Walton be appreciated by a
sketch of the man: his works must be read, and their spirit imbibed, in
order to know his worth.

OTHER WRITERS OF THE AGE.

George Wither, born in Hampshire, June 11, 1588, died May 2, 1667: he was
a voluminous and versatile writer. His chief work is _The Shepherd's
Hunting_, which, with beautiful descriptions of rural life, abounds in
those strained efforts at wit and curious conceits, which were acceptable
to the age, but which have lost their charm in a more sensible and
philosophic age. Wither was a Parliament man, and was imprisoned and
ill-treated after the Restoration. He, and most of those who follow, were
classed by Dr. Johnson as _metaphysical poets_.

Francis Quarles, 1592-1644: he was a Royalist, but belongs to the literary
school of Withers. He is best known by his collection of moral and
religious poems, called _Divine Emblems_, which were accompanied with
quaint engraved illustrations. These allegories are full of unnatural
conceits, and are many of them borrowed from an older source. He was
immensely popular as a poet in his own day, and there was truth in the
statement of Horace Walpole, that "Milton was forced to wait till the
world had done admiring Quarles."

George Herbert, 1593-1632: a man of birth and station, Herbert entered the
Church, and as the incumbent of the living at Bemerton, he illustrated in
his own piety and devotion "the beauty of holiness." Conscientious and
self-denying in his parish work, he found time to give forth those devout
breathings which in harmony of expression, fervor of piety, and simplicity
of thought, have been a goodly heritage to the Church ever since, while
they still retain some of those "poetical surprises" which mark the
literary taste of the age. His principal work is _The Temple, or, Sacred
Poems and Private Ejaculations_. The short lyrics which form the stones of
this temple are upon the rites and ceremonies of the Church and other
sacred subjects: many of them are still in great favor, and will always
be. In his portraiture of the _Good Parson_, he paints himself. He
magnifies the office, and he fulfilled all the requirements he has laid
down.

Robert Herrick, 1591-1674: like Herbert, Herrick was a clergyman, but,
unlike Herbert, he was not a holy man. He wrote Anacreontic poems, full of
wine and love, and appears to us like a reveller masking in a surplice.
Being a cavalier in sentiment, he was ejected from his vicarag