XXVI LIFE OF WALTON. 



SIR HENRY WOTTON was born 1568. After he had finished 

 his studies at Oxford, he resided in France, Germany, and Italy ; and 

 at his return attended the Earl of Essex. He was employed by king 

 James the First in several foreign negociations, and went ambassador 

 to Venice. Towards the end of his life, he was made (having first 

 been admitted to deacon's orders) provost of Eton College, a 

 dignity well suited to a mind like his, that had \vithdrawn itself from 

 the world for the purpose of religious contemplation. He was 

 skilled in painting, sculpture, music, architecture, medals, chemistry, 

 and languages. In the arts of negociation he had few equals ; i and 

 in the propensities and attainments of a well-bred gentleman, no su- 

 perior. To which character, it may be added, that he possessed a 

 rich vein of poetry ; which he occasionally exercised in compositions 

 of the descriptive and elegiac kind, specimens whereof occur in the 

 course of this book. There is extant, of his writing, the volume of 

 Remain* heretofore mentioned ; collected and published, as the De- 

 dication tells us, by Walton himself ; containing among other valuable 

 tracts, his Elements of Architecture:* but the author's long residence 

 abroad had in some degree corrupted his style, which, though iu 

 many particulars original and elegant, is like Sir William Temple's, 

 overcharged with Gallicisms, and other foreign modes of expression. > 

 He was a torer of angling, and such a proficient in the art, that, as 

 he once told Walton, he intended to write a discourse on it : but 

 death prevented him. His reasons for the choice of this recreation 

 were, that it was, " after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a chearer 

 of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a 

 moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness ; and begat habits 

 of peace and patience. " 



These sentiments of Sir Henry Wotton, which are given in his very 

 words, bespeak a mind habituated to reflection, and at ease in the en- 

 joyment of his faculties : but they fall short of that lovely portrait of 

 human happiness, doubtless taken from the image in his own breast, 

 which he has exhibited in the following beautiful stanzas, and which 

 I here publish without those variations from the original that in some 

 copies have greatly injured the sense, and abated the energy of them : 



How happy is he born, or taught, 



That serveth not another's will ! 

 Whose armour is his honest thought, 



And simple truth his utmost skill ; 



(1) To a person intended for a foreign embassy that came to him for 

 instruction, he gave this shrewd advice : " Ever," said he, " speak truth: 

 for if you do, yon shall never be believed, and 'twill put your adversaries 

 (who will still hunt counter) to a loss in all their disquisitions and under* 

 takings." See also his advice to Milton, concerning travel, in his Letter 

 prefixed to Milton's Comus. 



(t) This treatise of Sir Henry's is, undoubtedly, the best on the subject 

 of any in the modern languages : a few years after his death it was trans- 

 lated into Latin, and printed at the end of Vitruvius, with an euloginm on 

 the author. 



(3) As where he says, " At Augusta I took language that the princes 

 and states of the union had deferred that assembly." Kcliqu. Wotton, 

 edit. 1035. 



4) Vide Walton's Epistle Dedicatory : *, infra, cap. I. 



