synagogue," in some com- 
 mendator J verses : 
 
 I loved you for your Synagogue, before 
 
 I knew your person ; but now love you more ; 
 
 Because I find 
 It is so true a picture of your mind ; 
 
 Which times your sacred lyre * 
 
 To that eternal quire, 
 
 Where holy Herbert sits 
 
 (0 shame to profane wits !) 
 And sings his and your anthems, to the praise 
 Of Him that is the first and last of days. 
 
 "Walton also quotes, in his Complete An- 
 gler, one of the poems of the volume, with 
 the name " Ch. Harvie" appended as the 
 author. 
 
 The Synagogue has since maintained its 
 place in almost every edition of Herbert's 
 Poems. We quote, as a specimen of its 
 style, and for its own merits, the poem se- 
 lected by Mr. Walton : 
 
1Y6 PKAYEE BY THE BOOK. 
 
 COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 What, prayer by the book ? and common ? Yes. Why not? 
 The spirit of grace 
 And supplication 
 Is not left free alone 
 For time and place ; 
 But manner too. To read, or speak by rote, 
 « Is all alike to him, that prays 
 
 With's heart, that with his mouth he says. 
 
 They that in private by themselves alone 
 Do pray, may take 
 What liberty they please, 
 In choosing of the ways, 
 Wherein to make 
 Their soul's most intimate affections known 
 To him that sees in secret, when 
 They are most conceal' d from other men. 
 
 But he that unto others leads the way 
 In public prayer, 
 Should choose to do it so 
 As all, that hear, may know 
 They need not fear 
 To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say, 
 Amen ; nor doubt they were betray' d 
 To blaspheme, when they should have pray'd. 
 
 Devotion will add life unto the letter. 
 
 And why should not 
 
 That which authority 
 
 Prescribes esteemed be 
 
177 
 
 Advantage got ? 
 If the Prayer be good, the commoner the better. 
 Prayer in the Church's words, as well 
 As sense, of all prayers bears the bell. 
 
 Herbert's collection of " Outlandish Prov- 
 verbs" was one of tlie earliest formed in the 
 language. Tbe selection testifies, like all his 
 works, to his knowledge of the world. The 
 Proverbs are eleven hundred and eighty- 
 two in number. A few specimens may be 
 given : 
 
 He that studies his content, wants it. 
 Every day brings its bread with it. 
 Humble hearts have humble desires. 
 A cool mouth, and warm feet, live long. 
 When a friend asks, there is no to-morrow. 
 God sends cold according to clothes. 
 Old wine and an old friend are good provisions. 
 Would you know what money is, go borrow some. 
 Though you see a churchman ill, yet continue in the 
 church still. 
 
 Hell is full of good meanings and wishings. 
 
 The last-quoted proverb is interesting from 
 
178 PR. JOHNSON. 
 
 its similarity to a favorite expression of Dr. 
 Jolinson, " Hell is paved with good inten- 
 tions." Both are, no doubt, derived from a 
 common original, far back in the primitive 
 ages of wisdom. 
 
CHAPTEE XYI. 
 
 IZAAK WALTON' — LIVES OF DONNE AND WALTON — THE 
 
 COMPLETE ANGLER ALLUSIONS TO MR. HERBERT 
 
 LIVES OF HOOKER AND HERBERT PREFACES TO HIS 
 
 LIFE OF HERBERT WOODFORd'S LINES ON HERBERT 
 
 AND DONNE COTTON's TRIBUTE TO HERBERT — DU- 
 
 PORT's latin lines — LIFE OF SANDERSON — WORDS- 
 
 worth's sonnet — Walton's death. 
 
 V ALTON'S Life of Herbert appeared in 
 1670. We have already, by our fre- 
 quent extracts, given a significant proof of 
 our admiration of his labors. Herbert owes 
 no small portion of his fame to his en- 
 thusiastic old biographer. "Walton was a man 
 every way qualified to do justice to his theme. 
 He presented as a layman a model almost as 
 perfect as the Complete Parson, Herbert. 
 
 Born of respectable but not opulent pa- 
 rents in the midland town of Stafford, he 
 
180 SIR IIENEY WOTTON. 
 
 came in liis youtli to London and devoted 
 himself to merchandise. His honesty and 
 enterprise seem to have been crowned with 
 success in the accnmnlation of a moderate 
 fortune. He was a parishioner and intimate 
 of Herbert's friend Donne. On the death 
 of that eminent divine the preparation of his 
 sermons for the press, with a memoir of the 
 author, was commenced by Sir Henry Wot- 
 ton, a leading statesman, scholar, and church- 
 man of the period. He died before he had 
 more than entered upon his task. The duty 
 next devolved upon "Walton, who had al- 
 ready been engaged as an assistant. His 
 life, prefixed to a folio volume of Donne's 
 Sermons, appeared in 1640. 
 
 His next labor of love was the preparation 
 of the Beliqidce Wottonianm for the press, 
 accompanied by a memoir of his accom- 
 plished friend. The volume appeared in 
 1651. In 1653 he published his Complete 
 Angler, a little work which has given him 
 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 181 
 
 a perpetual fame as an autlior. The purity 
 and freshness of its style, its pictures of rural 
 scenes, its cheerful vein of reflection, its un- 
 affected piety, have made it a favorite with 
 all lovers of good books. 
 
 Walton has twice introduced Herbert in 
 the Complete Angler. In the first chap- 
 ter, Piscator closes some remarks on rivers 
 and fishes in these words : 
 
 "But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem 
 tedious, I shall give it a sweet conclusion out 
 of that holy poet, Mr. George Herbert, his 
 divine contemplations on God's Providence." 
 
 Three stanzas follow from one of the poems 
 of The Temple. 
 
 In the fifth chapter, Piscator says — And 
 now, scholar ! my direction for fly-fishing is . 
 ended with this shower, for it has done rain- 
 ing. And now look about you and see how 
 pleasantly that meadow looks ; nay, and the 
 earth smells as sweetly, too. Come, let me 
 tell you what holy Mr. Herbert says of such 
 16 
 
182 ME. HEEBEKT AJS" ANGLEK. 
 
 days and flowers as these ; and then we will 
 thank God that we enjoy them ; and walk to 
 the river and sit down quietly, and try to 
 catch the other brace of tronts — 
 
 Sweet day ! so cool, so calm, so bright.'* 
 
 Venator. I thank you, good master! for 
 your good direction for fly-fishing; and for 
 the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day, 
 which is, so far, spent without offence to 
 God or man. And I thank you for the 
 sweet close of your discourse with Mr. Her- 
 bert's verses ; who, I have heard, loved an- 
 gling, and I do the rather believe it, because 
 he had a spirit suitable to anglers, and to those 
 primitive Christians that you love, and have 
 so much commended. 
 
 Piscator. "Well, my loving scholar ! and 
 am well pleased to know that you are so wel 
 pleased with my direction and discourse 
 And since you like these verses of Mr. He. 
 
 « Virtue, p. 87. 
 
LIVES OF HOOKER AND HERBERT. 183 
 
 bert's so well, let me tell you, what a rev- 
 erend and learned divine that professes to 
 imitate him, and has indeed done so most 
 excellently, hath writ of our book of Com- 
 mon Prayer ; which I know you will like the 
 better, because he is a friend of mine, and I 
 am sure no enemy to angling. 
 
 What, Pray'r by the book ? and common ? Yes. Why 
 not ?* 
 
 Walton's next work, the Life of Richard 
 Hooker, appeared in 1G65. This was fol- 
 lowed by the Life of George Herbert. In 
 the preface he says : 
 
 " In a late retreat from the business of this 
 world, and those many little cares with 
 which I have too often incumbered myself, 
 I fell into a contemplation of some of those 
 historical passages that are recorded in sacred 
 story, and more particularly of what had 
 past betwixt our blessed Saviour and that 
 
 <* Ante, page 176. 
 
184 DONNE, WOTTON, AND HEKBEET. 
 
 wonder of women, and sinners, and mourn- 
 ers, Saint Mary Magdalen. 
 
 * * * -x- * 
 
 "Upon occasion of wliicli fair example, 1 
 did lately look back, and not without some 
 content (at least to myself) that I have en- 
 deavoured to deserve the love, and preserve 
 the memory of my two deceased friends, Dr. 
 Donne and Sir Henry Wotton, by declaring 
 the several employments and various acci- 
 dents of their lives. And though Mr. George 
 Herbert (whose Life I now intend to write) 
 were to me as stranger to his person, for I 
 have only seen him ; yet since he was, and 
 was worthy to be, their friend, and very 
 many of his have been mine, I judge it may 
 not be unacceptable to those that knew any 
 of them in their lives, or do now know them 
 by mine, or their own writings, to see this 
 conjunction of them after their deaths, with- 
 out which many things that concerned them, 
 and some things that concerned the age in 
 
DONNE, WOTTON, IIOOKEK, AND IIEKBERT. 185 
 
 whicli they lived, would be less perfect, and 
 lost to posterity. 
 
 " For these, reasons I have undertaken it, 
 and if I have prevented any abler person, I 
 beg pardon of him and my reader." 
 
 The Life of Herbert was soon after repub- 
 lished, with those of Donne, Wotton, and 
 Hooker, in a single volume. In the preface 
 to this collection the author remarks : 
 
 " For the life of Mr. George Herbert, I pro- 
 fess it to be a free-will offering, and writ 
 chiefly to please myself; but not without 
 respect to posterity, for though he was not 
 a man that the next age can forget, yet 
 many of his particular acts and virtues 
 might have been neglected, or lost, if I had 
 not collected and presented them to the imi- 
 tation of those that shall succeed us : for I 
 conceive writing to be both a safer and truer 
 preserver of men's virtuous actions than tra- 
 dition." 
 
 Among the congratulatory poems prefixed, 
 16* 
 
186 CHARLES OOTTON. 
 
 in accordance with the publishing fashion of 
 the age, to this collection, are some verses 
 by Samuel "Woodford, afterwards Prebend- 
 ary of Winchester. They contain a pleas- 
 ing allusion to our poet. 
 
 "Herbert and Donne again are join'd, 
 Now here below, as they're above ; 
 These friends are in their old embraces twin'd, 
 And since by you the interview's design' d, 
 Too weak, to part them, Death does prove ; 
 For, in this book they meet again, as in one heaven 
 they love." 
 
 Walton's Life was first printed with Her- 
 bert's Poems in 1674, when the tenth edition 
 of "The Temple" appeared. In the follow- 
 ing year, the collected Lives were rej)rinted. 
 Charles Cotton the author of the Second 
 Part of The Complete Angler, printed in 
 1676, addressed a congratulatory poem to 
 his old friend, '' my father Walton," as he 
 delighted to call him, on the occasion. The 
 following lines have an especial interest for 
 us: 
 
LINES ON Walton's lives. 187 
 
 The meek and learned Hooker too, almost 
 In the Church's ruins overwhelm' d and lost, 
 Is, by your pen, recover' d from his dust. 
 
 And Herbert : — he whose education, 
 Manners, and parts, by high applauses blown, 
 Was deeply tainted with ambition ; 
 
 And fitted for a court, made that his aim ; 
 At last, without regard to birth or name. 
 For a poor country cure does all disclaim ; 
 
 Where with a soul, compos' d of harmonies, 
 Like a sweet swan, he warbles as he dies. 
 His Maker's praise, and his own obsequies. 
 
 Another allusion to Herbert is found in 
 tlie Latin ode by his friend, the Rev. James 
 Duport,* prefixed to the fifth edition of the 
 Complete Angler. We quote from the ele- 
 gant translation by the Rev. James Tate, a 
 Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 printed in the Rev. Dr. Zouch's Life of Wal- 
 ton: 
 
 While Hooker, philosophic sage. 
 Becomes the wonder of your page, 
 
 « v., p. 68. 
 
188 wokdswokth's sonnet. 
 
 Or while we see combined in one 
 Tlie Wit and the Divine in Donne, 
 Or while the Poet and the Priest, 
 In Herbert's sainted form confest. 
 Unfold the temple's holy maze 
 That awes and yet invites our gaze : 
 Worthies these of pious name 
 From your portraying pencil claim 
 A second life, and strike anew 
 With fond delight the admiring view. 
 
 In 1678 Walton i3iiblislied tlie Life of Dr. 
 Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, the 
 last of liis inimitable series of biographies. 
 Well has a Church Poet, a worthy successor 
 of George Herbert, AYilliam Wordsworth, 
 written, that 
 
 There are no colors in the fairest sky 
 
 So fair as these ; the feather whence the pen 
 
 Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, 
 
 Dropped from an Angel's wing. With moistened eye, 
 
 We read of faith and purest charity. 
 
 In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen. 
 
 Oh, could we copy their mild virtues, then 
 
 What joy to live, what blessedness to die ! 
 
 Methinks their very Names shine still and bright, 
 
 Apart — like glow-worms in the woods of spring, 
 
 Or lonely tapers shooting far a light 
 
Walton's death and tomb. 189 
 
 lliat guides and cheers — or seen like stars on high, 
 
 Satellites burning in a lucid ring, 
 
 Around meek Walton's heavenly memory. 
 
 On the ninth of August, 1683, Izaak Wal- 
 ton, " being this present day in the neintj- 
 eth yeare of my age and in perfect memory, 
 for wich praysed be God," made his wiU. It 
 is sealed with the seal j^resented to him by 
 Dr. Donne, of Our S"aviour crucified on an 
 anchor. On the fifteenth of the following 
 December, " during the time of the great 
 frost," the good old man closed fiis long, use- 
 ful, and happy life. He was buried in Win- 
 chester Cathedral, where his tombstone may 
 still be seen, set in the pavement of a quiet 
 side chapel ; a beautiful and appropriate rest- 
 ing-place. We may well apply to this simple 
 slab the fine lines of the poet Crashaw's 
 " Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton." 
 
 Tlie modest front of this small floor, 
 Believe me, reader, can say more 
 Than many a braver marble can, — 
 "Here lies a truly honest man." 
 
190 Herbert's obligations to walton. 
 
 Few distinguislied. men have been as mucli 
 indebted to their biographers as George Her- 
 bert to Izaak "Walton. The poet lives by his 
 admirer's portraiture almost as much as by 
 his own sweet verses. By the aid of the 
 " honest chronicler," we admire and revere 
 the man as well as the poet. 
 
 We meet with a fine tribute to the celes- 
 tial verse of Herbert in " Steps to the Tem- 
 ple," a collection of Poems, by Eichard Cras- 
 haw, a poet. whom we have already had oc- 
 casion to mention, first published in 1646. 
 The title of this work seems to show that 
 its author wished to be regarded as an ad- 
 mirer and follower of the author of The 
 Temple. 
 
 ON MR. G. HERBERT'S BOOK, 
 
 ENTITLED, "THE TEMPLE OF SACRED POEMS," SENT TO A. 
 GENTLEWOMAN. 
 
 Know you, fair, on wliat you look ? 
 Divinest love lies in this book, 
 Expecting fire from your eyes, 
 To kindle this His sacrifice. 
 
191 
 
 When your hands untie these strings, 
 Think you've an angel by the wings ; 
 One that gladly will be nigh 
 To wait upon each morning sigh, 
 To flutter in the balmy air 
 Of your well perfumed prayer. 
 These white plumes of His he'll lend yon, 
 Which every day to heaven will send you ; 
 To take acquaintance of the sphere, 
 And all the smooth-faced kindred there. 
 And though Herbert's name do owe 
 These devotions, fairest, know 
 That while I lay them on the shrine 
 Of your white hand, they are mine. 
 
 During the IStli century, Herbert, in com- 
 mon with, most of the writers of his time, was 
 almost forgotten. There is a curious evi- 
 dence of this in a passage in the Eev. Dr. 
 Joseph Warton's Essay on the Genius and 
 Character of Pope. Referring to the well- 
 known verses by that author, commencing, 
 
 Vital spark of heavenly flame, 
 
 he says : 
 
 "There is a close and surprising resem- 
 blance between this Ode of Pope and one of 
 a very obscure and justly forgotten rhymer 
 
192 POPE, CAMPBELL, AND COLEKIDaE. 
 
 of the age of Charles II., namely, Thomas 
 Flatman, from whose dmighill, as well as 
 from the dregs of Crashaw, of Carew, of 
 Herbert and others (for it is well known he 
 was a great reader of all these poets). Pope 
 has very judiciously collected gold." 
 
 The extract shows that Pope knew where 
 to seek for treasure, and that his taste is more 
 to be commended than that of his commenta- 
 tor. It is, however, only of recent years that 
 Herbert has recovered his proper position in 
 our literature. Even so late as 1818 we find 
 a critic of nice ear and acknowledged taste 
 as well as the author of noble lyrics, Thomas 
 Campbell, in his Specimens of English Po- 
 etry, dismissing The Temple with a brief and 
 almost discourteous sentence. 
 
 One of the first, in time and merit, to do 
 justice to George Herbert, was Samuel Tay- 
 lor Coleridge. His notes on The Temple, ap- 
 pended to Mr. Pickering's edition, are mark- 
 ed by sympathy and appreciation as well as 
 
MRS. BKOWNING. 193 
 
 his wonted critical power, and lie finely re* 
 marks, in The Friend : 
 
 " Having mentioned the name of Herbert, 
 that model of a man, a gentleman and a cler- 
 gyman, let me add, that the quaintness of his 
 thoughts, not of his diction, than which noth- 
 ing can be more pure, manly, and unaffected, 
 has blinded modern readers to the great gen- 
 eral merit of his poems, which are, for the 
 most part, exquisite in their kind." 
 
 Another noble poet, the grandest of female 
 writers, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, has paid 
 a brief but emphatic tribute to our author. 
 In a rapid review of many of the great 
 names of the time of Elizabeth and James, 
 she presents " Herbert with his face as the 
 face of a sj)irit, dimly bright.""^ 
 
 Mr. Pickering's reprint, in 1836, of Her- 
 bert's prose and poetry, was an acceptable 
 service to his reputation. Other editions of 
 
 '* Papers on the English Poets, published in the London 
 Athenaeum for 1842. 
 
 ir 
 
194 PORTRAIT OF MK. HEKBEBT. 
 
 the Poetical "Works, edited by the Rev. Rob- 
 ert Aris "Willmott and the Rev. George Gil- 
 fiUan, have since been published. An illus- 
 trated cop7 of The Temple appeared in 1856. 
 It is the most beautiful tribute a sister art has 
 yet bestowed upon our poet. In -addition to 
 numerous landscapes and imaginative de- 
 signs, we find the pages decorated with deli- 
 cately sketched boughs and garlands, so that 
 The Temple is presented, in happy harmony 
 with the gift-book purpose of the edition, as 
 if " dressed for Christmas." 
 
 The portraits of George Herbert have all 
 been copied from the engraved head prefixed 
 to an early edition of his poems. This was 
 executed by Robert "Wliite, an artist cele- 
 brated for the excellence of his work and 
 accuracy of his likenesses. Many of these 
 were drawn from the life with crayons upon 
 vellum ; but this could not have been the case 
 with Mr. Herbert's, as the artist was not born 
 until 1615. Tlie original drawing or paint- 
 
-MR. herbekt's successors. 195 
 
 ing from wliich his work is copied is not 
 known. 
 
 Bemerton has, as we have seen, changed 
 but little since Mr. Herbert's day. Two of 
 its later incumbents have contributed to 
 maintain its literary reputation. John !N'or- 
 ris is generally quoted as Norris of Bemer- 
 ton. He was born in 1657, was educated at 
 Oxford, and became a Fellow of All Souls' 
 College about 1681. He was ordained in 
 1684, and appointed rector of Bemerton in 
 1691. He was the author of several philo- 
 sophical works of the Platonic or ideal school, 
 and died at Bemerton, worn out it is said 
 with excessive study, in lYll. 
 
 William Coxe became the successor of Her- 
 bert in 1788. This voluminous writer was 
 born in London in 1747. He received a 
 Fellowship in King's College, Cambridge, in 
 1768. He made an extensive tour through 
 Europe with Lord Herbert, son of the Earl 
 of Pembroke, from whom he afterwards ob- 
 
196 LIFE AND FAME. 
 
 tained the living of Bemerton, and published 
 several volumes on these and his subsequent 
 continental travels. He wrote histories of 
 the House of Austria, and of the Bourbon 
 Kings of Spain, each in three large volumes ; 
 the Lives of the Duke of Marlborough and 
 Sir Robert Walpole, with other large and 
 elaborate works. In 1805 he became Arch- 
 deacon of Wilts. He died at Bemerton in 
 1828. 
 
 We have followed the career of George 
 Herbert from the cradle to the grave, and 
 traced his reputation from its birth to its 
 present ripeness. The one is the limited 
 record of thirty-four years passed in the nar- 
 row bounds of an University and a village, the 
 other spreads over two centuries, and follows 
 the broad path of the English language around 
 the world. The dust has returned to dust; 
 even the stone of the sepulchre has been hid 
 from sight by subsequent chancel alterations, 
 but the author still lives, for his '' winged 
 
CONCLUSION. 197 
 
 words" still speed over the world, angelic 
 messengers of peace and comfort. Sweet in 
 themselves, how their melody deepens and 
 ripens as we study the countenance of the 
 singer and muse over the pure soul, beaming 
 forth in its fair serenity ! How anthem-like 
 seems the " Sunday," as we listen in the sick 
 room on that last day "most pure, most 
 calm, most bright," to the tones of tremulous 
 lute and quavering voice ! How gently, with 
 mind stored with this good example, with 
 these melodious utterances, does the united 
 harmony fill our thoughts, " giving us pause" 
 in our daily labor, as of old the husband- 
 man's plough rested when the tones of " Mr. 
 Herbert's Saint's bell" floated through the 
 air. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP WAINWRIGHT. 
 
 ITiis is a continuation of the popular series, already so 
 favorably received by the Church. The author has been 
 enabled to enliven the earlier part of the memoir by 
 some letters written in boyhood, and which will amuse 
 children. The various letters of the Bishop to his chil- 
 dren in after-life contain, in brief and affectionate sim- 
 plicity, a world of wisdom. The interest increases as the 
 story proceeds, and culminates in that brief and busy 
 Episcopate which, in the immense amount of its labors, 
 and the solemn suddenness of its close — the sharp recoil 
 of nature against severe overwork — yet remains stamped 
 so strongly and so warmly in the heart of the Church. 
 
 The exquisite Ikie-engraving portrait of the Bishop, 
 which embellishes the work, is one of the happiest like- 
 nesses of him that we have ever seen. — Church Journals 
 
 Clergy and Parish List of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 In addition to a general Clergy List, showing the Post- 
 Office address of each clergyman, this work contains a 
 Tabular Lisj^ of the towns in each of the Dioceses in which 
 there are Parishes, given alphabetically ; and also the 
 name of the Church, and of the Rector, with the r umber 
 of families, and of communicants in each Parish, as far as 
 can be ascertained. A convenient and desirable work. — 
 Calendar. 
 
 36 
 
CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 Life of Bishop Claggett, of Maryland. By Eey. 
 John N. Norton, M.A. 
 
 The Life of Bishop Griswold. Second Edition. En- 
 larged. By the same Author. 
 
 The Life of Bishop White. By the same Author. 
 Second Edition. Enlarged. 
 
 The above-mentioned books are published by the Gen- 
 eral Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union and 
 Church Book Society, New York, 1859. And most choice 
 books they are, too. Written or compiled by one of the 
 soundest divines of the Church, and having also the merit 
 of truth, and being most interesting narratives of the 
 lives of honored and distinguished Bishops of the Church, 
 we recommend them, as they were specially intended, to 
 every Sunday-school of the Church. 
 
 The "Life of Bishop Claggett" was published by con- 
 tributions from the Diocese of Maryland ; has a very well 
 executed steel engraving of the Bishop ; is dedicated to 
 the Hon. Ezekiel P. Chambers, of Chestertown, Maryland ; 
 and the preface asserts that "Eev. Ethan Allen, D.D., 
 of Baltimore, has been engaged in good earnest in com- 
 piling and preparing a much larger work upon the ' Life 
 and Times of Bishop Claggett.' " 
 
 The "Life of Bishop Griswold" is an exceedingly in- 
 teresting volume, aside from its value as a biography of 
 the late Bishop ; because it sets forth, though briefly, a 
 history of what was once called the Eastern Diocese, com- 
 posed of the present dioceses of Maine, New Hampshire, 
 Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. It has also 
 a very beautifully executed steel engraving of the Bishop. 
 
 These books are characteristic specimen^ of the work 
 and material of the Society which issues them, and which 
 deserves the hearty co-operation of the Church in all its 
 good works. Long may it flourish to send forth for chil- 
 dren such works, unquestionable in character, and sanc- 
 tifying in influence.— CAt/rcAman. 
 37 
 
THE LIBPiAIilAN: 
 
 OF THE 
 
 General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union 
 and Church Book Society. 
 
 An excellent, and we think it will hereafter be re- 
 garded an indispensable, book of reference. It gives an 
 alphabetical list of all the subjects treated of in the books 
 issued by the Society, with reference to the volume in 
 which each subject is considered. This is followed by a 
 list of the names of the authors of the various books, so 
 far as known ; then a list of the illustrations ; an alpha- 
 betical and numerical catalogue. The whole concludes 
 with a list of the books of instruction published by the 
 Society. — Gospel Messenger. 
 
 This book is much more than is indicated by its title. 
 It contains an index of subjects in the various publica- 
 tions of the Society, and in what volume each may be 
 found ; a list of the authors and illustrations ; an alpha- 
 betical and numerical catalogue of the Society's books, 
 and also books of instruction and Sunday-school requisites 
 in general. It is valuable for S. S. teachers and pastors ; 
 and every librarian of a parish or S. S. library ought to 
 have it for constant reference. — Calendar. 
 
FROM THE WOODS OP CAROLlKA. 
 
 Messrs. Editors — Among the many beautiful presents 
 to gladden the hearts of our children at this happy sea- 
 son, I know of none having as strong a claim on an in- 
 habitant of this State, and especially of this city, as the 
 volume entitled ' ' A Wreath from the Woods of Caro- ■ 
 lina," 
 
 The design of the work and the literary matter are by 
 a lady of this city, whose genius, manifest to all in this 
 production, and evinced to her friends in several depart- 
 ments of the arts, not all the cares of a large family and 
 a responsible position have been able to repress ; while 
 another lady of this city has furnished the colored draw- 
 ings from which the beautiful flowers have been engraved. 
 
 The author has presented the fruit of her labors to the 
 Church Book Society. It is therefore on her part an 
 offering of piety, as well as of taste and talent, to swell 
 the amount of the good and beautiful things of the season. 
 
 The Society have shown their sense of the value of the 
 gift by the expense and pains which they have bestowed 
 upon the volume. Its paper, type, and above all, exquisite 
 representations of the flowers, make the book a treasure 
 in its externals. 
 
 But, after all, the stories for the children constitute its 
 chief attraction and merit. The style is smgularly clear 
 and animated ; the spirit is the spirit of love and cheerful 
 piety ; the lessons are wise, yet admirably adapted to 
 children ; and the whole is suggestive of the brightness 
 and fragrance and freshness of the woods themselves, in 
 a charming morning of May. 
 
 Let all the friends of the young see that their little 
 favorites have among their Christian treasures ' ' A Wreath 
 from the Woods of Carolina." — From Ihe RoMgh {North 
 Carolina^ Standard. 
 
 39 
 
BOOK NOTICES. 
 
 JUVENILE BOOKS. 
 
 ' ' Juveniles' ' are the most taking books just now. The 
 Rev. F. D. Harriman, agent of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Sunday School Union, has recently published some seven 
 or eight, which the little folks, male and female, are much 
 pleased with. The two largest are *' Bessie Melville" and 
 *' Sidney Grey," very neat 16mo volumes. The story of 
 Bessie, though simple and unpretending, is charmingly 
 entertaining ; its excellent lessons are rendered so attract- 
 ive that the most indolent and thoughtless can hardly 
 fiiil to profit by them. The main object of the book is to 
 show how prayer-book instructions may be practiced in 
 the ordinary transactions of life— an object which, so far 
 as I can pretend to judge, is successfully carried out. 
 "Sidney Grey" is designed chiefly for boys. It contains 
 incidents enough for a * ' sensation' ' novel ; but they are 
 not treated in the sensation style. Not but those most 
 commonplace are invested with an interest which many a 
 pretentious romance-writer of the present day would en- 
 deavor in vain to impart to his most elaborately got up 
 "scenes." "Mia and Charlie" is by the same author — 
 a charming story, or rather series of stories, for the young. 
 The account which the pretty little book gives of a week's 
 holiday at the Bydale Rectory is lively, entertaining, and 
 instructive in no ordinary degree. It has caused many a 
 bright, happy smile since the holidays commenced ; and 
 it is worth reading at any time. In this hurried chat I 
 can only mention "The Boy Missionary," "The Life of 
 Bishop Wainwright," "The Life of George Herbert,*' 
 *'The Life of Bishop Ravenscroft," and "The Tortoise- 
 Shell Comb." Each tiny " Life 'i is embellished with a 
 handsome portrait. — Newark Daily Advertiser. 
 40 
 
BOOK NOTICES. 
 
 BESSY MELVILLE; 
 
 Or, Prayer-Book Instruclioiis Carried Out Into Life. 
 
 A SEQUEL TO "THE LITTLE EPISCOPALIAN." 
 BY M. A. C. 
 
 The title of this very handsome volume gives a good 
 idea of its character. "Bessy's" story, though simple 
 and unpretending, is replete with that kind of instruction 
 which it is essential that all Christian children should re- 
 ceive in one form or other ; and what is more, its lessons 
 are rendered so attractive that the most indolent and 
 thoughtless of our little friends will find pleasure in 
 learning them. The author possesses the rare faculty of 
 combining the useful with the agreeable, and at the same 
 time writes in pure, correct English, which is more than 
 could be said of many pretentious novelists of the present 
 day. The book is well printed, and tastefully bound in 
 mvLslin.— Philadelphia Daily News. 
 
 MIA AND CHARLIE; 
 
 OK, 
 
 A WEEK'S HOLIDAY AT THE BYDALE RECTORY, 
 
 Is another illustrated, instructive book, from the same 
 press. It is sufficient to say that it is worthy of both. 
 Indeed, it has seldom been our privilege to examine a 
 volume better calculated to coax children to be sensible, 
 religious, and good. Boys and girls will be equally 
 pleased with it, and w% recommend it accordingly. — Phil- 
 adelphia Daily Neios. 
 
 41 
 
BO )K NOTICES. 
 
 Sidney Grey. A Tale of School Life By the author 
 of " Mia and Charlie," 
 
 Is a good, entertaining, useful book for hoys. It contains 
 sufficient incidents for a modern romance, hut they are 
 not of the "intense" kind. On the contrary, they are 
 generally of ordinary character, such as are constantly 
 occurring around us ; but those most commonplace are 
 invested with a degree of interest which is in itself a 
 charm. "Sydney Grey," however, is no baby's book. 
 Indeed, there are not many adults who would not find its 
 teachings profitable. The style of the narrative is chaste, 
 lively, and graphic, the typography is excellent, and the 
 binding at once neat and substantial. Nor must we omit 
 to tell the little folks that they will also be pleased with 
 the illustrations in ' ' Sydney Grey. ' ' There are no better 
 safeguards against Popery than books of this kind.— 
 Philadelphia Daily News. 
 
 The Boy Missionary. By Mrs. Jenxy Mabsh Parker. 
 
 This is another little volume which is destined to do 
 much good, for it is so written that it will be read with 
 avidity by those for whose benefit it is intended. The 
 story of Davie Hall is full of wholesome encouragement, 
 and can not fail to make an impression. 
 
 The Episcopal Church Book Society have also recently 
 published "The Life of Bishop Wainwright," " The Life 
 of George Herbert," "The Life of Bishop Kavenscroft," 
 and "The Tortoise-Shell Comb," all of which are well 
 suited for children. Each tiny "Life" is embellished 
 with a fine portrait, and ought to find a place in the 
 juvenile library of every Protestant family. — Fhiladdphia 
 DaUy Neivs. 
 
 42 
 
BY GEORGE L. DUYCKINCK. 
 
 New York, 1S58 : pp.197. 
 
 We have too long neglected to do our share in brmging 
 this delightful little book to the notice of the lovers of 
 holy George Herbert, among whom we may safely reckon 
 a large number of the readers of the " Atlantic." It is 
 based on the life by Izaak Walton, but contains much new 
 matter, either out of Walton's reach or beyond the range 
 of his sympathy. 
 
 Notices are given of Nicholas Ferrar and other friends 
 of Herbert. There is a very agreeable sketch of Bemerton 
 and its neighborhood, as it now is, and the neat illustra- 
 tions are of the kind that really illustrate. The Brothers 
 Duyckinck are well known for their unpretentious and 
 valuable labors in the cause of good letters and American 
 literary history, and this is precisely such a book as we 
 should expect from the taste, scholarship, and purity of 
 mind which distinguish both of them. It is much the 
 best account of Herbert with which we are acquainted. — 
 Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 43 
 
lift df iis|fl| 'gabstn 
 
 BY THE REV. J. N. NORTON. 
 
 The memoir of this Boston boy (son of a New England 
 Congregationalist preacher, who afterwards took orders in 
 the Church and died in South Carolina, where his more 
 celebrated son afterwards became Bishop) is not marked 
 by any very striking incident, but breathes everywhere 
 the quiet firmness, the affectionate nature, the sober and 
 steady principles, the meek and humble spirit of its sub- 
 ject. His warm friendship for Bishop Hobart led to a long 
 continued correspondence, some specimens of which are 
 inserted in this memoir. — Church Journal. 
 
 These biographies of the Bishops are all interesting. — 
 Southern Churchman. 
 
 Another and very interesting addition to the several 
 memoirs of our Bishops which Mr. Norton has been dili- 
 gently preparing and sending through the press. The 
 peculiar energy displayed by the subject of this memoir, 
 while, a child of eight years, he crossed the river from 
 John's Island to Charleston in a boat, and, by his earnest 
 pleading, obtained the services of a physician for his dying 
 father, continued to mark him through life, united to the 
 tenderness and ready sympathy which formed so import- 
 ant an element of his piety and his usefulness. — Protestant 
 Churchman. 
 
 44 
 
,,.^^ ^^oxiCES. 
 
 A most perfect character, well drawn out, and shown in 
 various colors, conspiring to complete the picture of a 
 righteous man. — The volume is one of the most attractive 
 of the series. —Mr. Norton is determined that Bishops shall 
 be remembered, and no good of them be lost. — Banner of 
 the Cross. 
 
 A person might be induced to read the life of this 
 Bishop, not only because of its literary source, but because 
 of the resemblance in the portrait attached to the ener- 
 getic Bishop Philander Chase. Mr. Norton has worked 
 iif to this memoir much general information in the history 
 of the Church during the life-time of Bishop Bowen, and 
 some valuable thoughts on incidental subjects. — Calendar. 
 
 This is an interesting and truthful sketch of one whose 
 memory is warmly cherished in our diocese, and whose 
 character and attainments were such as to make him one 
 of the men of mark in our Church. The material for the 
 biography has been well worked up by Mr. Norton, and 
 the interest of the volume is much increa|ed by the intro- 
 duction of some graphic reminiscences by the Be v. Paul 
 Trapier, and extracts from some of the Bishop's own letters 
 when travelling in Europe. 
 
 The quiet dignity, mild benevolence, and general con- 
 servativeness of the Bishop' s character are properly delin- 
 eated, and justice is done to the earnestness of his Episco- 
 pate and the tender faithfulness of his pastoral intercourse. 
 — Southern Episcopalian. 
 
 45