The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-11
II.

treats OF The Man, as tTom
the writer, we learn that no n can GER
tainly know how George Herbert looked.
No contemporary portrait OF him exists.
An early engraving has como down to US,
but its authenticity La doubtful. Walton,
his biographer, who saw him once at his
mothers funeral. says that he was of
. stature inclining toward tallness, his
body was very strait, and, 30 far from being
numbered with too much heeh, that he
was lean to an extremity. His aspect
vas cheerful, and his speech and motion
did both declare him q gentleman That
he was consumptive, inclining, too, from
childhood to indigestion, colds and fevers,
both he himself and Walton repeatedly
declared. With his fraglity and INSULT
cienoy Of bodily stock was associated great
refinement Of the senses. Sight, hearing,
taste, smell, have all left In his verse their
record Of swift response. Out Of an odor
Herbert has constructed one Of his daintiest
poems. His Banquet" is perfumed through
out. In ten other poems fragranoes are
mentioned. Vivid illusions to food and
drink abound. The alertness Of his eye
is revealed In his pictures OF visible objects.
Thus he notes that birds sip and straight
lift up their heads or say that some
body comes putting by in silks that whistle
The training Of Herbert's ear is even more
generally known. His lines were intended
to be accompanied by an instrument. He
himself sang, played on the viol, or lutte,
and was fond Of the organ. Nevertheless,
though his senses were 80 exquisitely keen,
they play but subordinate parts in Herbert's
poetry.
Elsewhere the editor brings out the in
teresting fact that the only temptations
mentioned by Herbert with anything like
terror arc those OF women and idleness.
With him the word 'lust,' which In his time
often meant simply q general desire for
| pleasure, always means the specific inclina-
ton toward This, In Herbert's
| eyes, Ia always evil. To him woman Is
| always q temptation and disturbance; this
opinion being imbedded as deeply In The
Country Parson,' written after his mar
rage, as In his verse. According to Her.
bert, marriage Is for mar a Nero escape
from worse evils. though It may be the
good instrument OF God TO bring women
to heaven No honorable mention Of q
woman OCCURS In his writings, II we except
the somewhat artificial laments for his
mother In some Latin verses and the death
D6u I0l0I0kC0 W bOl W I'LL ny
Walton. Even the Virgin Mary he thinks
Of as but IN instrument in effecting the
birth Of Christ, not as possessing distinctive
virtues OF her OWL. The propensity to
sloth, OF which Herbert complained, may
have been due to feebleness Of body rather
than Of will. He seems to have given way
to 1t during the greater part Of his life,
but what he accomplished in literature and
parish labor during his three years at Benz
erton proves conclusively that he over
came it. II he was slack in the prosecution
Of purposes he was Of an impulsive and i'm
petuous disposition. According to Walton,
he married Jane Danvers three days after
he first saw her. He entered the priesthood
in much the same headlong way, years Of
hesitation ending with a sudden burst OF
decision. For twenty years he had In
tended to become q priest n q poet, yet
he took no decisive step in either direction
until very near the end Of his life. One
hun dred and sixty-nine short poems and
less than three years Of ecclesiastical work
in q small country parish represent the
sum Of his accomplishment in both voca-
lions. The harvest, moreover, was not only
tardy, but deficient In quality as we'll as
quantity. The editor points out that
sceaselessly working over his little roll Of
POEMS, he never brought them to perfection,
and although be lived in one Of the most
formative periods Of English history, when
new thoughts about Church, State and
Society were pouring in like q food, the
ferment left no trace in his writings, which
might have been composed about equally
well on a desert island. For the most part
be Ia concerned with the small needs Of his
own SOUL