Peterborough, his diocesan; wherein his lordship thanks him for the first volume of his father's sermons, telling him, that his parishioners may pardon his silence to them for a while, since by it he hath preached to them and to their children's children, and to all our English parishes, for ever. Anthony Wood, although he describes him as a man of sense and parts, is unfavorable to his memory. He represents him as no better than "an atheistical buffoon, a banterer, and a person of over-free thoughts, yet valued by Charles the Second." With a sarcasm not unusual to him, he informs his reader, that Dr. Walter Pope "leads an epicurean and heathenish life, much like to that of Dr. Donne, the son." Bishop Kennet, in his "Register," p. 318, calling him, by mistake, Dr. John Downe, names him as the editor of "A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby Matthews, knight," with a character of the most excellent lady, Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, by the same author; to which are added several letters of his own to several persons of honor, who were contemporary with him, London, 1660, 8vo. I cannot but observe, that he neither consulted the reputation of his father, nor the public good, when he caused the "Biathanatos" to be printed. If he was determined, at all events, to disregard the injunctions of parental authority, would it not have been more expedient to have committed the manuscript to the flames, rather than to have encountered the hazard of diffusing certain novel opinions, from which no good consequences could possibly arise? For though those effects did not actually follow, which are mentioned by

an industrious foreign writer, who tells us, that on the first publication of this work, many persons laid violent hands on themselves; yet the most remote probability of danger accruing from it should have induced him entirely to have suppressed it. But to return from this digression.

The narrative of the vision in this Life of Dr. Donne hath subjected the author to some severe animadversions. Let it however be remembered, that he probably related the matter with cautious and discreet fidelity, as it was really represented to him. The account is not inserted in the earlier editions of Dr. Donne's 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 credulity 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 honor. 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 Hon

orable 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, Prince 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 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 Wal

ton;

"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."

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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.