"In this, his first collection of essays in more than a decade, Geoffrey Hill addresses matters crucial to the task of the writer and to the life of a reader - matters of style and faith." "In these seven essays, whose subjects include the Holy Bible and its English translators, and Hobbes's Leviathan and its contemporary critics. Hill shows us that in most instances, and despite the best intentions, style and faith remain obdurately apart. But he also shows us that when the two are in accord, as they are in certain works by Hooker, Burton, Herbert, Vaughan, and Donne, poetry and prose are something more than a momentary stay against confusion; they are witnesses against the enemies of truth."--BOOK JACKET.