HEEBERT. 9 



man of New York, a literary friend, for the purpose ol 

 acting as groomsman at tlie marriage of his friend and the 

 lady in question. With the variableness of a woman. 

 Miss Barker made a bridegroom of the groomsman, and 

 cast an enduring shadow over the life of her former suitor. 

 The only child by this wife was a son, now living in 

 England, at the age of eighteen. Mrs. Herbert died in 

 1846. 



In February of 1858, Herbert married a lady from Prov- 

 idence, R. I., after a brief and romantic acquaintance. 

 His affection for her seems to have been unbounded ; but 

 — whether on account of habits long ago contracted, or in 

 consequence of the slanders of meddlesome neighbors, the 

 world does not know, and has no right to inquire — she left 

 him ; and he, broken down by this last great sor ow of a 

 life of sorrows, committed suicide at the Stevens House 

 in New York, on the 17th day of April, 1858. He was 

 buried in the cemetery adjoining his place, " the Cedars," 

 near Newark, N. J. 



The character of Herbert is a difi&cult one to criticize ; 

 but it is very certain that his intellectual attainments, his 

 great love for everything in nature, and his power of com- 

 municating that love to his readers, by far outweigh in 

 importance his faults, which were those of the head and 

 not of the heart. In no line that he ever wrote is there 

 an improper tendency, or the expression of an impure 

 thought. Judged by his works, he appears preeminently 

 a good man. Judged by what is known of his life, he 

 appears to have been prevented only by faults which were 

 the inheritance of a misspent youth, from becoming a 

 bright example of combined greatness and goodness. 



1* 



