in a happy time for him, he being then near to the fortieth year of his age, which was some years before he entered into sacred orders ;—a time when his necessities needed a daily supply for the support of his wife, seven children, and a family: and in this time she proved one of his most bountiful benefactors; and he as grateful an acknowledger of it. You may take one testimony for what I have said of these two worthy persons, from this following letter and sonnet. "MADAM, : "YOUR favors to me are every where I use them, and have them. I enjoy them at London, and leave them there; and yet find them at Micham. Such riddles as these become things inexpressible; and such is your goodness. I was almost sorry to find your servant here this day, because I was loth to have any witness of my not coming home last night, and indeed of my coming this morning: but my not coming was excusable, because earnest business detained me; and my coming this day, is by the example of your St. Mary Magdalen, who rose early upon Sunday, to seek that which she loved most; and so did I. And, from her and myself, I return such thanks as are due to one to whom we owe all the good opinion that they whom we need most have of us. By this messenger, and on this good day, I commit the inclosed holy hymns and sonnets, (which for the matter, not the workmanship, have yet escaped the fire,) to your judgment, and to your protection too, if you think them worthy of it: and I have appointed this inclosed sonnet to usher them to your happy hand. Your unworthiest servant, unless your accepting him to be so have mended him. Jo. DONNE. "Micham, July 11, 1607." TO THE LADY MAGDALEN HERBERT; OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN. Her of your name, whose fair inheritance An active faith so highly did advance, That she once knew more than the Church did know The resurrection. So much good there is Deliver'd of her, that some fathers be Loth to believe one woman could do this; But think these Magdalens were two or three. Take so much of the example as of the name— J. D. These hymns are now lost to us; but doubtless they were such, as they two now sing in heaven. There might be more demonstrations of the friendship, and the many sacred endearments betwixt these two excellent persons, (for I have many of their letters in my hand,) and much more might be said of her great prudence and piety; but my design was not to write her's, but the life of her son; and therefore I shall only tell my reader, that about that very day twenty years that this letter was dated, and sent her, I saw and heard this Mr. John Donne, (who was then Dean of St. Paul's,) weep, and preach her funeral sermon, in the parishchurch of Chelsea, near London; where she now rests in her quiet grave; and where we must now leave her, and return to her son George, whom we left in his study in Cambridge. And in Cambridge we may find our George Herbert's behavior to be such, that we may conclude, he consecrated the first-fruits of his early age to virtue, and a serious study of learning. And that he did so, this following letter and sonnet, which were in the first year of his going to Cambridge sent his dear mother for a new-year's gift, may appear to be some testimony. -"BUT I fear the heat of my late ague hath dried up those springs, by which, scholars say, the muses use to take up their habitations. However, I need not their help, to reprove the vanity of those many love-poems that are daily writ and consecrated to Venus; nor to bewail that so few are writ, that look toward GOD and heaven. For my own part, my meaning, dear mother, is in these sonnets to declare my resolution to be, that my poor abilities in poetry shall be all and ever consecrated to God's glory; and I beg you to receive this as one testimony. "My Gon, where is that ancient heat toward thee, Or, since thy ways are deep, and still the same, Each breast does feel, no braver fuel choose Than that, which one day worms may chance refuse? Roses and lilies speak thee; and to make Why should I women's eyes for crystal take? Whose fire is wild, and doth not upward go G. H." This was his resolution at the sending this letter to his dear mother; about which time he was in the seventeenth year of his age; and as he grew older, so he grew in learning, and more and more in favor both with God and man; insomuch, that in this morning of that short day of his life, he seemed to be marked out for virtue, and to become the care of heaven; for God still kept his soul in so holy a frame, that he may, and ought to be a pattern of virtue to all posterity, and especially to his brethren of the clergy; of which the reader may expect a more exact account in what will follow. I need not declare that he was a strict student, because that he was so there will be many testimonies in the future part of his life. I shall therefore only tell, that he was made Bachelor of Arts in the year 1611; Major Fellow of the College, March 15, 1615: and that in that year he was also made Master of Arts, he being then in the twenty-second year of his age; during all which time, all, or the greatest diversion from his study, was the practise of music, in which he became a great master and of which he would say, that 'it did relieve his drooping spirits, compose his distracted thoughts, and raised his weary soul so far above the earth, that it gave him an earnest of the joys of heaven before he possessed them.' And it may be noted, that from his first entrance into college, the generous Dr. Nevil was a cherisher of his studies, and such a lover of his person, his behavior, and the excellent endowments of his mind, that he took him often into his own company, by which he confirmed his native gentleness; and, if during this time he expressed any error, it was that he kept himself too much retired, and at too great a distance with all his inferiors; and his clothes seemed to prove, that he put too a great a value on his parts and parentage.1 1 At this time Mr. Herbert's pecuniary resources were not very plen This may be some account of his disposition and of the employment of his time, till he was Master of Arts, which was anno 1615; and in the year 1619 he was chosen Orator1 for the University. His two precedent Orators were Sir Robert Nantonm and Sir Francis Nethersole: The first was not long after made Secretary of State; and Sir Francis, not very long after his being Orator, was made Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. In this place of Orator, our George Herbert continued eight years, and managed it with as becoming and grave a gaiety as any had ever before or since his time. For he had acquired great learning, and was blest with a high fancy, a civil and sharp wit, and with a natural elegance, both in his behavior, his tongue, and his pen. Of all which, there might be very many particular evidences, but I will limit myself to the mention of but three. And the first notable occasion of showing his fitness for this employment of Orator, was manifested in a letter to King James, upon the occasion of his sending that University his book, called Basilicon Doron ;o and tiful. In a letter dated March 18, 1617, he writes; "I protest and vow I even study thrift, and yet I am scarce able, with much ado, to make one half-year's allowance shake the hands with the other." Of the office of Orator, which still continues the most honorable academical employment, Mr. Herbert has given the best description in a letter to a friend. "The Orator's place, that you may understand what it is, is the finest place in the University, though not the gainfullest, yet that will be about £30 per annum. But the commodiousness is beyond the revenue, for the Orator writes all the University letters, makes all the orations, be it to the king, prince, or whatever comes to the University. To requite these pains, he takes place next the Doctors, is at all their assemblies and meetings, and sits above the Proctors; is Regent or Non-regent at his pleasure, and such like gaynesses which will please a young man well." Sir ROBERT NAUNTON, a native of Suffolk, was descended from a very ancient family in that county. He was transplanted from Trinity College to Trinity Hall, where he was chosen Fellow. He was the author of Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favorites. He improved the opportunity of recommending himself to James I., at Hinching-brook, where the University met his Majesty on his first arrival from Scotland. The King was so well pleased with his eloquence and learning, that he first appointed him Secretary of State, and then Master of the Wards. It was in the absence of this gentleman, on the king's business,' that Herbert was substituted to his office. Or, His Majesty's Instructions to his dearest Son Henry the Prince, 1599. It has been considered as the best of the King's works, their orator was to acknowledge this great honor, and return their gratitude to his Majesty for such a condescension, at the close of which letter he writ, "Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes! Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber." This letter was writ in such excellent Latin, was so full of conceits, and all the expressions so suited to the genius of the King, that he inquired the Orator's name, and then asked William, Earl of Pembroke, if he knew him? whose answer was, that he knew him very well, and that he was his kinsman; but he loved him more for his learning and virtue, than for that he was of his name and family.' At which answer the King smiled, and asked the Earl leave, that he might love him too; for he took him to be the jewel of that University." and in the opinion of Lord Bacon, is excellently written.-BACON's Works, Vol. III. p. 223, 118. And Archbishop SPOTSWOOD observes, that it is said to have contributed more to facilitate the King's accession to the throne of England, than all the other discourses published by other writers in his favor. The famous ANDREW MELVIN, or rather MELVILLE, having obtained a copy of the Doron Basilicon in manuscript, thought some passages so very exceptionable, that he directed several copies to be circulated in different parts of Scotland. In consequence of this, a libel was drawn up against the work and laid before the Synod of St. Andrew's, by a minister of the kirk. To vindicate himself, James caused it to be published in 1599. P[Friend, why do you tell us of the Vatican and Bodleian? A single book is our library.] It may not be improper here to mention an instance of courtly address noticed by Bishop HACKET in his Life of Archbishop Williams, (p. 175.) Having remarked that the King, on opening the Parliament in 1623, 'feasted the two houses with a speech, than which nothing could be apter for the subject, or more eloquent for the matter;' he adds, "All the helps of that faculty were extremely perfect in him, abounding in wit by nature, in art by education, in wisdom by experience. Mr. George Herbert, being Prælector in the Rhetorique School in Cambridge, anno 1618, passed by those fluent orators that domineered in the pulpits of Athens and Rome, and insisted to read upon an oration of King James, which he analysed, shewed the concinnity of the parts, the propriety of the phrase, the height and power of it to move the affections, the style utterly unknown to the ancients, who could not conceive what kingly eloquence was; in respect of which those noted demagogi were but hirelings, and triobolary rhetoricians." Let it not be forgotten that Mr. Herbert was then a very young man, flushed with hopes of obtaining promotion in a court, where all the blandishments of adulation were practised. Time, experience, and |