CHAPTER XXVI 



^ar^onaffe C5artitn0— £ti Clerum 



Parsons and plants — Parishioners and their Parson — The 

 pleasui'es of Botany — The Manse garden. 



I OFTEN regret that George Herbert did not add another 

 chapter to his Country Parson, and tell us his \news of 

 the parson in his garden. With his high views of the 

 importance of the parson's character showing itself in 

 the minutest details of daily life — ' he leareth not his 



ministry behind him, but is himself wherever he is ' 



it would have been pleasant to have been taught by 

 him how the parson could manage his garden, not only 

 'in the knowledge of simples, wherein the manifold 

 wisdom of God is wonderfully to be seen,' but also 

 ' like a parson, thus raising the action from the shop to 

 the Church.' That he had not only a love of flowers 

 and gardening, but also a full knowledge of them, is 

 shown by many passages in his poems ; and in the 

 chapter on ' The Parson's Completeness ' he considers 



a knowledge of plants to be necessary in a parson 



that he would be incomplete without it. 



T 



