harmony. Indeed, a late celebrated writer of facred poetry, only by refcinding or adding a few words in fome ftanzas, has demonftrated the metrical eminence of feveral poems of HERBERT, which are not the leaft meritorious in that writer's excellent collection. In fine. While virtue has power to charm; while christianity is felt in its living evidence; and while found fenfe fhall have influence on the human mind; THE POEMS OF HERBERT WILL CLAIM A PATRONAGE IN THE BOSOM OF EVERY GOOD MAN. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. HE Rev. GEORGE HERBERT was born in 1593, which been in the poffeffion of the family of the Herberts. His father was Richard Herbert; great-grandfon of the famous Sir Richard Herbert, of Colebrook, in the county of Monmouth, Knight Banneret, who was the youngest brother of the memorable William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, who lived in the reign of Edward the Fourth. His mother was Magdalen, the youngest daughter of Sir Richard Newport, of the county of Salop, Knight; a woman of perfonal excellence, mental accomplishments, and genuine piety. She was the mother of feven fons and three daughters; the eldeft was Edward, who was made Knight of the Bath by James the Firft, and was afterward fent by him as Ambaffador to the Court of Lewis XIII. He was by Charles I. created Baron of Cafle-Ifland, and foon after of Cherbery, in the county of Salop. He is well known as an Author, and his book. de Veritate, and his Hiftory of the Reign of Henry VIII. and feveral other Tracts, fhew him to have been a man of learning. GEORGB was the fifth fon. The early part of his education, and that of two of his brothers, was directed by a private tutor under the eye of his mother, who had become a widow when he was four years old. When he was about the age of twelve years, he was commended through Dr. Neale, then Dean of Westminster, to the care of Mr. Ireland, Chief Master of that School, where his behaviour, good-parts, and early piety were equally confpicuous. In this School he obtained a perfect knowledge of the learned languages, especially the Greek, in which he after proved an excellent critic. About the age of fifteen, being a King's Scholar, he was elected for Trinity College, Cambridge, to which place he was tranfplanted about the year 1608. His prudent mother well knowing that he might eafily lofe, or leffen, that Virtue and Innocence which her advice and example had planted in his mind, procured the generous and liberal Dr. Nevil, who was then Dean of Canterbury and Mafter of that College, to take him into his particular care, and provide him a Tutor; which he gladly undertook, for he knew the excellencies of his mother, and how to value fuch a friendship. Soon after this fhe was married to an amiable gen-. tleman, the brother and heir of the Earl of Danby, who highly valued both her perfon and the excellent endowments of her mind. During her widowhood, thefe accomplishments were the fubject of panegyric. The mufe of Dr. Donne decked them with a poetic wreath. No Spring nor Summer-Beauty has fuch grace; Of the latter he says, In all her words to every hearer fit, You may at Revels, or at Councils fit. Her character indeed he has fully delineated in "The Autumnal Beauty," an Elegy in his printed works. Her acquaintance was folicited by moft men of worth and learning while fhe refided at Oxford, which she did a confiderable time on purpose to be near her fons at College. Senfible of the advantages derived from the affable attentions of a mother, attentions equally diftant from acerbity and the weakness of maternal indulgence, the endeared her children to her own company, which they justly estimated. For it was a maxim of her's, that as the body takes a nourishment fuitable to the meat on which it feeds, fo the foul does infenfibly take in Vice by the example and converfation of wicked company. And that ignorance of vice was the beft prefervation of Virtue, the mere knowledge of wickedness being as tinder to inflame and kindle fin, and to keep it burning. She died, 1627, and Dr. Donne preached her funeral fermon in Chelsea Church, where she was buried. Our Author early devoted his poetical talents to divine fubjects, as appears by the following letter and Ode fent by him to his mother the first year he was at Cambridge. -"But I fear the heat of my late ague hath dried up thofe fprings, by which scholars fay, the Muses use to take up their habitations. However I need not their help, to reprove the vanity of those many Love-Poems, that are daily writ and confecrated to Venus; nor to bewail that fo few are writ, that look towards God and heaven. For my own part, my meaning (dear mother) is in thefe Sonnets, to declare my refolution to be, that my poor abilities in Poetry, fhall be all, and ever confecrated to God's glory, and” MY God, where is that ancient heat tow'rds thee, Wherewith whole fhoals of Martyrs once did burn, Wear Venus livery? only ferve her turn? Upon thine altar burnt? Cannot thy love Out-ftrip their Cupid eafily in flight? Or, fince thy ways are deep, and ftill the fame, Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name? Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might, Each breaft does feel, no braver fuel choofe Than that, which one day, Worms may chance refufe? Sure Lord, there is enough in thee to dry Oceans of Ink; for, as the deluge did Cover the earth, fo doth thy Majesty: Each cloud diftils thy praife, and doth forbid Poets to turn it to another use. Rofes and Lillies speak thee; and to make A pair of cheeks of them, is thy abuse. Why should I women's eyes for chrystal take? Such poor invention burns in their low mind Whofe fire is wild, and doth not upward go In the best face but filth; when Lord, in thee G. H. He was an indefatigable ftudent; but his affiduity was not more ardently and ftrenuously directed towards the acquifition of learning, than of the more important attainments of piety and virtue. And having a taste for mufic, he occafionally relieved his ftudies by yielding himself to the fascinating powers of harmony, by which, to use his own words, "his fpirits, fatigued by appli cation to study, were relieved, his distracted thoughts compofed, and his foul raised fo far above the earth, as apparently to relish the pleasures of heaven. From his first entrance into the College, fo intense was his application to learning, fo becoming his behaviour, and fo excellent his mental endowments, that Dr. Nevil was altogether charmed by him, and in the Doctor he found a difcerning friend, who kindly excited his excellencies to ftill greater perfections, and ingenuously cautioned him against every impropriety |
