EDWARD,

LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY,

2

ONE of the greatest ornaments of the learned peerage, was a man of martial spirit and a profound understanding3. He was made knight of the bath when prince Henry was installed for the garter4; and being sent embassador to France, to interpose in behalf of the Protestants of that kingdom, he returned the insolence of the great constable Luines with the spirit of a gentleman, without committing his dignity of embassador 5. It occasioned a coolness be

[Dr. Donne has a copy of verses addressed to sir Edward Herbert, since lord Herbert of Cherbury, being at the siege of Juliers: and Ben Jonson has a plausive epigram on the same "all-virtuous Herbert." See Brit. Poets, vol. iv. pp. 97, 542.]

[He became a gentleman commoner of University college, Oxon, in 1595, at the age of fourteen; where he laid the foundation, says Wood, of that admirable learning of which he was afterwards a complete master. Athenæ, vol. ii. p. 117.] * [July 2, 1603.]

5 [An account of the interview between Luines and lord Herbert is detailed in Observations on the Life of Lord Herbert, in Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 790, edit. 1665. Camden reports, that he treated the constable irreverently; but Walton tells us, that he could not subject himself to a compliance with

tween the courts; but the blame fell wholly on the constable. In 1625 sir Edward was made a baron of Ireland'; in 1631, of England"; but in the cause of his country sided with its representatives. He died in 1648, having written

"De Veritate, prout distinguitur à Revelatione, à verisimili, à possibili, à falso. Cui Operi additi sunt duo alii Tractatus; primus, de Causis Errorum; alter, de Religione Laici. Unà cum Appendice ad Sacerdotes de Religione Laici; et quibusdam Poematibus."

It was translated into French, and printed at Paris in quarto, in 16399. In this book the

the humours of the duke de Luines; so that, upon a complaint to our king, he was called back into England in some displeasure, but at his return gave such an honourable account of his employment, and so justified his comportment to the duke, and all the court, that he was suddenly sent back upon the same embassy. New Biog. Dict. vol. viii. p. 52.]

6

"[By the title of lord Herbert of Castle-island.]

[By that of lord Herbert of Cherbury, in Shropshire.]

In the Parliamentary History, it is said that lord Herbert offended the house of lords by a speech in behalf of the king, and that he attended his majesty at York. Yet the very next year, on a closer insight into the spirit of that party, he quitted them, and was a great sufferer in his fortune from their vengeance. Vide Parl. Hist. vol. xi. p. 3, 87. [In 1639 he accompanied the English army in an expedition to Scotland, and wrote a poem at Alnwick, called "The Idea." See his Occasional Verses, p. 75.]

9 [In 1624, says Biog. Dict.; and again in 1633: Wood tells us, that Thomas Master, "a vast scholar," had a hand in lati

author asserts the doctrine of innate ideas. Mr. Locke, who has taken notice of this work, allows his lordship to be "a man of great parts." Gassendi answered it, at the request of Peiresc and Diodati; but the answer was not published till after Gassendi's death. Baxter made remarks on the Treatise de Veritate, in his More Reasons for the Christian Religion; and one Kortholt (a foolish German zealot) took such offence at it, that he wrote a treatise intituled De tribus Impostoribus magnis, Edvardo Herbert, Thoma Hobbes, et Benedicto Spinosâ, Liber 2.

nizing lord Herbert's book "De Veritate." Vide Athenæ, vol. i. col. 40, and note 5, postea.]

⚫ Gen. Dict. vol. vi. p. 122. Wood, vol. ii. p. 118. In Leland's View of deistical Writers, vol. i. p. 24, it is said that there exists a manuscript life of this lord, "drawn up from memorials penned by himself," in which is a most extraordi nary account of his lordship putting up a solemn prayer for a sign to direct him whether he should publish his Treatise "de Veritate" or not; and that he interpreted a sudden noise as an imprimatur. There is no stronger characteristic of human nature than its being open to the grossest contradictions. One of lord Herbert's chief arguments against revealed religion is, the improbability that Heaven should reveal its will to only a portion of the earth, which he terms particular religion. How could a man (supposing the anecdote genuine) who doubted of partial, believe individual revelation? What vanity to think his book of such importance to the cause of truth, that it could extort a declaration of the Divine will, when the interests of half mankind could not!

"De Religione Gentilium, Errorumque apud eos Causis."

The first part was printed at London 1645 3, 8vo. and the whole in 1663, 4to. and reprinted in 1700, Svo. It was translated into English by Mr. W. Lewis, 1705, 8vo.*.

66

Expeditio Buckinghami Ducis in Ream In

sulam."

Published by Tim. Baldwin, LL. D. 1656, Lond. 8vo.

"Life and Reign of Henry the Eighth." Lond. 1649, 1672, and 16825. Reprinted in

[In that year his lordship sent the MS. of this work to Gerard Vossius, as appears from a letter of lord Herbert's, and Vossius's answer. Biog. Dict.]

* [Under this title: "The ancient Religion of the Gentiles, and Causes of their Errors considered. The Mistakes and Failures of the heathen Priests and wise Men in their Notions of the Deity, and Matters of divine Worship, are examined with regard to their being destitute of divine Revelation."]

5

' [Lord Orford remarks, in an advertisement to the Life of Lord Herbert, that his Reign of Henry the Eighth is allowed to be a master-piece of historic biography. Bishop Nicolson, in his English historical Library, commends it above all the annals of that period, and says, "the author has acquitted himself with the like reputation as lord chancellor Bacon gained by the Life of Henry the Seventh; having in the politic and mar tial part been admirably particular and exact, from the best records that were extant." But Anthony Wood transfers part of this commendation to the learned Thomas Master, who was a drudge to lord Herbert, and assisted him much. Wood

Kennet's Complete History of England. The original manuscript was deposited by the author in 1643, in the archives of the Bodleian library. It was undertaken by command of king James the first, and is much esteemed: yet one cannot help regretting, that a man who found it necessary to take up arms against Charles the first, should have palliated the enormities of Henry the eighth, in comparison of whom king Charles was an excellent prince. It is strange that writing a man's life should generally make the biographer become enamoured of his subject'; whereas one should think, that the nicer disquisition one makes into the life of any man, the less reason one should find to love or admire him.

had seen four thick volumes in folio, of literary materials for his lordship's structure, in every one of which he found the hand-writing of Master, either interlining, adding, or correcting, and one of the four was mostly written by him: whence he inferred, beyond doubt, that he had an especial hand in composing the said Life and Reign of King Henry the Eighth. Vide Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. col. 40.]

[May not the source of this feeling be resolved into a natural partiality for whatever has obtained our studious attention? though it probably requires a sympathy of mind or congeniality of sentiment, between the biographer and his subject, before either love or admiration can be awakened.]