It is difficult to conjecture how much George Herbert's return to the spiritual life was due to the sudden failure of royal patronage, and how much to his own devotion ; but it is vain to pretend that it was at first an easy or a palatable change of front for him. In this time of retirement [in London and Kent], says Walton, he had many conflicts with himself, whether he should return to the painted pleasures of a court life, or betake himself to a study of divinity, and enter into sacred orders, to which his mother had often persuaded him. These were such conflicts as they only can know that have endured them; for ambitious desires, and the outward glory of this world, are not easily laid aside; but at last God inclined him to put on a resolution to serve at His altar. From the Introduction by Arthur Waugh
- | Author: George Herbert, Arthur Waugh
- | Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- | Publication Date: Apr 26, 2018
- | Number of Pages: 354 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Paperback/Poetry
- | ISBN-10: 1532646313
- | ISBN-13: 9781532646317