INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxv 



wishing, he had been able to imitate in a degree more 

 consistent with his truly creditable admiration. Ne- 

 vertheless, their connexion was highly honourable 

 to them both ; it is beautiful to fancy the cheerful 

 sage relaxing to accommodate himself to the com- 

 paratively dissipated man of fashion, who, on the 

 other hand, seems to have held himself, as it were 

 in a course of reformation, in compliment to his in- 

 dulgent friend : nothing can be finer than his car- 

 rying this temper to the length of making his ac- 

 ceptableness to Walton the test of his general wor- 

 thiness. See Part n. chap. i. " My father Walton 

 will be seen twice in no man's company he does 

 not like, and likes none but such as he believes 

 to be very honest men ; which is one of the best 

 arguments, or at least one of the best testimonies 

 I have, that I either am, or that he thinks me one 

 of those, seeing I have not yet found him weary 

 of me." 



Yet, here we cannot refrain from the remark, that 

 Walton triumphs over his coadjutor as much in the 

 true aims of genius as in moral worth ; having 

 immortalized himself by a work which he produced 

 by mere accident! — whilst Cotton, though almost 

 an author by profession, having chosen disgusting 

 topics for many of his original compositions, now 

 lives chiefly in connexion with the name of his 

 venerable friend : — or, to say the least, the benign 

 influence of a virtuous association was never more 

 strikingly illustrated, since his devoted attachment to 



