Review of the Temple, 8fc. by George Herbert. 151 



in all his writings, has ever procured him a considerable number of admi- 

 rers, while the names of far superior poets have fallen into oblivion. His 

 poems have an advantage in not being occasional, for occasional poems 

 cannot expect other than occasional praise. 



It was said of Thompson, that his ruling ideas were poetical, and that he 

 could not see two candles burning without the suggestion of a poetical 

 image. Herbert, in like manner, made every incident subservient to his 

 religious impressions, and his manner of introducing them, though sometimes 

 forced, is at others very pretty ; thus, in the lines called " Life," p. 94, 

 after describing in the two first stanzas the short duration of a nosegay of 

 flowers, he goes on in the last, 



Farewell dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, 

 Fit, while ye lived, for smell or ornament, 



And after death for cures : 

 I follow straight without complaints or grief, 

 Since, if my scent be good, I care not if 

 It be as short as yours. 

 The learning of Herbert was, we are told, considerable, but notwithstand- 

 ing his connexion with James he had the judgment rarely to obtrude it; 

 his allusions are seldom pedantic, and his occasional obscurity depends 

 rather upon his versification than his learning, upon the inversion of his 

 style and the obsolete signification of his words, than upon any hidden 

 connexion between his ideas. 



In his time the example of Donne had only begun to produce its effects, 

 and metaphysical poetry had not reached the celebrity which it subsequently 

 obtained from Cowley. Like the metaphysical poets, however, Herbert 

 was a very close observer of nature, and drew his figures from a great 

 variety of sources, though chiefly from the scriptures. In some of his lines 

 ideas remote enough are connected, and resemblances discovered with 

 painful ingenuity. To shew his learning was not indeed his aim, but his 

 figures are occasionally scholastic and unnatural, and he sometimes hunts 

 about for a metaphor which when found is rather a blemish than a beauty. 

 He pleases most when he takes least pains to please. 



We shall point out some few passages from his writings in support of 

 the above remarks, and we limit our citations the more readily that the 

 volume before us may very readily be consulted, as its cost is reasonable. 

 The Perihantcrium, or Church Porch, which precedes his other poems, 

 is rather a collection of rules and aphorisms than a poem j considered as 

 such it is admirable, and its delivery in verse is at least convenient. It is 

 the whole duty of man paraphrased and versified. 



Sometimes he plays upon words, though hardly amounting to a pun : 

 When ray dear friend could write no more, 

 He gave this seal, and so gave o'er. 



Or, speaking of the crucifixion, 



Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree. — p. 26. 



