Walton and Bunyan were men who should have known each other. It is
a pleasant fancy, to me, that they may have met on the banks of
Ouse, while John was meditating a sermon, and Izaak was "attentive
of his trembling quill."


Sir,--Being now come into the Land of Beulah; here, whence I cannot
so much as see Doubting Castle; here, where I am solaced with the
sound of voices from the City,--my mind, that is now more at peace
about mine own salvation, misgives me sore about thine. Thou wilt
remember me, perchance, for him that met thee by a stream of the
Delectable Mountains, and took thee to be a man fleeing from the
City of Destruction. For, beholding thee from afar, methought that
thou didst carry a burden on thy back, even as myself before my
deliverance did bear the burden of my sins and fears. Yet when I
drew near I perceived that it was but a fisherman's basket on thy
back, and that thou didst rather seek to add to the weight of thy
burden than to lighten it or fling it away. But, when we fell into
discourse, I marvelled much how thou camest so far upon the way,
even among the sheep and the shepherds of that country. For I
found that thou hadst little experience in conflict with Apollyon,
and that thou hadst never passed through the Slough of Despond nor
wandered in the Valley of the Shadow. Nay, thou hadst never so
much as been distressed in thy mind with great fear, nor hadst thou
fled from thy wife and children, to save, if it might be, thy soul
for thyself, as I have done. Nay, rather thou didst parley with
the shepherds as one that loved their life; and I remember, even
now, that sweet carnal song