cious and
generous gratitude, should be recorded and mentioned wheresoever his
Gospel should be read; intending thereby, that as his, so her name,
should also live to succeeding generations, even till time itself
shall be no more.

[Sidenote: Reasons for this Life]

Upon occasion of which fair example, I did lately look back, and not
without some content,--at least to myself,--that I have endeavoured to
deserve the love, and preserve the memory, of my two deceased friends,
Dr. Donne, and Sir Henry Wotton, by declaring the several employments
and various accidents of their lives. And though Mr. George
Herbert--whose Life I now intend to write--were to me a stranger as to
his person, for I have only seen him; yet since he was, and was worthy
to be, their friend, and very many of his have been mine, I judge it
may not be unacceptable to those that knew any of them in their
lives, or do now know them by mine, or their own writings, to see this
conjunction of them after their deaths; without which, many things
that concerned them, and some things that concerned the age in which
they lived, would be less perfect, and lost to posterity.

For these reasons I have undertaken it; and if I have prevented any
abler person, I beg pardon of him and my Reader.

THE LIFE
OF
MR. GEORGE HERBERT.

[Sidenote: Birth and family]

George Herbert was born the Third day of April, in the Year of our
Redemption 1593. The place of his birth was near to the Town of
Montgomery, and in that Castle[1] that did then bear the name of that
Town and County; that Castle was then a place of state and strength,
and had been successively happy in the Family of the Herberts, who
had long possessed it; and with it, a plentiful estate, and hearts
as liberal to their poor neighbours. A family, that hath been blessed
with men of remarkable wisdom, and a willingness to serve their
country, and, indeed, to do good to all mankind; for which they
are eminent: But alas! this family did in the late rebellion suffer
extremely in their estates; and the heirs of that Castle saw it laid
level with that earth, that was too good to bury those wretches that
were the cause of it.

[Sidenote: Father and mother]

The Father of our George was Richard Herbert, the son of Edward
Herbert, Knight, the son of Richard Herbert, Knight, the son of the
famous Sir Richard Herbert of Colebrook, in the County of Monmouth,
Banneret, who was the youngest brother of that mem