The Poems of George Herbert

"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 p...