pleased Charles Dickens. He states his utter dislike of the flatteries commonly used in funeral sermons, and of the vast expenses otherwise laid out in funeral solemnities and entertainments with very little benefit to any; which if bestowed in pious and charitable works "might redound to the the public or private benefit of many persons."

He lay ill for some three weeks before he died, longing to quit this world. It was not his desire, he said, to lead a useless life, and by filling up a place keep another out of it that might do. God and His Church service. He mentioned that till he was threescore years of age he had never spent five shillings in law, nor-upon himself-so much in wine; and he hoped he should die without an enemy. "And now," says Walton, "his thoughts seemed to be wholly of death, for which he was so prepared, that the King of Terrors could not surprise him as a thief in the night; for he had often said he was prepared and longed for it. And as this desire seemed to come from Heaven, so it left him not till his soul ascended to that region of blessed spirits, whose employments are to join in concert with his, and sing praise and glory to that God, who hath brought him and them to that place, into which sin and sorrow cannot enter. 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." He was very happily married to a wife that made his life happy "by being always content when he was cheerful; that was always cheerful when he was content; that divided her joys with him, and abated of his sorrow, by bearing a part of that burden, a wife that demonstrated her affection by a cheerful obedience to all his desires, during the whole course of his life."

Sanderson died in January 1663, leaving his wife and a family insufficiently provided for.

His portrait is at Lincoln Palace. The curious may care to be referred to a book entitled A Dialogue between Isaac Walton and Homologistes, in which the character of Bishop Sanderson is defended against the Author of the Confessional.

"A little glooming light, much like a shade."

Fairy Queen, Bk. I., C. II., St. 14.

THIS book does not pretend to give a list of all Walton's various writings; its chief object is, as before stated, to enamour those who hitherto have known but little of Walton, with his life-character and writings; and at the same time to give some fresh information and ideas to those who already know something about the subject. To the literary Waltonian I hope this chapter may not prove destitute of interest.

66

(a) AS TO THE TREATISE ENTITLED "LOVE AND

"" TRUTH

In 1675 a pamphlet known by the name of The Naked Truth rose Truth rose "like a comet" over the theological world; its full title was "The Naked Truth; or, The True State of the Primitive Church, by an Humble Moderator." "Although anonymous, its manifest ability at once attracted notice,

H

while the comparative lull in this kind of literature, which had followed upon the Restoration, may perhaps have contributed to the interest which this tractate excited."1

2

It is supposed to have been written by Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford. The chief object of the pamphlet was to suggest a scheme for including the nonconformists within the Established Church. Dr Francis Turner, Master of St John's College, Cambridge (who became successively Bishop of Rochester and Ely, dying in 1700), wrote in 1676 a reply entitled Animadversions on a Pamphlet entitled The Naked Truth, adopting the view that learning and culture were absolutely essential for the clergy. Among other writers on the subject were Bishop Burnet and Andrew Marvell, the latter advising the bishops to correct many abuses that had sprung up, and insisting that a good life is a clergyman's "best syllogism and the quaintest oratory."

"At this critical period," says Dr Zouch, "Walton expressed his solicitude for the real welfare of his country, not with a view to embarrass himself in disputation-for his nature

1 See College Histories: St John's, Cambridge.

2 Edward Stillingfleet (Bishop of Worcester) had in 1662 published The Irenicum suggesting that the form of Church Government was of little consequence; Dr Croft must have read it, and also probably Henry More's Mystery of Godliness published in 1660 and republished in 1662. It deals with Church matters in these days regarded as indifferent by many.

was totally abhorrent of controversy-but to give an ingenuous and undissembled account of his own faith and practice, as a true son of the Church of England." According to his very confident opinion Walton in 1680 published the treatise entitled Love and Truth, the full title was "Love and Truth in two Modest and Peaceable Letters, concerning the Distempers of the Present Times, written from a Quiet and Conformable Citizen of London, to two Busie and Fractious Shopkeepers in Coventry." The motto to it was, "But let none of you suffer as a busie-body in other men's matters" (1 Peter iv. 15). It is generally considered very doubtful who wrote it.

The authorship has been credited to Walton by many, merely on account of Archbishop Sancroft having in a volume called Miscellanea (Press-mark now 32-2-34, but formerly 14-2-34), in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with his own hand marked its title thus :-" Is. Walton's 2 letters conc. ye Distemps of ye Times 1680." The author, whoever he was, tries to answer the arguments put forth in the pamphlet The Naked Truth, and specially deprecates schism and resistance to the authority of the Bishops, as regards the Church ceremonies enjoined by them. "Remember," the writer says in his second letter, "you and I are but citizens, and must take much that concerns our religion and salvation upon trust." He refers