The English metaphysical poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593-1633) is best known for "The Temple," a monument of brilliant rhetoric which expertly combines private experience with a demonstration of the way to salvation.

Descended from soldiers and administrators, George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593, in or near Montgomery Castle on the Welsh border. In 1596 his mother, Magdalen, daughter of a landowner, Sir Richard Newport, was left a widow with 10 children--like Job, as she remarked. She was much admired by John Donne, who later influenced Herbert's poetry. She brought up George in Oxford and then London, where he attended Westminster School. In 1609 she married Sir John Danvers.

In that year Herbert became a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1613 and a master of arts degree in 1617. Appointed a fellow of Trinity, he taught Latin and Greek grammar until he was...