LIFE OF WAT/TOW. 45 



This great man died in 1665. There are extant, of 

 his works besides a volume of Sermons, in JFb//o a 

 treatise, De Juramenti promissorii obligation?, which 

 was translated into English by King Charles the First, 

 while a prisoner in the Isle of Wight ; and several 

 other pieces, the titles whereof may be seen in the Ca- 

 talogue of the Bodleian Library. Walton's acquaint- 

 ance with him had a very early commencement : and 

 what degree of intimacy subsisted between them, will 

 appear by the following account, which sufficiently 

 characterizes the humility of the good doctor, and the 

 simplicity of honest Isaac. cc About the time of hi* 

 " printing this excellent Preface, [to his Sermons first 

 " printed in 1655,] I met him accidentally in London, 

 (( in sad-coloured cloathes, and, God knows, far from 

 *' being costly. The place of our meeting was near to 

 <' Little Britain ; where he had been to buy a book, 

 c which he then had in his hand. We had no incli- 

 ** nation to part presently; and therefore turned to 

 c stand in a corner^ under a penthouse ; (for it began 

 (s to rain;) and immediately the wind rose, and the 

 i( rain increased so much, that both became so inconve- 

 " nient, as to force us into a cleanly house; where we 

 <c had bread, cheese, ale y and a fire, for our money. 

 <c This rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to 

 c force our stay there, for at least an hour, to my 

 c great content and advantage ; for in that time, he 

 c made to me many useful observations, with much 

 cc clearness and conscientious freedom *. 



It was not till long after that period when the facul- 

 ties of men begin ti decline, that Walton undertook to 

 write the Life of Sanderson : nevertheless, far from 

 being deficient in any of those excellencies that distin- 

 guish the former Lives, this abounds with the evidences 

 of a vigorous imagination, a sound judgment, and a 

 memory unimpaired ; and for the nervous sentiments 

 and pious simplicity therein displayed, let the conclud- 

 ing paragraph thereof, pointed out to me by an emi- 

 nent writer t, and here given, serve as a specimen. 



* lift of Sanderson. 4- I>r. Samuel Johnson. 



