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Ixx BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



^'^^•.le spent in impertinent, critical, and heedless disputes 

 ^i'bout religion, and I humbly wish it may do so. 

 / " And here I have also this truth to say of the author, 

 that he was in his time a man generally known, and as 

 w^ell-behaved ; for he was humble and obliging in his be- 

 havior, a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent and prudent; 

 and, indeed, his whole life was useful, quiet, and virtuous. 

 God send this story may meet with, or make, all readers 

 like him. May 7, 1678. I. W." 



This character corresponds to that given of John Chalk- 

 hill on the monument referred to : " Vir, quoad vixit, Soli- 

 tudine et Silentio, Temperantia et Castitate, Orationibus et 

 Elezmosynis, Contemplatione et Sanctimonia Ascetis vel 

 primitivis par, qui a Parvulo in Regnum Ccelorum Viam 

 fecit.'" The only difficulty arises from the date of Wal- 

 ton's preface, which is the year before the death of Chalk- 

 hill as given by the inscription ; but the preface may have 

 been altered without changing the date ; or, as Chalkhill 

 died at eighty, he may have been so infirm as to warrant 

 Walton in speaking of his known life as past. The Com- 

 mendatory Verses to Walton, on the publication of the 

 poem, which the Reader will find in Zouch's Life, fully 

 bear out this impression. 



There have also been attributed to our author two let- 

 ters published in 1679 and 1680, under the title, " Love 

 and Truth, in two modest and peaceable letters, concern- 

 ing the distempers of the present times : written from a 

 quiet and comfortable citizen of London to the busy 

 and factious shop-keepers in Coventry," A note, in 

 Archbishop Sandcroft's hand-writing, on an extant copy 

 of the tract, directly ascribes it to Walton ; and Dr. 

 Zouch is confident, from the internal evidence of the style 

 and sentiments, that it came from our author's pen. But 

 the initials to the poem are R. W. not L W., and we 

 had far rather believe, with Sir Harris Nicholas, that " the 



