HERBERT
194
HERD
Herbert, George, brother of Lord Herbert of [ Cherbury, was born at IMontgomery Castle April 3, 1593. He was educated at Cambridge, where he became a fel- low in 1615. In the year 1G19 he was made university orator, and a letter of thanks which he wrote in that capacity to James I excited the monarch's attention, who declared him to be the jewel of that university, and gave him a sinecure of £120 per annum. He be- came intimate with Bacon and AA'otton, and had pros- pects of great success in public Ufe, but the death of his friends, the duke of Richmond and the marquis of Ham- ilton, followed by that of king James, frustrated these expectations, and Herbert determined to devote him- self to the mmistry. He was accordingly ordained, and in 1G26 was made prebendary of Layton, in the diocese of Lincoln. In 1630 he became rector of Bemerton, near Salisbury. A quotidian ague soon destroyed his health, and he died in 1G33. George Herbert's piety was humble and profomid. He was zealous in his pas- toral duties.; an undue reverence for ceremonies, as such, was his chief failing. A beautiful sketch of him is given ill Walton's Lives (often reprinted). " INIen like George Herbert are rare. It is not his wide learning, nor his refined taste ; not his high spirit, nor his amiability, nor his strictness of Ufe; but the rare combination in one person of qualities so diversely beautiful. He was mas- ter of all learning, human and divine ; yet his learning is not what strikes the reader most, it is so thoroughly controlled and subordinated by his lively wit and prac- tical wisdom. He was a man of extraordinary endow- ments, both personal and such as belonged to his rank, not lost in indolence, nor wasted in trivialities, but aU combined and cidtivated to the utmost, and then de- voted to the highest purposes" {Christian Remembrancer, 1862, p. 137), His writings include The Temple : sa- cred Poems and private Ejaculations (Lond. 1633, 12mo ; and many editions since, in various forms) : — The Coun- try Parson, his Character and Rule of holy Life (manj' editions). There are several editions of his complete works, such as, Works, Prose a7id Veise, with Walton's Life ai/'l Cnhriihii's Notes (London, 1846, 2 vols. 12mo) ; Worts "-ill, sh,irh of his Life by Jerdan (1853, small 8vo; ;/"/ inrluding all of Herbert's works); Works, Prose and Verse, edited bv A\'illniott (1K54, 8vo); Life and Writings of G. Ilirh,rl (liostdii. !.s.-)l, 12mo). The best edition of his ll'.-r/.x is I'i.kcriii-'s (Lond. 1850, 2 vols.). See AUibone, Diet. ,f . I ui],,,,-^. i, 829 ; Middle- ton, Evangelical Biography . iii. is ; t hiiMlan Examiner, vol. li; Tirit. Quarterly Reri<-ir, Apiil, is'il, art. ii.
Her'cules ('Hpa(c\»)e) is mentioned in 2 Mace, iv, 19 as the Tyrian god to whom the Jewish high-priest .Jason sent a religious embassy (Quopoi), with the offer- ing of 300 drachnife of silver. That this T}Tian Her- cules (Herod, ii, 44) is the same as the Tyrian Baal is evident from a bilingual Phoenician inscription found at Malta (described by Gesenius, Monum. Ling. Phcen. i, 96), in which the Phoenician words, " To our Lord, to Mel- karth, the Baal of Tyre," are represented by the Greek 'HpaKXtl 'Apxtjyhei. Moreover, Herakles and Astartc are mentioned together by Josephus (^4w/. viii, 5, 3), just in the same manner as Baal and Ashtoreth are in the Old Testament. The further identity of this Tyrian Baal with the Baal whom the idolatrous Israelites wor- shipped is evinced by the following arguments, as stated chietly by Movers (Die PhOnicier, \, 178). The worship of Baal, which prevailed in the time of the Judges, was put down by Samuel (1 Sam. vii, 4). and the effects of that suppression appear to have lasted tbrougli the next few centuries, as Baal is not enumerated among the idols of Solomon (1 Kings xi, 5-8 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 13), nor among those worshipped in Judah (2 Kings xxiii, 12), or in Samaria, where we only read of the golden calves of Jeroboam (1 Kings xii, 28 ; xv, 26). That worsliip of Baal which prevailed m the reign of Ahab cannot, therefore, be regarded as a mere continuation or revival of the old Canaanitish idolatry (although there is no reason to doubt the essential identity of both Baals),
but was introduced directly from Phoenicia by Ahab > - marriage with the Sidonian princess Jezebel (1 King< xvi, 31). In like manner, the establishment of thir. idolatry in Judah is ascribed to the marriage of the king with a daughter of Jezebel (comp, Josephus, A nt. viii, 13, 1 ; ix, 6,"'6).
The power of nature, which was worshipped mider the form of the Tyrian Hercides, Melkarth, Baal, Ado- nis, Moloch, and whatever his other names are, was that which originates, sustains, and destroys life. These fmictions of the Deity, according to the Phoenicians, were represented, although not exclusively, by the sun, the influence of which both animates vegetation by its genial warmth, and scorches it up by its fervor (see Da- vis, Carthage, p. 276-9).
Almost all that we know of the worship of the TjTian Hercules is preserved by the classical writers, and re- lates chiefly to the Phoenician colonies, and not to the mother state. The eagle, the lion, and the thunny-fish were sacred to him, and are often found on Phoenician coins. Pliny expressly testifies that human sacrifices were offered up every year to the Carthaginian Hercules {Hist. Nat. xxxvi, v, 12), which coincides with what is stated of Baal in Jer. xix, 5, and with the acknowledged worship of Jloloch. Mention is made of public embas- sies sent from the colonies to the mother state to honor the national god (Arrian, Alex, ii, 24; Q. Curt, iv, 2; Polyb. xxxi, 20), and this fact places in a clearer light the offence of Jason m sending envoys to his festival (2 Mace, iv, 19).