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THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

AND REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

GEORGE,

LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,

AND PRELATE OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.

MY LORD,

I DID, some years past, present you with a plain relation of the life of Mr. Richard Hooker, that humble man, to whose memory princes, and the most learned of this nation, have paid a reverence at the mention of his name. And now, with Mr. Hooker's, I present you also the Life of that pattern of primitive piety, Mr. George Herbert; and, with his, the Life of Dr. Donne, and your friend sir Henry Wotton, all reprinteda. The two first were written under your roof; for which reason, if they were worth it, you might justly challenge a dedication : and indeed, so you might of Dr. Donne's, and sir Henry Wotton's; because, if I had been fit for this undertaking, it would not have been by acquired learning or study, but by the advantage of forty years friendship, and thereby with hearing and discoursing with your Lordship, that hath enabled me

* The Life of Bishop Sanderson was not then written.