18 LIFE OF WALTON. 



of intimacy subsisted between them will appear by the following 

 account: "About the time of his printing this excellent 

 1 Preface/ [to his "Sermons" first printed in 1655], I met him 

 accidentally in London, in sad-coloured clothes, 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, which he then 

 had in his hand. We had no inclination to part presently ; and 

 therefore turned to stand in a corner, under a penthouse ; (for it 

 began to rain ;) and immediately the wind rose, and the rain 

 increased so much, that both became so inconvenient, as to force us 

 into a cleanly house ; where we had bread, cheese, ale, and a fire 

 for our money. This rain and wind were so obliging to me as to 

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

 and advantage ; for in that time he made to me many useful 

 observations, with much clearness and conscientious freedom." * 



It was not till long after that period when the faculties of man 

 begin to decline, that Walton undertook to write the " Life of 

 Sanderson : " nevertheless, far from being deficient in any of 

 those excellencies that distinguish 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 

 concluding paragraph thereof, pointed out to me by an eminent 

 writer, 2 and here given, serve as a specimen. 



" Thus, this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence 

 changed this for a better life : 'tis now too late to wish that 

 mine may be like his ; (for I am in the eighty-fifth year of my 

 age : and God knows it hath not ;) but I most humbly beseech 

 Almighty God that my death may : and I do as earnestly beg, that 

 if any reader shall receive any satisfaction from 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 generations." 

 Ecclus. xliv. 7. 3 



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," he 

 compares himself to Pompey's bondman 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 art thou that preparest the funerals of Pompey 

 the 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. 



1 "Life of Sanderson." 

 2 Dr. Samuel Johnson. 3 Motto to the "Collection of Lives." 



