GEORGE HERBERT.* 1T is well that a Life of George

Herbert should be published in these days. For modern readers probably do not read Walton's life, and whatever calls their attention to George Herbert is

• a clear, gain. His, indeed, is a most attractive figure in our • The Life of George El 0,bs.t, of &Intl to.t. Loudon z..'oeiety for Promoting istian Knox lodge. 1SC3.

literary history. His life was one of austere beauty accom- panied and explained by writings full of spiritual insight and poetic feeling. There is a perfect harmony between the man and his works, and a view of one without the other is in- complete. The facts of Herbert's life show us a man with the refinement of birth and habit and a highly trained intellect; who devotes himself to the development of his spiritual con- sciousness and the sober performance of his practical duties. His picture, as drawn by any of his biographers, has a rare distinction and completeness. Born in Montgomery Castle, April 3rd, 1593, he was the son of Richard, hereditary Constable of that stronghold, and a member of the noble family of Herbert, of which the Earl of Pembroke was head. By the death of his father, in his infancy, he was early left to the care of his mother, Magdalen, a lady of excep- tional piety and intelligence, and the friend of John Donne, who has commemorated her in a funeral sermon of extra- ordinary power; and no doubt hers was the chief influence in moulding his character. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which foundation he became a Fellow. His recognised classical distinction gained him the appointment of public orator of the University, and the elegance of his official compositions won him a good deal of renown, and attracted the attention of James L Bat it is unfortunate for his reputation that the schoolboy effusions, known as " Epigrammata Apologetioa," should have been perpetuated by publication. They were written in answer to Andrew Melville, a noted Presbyterian scholar and divine, who, in his " Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria," protested against the ostracism of Puritan clergymen by the two Universities. Herbert's exercises are doubtless excellent examples of the art of Latin verse-making, and show none of the ferocity of the controversies of the day, but are, nevertheless, painfully " smart " and flippant. This ungenerous attack of a. stripling on the imprisoned head of a defeated party ought not to have been allowed to mar the record of the life of the man; but all the epigrams were published in 1662 by Dean Duport. In the course of the period of six years for which he held the office of public orator, Herbert seems to have experienced a great spiritual conflict. Not a born recluse, and conscious of his talents, he was eagerly desirous of a post at Court, with a view to advancement in public affairs ; and, to quote Walton, "Ambitious desires and the outward glory of this world are not easily laid aside, but at last God put on him a resolution to serve at His altar." Soon after this resolve he was appointed to the prebend of Leigh- ton, in the diocese of Lincoln, and promptly undertook the restoration of the church. His only parochial charge, how- ever, was the incumbency of Bemerton, a small hamlet near Wilton, the seat of his kinsman, Lord Pembroke. Fearing his own unworthiness, he had many doubts about accepting the cure; but Walton has to prepare his readers for "an almost incredible story of the great sanctity of the short remainder of his holy life" as priest of Bemerton. Here he lived and laboured with his newly married wife and three orphan nieces, with music and poetry for his chief recreations till his death in 1632.

Not only for their own merit, but as a commentary on his life, are his writings full of interest. "Parentalia," a series of Latin and Greek poems composed immediately after his mother's death, do not at once reveal the chastened piety to which he afterwards attained. The overwhelming anguish of the event seems to have numbed his higher spiritual sensibilities, and he found relief from the storm and stress of this period in a "sad mechanic exercise" of elaborate classical versification. This inextinguishable sorrow forcing itself to be elegant, and the formal hopelessness of a man afterwards full of faith, go to make one of the most touching and significant elegies we possess. His great poem, "The Temple," is of very character- istic structure. He was bred in the Church of England with pronounced literary sympathies, and his scholarly passion for form and the symbolism of faith is everywhere apparent. This ritualistic tendency—an illustration of which is his love of Church music—is balanced, however, by other elements in his nature, and the Anglican via media in which he walked is admirably illustrated in the poem, "To all Angels and

Saints

" Oh glorious spirits, who, after all your bands, See the smooth face of God without a frown, Or strict commands ; Where every one is king and bath his crown, If not upon his head yet en his hands;

Not out of envie or maliciousnesse, Do I forbear to crave your special aid: I would addresse My vows to thee most gladly, bless6c1 Maid And Mother of my God, in my distresse But now, alas! I dare not : for my King, Whom we do all joyntly adore and praise, Bids no such thing; And where his pleasure no injunction layes- 'Tis your own case—ye never move a wing."

He moulds his sacred poem on the plan of a sacred build- ing, and divides The Temple into,— I. The Dedication, II. The Church Porch, III. Superliminare, IV. The Church; while his quaint formalism causes him to enclose the verbal structure of two of his poems in a framework representing the outlines of an altar and Easter wings. The prose counterpart to The Temple is A Priest to the Temple ; or, The Country Parson. It is a sort of manual for country clergymen, written with a delightful simplicity of style, and full of quaint individual touches,—the secret of the perennial freshness of his best work. In this book he sets up the noble ideal of devotion and conduct which he so strenu- ously followed at Bemerton.

"The Church Porch," intended to mark the transition from the world to the spiritual life, is a noble appeal to ordinary men on behalf of the ordinary virtues. Though frankly homiletic in purpose, it is free from all dullness, so bright and vigorous is the execution. It is, indeed, a triumph of art to be able to please while preaching the commonplace duties, even that of listening to dull sermons.

"God calleth preaching folly : do not grudge To pick out treasures from an earthern pot. The worst speak something good, if all want sense ; God takes a text, and preacheth patience."

Having prepared his readers by this exhortation to right- eousness, he introduces them to "The Church." The poems grouped under this heading are justly renowned -for their spirit of purity and devotion ; but it is not possible to place them in the highest rank as poetry. Wanting the genius of Milton to lift him clear from the infections of his local atmosphere, Herbert must be classed among those poets of his day whom Johnson has styled the metaphysical school, and who are finely, though unsympathetically, criti- cised in the Life of Cowley. He has passion, indeed, for holiness, but it often finds inadequate expression in mere fancy and wit ; the fancy is curiously beautiful, but it is often difficult not to be more conscious of its curiosity than of its beauty. The truly poetic faculty of seeing unexpected analogies is excessively apparent ; and though his diction is for the most part free from obscurity, he gives us too often a succession of strained ideas and far-fetched conceits. Take the lines on "Prayer," beginning,— " Prayer, the Churche's banquet, angel's age, God's breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart on pilgrimage, The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth."

It is a very fine example of the suggestiveness of his thought; but like many of his other poems, it rather lacks that precious quality of repose,—in religious poetry well-nigh indispensable.

His imagery is too often full of abrupt transitions, and the strange succession of solemn witticisms sometimes leaves an irresistible impression of oddity. The structure of his verse contributes to this effect, and often, when the current of thought is least smooth, the rhythm is too capriciously varied and broken. These unfamiliar qualities, however, must not prevent us from valuing highly the consistent nobility of his inspiration, which often finds a nearly faultless expres- sion. The " Easter-Song " is purely beautiful from every point of view. A taste for Herbert's works may not be easily acquired, but once this stage is reached, the subtle aroma per- vading the whole will delight those able to perceive it. The intense individuality of his method of thought, often combined with extreme daintiness of workmanship, more than justifies the application of one of Johnson's sayings, when in criticising the metaphysical school he concedes :—" If their conceits be far-fetched, they are often well worth the carriage." Never- theless, the judgment that must be passed on the bulk of his work is scarcely applicable to his masterpiece, "Man."

Instead of fancy there is there gorgeous imagination; conceit is transformed into a sublime originality which is almost a

philosophy, and the solemn music of his verse seems a fit accompaniment to an unveiling of the mysteries of our being. This poem shows him to have been capable of the highest things, and causes us some regret that the freakish spirit of the age should have impressed its characteristics so heavily on his other work as to cloud and distort his real genius.

The author of this biography, apparently published to com- memorate the three-hundreth anniversary of Herbert's birth, is evidently an enthusiast, and displays a loving zeal in the collection and verification of facts, whether nearly, or very remotely connected, with the life of his hero. But the materials are not worked up into a satisfactory portrait ; per- spective is rather disregarded in the arrangement of detail ; and the style is rather affected. He is so full,of tremulous eagerness in the manner of his adulation, that he is not likely to win over many hostile readers. Nevertheless, his devoted thoroughness in the compilation of the matter of his book is most praiseworthy ; and lovers of Herbert's writings will be very grateful for this fresh opportunity of realising for themselves the beauty of his life.