] 48 Review of the Temple, Sfc, by George Herbert. 



never do too much for him that hath done so much for me, as to make me a Chris- 

 tian. And I will labour to be like my Saviour, by making humility lovely in the 

 eyes of all men, and by following the merciful and meek example of my dear Jesus." 



Upon taking deacon's orders, lie was made prebendary in the cathe- 

 dral of Lincoln, of Layton, where, with the assistance of his mother and 

 some private friends, he rebuilt the church. 



In 1C27 his mother died, and shortly afterwards he married Jane, the 

 daughter of Charles Danvers, of Bainton, Wilts, and was presented by his 

 kinsman, the Earl of Pembroke, to the living of Bemerton. We are told 

 that he then exchanged the sword and silk gown, which as a deacon he 

 had been permitted to wear, for a canonical coat. 



His wife proved in every way a companion suited to himself, and they 

 dwelt together in the continual exercise of piety, until his death at Bemer- 

 ton, in 1632, at the early age of thirty-nine. 



Dr. Henchman, bishop of London, who ordained him priest, never men- 

 tioned liim but with veneration for his excellent life and learning. " I 

 laid my hands," said he, "on Mr. Herbert's head, and alas ! within less 

 than three years, lent my shoulder to carry my dear friend to his grave." 



The excellence of Herbert, as Coleridge has observed of his poems, will 

 never be felt without a sympathy with the mind and character of the man. 



His piety, though perhaps chiefly evident in his humility, was of an 

 active kind, and a very practical tendency. His love for the Church of 

 England, like that of his friend Hooker and of many others of their day, who 

 did not think that " the further they went from the Church of Rome the 

 nearer they were to God," was ardent and durable ; it led him not into 

 polemics, nor into the clamorous controversy of that and the succeeding 

 age, but it was apparent in his actions, and is intermingled with the love 

 of God in all his writings, as though it were the bodily figure which the 

 spirit of his devotion best loved to animate. His religion taught him his 

 duty, not to God only, but to man : it influenced him, both in the greater 

 events of his life, and in his every-day intercourse, and taught him the 

 highest style of politeness, that which proceeds from the heart instead of 

 the head. 



Herbert was but little given to spy out faults in any character but his 

 own ; but was wont to insist upon the necessity of a close attention on the 

 part of the clergy to their parochial duties, as the best antidote to the evil 

 that might be abroad. 



The associates of Herbert were among the best characters of the age. 

 Bacon, Hooker, Wotton, Donne, were among the chief : he knew what 

 was due to his own birth and station, and he ensured the respect of others, 

 by shewing that he respected himself. 



His ideas of friendship were just and noble j and Mr. Nicholas Farrer 

 was his chosen friend ; a man who was severely ascetic without a tincture 

 of iBoroseness, and who dedicated himself wholly to God, without neglect- 



