t will follow.

[Sidenote: College honours]

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 Minor Fellow in the year
1609, Bachelor of Arts in the year 1611; Major Fellow of the College,
March 15th, 1615: and that in that year he was also made Master of
Arts, he being then in the 22nd year of his age; during all which
time, all, or the greatest diversion from his study, was the practice
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 earth, that it gave
him an earnest of the joys of Heaven, before he possessed them." And
it may be noticed, that from his first entrance into the College, the
generous Dr. Nevil was a cherisher of his studies, and such a lover of
his person, his behaviour, 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 his 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 great a value on his parts and parentage.

[Sidenote: Orator]

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 Orator for the University. His two precedent
Orators were Sir Robert Naunton,[7] and Sir Francis Nethersole.[8] 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 blessed with a high fancy, a civil
and sharp wit; and with a natural elegance, both in his behaviour, 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.

[Sidenote: Letter to King James]

And the first notable occasion of shewing his fitness for this
employment of Orator was manifested in a letter to King James, upon
the occasion of his sending that Univers