
“Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.”
The Manciples Tale, l. 17281
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales
“Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.”
"Necessary Observations", Precept 18
Poems (pub. 1638)
The Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 41
Context: Our Lord shewed concerning Prayer. In which Shewing I see two conditions in our Lord’s signifying: one is rightfulness, another is sure trust.
But yet oftentimes our trust is not full: for we are not sure that God heareth us, as we think because of our unworthiness, and because we feel right nought, (for we are as barren and dry oftentimes after our prayers as we were afore); and this, in our feeling our folly, is cause of our weakness. For thus have I felt in myself.
And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind, and shewed these words, and said: I am Ground of thy beseeching: first it is my will that thou have it; and after, I make thee to will it; and after, I make thee to beseech it and thou beseechest it. How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?
The Last Temptation of Christ (1951)
Context: This is the Supreme Duty of the man who struggles — to set out for the lofty peak which Christ, the first-born sone of salvation, attained. How can we begin?
If we are to follow him we must have a profound knowledge of his conflict, we must relive his anguish: his victory over the blossoming snares of the earth, his sacrifice of the great and small joys of men and his ascent from sacrifice to sacrifice, exploit to exploit, to martyrdom's summit, the Cross.
The Golden Violet - title poem - introduction
The Golden Violet (1827)