IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 21 



of his own time will be found recorded in the 

 remarkable "digression," as he himself calls it, 

 which he makes on the subject in his Life of 

 Hooker. We must suppose Walton observed 

 Saints' days and fasting, for he sings : — 



" Each Saint's day 

 Stands as a landmark in an erring age, 



To guide frail mortals in their pilgrimage 

 To the celestial Canaan ; and each fast 



Is both the soul's direction, and repast." 



He would also appear from his remarks in 

 the Life of Hooker to have approved of the 

 clergy being celibate, for he speaks of "those 

 corroding cares that attend a married Priest, 

 and a country Parsonage." 



If the reader believes that Walton was the 

 author of the treatise Loxe and Truths as to which 

 see Chapter IX., he will be fully acquainted 

 with his attitude to the nonconformists of his 

 time and as to his views of religion and habits 

 of worship, and he will be forced to rank 

 him nearer to Laud's school than to Hooker's. 

 Walton's views of heaven show that he had 

 not gone very deeply into the distinction between 

 it and Paradise, and he seems to have believed, 

 with certain Eoman Catholic theologians, that 

 "perfectly cleansed souls pass at once to heaven." 

 His ideas also on the subject of our occupation 

 in heaven are rather antiquated ; he seemingly 



