Wotton, in his peaceful hours as Provost of Eton, intended to write a
Life of Luther, he says that King Charles diverted him from his purpose
to attempting a History of England 'by a persuasive loving violence (to
which may be added a promise of 500 pounds a year).' He likes these
parenthetic touches, as in his description of Donne, 'always preaching to
himself, like an angel from a cloud,--_but in none_.' Again, of a
commendation of one of his heroes he says, 'it is a known truth,--though
it be in verse.'

A memory of the days when Izaak was an amorist, and shone in love
ditties, appears thus. He is speaking of Donne:--

'Love is a flattering mischief . . . a passion that carries us to
commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds remove feathers.'

'The tears of lovers, or beauty dressed in sadness, are observed to
have in them a charming sadness, and to become very often too strong
to be resisted.'

These are examples of Walton's sympathy: his power of portrait-drawing is
especially attested by his study of Donne, as the young gallant and poet,
the unhappy lover, the man of state out of place and neglected; the
heavily burdened father, the conscientious scholar, the charming yet
ascetic preacher and divine, the saint who, dying, makes himself in his
own shroud, an emblem of mortality.

As an example of Walton's style, take the famous vision of Dr. Donne in
Paris. He had left his wife expecting her confinement:--

'Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in that