e told.

With a conscience tender as a child's, almost diseased in its tenderness,
and a heart loving as a woman's, his intellect is none the less powerful.
Its movements are as the sword-play of an alert, poised, well-knit,
strong-wristed fencer with the rapier, in which the skill impresses one
more than the force, while without the force the skill would be
valueless, even hurtful, to its possessor. There is a graceful humour
with it occasionally, even in his most serious poems adding much to their
charm. To illustrate all this, take the following, the title of which
means _The Retort_.

THE QUIP.

The merry World did on a day
With his train-bands and mates agree
To meet together where I lay,
And all in sport to jeer at me.

First Beauty crept into a rose;
Which when I plucked not--"Sir," said she,
"Tell me, I pray, whose hands are those?"[98]
_But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._

Then Money came, and, chinking still--
"What tune is this, poor man?" said he:
"I heard in music you had skill."
_But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._

Then came brave Glory puffing by
In silks that whistled--who but he?
He scarce allowed me half an eye;
_But thou shall answer, Lord, for me._

Then came quick Wit-and-Conversation,
And he would needs a comfort be,
And, to be short, make an oration:
_But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me._

Yet when the hour of thy design
To answer these fine things, shall come,
Speak not at large--say I am thine;
And then they have their answer home.

Here is another instance of his humour. It is the first stanza of a poem
to _Death_. He is glorying over Death as personified in a skeleton.

Death, thou wast once an uncouth, hideous thing--
Nothing but bones,
The sad effect of sadder groans:
Thy mouth was open, but thou couldst not sing.

No writer before him has shown such a love to God, such a childlike
confidence in him. The love is like the love of those whose verses came
first in my volume. But the nation had learned to think more, and new
difficulties had consequently arisen. These, again, had to be undermined
by deeper thought, and the discovery of yet deeper truth had been the
reward. Hence, the love itself, if it had not strengthened, had at least
grown deeper. And George Herbert had had difficulty enough in himself;
for, born of high family, by nature fitted to shine in that society