46 LFPE OP WALTOtf. 



* ( Thus, this pattern of meekness and primitive in- 



* nocence changed tins for a better life : 'tis now too 

 " late to wish that mine may belike his; (for I am in 



6 the eighty-fifth year of my age : and God knows it 



* c hath not ;) but I most humbly beseech, Almighty 



c God that my death may : and 1 do as earnestly beg, 



c that if any reader shall receive any satisfaction from 



u this very plain, and as true relation, he will be so 



** charitable as to say Amen" 



Such were the Persons, whose virtues Walton was so 

 laudably employed in celebrating : and surely he has 

 done but justice in saying, that 



" These were honourable men in their genera- 

 " tions." Ecclus xliv. 7*. 



And yet so far was he from arrogating to himself any 

 merit in this his labour, that, in the instance of Dr. 

 Donne's Life 9 he compares himself to Pompey's bond- 

 man who being found on the sea-shore, gathering up 

 the scattered fragments of an old broken boat, in order 

 to burn the body of his dead master, was asked, " Who 

 <c art thou that preparest the funerals of Pompey the 

 cc Great ?" hoping, as he says, that if a like question 

 should be put to him, it would be thought to have in 

 it more of wonder than disdain. 



The above passage in scripture, assumed by Walton 

 as a motto to the collection of Lives^ may, with equal 

 propriety, be applied to most of his friends and inti- 

 mates; who were, men of such distinguished cha- 

 racters for learning and piety, and so many in num- 

 ber t, that it is matter of wonder by what means a 

 man in his station, could obtain admittance among so 



* Motto to the Collection of Lives . 



f In the number of his intimate friends we find Archbishop Usher, 

 Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Morton, Bishop King, Bishop Barlow, 

 Dr. Fuller, Dr. Price, Dr. Woodford, Dr. Featly, Dr. Holdsworth, 

 Dr. Hammond, Sir Edward Sandys, Sir Edw. Bysh, Mr. Cranmer, 

 Mr. Chillingworth, Mich. Drayton, and that celebrated scholar and 

 critic Mr. John Hales, of Eton. Hawlins. In short he was in habits 

 of friendly intercourse with those who were most celebrated for their 

 piety and learning. Nor could he be deficient in urbanity of manners, 

 or elegance of taste, who was the companion of Sir Henry Wotton, 

 the most accomplished gentleman of his age, 



