tavo, 1646, and before Cartwright's Plays and Poems, octavo, 1651. He wrote also the following Lines under an engraving of Dr. Donne, before his Poems, published in 1635.

"This was, time

- for youth, strength, mirth, and wit, — that

Most count their golden age; but was not thine:
Thine was thy later years; so much refined
From youth's dross, mirth, and wit, as thy pure mind
Thought (like the angels) nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator, in those last, best days.

Witness this book (thy emblem), which begins
With love; but ends with sighs and tears for sins."

A few moments before his death, our author made his will, which appears, by the peculiarity of many expressions contained in it, as well as by the hand, to be of his own writing. As there is something characteristic in this last solemn act of his life, it has been thought proper to insert an authentic copy thereof in this account of him; postponing it, only to the following reflections on his life and character.

66

Upon a retrospect of the foregoing particulars, and a view of some others mentioned in a subsequent letter and in his Will, it will appear that Walton possessed that essential ingredient in human felicity, mens sana in corpore sano"; for in his eighty-third year he professes a resolution to begin a pilgrimage of more than a hundred miles into a country the most difficult and hazardous that can be conceived for an aged man to travel in, to visit his

friend Cotton,* and doubtless to enjoy his favorite diversion of angling in the delightful streams of the Dove; and on the ninetieth anniversary of his birthday, he, by his Will, declares himself to be of perfect memory.

To this journey he seems to have been invited by Mr. Cotton, in the following beautiful Stanzas, printed with other of his Poems in 1689, 8vo. and addressed to his dear and most worthy friend, Mr. Isaac Walton:

"Whilst in this cold and blustering clime,

Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar,
We pass away the roughest time

Has been of many years

before;

Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks
The chillest blasts our peace invade,
And by great rains our smallest brooks
Are almost navigable made;

Whilst all the ills are so improved,
Of this dead quarter of the year,

That even you, so much beloved,

We would not now wish with us here:

In this estate, I say, it is

Some comfort to us to suppose,

That in a better clime than this

You, our dear friend, have more repose;

And some delight to me the while,
Though nature now does weep in rain,

To think that I have seen her smile,
And haply may I do again.

As to his worldly circumstances, - - notwithstanding the adverse accident of his being obliged, by the troubles of the times, to quit London and his occupation, they appear to have been commensurate, as well to the wishes as the wants of any but a covetous and intemperate man; and in his relations

If the all-ruling Power please
We live to see another May,
We'll recompense an age of these
Foul days in one fine fishing day.

We then shall have a day or two,
Perhaps a week, wherein to try
What the best master's hand can do
With the most deadly killing fly :

A day with not too bright a beam,
A warm, but not a scorching sun,
A southern gale to curl the stream,
And, master, half our work is done.

There, whilst behind some bush we wait
The scaly people to betray,-
We'll prove it just, with treacherous bait
To make the preying Trout our prey.

And think ourselves, in such an hour,
Happier than those, though not so high,

Who, like Leviathans, devour

Of meaner men the smaller fry.

This, my best friend, at my poor home
Shall be our pastime and our theme;
But then, should you not deign to come,
You make all this a flattering dream.

and connexions, such a concurrence of circumstances is visible, as it would be almost presumption to pray for.

For, not to mention the patronage of those many prelates and dignitaries of the church, men of piety and learning, with whom he lived in a close intimacy and friendship; or the many ingenious and worthy persons with whom he corresponded and conversed; or the esteem and respect, testified by printed letters and eulogiums, which his writings had procured him, to be matched with a woman of an exalted understanding and a mild and humble temper; to have children of good inclinations and sweet and amiable dispositions, and to see them well settled; is not the lot of every man that, preferring a social to a solitary life, chooses to become the head of a family.

But blessings like these are comparatively light, when weighed against those of a mind stored, like his, with a great variety of useful knowledge, and a temper that could harbour no malevolent thought or insidious design, nor stoop to the arts of fraud or flattery, but dispose him to love and virtuous friendship, to the enjoyments of innocent delights and recreations, to the contemplation of the works of Nature and the ways of Providence, and to the still sublimer pleasures of rational piety.

If, possessing all these benefits and advantages, external and internal (together with a mental constitution, so happily attempered as to have been to him a perpetual fountain of cheerfulness), we can entertain a doubt that Walton was one of the hap

piest of men, we estimate them at a rate too low; and show ourselves ignorant of the nature of that felicity to which it is possible, even in this life for virtuous and good men, with the blessing of God, to arrive.

COPY OF WALTON'S WILL.

"August the ninth, one thousand six hundred eighty-three.

"IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN, I IZAAK WALTON the elder, of Winchester, being, this present day, in the ninetieth year of my age, and in perfect memory, for which praised be God; but considering how suddainly I may be deprived of both, do therefore make this my last Will and Testament as followeth: And first, I do declare my belief to be, that there is only one God, who hath made the whole world, and me, and all mankind; to whom I shall give an account of all my actions, which are not to be justified, but I hope pardoned, for the merits of my Saviour Jesus: And because the profession of Christianity does, at this time, seem to be subdivided into Papist and Protestante, I take it, at least, to be convenient to declare my belief to be, in all points of faith, as the Church of England now professeth; and this I do the rather, because of a very long and very true friendship with some of the Roman Church. And for my worldly estate (which I have neither got by falsehood or flattery, or the extreme cruelty of the