things past.' Thus he dreamed that five townsmen and poor scholars were
robbing the University chest at Oxford. He mentioned this in a letter to
his son at Oxford, and the letter, arriving just after the robbery, led
to the discovery of the culprits. Yet Walton states the causes and
nature of dreams in general with perfect sobriety and clearness. His
tales of this sort were much to Johnson's mind, as to Southey's. But
Walton cannot fairly be called 'superstitious,' granting the age in which
he lived. Visions like Dr. Donne's still excite curious comment.

To that cruel superstition of his age, witchcraft, I think there is no
allusion in Walton. Almost as uncanny, however, is his account of
Donne's preparation for death

'Several charcoal fires being first made in his large study, he
brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand, and
having put off all his clothes, had this sheet put on him, and so tied
with knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed as dead
bodies are usually fitted, to be shrouded and put into their coffin or
grave. Upon this urn he thus stood, with his eyes shut, and with so
much of the sheet turned aside as might show his lean, pale, and death-
like face, which was purposely turned towards the east, from which he
expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Jesus. In this
posture he was drawn at his just height, and, when the picture was
fully finished, he caused it to be set by his bedside, where it
continued, and became his hourly object till death.'

Thus Donne made ready to meet the common fate:--

'That body, which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, is now become a
small quantity of Christian ashes. But I shall see it reanimated.'