;ET. 89.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cxiii 



write after, the clergy especially, who with impure hands ought not 

 to offer sacrifice to that God whose pure eyes abhor iniquity, and 

 especially in them." 8 



No feeling is more manifested in Walton's works than that of 

 discontent with the age in which he lived ; 9 and he seems to 1 

 have fallen into the common error of supposing that the standard / 

 of morality and virtue was lower in his own time than in earlier / 

 ages, a complaint which is almost as old as the world itself. / 

 This is the more remarkable with respect to Walton, because it & /\ . 

 almost the only instance of querulousness which can be found in \\ 

 his writings. There can be little doubt that he believed in super- 

 natural agency, and Dr Zouch not only states that he had been 

 subjected to severe animadversions for the narrative which occurs 

 in the later impressions of his Life of Dr Donne, respecting the 

 vision of Donne's wife, who is said to have appeared to her 

 husband on the day on which sjie was delivered of a dead child. 1 

 It is equally likely, from a passage in his Life of Wotton, that he 

 placed faith in the revelations qf dreams, as well as in the pre- 

 dictions of judicial astrology ; but these facts prove no more than 

 that Walton's mind was imbued with the prejudices and super- 

 stition of his age, to which few, if any, of his contemporaries were 

 superior. Dr Zouch defends his credulity by citing Plutarch and 

 Doddridge ; but since Walton lived, and indeed since Zouch 

 wrote, science has advanced with gigantic strides ; and, in pro- 

 portion to the present extent of knowledge, is the spirit of 

 indulgence for the weaknesses and errors of our ancestors. ^ 



He appears to have been fond of poetry and music, and there 

 is evidence that he cultivated both with some success. Several 

 of his verses have been introduced into this Memoir ; and though 

 they do not evince much imagination or skill, they are at least 

 equal to the productions of many writers who have attained 

 reputation as poets. As, however, he admits in the " Complete 

 Angler" that he was "not excellent at poetry," it would be 

 uncandid to criticise his productions with rigour. He describes 

 music as a heavenly art ; 2 and in his contemplations of celestial 

 happiness, he always represents the saints and angels as being 

 employed in singing hymns to the praise of the Almighty. He 

 could himself sing well; 3 he speaks of the delight which it 



" Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 259. 



9 In the introduction to his Life of Hooker, cd. Zouch, i. 304 : Life of Hooker, ibid, 

 pp. 313, 428 ; Life of Sanderson, ibid. ii. 185, 204 ; Dedicntion of the Life of Donne, ed. 

 168; see p. antea. Complete Angler, p. 163. J Ivl. Zouch, i. 74, 75; ii. 326. 



z Life of Herbert, ed. Zouch, ii. 96. 3 Vide p. lix. atitcu. 



h 



