IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 151 



pleted in 1660, but not published until a year 

 after his death. After Walton had read The 

 Church History he asked Fuller for some informa- 

 tion as to Hooker, whose life he was preparing to 

 write. In return Fuller asked Walton's opinion 

 of the history and what his friends thought of it. 

 Walton answered, that "he thought it would be 

 very acceptable to all tempers, because there were 

 shades in it for the warm, and sunshine for those 

 of a cold constitution : that with youthful readers, 

 the facetious parts would be profitable to make 

 the serious more palatable, while some reverend 

 old readers might fancy themselves, in his History 

 of the Church, as in a flower garden, or one fall of 

 evergreens." "And why not," said Fuller, ''The 

 Church History so decked, as well as the Church 

 itself at a most holy season, or the Tabernacle of 

 old at the feast of boughs ? " " That was but for a 

 season," said Walton, "in your feast of boughs, 

 they may conceive, we are so overshadowed 

 throughout, that the parson is more seen than 

 his congregation — and this sometimes, invisible to 

 its own acquaintance, who may wander in the 

 search till they are lost in the labyrinth." " Oh," 

 said Fuller, "the very children of our Israel may 

 find their way out of this wilderness." "True," 

 replied Walton, "as, indeed, they have here such 

 a Moses to conduct them." Fuller, who was a 

 Royalist, was, on the Restoration, created a D.D. 



