George Herbert and his times . he used the subjectsof his delightful Lives as he used the less fortunateliving bait for his hooks, as if indeed he lovedthem. With his comely face and figure, a fishing-rod under his arm, and a volume of his belovedGesner or the divine Du Bartas in his hand,he must ever accompany those who attempt towrite, as well as those who read, the Life hepictured with so much sympathy and power. Students of the inner trends of the time cannotfail to detect symptoms of revolt against some ofits outward influences. Xh^ firformation, if it didnothing else, made men think for
George Herbert and his times . he used the subjectsof his delightful Lives as he used the less fortunateliving bait for his hooks, as if indeed he lovedthem. With his comely face and figure, a fishing-rod under his arm, and a volume of his belovedGesner or the divine Du Bartas in his hand,he must ever accompany those who attempt towrite, as well as those who read, the Life hepictured with so much sympathy and power. Students of the inner trends of the time cannotfail to detect symptoms of revolt against some ofits outward influences. Xh^ firformation, if it didnothing else, made men think for themselves, andthink as it were with the English Bible openbefore them. From the days of its public readingat St. Pauls by one John Porter, the freshyoung man of a big stature who could readwell and had an audible voice, the translatedScriptures had been in the hands or in the mindsof all, and religious experience had centred in andabout the sacred text. But if the responsibilityof working out ones salvation by an independent. IZAAK WALTON FROM THE PAINTING BY JACOB HUYSMAN, IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY THE POET AND THE AGE 9 study of Christian documents had its benefits, italso tended to lawlessness, and not seldom withthe more sensitive to gloom and distress. Thesevere and often irresponsible preacher, laymanas well as cleric, was abroad in the land ; andamid the noise of clashing creeds and doctrinesthe desire for order, peace and opportunity forquiet growth—in a word, for religious culture—was felt by many. The affection in which a largepart of the community had come to hold theBook of Common Prayer, our good old ServiceBook, as Walton calls it, and the devisedworship of the Church—both afterwards by thePuritans—is an evidence of this feeling. Butwith many the desire went further. There wassomething like a revival of the old longing fora retired and contemplative life which, a fewgenerations before, had driven men and womento the cloister. Walton and his beneficed friend
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