[Transcriber's notes]
This text is derived from THE CATHOLIC WORLD,
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicworld01pauluoft
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39367
and
http://www.archive.org/details/catholicworld02pauluoft
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40068
It is the collection of serialized chapters for the convenience of the reader who wishes to read the whole work.
[End Transcriber's notes]
I had not thought to write the story of my life; but the wishes ofthose who have at all times more right to command than occasion toentreat aught at my hands, have in a manner compelled me thereunto.The divers trials and the unlooked-for comforts which have come to mylot during the years that I have been tossed to and fro on this uneasysea—the world—have wrought in my soul an exceeding sense of thegoodness of God, and an insight into the meaning of the sentence inHoly Writ which saith, "His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughtslike unto our thoughts." And this puts me in mind that there aresayings which are in every one's mouth, and therefore not to belightly gainsayed, which nevertheless do not approve themselves to myconscience as wholly just and true. Of these is the common adage,"That misfortunes come not alone." For my own part, I have found thatwhen a cross has been laid on me, it has mostly been a single one, andthat other sorrows were oftentimes removed, as if to make room for it.And it has been my wont, when one trial has been passing away, to lookout for the next, even as on a stormy day, when the clouds have rolledaway in one direction and sunshine is breaking overhead, we see othersrising in the distance. There has been no portion of my life free fromsome measure of grief or fear sufficient to recall the words that "Manis born to trouble as the sparks fly upward;" and none so reft ofconsolation that, in the midst of suffering, I did not yet cry out,"The Lord is my shepherd; his rod and his staff comfort me."
I was born in the year 1557, in a very fair part of England, atSherwood Hall, in the county of Stafford. For its comely aspect,commodious chambers, sunny gardens, and the sweet walks in itsvicinity, it was as commendable a residence for persons of moderatefortune and contented minds as can well be thought of. Within andwithout this my paternal home nothing was wanting which might pleasethe eye, or minister to tranquillity of mind and healthfulrecreation. I reckon it amongst the many favors I have received from agracious Providence, that the earlier years of my life were spentamidst such fair scenes, and in the society of parents who ever tookoccasion from earthly things to lead my thoughts to such as areimperishable, and so to stir up in me a love of the Creator, who hasstamped his image on this visible world in characters of so greatbeauty; whilst in the tenderness of those dear parents unto myself Isaw, as it were, a type and representation of his paternal love andgoodness.
My father was of an ancient family, and allied to such as were ofgreater note and more wealthy than his own. He had not, as is themanner with many squires of our days, left off residing on his ownestate in order to seek after the shows and diversions of London; buthad united to a great humility of mind and a singular affection forlearning a contentedness of spirit which inclined him to dwell in theplace assigned to him by Providence. He had married at an early age,and had ever conformed to the habits of his neighbors in all lawfuland kindly ways, and sought no other labors but such as wereincidental to the care of his estates,