herald, relative to the funeral of John St. John; that functionary declares it to have been in violation of all heraldic laws, insomuch that the escutcheons went beyond those pertaining to a duke, and that he never saw so many pennons, except at the funeral of one of the blood royal.[443] Far different, and far more touching, were the obsequies of the Master of St. Paul's School: as he died a single man, the boys walked before the corpse with white gloves, verses being hung upon the pall instead of escutcheons.[444] [Illustration] CHAPTER XV. Sometimes, by the shore of a lake, the eye catches prismatic effects upon the ripples, as if chains and rings of gold, and green, and crimson, were thickly scattered in fragments over the surface, whilst weeds lie plain enough beneath, covering the bottom of the mountain-girdled waters. Little creations and images of the glorious light above are those ripples; and no unapt illustration do they afford of the varieties of spiritual life in this lower world; for all these varieties are really reflections of the Sun of Righteousness--reflections manifold, always imperfect and sometimes confused, and ever found with the weeds of fallen humanity growing underneath them. The religious history of the Commonwealth abounds in specimens of such varieties: we proceed to furnish further instances of these, not only from Anglo-Catholic and Puritan biographies, but from others in which there is the absence of either peculiarity, or a blending of the two. [Sidenote: _George Herbert._] Amidst the Civil Wars, and under the ascendancy of Presbyterianism, there could no longer be the same kind of pastoral care as that which threw such an air of saintliness over Bemerton rectory. The "country parson" could no more use the Prayer Book and keep Church festivals. Daily worship had ceased, such as George Herbert loved to attend, at the canonical hours of ten and four, when "he lifted up pure and charitable hands to God in the midst of the congregation." There could no longer assemble in public twice a day, an Anglican congregation, composed of parishioners and gentlemen of the neighbourhood. An end had also come to the usage described by Isaac Walton: "Some of the meaner sort of his parish did so love and reverence Mr. Herbert, that they would let their plough rest, when Mr. Herbert's saint's-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him, and would then return back to their plough." Yet throughout the Commonwealth era the lofty devotion of the poet-priest--albeit touched with asceticism and other weaknesses--continued to beat in many hearts, and to inspire the concealed use of ancient formularies.