Life. Hence we may presume, that the strictest and most severe inquiry was made before its introduction. Plutarch is not esteemed a credulous writer; yet he has given a full and circumstantial history of the appearances that presented themselves to Dion and to Brutus. And in modern times Dr. Doddridge, a most sedulous examiner of facts, and of all men the least liable to credu lity and weakness of understanding, published a relation of an extraordinary vision. Let it be remarked that, according to the opinion of a medical writer of great eminence, a discriminating symptom of human insanity is "the rising up in the mind of images not distinguishable by the patient from impressions upon the senses." To a momentary delusion, originating from some bodily disorder, we may safely attribute the visions or false perceptions, of which many authentic descriptions have been transmitted to us; and we may easily suppose that Dr. Donne, separated from his beloved wife and family, whom he had left in a very distressful situation, must have suffered the most poignant anxiety of mind, and of course much indisposition of body.

When the first years of man have been devoted to “ the diligence of trades and noiseful gain," we have no reason to hope that his mind will be replenished by study, or enriched with literature. In the lucrative, as well as in the political life, men are tempted to assume some of those habits or dispositions, which are not entirely consistent with the principles of justice or honour. An eagerness to amass wealth, not seldom extinguishes every other affection. But it was not thus with Izaak Walton. Firm and uncorrupted in his integrity, he no sooner bade farewell to his commercial concerns, than he gave the most convincing proofs of his attention to the most laudable pursuits. He had already written the Life of one friend. He now undertook to exhibit a testimony of respect to the memory of another. In 1651, he was the editor of "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, or a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems, with Characters of sundry Personages, and other incomparable Pieces of Language and Art, by the curious pencil of the ever-memorable Sir Henry Wotton, Knt., late Provost of Eaton College." This collection is dedicated "to Lady Mary Wotton, relict of the last Lord Wotton, and to her three noble daughters." These ladies communicated to him

many original letters, written by their illustrious relation. After the Dedication follows "The Life of Sir Henry Wotton." In the succeeding editions, the volume is inscribed to the Right Honourable Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Stanhope of Shelford, and great nephew to Sir Henry Wotton. This nobleman, accompanying his mother, the Lady Catharine Stanhope, into Holland, where she attended the Princess of Orange, daughter to Charles the First, had his education along with William, P-ince of Orange, afterward advanced to the throne of England, and became very serviceable in promoting the restoration of the royal family. He loved the memory, and imitated the virtues of his generous uncle. By a life of strict temperance he attained to a great age. He died, January 28, 1713. It is proper to observe, that a later edition of the "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," namely, that of 1685, is enriched with Sir Henry Wotton's Letters to Lord Zouch, who was eminent among his contemporaries as an able statesman and an accomplished scholar.*

"The Church History of Great Britain," compiled by Dr. Thomas Fuller, whose writings, though far from being without blemish, are of inestimable value, was first published in 1655. A conversation, seasoned with much pleasantness and innocent jocularity, is said to have passed between the author and his

* A contemporary writer has thus delineated the characters of Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton.-"To speak it in a word, the Trojan Horse was not fuller of heroic Grecians, than King James's reign was full of men excellent in all kinds of learning. And here I desire the reader's leave to remember two of my old acquaintance: the one was Mr. John Donne, who, leaving Oxford, lived at the Inns of Court, not dissolute, but very neat; a great visitor of ladies, a great writer of conceited verses, until such time as King James, taking notice of the pregnancy of his wit, was a means that he took him to the study of divinity, and, thereupon proceeding Doctor, was made Dean of St. Paul's, and became so rare a preacher, that he was not only commended, but even admired by all that heard him. The other was Henry Wotton (mine old acquaintance also, as having been fellow pupils and chamber-fellows in Oxford divers years together.) This gentleman was employed by King James in embassage to Venice: and indeed the kingdom afforded not a fitter man for matching the capaciousness of the Italian wits; a man of so able dexterity with his pen, that he hath done himself much wrong, and the kingdom more, in leaving no more of nis writings behind him."-(Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle of the Kings of England, London, 1684.)

ever cheerful and friendly acquaintance, Mr. Izaak Walton, upon the general character of this work. Walton having paid him a visit, it was asked by Fuller, who knew how intimate he was with several of the bishops and ancient clergy, first, What he thought of the History himself, and then, what reception it had met with among them. Walton answered, that he thought "it should be acceptable to all tempers; because there were shades in it for the warm, and sunshine for those of a cold constitution; that with youthful readers the facetious parts would be profitable to make the serious more palatable; while some reverend old readers might fancy themselves in his History of the Church, as in a flower garden, or one full of evergreens." "And why not," said Fuller, "the Church History so decked as well as the Church itself at a most holy season, or the tabernacle of old at the Feast of Boughs?" "That was but for a season," said Walton; "in your Feast of Boughs, they may conceive, we are so overshadowed throughout, that the parson is more seen than his congregation, and this sometimes invisible to its old acquaintance, who may wander in the search, till they are lost in the labyrinth." "Oh!" says Fuller, "the very children of our Israel may find their way out of this wilderness." "True," returned Walton, " as indeed they have here such a Moses to conduct them."

His next work was "The Life of Mr. Richard Hooker," which first appeared in 1662. It was composed at the earnest request of Dr. Sheldon, then Bishop of London; and with the express purpose of correcting some errors committed by Dr. Gauden, from mere inadvertency and haste, in his account of "that immortal man," as he has been emphatically styled, "who spoke no language but that of truth dictated by conscience." Gauden seems to have been extremely deficient in his information, and, dying soon afterward, had no opportunity of revising and amending his very imperfect and inaccurate memoir. This was followed by "The Life of Mr. George Herbert," usually called “the Divine Herbert," in 1670. In 1678, he concluded his biographical labours with "The Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson." Previous to the publication of this last work he received the following interesting letter from Dr. Thomas Barlow, then Bishop of Lincoln, who had been for many years the intimate friend of Dr. Sanderson du

ring his residence at Oxford, and after his retirement into the country.

"MY WORTHY friend, Mr. WALTON,

"I am heartily glad, that you have undertaken to write the Life of that excellent person, and, both for learning and piety, eminent prelate, Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln; because I know your ability to know, and integrity to write truth. And sure I am, that the life and actions of that pious and learned prelate will afford you matter enough for his commendation, and the imitation of posterity. In order to the carrying on your intended good work, you desire my assistance, that I would communicate to you such particular passages of his life, as were certainly known to me. I confess I had the happiness to be particularly known to him for about the space of twenty years; and, in Oxon, to enjoy his conversation, and his learned and pious instructions while he was Regius Professor of Divinity there. Afterwards, when (in the time of our late unhappy confusions) he left Oxon, and was retired into the country, I had the benefit of his letters; wherein, with great candour and kindness, he answered those doubts I proposed, and gave me that satisfaction, which I neither had, nor expected from some others of greater confidence, but less judgment and humility. Having in a letter named two or three books, writ ('ex professo') against the being of any original sin; and that Adam, by his fall, transmitted some calamity only, but no crime to his posterity; the good old man was exceedingly troubled, and bewailed the misery of those licentious times, and seemed to wonder (save that the times were such) that any should write, or be permitted to publish any error so contradictory to truth and the doctrine of the church of England, established (as he truly said) by clear evidence of Scripture, and the just and supreme power of this nation, both sacred and civil. I name not the books nor their authors, which are not unknown to learned men (and I wish they had never been known), because both the doctrine and the unadvised abettors of it are, and shall be, to me apocryphal.*

* The writer principally alluded to in this part of the Letter, was the excelZent Dr. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Conner.

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"Another little story I must not pass in silence, being an argu. ment of Dr. Sanderson's piety, great ability, and judgment as a casuist. Discoursing with an honourable person* (whose piety I value more than his nobility and learning, though both be great,) about a case of conscience concerning oaths and vows, their nature and obligation; in which, for some particular reasons, he then desired more fully to be informed; I commended to him Dr. Sanderson's book, De Juramento;' which having read with great satisfaction, he asked me, if I thought the doctor could be induced to write Cases of Conscience, if he might have an honorary pension allowed him, to furnish him with books for that purpose.' I told him I believed he would;' and, in a letter to the Doctor, told him what great satisfaction that honourable person, and many more, had reaped by reading his book, 'De Juramento;' and asked him, 'whether he would be pleased, for the benefit of the church, to write some tract of Cases of Conscience.' He replied, that he was glad that any had received benefit by his books;' and added further, that if any future tract of his could bring such benefit to any, as we seemed to say his former had done, he would willingly, though without any pension, set about that work.' Having received this answer, that honourable person before mentioned, did, by my hands, return fifty pounds to the good Doctor, whose condition then (as most good men's at that time were) was but low; and he presently revised, finished, and published that excellent book, ' De Conscientiâ ;' a book little in bulk, but not so if we consider the benefit an intelligent reader may receive by it. For there are so many general propositions concerning conscience, the nature and obligation of it explained, and proved with such firm consequence and evidence of reason, that he who reads, remembers, and can with prudence pertinently apply them hic et nunc' to particular cases, may, by their light and help, rationally resolve a thousand particular doubts and scruples of conscience. Here you may see the charity of that honourable person in promoting, and the piety and industry of the good Doctor, in performing that excellent work.

"And here I shall add the judgment of that learned and pious

* Robert Boyle, Esq.