146 Review of the Temple, 8fc. hy George Herbert. 



works. We shall take advantage of the present opportunity to give some 

 account of the writings of this learned and excellent man, and preface our 

 observations with a short sketch of his life and character. 



The life of Herbert has already been written by Isaac W^alton, one of 

 the simplest and best of our earlier English biographers, and remarkable 

 for that attention to minute details which constitutes the very charm of 

 original biography, as well as for the careful selection of the subjects for 

 his pen; whose characters were in every case such as permitted them to 

 be brought prominently before the public eye, without injury to their 

 previous reputation. 



The life of Herbert, though from the peculiar excellence of his character 

 it will ever be among the most interesting, is not to be ranked among the 

 best of Walton's productions, probably from the circumstance of no per- 

 sonal acquaintance having subsisted between the two, although indeed they 

 were contemporaries, and liad many friends in common. 



George Herbert was born on the 3rd day of April, 1593, in the castle 

 of Montgomery, the patrimonial inheritance of his family. His father, 

 Richard Herbert, was the representative of a younger branch of the house 

 of Pembroke, at that time in the zenith of its reputation, and whom he is 

 said to have resembled in personal appearance, as well as in the honour 

 and integrity of his character. He died prematurely. His mother, Mag- 

 dalen, the daughter of Sir Richard Newport, of High Ercal, Salop, the 

 birth-place of Richard Baxter, was celebrated for the beauty of her person, 

 and for eminent piety and strength of character, charms of a far more 

 enduring description, and which gained for her the admiration of Dr. 

 Donne, and enabled her to educate with success the numerous family, whom 

 the death of her husband placed under her charge. 



Their children, ten in number, three daughters and seven sons, of whom 

 George was the fifth, were honourably distinguished in after life, although 

 the names of the eldest only, Edward, the celebrated Lord Herbert of 

 Cherbury, and George, are at present generally known. 



George was brought up under the care of his mother and her domestic 

 chaplain, from the age of four, when he lost his father, to twelve, when he 

 entered Westminster school, where he remained, until, at the age of fifteen, 

 being king's scholar, he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, ia 

 company with Mr., afterwards Bishop Hacket ; the master, Mr. Ireland, 

 saying : " That he expected to liave credit by them two at the university, 

 or would never hope for it afterwards while he lived." 



During his residence at Cambridge his mother remarried to Sir John 

 Danvers, after having been twelve years a widow ; during which time she 

 had entirely devoted herself to the education of her children, residing four 

 years at Oxford with her eldest son. 



Lord Herbert, in his character of his brother, informs us that he was 

 " Not exempt from passion and choler, the infirmities of his race, although 



