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
room in which Sir Robert and he, and some other friends, had dined
together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour, and
as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such an ecstacy, and
so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him;
insomuch that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had
befallen him in the short time of his absence. To which Mr. Donne was
not able to make a present answer: but, after a long and perplexed
pause, did at last say, "I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw
you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with
her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms;
this I have seen since I saw you." To which Sir Robert replied,
"Sure, sir, you have slept since I saw you; and this is the result of
some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now
awake." To which Mr. Donne's reply was, "I cannot be surer that I now
live than that I have not slept since I saw you: and I am as sure that
at her second appearing she stopped, and looked me in the face, and
vanished . . . " And upon examination, the abortion proved to be the
same day, and about the very hour, that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her
pass by him in his chamber.

' . . . And though it is most certain that two lutes, being both
strung and tuned to an equal pitch, and then one played upon, the
other, that is not touched, being laid upon a table at a fit distance,
will (like an echo to a trumpet) warble a faint audible harmony in
answer to the same tune; yet many will not believe there is any such
thing as a sympathy of souls, and I am well pleased that every reader
do enjoy his own opinion . .