rest of his years in the practice of his social and religious duties, and to cultivate his powers by reading, conversation and reflection. A moderate independency satisfied the simple desires of this contented Christian philosopher, and he was too wise a man not to leave the turmoil of business as soon as his circumstances warranted the removal. Unlike our modern money-seekers, he preferred ease and a quiet conscience to extravagance and display, and the laborious tasks requisite to meet large demands. Immediately on leaving trade, he turned author, and he affords. one example more of the good writers who have arisen, not from the peasantry alone (which class boasts a Burns, an Elliott, a Hogg, and a Bloomfield), but from the middling classes of society, as Richardson the novelist, who was a printer; Defoe, a hosier; and even lower, Ben Jonson, a bricklayer, and Doddsley, a footman, who became a writer and publisher. We think we can perceive the effects of his business habits in the writings of Walton, in his method and accuracy, which it is becoming the fashion to impeach, his speciality, and honest dealing.

The literary character of Walton is distinguished by the same sincerity and pure feeling, that mark his personal disposition. Good sense, a reverence for the wise and good, a natural piety, and unfeigned simplicity, are the principal characteristics of the author as well as of the man. His garrulity (in some cases the effect of age, he wrote the life of Sanderson in his eighty-fifth year) is the innocent, free talk of a familiar friend; yet it must be confessed this inclination to gossip and to accept reports and traditions as true history, has led him, in some cases, to statements that have been charged with being one-sided and partial.

Beside those features of his personal character already mentioned, one occurs, and exceedingly prominent, his loyalty. This feeling grew out of his natural reverence for authority and superiors. He was also a zealous churchman for the same reason, and warmly opposed the covenant—and for this he suffered considerably in his temporal affairs, as well as in the trials to which his mild temper was subjected. A fast friend to royalty and the church, circumstances, as well as his natural bent, led him to embrace that particular side. His mother was the niece of Archbishop Cranmer, and his wife the sister of Bishop Ken, who has written some fine hymns, and whom James II. reckoned the first among the Protestant preachers of his time.

The divines of that day, with whom Walton was intimately associated, greatly influenced his mind and character, and may be said, by their works and conversation, to have formed his mind and leading opinions-Donne, Herbert, Sanderson, Fuller, Ken, King, Usher, Chillingworth, and three poets, at that period the natural defenders of monarchy and nobility, Drayton, Shirley, the dramatist, and Chalkhill.

From the multitude of eulogiums and affectionate allusions to Walton, living, and his memory after death, we have selected the following nervous lines of Flatman, a forgotten poet, who has shown genius in two or three short pieces.

Happy old man! whose worth all mankind knows,
Except himself; who charitably shows,

The ready road to virtue and to praise,

The road to many long and happy days,
The noble acts of generous piety,

And how to compass true felicity.
Hence did he learn the art of living well;
The bright Thealma was his oracle:
Inspired by her he knows no anxious cares,
Through near a century of pleasant years;
Easy he lives, and cheerful shall he die,
Well spoken of by late posterity.

How correctly the poet has prophesied, the readers and admirers of Walton at the present day may answer. The name occurs but once beside in our literature, and then in a work of fiction, the enchanting volume of Mackenzie ; and apart from the melancholy sentiment and pathetic sweetness of that character, it is a magic name, consecrated to the respect of all scholars, and the love of all good men throughout the world.

XIV.

ELIJAH FENTON.

In a former article, on Religious Biography, the very imperfect list of English biographies that rank as classic productions in that department of writing there inserted, includes the lives of Milton and Waller, by Fenton, an author so estimable as a man, and affording so agreeable an instance of one class of writers, that, although little known himself, and author of no very important efforts, we are inclined to pause at his name, and sketch his personal and literary character. Fenton was emphatically a man of letters, a title of dubious meaning, and that ought to have a settled character. In its most enlarged sense, it may convey the idea of a general scholar and miscellaneous author, as the term lawyer, in this country, includes every department in the profession, uniting the contrary pursuits of barrister, special pleader, conveyancer, and equity draughtsman, which in England are separately followed as distinct professions. Or it may be taken in the sense of D'Israeli, as that body of readers and students standing between the great body of authors and the larger body of mere readers; aiding the first as critics, or by counsel and research, or else acting the part of interpreters or commentators for the last. The very highest order of

genius are above this class, and also the first class, of men of talent. A poet almost inspired, yet comparatively unlettered, as Burns or Elliott, is not called a man of letters, since not a book-man or scholar. Yet he may be much superior to the mere scholar. Neither is the true man of letters purely a student, but also an author. He is not often a voluminous author, unless he is poor, for the delicacy of his taste will curb the facility of production, and give the last finish to his style. If obliged to live by his pen, he will write much, but miscellaneously, as Hazlitt and Hunt. It is not likely he will ever attempt a long work, for, if blessed with a competence, he will be too indolent, and, if pressed to write often, he cannot write at length. There are, then, two distinct divisions of the class. Gray and Warton, and, we may add, Fenton, were representatives of the first, and the miscellaneous authors, by profession, of the present and past age, of the last, as Goldsmith, Johnson, Cumberland, Southey, the regular reviewers and critics, and the ablest modern lecturers, Guizot, Cousin, Carlyle, etc. Fenton, though poor, was almost always attached to some great man or wealthy patron, who was glad to exchange a moderate pension for the pleasure of his society and conversation, and, at least for the latter part of his life, though his circumstances were narrow, yet he was placed above want and the importunate calls of necessity. He could write or read, as he pleased, and he cared to do little else. "He is," says

Pope,* *“a right honest man and a good scholar: he sits within and does nothing but read and compose." This is Mere amateurs of authorship, petty

the true picture.

* Spence.