LIVES OF JOHN DONNE, HENRY WOTTON, RICH'D HOOKER, GEORGE HERBERT, &c, VOLUME TWO by IZAAK WALTON This issue of "Walton's Lives" is based upon John Major's edition of 1825, which was printed from a copy of the edition of 1675, "corrected by Walton's own pen," Major's "illustrative notes" have been preserved, with some modifications by later hands. Mr. AUSTIN DOBSON has read the text, added the marginalia, and contributed the supplementary notes. I.G. August 9, Walton's birthday, 1898. CONTENTS The Life of Mr. Richard Hooker The Life of Mr. George Herbert, Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral The Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson, Late Lord Bishop of Lincoln THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD HOOKER: THE AUTHOR OF THOSE LEARNED BOOKS OF THE LAWS OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. "Judicious Hooker, though the cost be spent On him, that hath a lasting monument In his own books; yet ought we to express If not the worth, yet our respectfulness." SIR WIL. COWPER INTRODUCTION [Sidenote: Introduction] I have been persuaded, by a friend whom I reverence, and ought to obey, to write the Life of RICHARD HOOKER, the happy Author of Five--if not more--of the eight learned books of "The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity." And though I have undertaken it, yet it hath been with some unwillingness: because I foresee that it must prove to me, and especially at this time of my age, a work of much labour to enquire, consider, research, and determine what is needful to be known concerning him. For I knew him not in his life, and must therefore not only look back to his death,--now sixty-four years past,--but almost fifty years beyond, that, even to his childhood and youth; and gather thence such observations and prognostics as may at least adorn, if not prove necessary for the completing of what I have undertaken. [Sidenote: Reasons for this Life] This trouble I foresee, and foresee also that it is impossible to escape censures; against which I will not hope my well-meaning and diligence can protect me,--for I consider the age in which I live--and shall therefore but intreat of my Reader a suspension of his censures, till I have made known unto him some reasons, which I myself would now gladly believe do make me in some measure fit for this undertaking; and if these reasons shall not acquit me from all censures, they may at least abate of their severity, and this is all I can probably hope for. My reasons follow.