Walton and White. 249 



not knowing how it is done. . . . No man 

 ever achieved, as Walton sometimes did, 

 a simplicity which leaves criticism helpless 

 by the mere light of nature alone." 



In another place, in referring to an 

 account Walton gives of an accidental 

 meeting with Sanderson, Mr. Lowell says, 

 " It is exactly as if he were telling us of 

 it, and this sweet persuasiveness of the 

 living and naturally cadenced voice is 

 never wanting in Walton. It is indeed 

 his distinction, and it is a very rare quality 

 in writers, upon most of whom, if they 

 ever happily forget themselves and fall 

 into the tone of talk, the pen too soon 

 comes sputtering in." 



His biographical work Mr. Lowell thinks 

 "very delightful; and though more rambling 

 than Plutarch, comes nearer to him than 

 any other life-writing I can think of. ... 

 Never, surely, was there a more lovable 

 man, nor to whom love found access by 

 more avenues of sympathy. There are two 

 books which have a place by themselves 

 and side by side in our literature, Walton's 

 Compleat Angler and White's Natural 

 History of Selborne. . . . The purely literary 

 charm of neither of them will alone 

 authorise the place they hold so securely, 

 though, as respects the Angler^ this charm 

 must be taken more largely into account. 



