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THE LIFE OF

MR. ISAAC WALTON.

I PRESENT not to the reader a history of a wife ftatesman, an adventurous foldier, or a profound philofopher. Yet I trust, that he will experience no fmall degree of fatisfaction from contemplating the virtues of a private citizen; who, though he arrogates not to himself the splendour of high defcent, or the pride of fuperfluous wealth, deferves our approbation and regard. Ifaac, or as he ufually wrote his name, Izaac Walton, adorned with a guileless fimplicity of manners, claims from every good man the tribute of applaufe. It was his ambition (and furely a more honourable ambition cannot be excited in the human breast) to commend to the reverence of pofterity the merits of thofe excellent perfons, whofe vastly comprehenfive learning and exalted piety will ever endear them to our

memories.

The important end of historical knowledge is a prudent application of it to ourselves, with a view to regulate and amend our own conduct. As the examples of men ftrictly and faithfully difcharging their professional duties muft obviously tend to invigorate our efforts to excel in moral worth, the virtuous characters, which are so happily delineated in the following pages, cannot fail, if confidered with serious attention, of producing the most beneficial and lasting imprefsions on the mind.

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The Life of the Author of this biographical collection was little diverfified with events. He was born of a refpectable family, on the ninth day of Auguft, 1593, in the parish of St. Mary's, in the town of Stafforda. Of his father no particular tradition is extant. From his mother he derived an hereditary attachment to the Proteftant religion, as professed in the Church of England. She was the daughter of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, fifter to Mr. George Cranmer the pupil and friend of Mr. Richard Hooker, and niece to that firft and brightest ornament of the Reformation, Dr. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. No veftiges of the place or manner of his education have been discovered; Nor have we any authentic information concerning his firft engagements

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"September 1593. Baptiz. fuit Ifaac filius Jervis Walton, XXo die menfia et anni prædict." (Register of St. Mary's, in the town of Stafford.)

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in a mercantile life. It has indeed been suggested, that he was one of thofe induftrious young men, whom the munificence of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, had placed in the shops, which were erected in the upper building of his celebrated Burfe. However this may be, he soon improved his fortune by his honefty, his frugality, and his diligence. His occupation, according to the tradition till preferved in his family, was that of a wholefale linen-draper, or Hamburgh merchant".

Walton was fettled at London before the year 1643. The writers of "The Life of Milton" have with the moft fcrupulous attention, regularly marked out the different houses successively inhabited by the poet, 66 as if it was an injury to neglect any place, that he honoured by his prefence." The various parts of London, in which Ifaac Walton resided, have been recorded with the fame precifion. It is fufficient to intimate, that he was for some years an inhabitan of St. Dunstan's in the Weft. With Dr. John Donne, then Vicar of that parish, of whofe fermons he was a conftant hearer, he contracted a friendship, which remained uninterrupted to the period of their feparation by death, This his parishioner attended him in his last sickness, and was present at the time that he configned his fermons and numerous papers to the care of Dr. Henry King, who was promoted to the See of Chichester in 1641.

He married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Ken, Efq. of Furnival's Inn; a gentleman, whole family, of an ancient extraction, was united by alliance with feveral noble houses, and had pofsefsed a very plentiful fortune for many generations, having been known by the name of the Kens of Ken-Place, in Somersetshire. She was the fifter of Thomas Ken, afterwards the deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells. If there be a name to which I have been accustomed from my earliest youth to look up with reverential awe, it is that of this amiable Prelate. The primitive innocence of his life, the fuavity of his difpofition, his tafte for poetry and mufic, his acquirements as a polite fcholar, his eloquence in the pulpit, for he was pronounced by James II. to be the first preacher among the Proteftant Divines-Thefe endearing qualities enfure to him our esteem and affection. But what principally commands our veneration is that invincible inflexibility of temper, which rendered him fuperior to every fecular confideration. When from a ftrict adherence to the dictates of confcience he found himself reduced to a private station, he dignified that station by the magnanimity of his demeanour, by a humble and ferene patience, by an ardent, but unaffected piety.

In 1643, Mr. Walton, having declined bufinefs, retired to a small eftate in Staffordshire, not far from the town of Stafford. His loyalty made him obnoxious to the ruling powers; and we are assured by himself, that he was a fufferer during the time of the civil wars.

Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton," p. xiii.The economy obferved in the construction of the shops over the Burse scarce allowed him to have elbow room. They were but feven feet and a half long, and five wiḍ..-(See Ward's Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, p. 12.)

According to Anthony Wood, he followed the trade of a fempfter. (Ath. Qx. Vol. I. col. 305. See also Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, p. xiii, xv.)

See" Walton's Life of Dr. Sanderson,”

"This," he adds, "I saw, and fuffered by it.

In 1643 the Covenanters came back into England, marching with the Covenant gloriously upon their pikes and in their hats, with this motto," FOR THE CROWN AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS." But when I look back upon the ruine of families, the bloodshed, the decay of common honesty, and how the former piety and plain dealing of this now finful nation is turned into cruelty and cunning; when I confider this, I praife God, that he prevented me from being of that party which helped to bring in this Covenant, and thofe fad confufions that have followed it." He perfevered in the most inviolable attachment to the royal caufe. In many of his writings he pathetically laments the afflictions of his Sovereign, and the wretched condition of his beloved country involved in all the miseries of inteftine difsentions. The incident of his being inftrumental in preferving the lefser George, which belonged to Charles II. is related in "Afhmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter."

We may now apply to him what has been faid of Mr. Cowley; "fome few friends, a book, a cheerful heart, and innocent conscience were his companions." In this fcene of rural privacy he was not unfrequently indulged with the company of learned and good men. Here, as in a lafe and peaceful afylum, they met with the most cordial and grateful reception. And we are informed by the Oxford Antiquary, that, whenever he went from home, he reforted principally to the houfes of the eminent clergymen of the Church of England, of whom he was much beloved. To a man defirous of dilating his intellectual improvements, no conversation could be more agreeable, than that of thofe Divines, who were known to have diftinguifhed him with their perfonal regard.

The Roman Poet, of whom it has been remarked that he made the happiest union of the courtier and the fcholar, was of plebeian origin. Yet fuch was the attraction of his manners and deportment, that he clafsed among his friends the first and most illuftrious of his contemporaries, Plotius and Varus, Pollio and Fufcus, the Vifci and the Mefsalæ. Nor was Ifaac Walton lefs fortunate in his focial connexions. The times in which he lived were times of gloomy fufpicion, of danger and diftrefs, when a fevere fcrutiny into the public and private behaviour of men established a rigid difcrimination of character. He must therefore be allowed to have pofsefsed a peculiar excellency of difpofition, who conciliated to himfelf an habitual intimacy with Ufher the Apoftolical Primate of Ireland, with Archbishop Sheldon, with Morton, Bishop of Durham, Pearfon of Chefter, and Sanderson of Lincoln, with the ever memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton, and the judicious Mr. Chilling

e The account is also preserved, by tradition, in the family. "Col. Blague remained at Mr. Barlow's houfe at Blore-Pipe, in Staffordshire, where, with Mr. Bar low's privity and advice, he hid his Majesty's George under a heap of duft and chips, whence it was conveyed through the trufty hands of Mr. Robert Milward of Stafford, to Mr. Ifaac Walton, who conveyed it to London, to Col. Blague, then in the Tower; whence efcaping not long after, he carried it with him beyond feas, and restored it to his Majefty's own hands." (Plot's Hist. of Staffordshire, Ch. V111. Sect. 77. See also Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, p. 228.)

worth; in fhort, with those who were most celebrated for their piety and learning. Nor could he be deficient in urbanity of manners or elegance of tafte, who was the companion of Sir Henry Wotton, the most accomplished gentleman of his age. The fingular circumfpection which he obferved in the choice of his acquaintance, has not escaped the notice of Mr. Cotton. "My Father Walton," fays he, "will be feen twice in no man's company he does not like; and likes none but fuch as he believes to be very honeft men; which is one of the best arguments, or at least of the beft teftimonies I have, that I either am, or that he thinks me one of thofe, feeing I have not yet found him weary of me."

Before his retirement into the country, he published "The Life of Dr. Donne." It was originally appended to "LXXX Sermons, preached by that learned and reverend Divine, John Donne, Dr. in Divinity, late Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, London, 1640." He had been folicited by Sir Henry Wotton, to fupply him with materials for writing that Life. Sir Henry dying in 1639, before he had made any progrefs in the work, Ifaac Walton engaged in it. This, his firft essay in biography, was by more accurate revifals corrected, and confiderably enlarged in fubfequent editions. Donne has been principally commended as a poet;Walton, who, as it has been already remarked, was a conftant hearer of his fermons, makes him known to us as a preacher, eloquent, animated, affecting. His poems, like the sky bespangled

My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money, the late Prowoft of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have often fished and converfed; a man whom foreign employments in the fervice of this nation, and whofe experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be efteemed one of the delights of mankind."-(Complete Angler, P. I. Ch. I.)

In Sir Henry Wotton's verfes, written by him as he fate fishing on the bank of a river, he probably alludes to Walton himself, who often accompanied him in his innocent amufement:

"There ftood my friend with patient skill,
Attending of his trembling quill."

That this amiable and excellent perfon fet a high value on the converfation of his humble friend appears from the following letter:

MY WORTHY FRIEND,

"Since I last faw you, I have been confined to my chamber by a quotidian "feaver, I thank God of more contumacy than malignity. It had once leit me, as I thought, but it was only to fetch more company, returning with a furcrew of "thofe fplenetick vapours, that are called. Hypocondriacal; of which most say the cure is good company, and I defire no better phyfician than yourself. I have "in one of the fe fits endeavoured to make it more eafte by compofing a short hymn and fince I have apparelled my best thoughts fo lightly as in verfe, I hope I fhall be pardoned a fecond vanity, if I communicated it with fuch a "friend as yourself; to whom I with a cheerful fpirit, and a thankful heart to "value it, as one of the greatest blessings of our good God; in whose dear love Į leave you, remaining

"Your poor friend to ferve you,

"H. WOTTON."

Reliquie Wattoniana, p. 361. 4th edit. See the Hymn mentioned in this Letter in Walton's Life of Dr. Donne.)

Complete Angler, P. II. Ch. I.

with fmall ftars, are occafionally interfperfed with the ornaments of fine imagery. They must however be pronounced generally devoid of harmony of numbers, or beauty of verfification. Involved in the language of metaphyfical obfcurity, they cannot be read but with faftidioufnels: They abound in falfe thoughts, affected phrafes, and unnatural conceíts. His fermons, though not withi out that pedantry which debases the writings of almost all the Divines of thofe times, are often written with energy, elegance, and copiousness of style. Yet it must be confefsed, that all the wit and eloquence of the author have been unable to fecure them from neglect.

An inftance of filial gratitude and affection occurs in a letter from Mr. John Donne, junior, to Mr. Ifaac Walton, thanking him for writing his father the Dean's Life.

"SIR,

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"I fend this book rather to witnefs my debt, than to make " payment. For it would be incivil in me to offer any fatisfaction "for that that all my father's friends, and indeed all good men, are "fo equally engaged. Courtefies that are done to the dead being examples of fo much piety, that they cannot have their reward "in this life, because lafting as long, and ftill (by awaking the like "charity in others) propagating the debt they must expect a retrie "bution from him, who gave the first inclination.

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"2. And by this circle, Sir, I have fet you in my place, and in"ftead of making you a payment, I have made you a debtor; but "'tis to Almighty God, to whom I know you will be fo willingly "committed, that I may fafely take leave to write myself,

From my houfe in Covent-Garden,}

24°. June,

"Your thankful fervant,

JO. DONNE."

h Dr. DONNE affects the metaphyfics, not only in his fatires, but in his amo. rous verfes, where nature only fhould reign, and perplexes the minds of the fair fex with nice fpeculations of philofophy, when he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the foftnefes of love. In this, if I may be pardoned for fo bold a truth, Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault, fo great a one in my opinion that it throws his "Miftrefs" infinitely below his Pindariques and his latter compofitions, which are undoubtedly the best of his poems, and the most correct. -(Mr. Dryden's Dedication prefixed to the Tranflation of Juvenal and Persius,)

i Mr. Pope has clafsed the English Poets by their school. First, School of Provence. Second, School of Chaucer. Third, School of Petrarch. Fourth, School of Dante. Fifth, School of Spenfer. Sixth, School of Danne. In the latter School he has very injudiciously placed Michael Drayton, who wrote before Donne, and not in the least in his manner. Dr. Donne's (poetical) writings are "like a voluntary or prelude, in which a man is not tied to any particular defign "of air, but may change his key or mood at pleasure; fo his compofitions seein "to have been written without any particular scope." (Butler's Remains, Vol. 11. 2.498.)

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