GEORGE HERBERT

The Country Parson, The Temple

EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY

JOHN N. WALL, JR.

PREFACE

BY

A. M. ALLCHIN

paulist press

new york • mahwah

Cover Art

The artist, WILL HARMUTH, is a professional artist and illustrator who lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey. A graduate of Newark School of Fine/Industrial Arts, Mr. Harmuth attended the Arts Students League. In his rendition of Herbert he attempted to convey the man’s “intensity and depth, along with the flavor of early seventeenth-century England.”

Publisher’s Note:

The spacing of the stanzas of poetry in this edition differs at times from that of the 1633 edition of Herbert’s works.

Design: Barbini, Pesce & Noble, Inc.

Copyright © 1981 by Paulist Press, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress

Catalog Card Number: 81-80287

ISBN: 0-8091-2298-7

Published by Paulist Press

997 Macarthur Boulevard

Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

THE CLASSICS OF WESTERN SPIRITUALITY

A Library of the Great Spiritual Masters

President and Publisher

Kevin A. Lynch, C.S.P.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

Richard J. Payne

Associate Editor

John Farina

Editorial Consultant

Ewert H. Cousins—Professor and Director of Spirituality Graduate Program, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

John E. Booty—Professor of Church History, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass.

Joseph Dan—Professor of Kaballah in the Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

Albert Deblaere—Professor of the History of Spirituality, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy.

Louis Dupré—T.L. Riggs Professor in Philosophy of Religion, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Rozanne Elder—Executive Vice President, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Mircea Eliade—Professor in the Department of the History of Religions, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

Anne Fremantle—Teacher, Editor and Writer, New York, N.Y.

Karlfried Froelich—Professor of the History of the Early and Medieval Church, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.

Arthur Green—Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Thought, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.

Stanley S. Harakas—Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, Brookline, Mass.

Jean Leclercq—Professor, Institute of Spirituality and Institute of Religious Psychology, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy.

Miguel León-Portilla—Professor Mesoamerican Cultures and Languages, National University of Mexico, University City, Mexico.

George A. Maloney, S.J.—Director, John XXIII Ecumenical Center, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

Bernard McGinn—Associate Professor of Historical Theology and History of Christianity, University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, Ill.

John Meyendorff—Professor of Church History, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y., and Professor ...