xxviii The Complete Angler 



" Several charcoal fires being first made in his large study, he 

 brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand, 

 and having put off all his clothes, had this sheet put on him, and 

 so tied with knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed 

 as dead bodies are usually fitted, to be shrouded and put into 

 their coffin or grave. Upoti.jthis^urn he thus stood^with his eyes 

 shut, and with so much of the sheeT7urne3~aside asrnight show 

 his lean, pale, and death-like face, which was purposely turned 

 towards the east, from which he expected the second coming of 

 his and our Saviour Jesus. In this posture he was drawn at his 

 just height, and, when the picture was fully finished, he caused it 

 to be set by his bedside, where it continued, and became his hourly 

 object till death." 



Thus Donne made ready to meet the common 



fate : 



41 That body, which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, is 

 now become a small quantity of Christian ashes. But I shall see 

 it reanimated." 



This is the very voice of Faith. Walton was, 

 indeed, an assured believer, and to his mind, the 

 world offered no insoluble problem. But we may 

 say of him, in the words of a poet whom he 

 quotes : 



" Many a one 



Owes to his country his religion ; 

 And in another would as strongly grow 

 Had but his nurse or mother taught him so ", 



In his account of Donne's early theological studies 

 of the differences between Rome and Anglicanism, 

 it is manifest that Izaak thinks these differences 

 matters of no great moment. They are not for 

 simple men to solve : Donne has taken that trouble 

 for him; besides, he is an Englishman, and 



" Owes to his country his religion ". 



He will be no Covenanter, and writes with dis- 

 gust of an intruded Scots minister, whose first 

 action was to cut down the ancient yews in the 

 churchyard. Izaak's religion, and all his life, were 



