cxii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683, 



Walton's belief in the tenets of the Church of England is indis- 

 putable ; and his writings overflow with allusions to a future state, 

 in which friends will meet again, purified from the drossness of 

 mortality.^ He firmly believed that they were cognisant of what 

 was passing here, and often represents them as singing hymns and 

 anthems in conjunction with the angels in heaven." To works of 

 benevolence he attributed much effect in propitiating the Almighty, 

 and all must admire the spirit of Christian charity which dictated 

 the following sentence : — 



' ' How acceptable it is to Almighty God, when we do as we are advised 

 by St Paul, ' Help to bear one another's burden,' either of sorrow or want ; 

 and what a comfort it will be when the Searcher of all hearts shall call us 

 to a strict account as well for that evil we have done, as the good we have 

 omitted, to remember w^e have comforted and been helpful to a dejected 01 

 distressed family."'' 



Great as was his esteem for the clergy of the Established Church, 

 he was not blind to their faults ; for when contrasting the conduct 

 of those of his time with that of George Herbert, he says, " I 

 profess myself amazed when I consider how few of the clergy lived 

 like him then, and how many live so unlike him now : but it 

 becomes not me to censure." '^ The following passage in his 

 Life of Hooker shows that he did not altogether approve of clergy- 

 men marrying: "The good man (Hooker) was drawn from the 

 tranquillity of his college, from that garden of piety, of pleasure, of 

 peace, and a sweet conversation, into the thorny wilderness of a 

 busy world ; into those corroding cares that attend a married priest, 

 and a country parsonage." " His perfect idea of a priest may be 

 found in his description of Bishop Sanderson ; and he was doubtless 

 fully impressed with the justice of Herbert's remark, that " the 

 virtuous life of a clergyman is the most powerful eloquence to 

 persuade all that see it to reverence and love, and at least to 

 desire to live like him." ^ He says of Sanderson, that " his looks 

 and motion manifested an endearing affability and mildness, and 

 yet he had with these a calm and so matchless a fortitude, as 

 secured him from complying with any of those many Parliamentary 

 injunctions that interfered with a doubtful conscience. His 

 learning was methodical and exact, his wisdom useful, his integrity 

 visible, and his whole life so unspotted, so like the primitive 

 Christians, that all ought to be preserved as copies for posterity to 



"^ Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, ii. 178. 3 Ibid. ii. 31, 122. 



* Life of Sanderson, ed. Zouch, ii. 185. ^ Life of Herbert, ed. Zouch, ii. 73. 



6 Ed. Zouch, i. 348. 1 Life of Herbert, ed. Zoucli, ii. 74. 



