TIBVBA 34 837 real tenderners pbg hints at pleasure to be had at Courts. 772 see also Frailty, and p q.. THE NEW YORK 427709 A ASTOR, LINOX AND 19..9 L Advertisement to the Edition of 1844. HE Poems of " the Divine Herbert" will be found in this edition more complete than in any that hath heretofore appeared; they were first printed at Cambridge in 1633, entitled "THE TEMPLE, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, by George Herbert," with a preface of "The Printers to the Reader," by Nicholas Ferrar, who was usually called The Protestant Saint Nicholas, and the pious Mr. Herbert's brother,' to which are added certain Latin and Greek poems. Of the Temple, it has been remarked by his first biographer, the Rev. Barnabas Oley, that" He that reads Mr. Herbert's poems attendingly, shall finde not only the excellencies of Scripture Divinitie, and choice paffages of the Fathers bound up in meetre; but the doctrine of Rome alfo finely and ftrongly confuted; as in the poems 'To Saints and Angels,' 'The British Church,' The Church Militant,'" &c. Richard Baxter, in the preface to his Poetical b Fragments (Lond. 1681) fays:-" Next to the Scripture Poems, there are none fo favoury to me as Mr. George Herbert's and Mr. George Sandys's. I know that Cowley and others far excel Herbert in wit and accurate compofure; But (as Seneca takes with me above all his contemporaries, because he fpeaketh things by words, feelingly and seriously, like a man that is paft jeft, fo) Herbert fpeaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in this world is moft with God. Heartwork and Heaven-work make up his books." Walton ftates that Herbert, on his death-bed, delivered the Temple to Mr. Edmund Duncon, with the following injunction: "Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother Ferrar, and tell him, he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have paffed betwixt God and my foul, before I could fubject mine to the will of Jefus my mafter, in whofe fervice I have now found perfect freedom; defire him to read it, and then if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor foul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it, for I and it are less than the leaft of God's mercies.' Thus meanly did this humble man think of this excellent book, which now bears the name of THE TEMPLE, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations; of which Mr. Ferrar would fay, there was the picture of a Divine Soul in every page; and that the whole book was fuch a harmony of holy paffions, as would enrich the world with pleasure and piety. And it appears to have done fo, for there have been ten thousand of them fold fince the first impreffion." In the life of Dr. Donne, Walton says: "And in this enumeration of his friends, though many must be omitted; yet that man of primitive piety, Mr. George Herbert, may not; I mean that George Herbert, who was the author of The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Ejaculations,' a book, in which, by declaring his own fpiritual conflicts, he hath comforted and raised many a dejected and difcompofed foul, and charmed them into sweet and quiet thoughts; a book, by the frequent reading * Izaak Walton published his life of Herbert in 1670. In the fourth edition, 1674, Walton fays, that "there have been more than twenty thousand of them sold fince the first impreffion." The Temple was first printed at Cambridge, 1633; the fecond edition the fame year; third edition in 1634; fourth edit. 1635; fifth edit. 1638; fixth edit. 1641; feventh edit. 1656; eighth edit. 1660; ninth edit. 1667; tenth edit. 1674; eleventh edit. 1679; twelfth edit. 1703; thirteenth edit. 1709; fourteenth edit. Bristol, 1799; fifteenth edit. Lond. 1805. In the Bodleian Library is a MS. formerly belonging to Abp. Sancroft, and then to Bp. Tanner, entitled, "The original of Mr. George Herbert's Temple, as it was at first Licensed for the Preffe. W. Sancroft;" beautifully written in folio, the punctuation altered by Sancroft. Dr. Bliss says, that the poems are the fame with those ed. 1656; on a flight collation, there does not appear to be any various readings, and but one tranfpofition. On the title is the poetical dedication, and at the bottom, original autographs.-B. Lany Procan. Tho. Bainbrigg. M. Wren. William Beale. Tho. Freman. There is alfo in the fame library the following in MS. "Mr. Herbert's Temple and Church Militant, explained and improved by a discourse upon each poem, critical and practical, by Geo. Ryley, 1715." |