different stages of cultivation are pourtrayed. Ploughing, sowing, reaping, and the vintage, prepare the harvest feast, where music and dancing complete the festival. Fishing and fowling occupy other compartments, and in a different part of the tomb, the artist has represented a death-bed scene, with the preparations for embalming; the funeral procession, and the favourable sentence of Osiris com

pletes this vivid tracing of human life through its various occupations to its closing scene. At Assouan, it was resolved to prosecute the voyage into Nubia, and the travellers shifted their quarters into vessels, incommodious enough, but adapted to the decreasing depth of the river. Passing the majestic ruins of Philoe, the boats reached Deer,

which

"Was once a Christian settlement, and from its being the only place between the two cataracts that now retains the name, was probably the last to renounce the Christian faith after the country had submitted to the proselytes

of another creed. There is not an individual now in Deer, or in the whole of Nubia, who believes in the name of

Jesus. It has been for them a sad reverse; and the heart bleeds in compassion for their wretchedness, in comparing what they are with what they might have

been, if living under the influence of the Gospel, enlightened by its precepts, and governed by its laws." What a blank does the absence of true religion make in the hearts and the establishments of men! One would have thought that the small and fertile vale of Nubia would have been the abode of happiness and peace; but every hand is armed with a spear, every eye is on fire, and man burns with indignation against his fellow-man, whom he should meet with affection, feel for as a brother, and not seek as an enemy whom he would devour." pp. 409, 410.

After exploring the temples of Absambul, where they had an unpleasant affray with an Arab, who had been cheated by their interpreter, the travellers reached the rocky obstructions to the navigation of the river, which are usually denominated the second cataract of the Nile. Here we shall leave Dr. Richardson for

the present, reserving for another number, his second and most interesting volume.

A concise View of the Doctrine of Scripture, concerning the Ordinance of Baptism. By W. Urwick, Minister of the Gospel, Sligo. 1s. London: Ogle. 1822. THE heavy road of controversy has been so often travelled, and its turnpikes and milestones so frequently counted over, as to be tiresomely familiar to our memory; the all their sharp angles and abrupt very hedge-rows and bye-lanes, with intersections, are so irksomely imprinted on our recollection, that our first impulse is to turn away, and seek an easier and more atbook, however, lay before us, and tractive path. This new roadwe have felt it our duty to investigate its contents, and ascertain how far it might justify our recommendation on the score of comprehensiveness and distinctness. Into the controversy itself, we have no immediate intention of entering; not that our opinions are at all undecided, nor that we have any wish whatever to conceal them, but because we have no taste for en

tangling ourselves in thorny discussions, without a more urgent necessity than at present exists. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with expressing high admiration of the temper and talent displayed in Mr. Urwick's " Concise View;" its conciseness is neither injurious to its clearness, nor a pretext for superficial treatment; much matter is comprised in a small compass, and many a bulky tome is put to shame by this little tract.

Mr. U. is a close reasoner; he is evidently accustomed to work out his own processes of thought and inquiry, and not to adopt the sentiments of others, without subjecting them to rigid examination, and the effects of his independent habits of thinking are advantageously discernible in this acute and well written essay.

The Temple. Sacred Poems, and private Ejaculations. By Mr. George Herbert, late Oratour of the University of Cambridge. Together with his Life. London: 1679.

THERE is a striking difference between our estimate of modern biographers, and the judgment which we pass on those of a former age, and this variation is to be attributed to the distinct objects proposed to themselves, by the life-writers of the older and of the present time. Arrangement, librated periods, adaptation to popular taste,-in short, an anxious solicitude for public approbation, -are the prevailing characteristics of our contemporary limners; while our more simpleminded ancestors identified themselves with the individual whose mental and moral features they had undertaken to delineate. They thought with his thoughts, felt with his feelings, sympathised with his vicissitudes, exulted in his successes, entered into all his domestic peculiarities, and thus gave to their portraits all the truth and richness of actual existence. We have gained nothing by the change; we have lost in detail and resemblance, more than we have gained in effect and combination. Boswell had a strong flavour of the old school, but his restless and ridiculous vanity was for ever obtruding itself. There is Johnson in the picture to the very life, with all the strong markings and broad shadows of his form and bearing; but there, too, is James Boswell, the giant's dwarf, fidgetty and forward, aping his principal, and strutting in all the second-hand pomposity of the great moralist and lexicographer. All this is well enough to a certain CONG. MAG. No. 63.

extent; there is so much of the ludicrous in the airs and pedantry of him of Auchinlech, that it is impossible to be out of humour with his absurdity; but still it is misplaced, it distracts the attention, and diverts the mind from the principal object of the work. Our old favourite, Isaack Walton, is exactly the opposite of this; his portraits have the minuteness and the finish of Denner or Dow, and if he have a little Holbeinesque hardness in his handling, his fidelity to nature makes ample amends. But whatever may be the laborious accuracy with which he works up his resemblances, he never thinks it neces sary to present himself as the object of admiration, any further than by inserting his name in the corner of the canvas; if you have not chanced to read the title page, you may remain in ignorance of the individual to whom you are indebted for your entertainment, until you find his honest signature. at the end. He writes, it is true, in the first person, but we infinitely prefer this plain, straightforward dealing, to the shifts and subterfuges employed by others, at once to conceal their vanity, and to make themselves conspicuous; we dislike, in short, the imperial We in every thing, except a Royal Proclamation, a Review, a Book-worm, or a Promissory note to the first it belongs prescriptively, to the second it gives an air of authority, and to the last it sometimes adds security. Isaack Walton's admirable full length of George Herbert is now before us, and if the amiable and accomplished original himself, in the "sword and silk cloaths" of his secular life, or the "canonical coat" of his sacerdotal profession,

X

with his natural elegance" of demeanour, his mild and gracious physiognomy, and his "civil and sharp wit," we could not have a more vivid and individualizing idea of his person and character, than we gain from the delightful little volume of which we shall now proceed to give a brief account. "George Herbert was born the third day of April, in the year of our redemption, 1593," in the town of Montgomery, of which the castle " was then a place of state and strength, and had been successively happy in the family of the Herberts, who had long possest it, and with it a plentiful estate, and hearts as liberal to their poor neighbours." In the rebellion, the fortress was roughly handled, or, in the pithy words of honest Walton, it was " laid level with that earth that was too good to bury those wretches that were the cause" of its ruin. His family, in both branches, was highly respectable. His father was descended from the "memorable William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, that lived in the reign of our King Edward the Fourth;" among his mother's relatives were knights, with comptrollers of the King's household, and she gave birth to seven sons and three daughters, which she would often say, was Job's number and Job's distribution; as often bless God, that they were neither defective in their shapes, or in their reason; and very often reprove them that did not praise God for so great a blessing." The elder son was the celebrated Edward Herbert, Lord Cherbury, of whom Isaack very prudently observes, in general terms, that "he was a man of great learning and reason, as appears by his printed book de veritate; and by his history of the reign of King Henry the Eight, and by several other tracts." George, the fifth of the seven brothers, received the rudiments

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of his education at home. At the age of twelve, he was sent to Westminster school," where the beauties of his pretty behaviour and wit, shined and became so eminent and lovely in this his innocent age, that he seemed to be marked out for piety, and to become the care of heaven, and of a particular angel to guard and guide him." When he was fifteen, being a King's scholar, he was elected for Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1608. In 1609, he was made "minor" Fellow; in 1615, he obtained a "major" Fellowship. At college, he is said to have been a diligent student, to have maintained virtuous habits of life, to have kept himself at a distance from his " inferiours," to have been somewhat of a coxcomb in his dress, and to have " put too great a value on his parts and parentage." His favourite relaxation was music, of which he was accustomed to 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 possest them." In 1619, he was chosen university orator, in which capacity it fell to him, officially, to acknowledge the high honour conferred on the learned association of Cambridge, by the gift of the Basilicon Doron, a marvellous work, excogitated by the genius, and presented by the condescending liberality of that erudite and facetious monarch, James the First. Herbert seems to have been quite equal, and not in any way superior to his task. His letter was " so full of conceits, and all the expressions were so suted" to the King's peculiar cast of understanding, that he inquired the writer's name, and styled him, "the jewel" of the University. About this time, Herbert engaged in a sort of partizan warfare with

،، One Andrew Melvin, a gentleman of Scotland, who was in his own country possest with an aversness, if not a hatred, of church government by bishop;

and he seem'd to have the like aversness

to our manner of publick worship, and church-prayers and ceremonics. This gentleman had travail'd France, and resided so long in Geneva, as to have his opinions the more confirm'd in him by the practice of that place; from which he return'd into England some short time before, or immediately after Mr. Herbert was made orator. This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning, and was the master of a great wit, a wit full of knots and clenches: a wit sharp and satyrical; exceeded, I think, by none of that nation, but their Buchanan. At Mr. Melvin's return hither, he writ and scattered in Latin, many pieces of his wit against our altars, our prayer, and our publick worship of God, in which, Mr. Herbert took himself to be so much concern'd, that as fast as Melvin writ and scatter'd them, Mr. Herbert writ and scatter'd answers, and reflections of the same sharpness upon him and them; I think to the satisfaction of all un-ingaged persons."-pp. 12, 13.

Whatever Isaack Walton might think on this subject, we imagine that most "uningaged persons" will be of opinion, that a contest between Andrew Melville and George Herbert, was not very likely to terminate with victory to the latter. George, however, was on the sunny side, had interviews with the King, who was graciously pleased to observe, that " he found the orator's learning and wisdom, much above his age or wit." Sir Francis Bacon, too, "began a desired friendship" with Herbert, who also formed an intimacy with Bishop Andrews, Sir Henry Wotton, and Dr. Donne. The orator had now turned complete courtier; he learnt the modern languages, aspired to the office of Secretary of State, obtained a sinecure, "enjoyed his gentile humour for cloaths and court-like company, and seldom looked towards Cambridge, unless the King were there, but then he never failed." He had, indeed, some inclination to quit the University altogether, for he found, or thought he found, his

health impaired by his studies; "he had," as he was pleased modestly to observe of himself," too thoughtful a wit: a wit, like a penknife in too narrow a sheath, too sharp for his body.” All his schemes 'were, however, defeated by the death of his patrons, the Duke of Richmond, and the Marquis of Hamilton, and soon after by the decease of King James. This last event seems to have caused him to retire within himself, and after a season of seclusion in the country, during which he sustained an agitating conflict between conflict between his remaining feelings of ambition, and a conscientious inclination, aided by the persuasions of his excellent mother, to devote himself to the service of God. The latter prevailed, and his reply to a court-friend, who urged him to rescind his resolution as unworthy of his birth and talents, was in the following impressive language.

"It hath been formerly judg'd, that the domestick servants of the King of heaven, should be of the noblest families on earth; and though the iniquity of the late times have made clergy-men meanly valued, and the sacred name of Priest contemptible; yet I will labour to make it honourable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor abilities, to advance the glory of that God that gave them; knowing, that I can never do too much for him, that hath done so much for me, as to make me a Christian, And I will labour to be like my Saviour, by making humility lovely in the eyes of all men, and by following the merciful and meek example of my dear Jesus." -p. 18.

In 1626, he was made prebend of Layton Ecclesia, in the diocese of Lincoln. Here he rebuilt the church, contrary to the advice of his mother, whom, however, he persuaded to contribute handsomely. Here, too, he determined on marriage, and here, we quite agree with his shrewd biographer, that it may be "convenient first to give the reader a short view of his person."

"He was for his person of a stature inclining towards talness; his body was very straight, and so far from being cumbred with too much flesh, that lie was lean to an extremity. His aspect was chearful, and his speech and motion did both declare him a gentleman, for they were all so meek and obliging, that they purchased love and respect from all that knew him."-p. 25.

"These and his other visible virtues, begot him so much love from a gentleman of a noble fortune," that he offered him his daughter, Jane Danvers; as for the young lady herself, she had been "so much a platonick, as to fall in love with Mr. Herbert unseen," and when they met,

"A mutual affection entred into both their hearts, as a conqueror enters into a surprized City, and Love having got such possession govern'd, and made there such Laws and resolutions, as neither party was able to resist; insomuch that she chang'd her name into Herbert, the third day after this first interview."p. 26.

A few months after his marriage, he took priest's orders, and accepted the rectory of Bemerton, in Wiltshire. This decided step cost him much anxiety; he entered on the office with fear and trembling, with prayer and fasting; and when he had ultimately determined, he said to a friend,

"I now look back upon my aspiring thoughts, and think myself more happy than if I had attain'd what I so ambitiously thirsted for: And I can now behold the Court with an impartial Eye, and see plainly, that it is made up of Fraud, and Titles, and Flattery, and many other such empty imaginary painted Pleasures: Pleasures, that are so empty, as not to satisfie when they are enjoy'd; but in God and his service, is a fulness of all joy and pleasure, and no satiety and I will now use all my endeavours to bring my relations and dependents to a love and relyance on him, who never fails those that trust him. But above all, I will be sure to live well, because the vertuous life of a clergy-man, is the most powerful eloquence to perswade all that see it, to reverence and love, and at least to desire to live like him. And this I will do, because I know we live in an age that hath more need of good examples than precepts. And I beseech that God, who hath honour'd me so

much, as to call me to serve at his altar; that as by his special grace he hath put into my heart these good desires, and resolutions: so he will by his assisting grace give me ghostly strength to bring the same to good effect: and that my humble and charitable life may so win upon others, as to bring glory to my JESUS, whom I have this day taken for my Master and Governor; and am so proud of his service, that I will alwaies observe, and obey and do his will, and alwaies call him Jesus my master: and 1 will alwaies contemn my birth, or any title or dignity that can be conferr'd upon me, when I shall compare them with my title of being a priest, and serving at the altar of Jesus my master."-p. 28, 29.

a

In connection with this change in Herbert's active life, Walton gives a general outline of his modes of instruction, and finishes with the information that he was "constant" in that neglected, but most useful practice, Sunday catechising. Still, however, retaining his partiality for music, he would, "twice every week," visit Salisbury, to attend the cathedral service, and to take his part in " private music-meeting." Several simple anecdotes of these visits are related, and tend to illustrate the amiable and attractive character of the man. There occurs, too, an account of Mr. Nicholas Farrer, the detail of whose singular modes of life would occupy too large a portion of an article which we already find increasing beyond its intended limit, and we must defer them to a future number, when they will probably occupy a place in our "Varieties."

Herbert's death was triumphant.

"I now look back," was his language to those around him, " upon the pleasures of my life past, and see the content I have taken in beauty, in wit, in musick, and pleasant conversation, are now all past by me, like a dream, or as a shadow that returns not, and are now all become dead to me, or I to them; and I see that as my father and generation hath done before me, so I also shall now suddenly (with Job) make my bed also in the dark; and I praise God I am prepared for it; and I praise him, that I am not to learn patience, now I stand in such need of it; and that I have prac