Irenæus, Origen, and others, have pronounced it to be a very profitable book,' and it was appointed to be read in many of the earliest christian churches.

PAINTER I believe it is true, that Hermas was the friend of St. Paul, and is thought to have sealed his holy life by a glorious martyrdom.

ANGLER. And it is certain his book was composed in the form of a dialogue: for he declares how, when he had prayed at home, and was sat down upon the bed, an old man came to him, in the habit of a shepherd, clothed with a white cloak, having his bag upon his back, and his staff in his hand, and saluted him; and thereupon they most lovingly conversed together for the shepherd instructed him what things he was to avoid, and what good works to perform, that he might be saved.

PAINTER. And what followed?

ANGLER.-Then Hermas, from time to time, questioned the holy shepherd with a modest confidence, and asked an explanation of many sublime points of our belief, that were then to him an incomprehensible mystery, all which the accostable stranger revealed to him, speaking with authority and wisdom and so they continued to discourse, until the pastor rose up and departed.*

:

Again I will put you in mind how, in at later age of the church, holy Justyn Martyr

Originally written in Greek; but that being lost, there is only a Latin version, supposed to have been made by Rufinus in the 4th century. Editio princeps, PASTOR à Nic. Gerbellio. Lat. Argent. 1522. 4o-ED.

records a most learned and spiritual dialogue, which he held at Ephesus with one Trypho, a Jew, wherein he sets forth his own first blessed conversion to Christianity. For, having in vain sought after the knowledge of the true God in the schools of the Stoics and Peripatetics, and found them to be unsatisfying to the high desires of his soul, he gave himself up to solitude and meditation: and, in one of his retired walks on the sea-shore, meeting with an aged person of a mild and reverend aspect, he entered into a conversation with him. Then he told the stranger how fervent a zeal was kindled in his breast to come to a perfect intelligence of the nature of God, and so fell to a commendation of the study of philosophy. Whereupon the venerable Trypho endeavoured to cure him of his ignorant admiration of Plato and Pythagoras, and exhorted him to an examination of the writings of the Hebrew prophets, as being more ancient than any of those heathen philosophers; and by his admonitions and clear arguments he opened to him the joyful knowledge of the sacred mysteries of Christianity. Above all things, he persuaded him to pray that the beams of heavenly light might shine on his benighted soul; for that the truths of the Gospel must be spiritually discerned through the power of God.

PAINTER -Did Justyn continue his acquaintance with the stranger, whose calm and meek way of discoursing had persuaded him to a better judgment of divine things?

ANGLER.-After that first meeting he never

saw him again; but he was stirred with a holy desire to attain a more familiar knowledge of the prophets, and his wishes soared up on high; and at last he was convinced that he had all along wandered in darkness, and that the Holy Scriptures contained the only true philosophy.

PAINTER. All this brings to my recollection some other examples of books composed after the form of conversations: as namely, Petrarch's imaginary dialogues between himself and Augustine, where the saint endeavours to withdraw the poet from the willing thraldom of his love for Laura, and to persuade him to the study of wisdom, as alone capable to bestow true liberty and, again, the facetious Colloquia of Erasmus, so full of wit and biting satire; and the Anatomie of Abuses whip'ped and stripped,' by the precise Mr. Stubbes, proceeding from his own dogmatical whimsies.

ANGLER.-Then, forget not the three books of colloquies, on the art of shooting in great and small pieces of artillerie, written in Italian by Nicholas Tartaglia.* And again, that royal dialogue of riding the great horse, composed in the French tongue, by Monsieur Antoine Pluvinel;† and I can declare it to be a most courteous, gentle, and ingenious conversation between the young King Louis, the Duke of Bellegarde, and Monsieur Antoine himself. With what a rare

* Translated into English by Cyprian Lucas, Gent. folio, 1588. Tartaglia was a famous mathematician.-ED. A gentleman of Dauphiny in the reign of Henry IV. Par. 1640. Fol. - ED.

eloquence does he commend and teach the art of making demivoltes, cabrioes, and courbettes, with all the other graceful motions on horseback, most fit for gentlemen of quality!

PAINTER. And his book is adorned with excellent copper cuts by Crispin Pass, the ingenious engraver of those living effigies of the HEROOLOGIA.

ANGLER.-The same: but I forbear all further mention of dialogues, except a little book I lately saw at the house of an ingenious and modest friend, dwelling in Chancery-lane, in London, who is a constant lover of Mr. Walton and his art of angling, and endeared to many of his professed disciples; and hath been so exact and skilful a promoter of letters, as to be called ALDI DISCIPULUS ANGLUS, as witness the sign of the Dolphin and Anchor, engraved on the title of his imprinted books, after the fashion of Paulus Manntius. And because he has a happy fortune in the discovery of ancient books, you may find at his house a store of all kinds. It was a few days before my last departure from London, I made a visit to his house, when he conducted me into his parlour, to show me his little sanctum of rarities: and there, after some cheerful conversation on fishing, when I told him I purposed my summer travels to the Dove, he presented me with a letter writ by Mr. Cotton to his dear and 'worthy father,' Mr. Izaak Walton.

PAINTER. Not in his own hand writing? ANGLER -Aye, verily-and, such is his obliging disposition, he surprised me by a declaration that I might consider it to be wholly my own, as a free gift.

PAINTER. And I dare believe you treasured it up with your many other written epistles of noted men in your study at home.

ANGLER.-Pardon me; I have made it my companion here in my wallet; and some day I will indulge you with the reading of it, when you are worthy, and put on better thoughts of anglers. But to return to the book I told you of; it is an ancient discourse of the nature of GOD,' which the writer calls a little treatise 'of a great argument.'

PAINTER. The argument was great indeed, and I beseech you proceed to your account of it. ANGLER.-Well then, it is fit to tell you that I set the greater store by this book, because I am convinced Mr. Walton hath taken a pleasure in the perusal of it, insomuch as to make the opening chapter of his COMPLETE ANGLER after that model. It is a conversation betwixt a gentleman and a scholar, who were travelling on horseback from the north, by the same road, to the city of York; and thus it begins

• Gentleman.*- Well overtaken, Sir. 'Scholar.-You are welcome, gentleman. "Gentleman.- No great gentleman, Sir, but 6 one that wisheth well to all that mean well: 'I pray you how far do you travel this way? "Scholar-As far as York.

• Gentleman.-I should be glad if I might have your company thither.

London, Printed by Thomas Creede for Robert Dexter, dwelling in St. Paul's Church-yard, at the sign of the Brazen Serpent. 1599. 12mo.-ED.