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PREFACE. 



We have faid that the reader regrets that Wal- 

 ton fhould have left fo httle behind him : his 

 "Angler" and his Lives are all that is known to 

 moft. But we are now enabled to prefent thofe 

 who love his memory with a colledlion of fugitive 

 pieces, in verfe and profe, extending in date of com- 

 pofition over a period of fifty years, — beginning 

 with the Elegy on Donne, in 1633, and termi- 

 nating only with his death in 1683. All thefe, 

 however unambitious, are more or lefs charadler- 

 iftic of the man, and impregnated with the fame 

 fpirit of genial piety that diftinguifhes the two well- 

 known books to which they form a fupplement. 



Walton's devotion to literature muft have be- 

 gun at an early age ; for in a little poem, entitled 

 T'he Love of Amos and Laura^ publifhed in 1 6 1 9, 

 when he was only twenty-fix, and attributed 

 varioufly to Samuel Purchas, author of " The 

 Pilgrims," and to Samuel Page, we find the fol- 

 lowing: dedication to him : — 



b 2 "To 



