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"Sublimer theory lifts your name
"Above the fisher's fimple fame,
"And in the practice you excel

"Of what none else can teach as well,
" And wield at once with equal skill
"The useful powers of either quill.
"With all that winning grace of style,.
"What else were tedious, to beguile,
"A fecond Oppian, you impart
"The fecrets of the angling art,
"Each fish's nature, and how best
"To fit the bait to every tafte,

Till in the fcholar, that you train,
"The accomplish'd master lives again.
"And yet your pen aspires above
"The maxims of the art you love;

"Tho' virtues, faintly taught by rule,
"Are better learnt in angling's fchool,
"Where Temperance, that drinks the rill,
"And Patience, fovereign over ill,
"By many an active leffon bought,
"Refine the foul, and steel the thought.
"Far higher truths you love to start,
“To train us to a nobler art,

"And in the lives of good men give
"That chiefeft leffon, how to live;.
"While Hooker, philofophic fage,
"Becomes the wonder of your page,
"Or while we fee combin'd in one
"The Wit and the Divine in Donne,
"Or while the Poet and the Prieft,
"In Herbert's fainted form confeft,
"Unfold the temple's holy maze
"That awes and yet invites our gaze:
"Worthies these of pious name
"From your pourtraying pencil claim.
"A fecond life, and strike anew
"With fond delight the admiring view.
"And thus at once the peopled brook
"Submits its captives to your hook,

"And

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And we, the wifer fons of men,
"Yield to the magic of your pen,
"While angling on fome ftreamlet's brink
"The mufe and you combine to think."

In this volume of "The Complete Angler," which will be always read with avidity, even by those who entertain no strong relish for the art which it professes to teach, we discover a copious vein of innocent pleafantry and good humour. The fcenes defcriptive of rural life are inimitably beautiful. How artlefs and unadorned is the language! The dialogue is diverfified with all the characteristic beauties of colloquial compofition. The fongs and little poems, which are occafionally inferted, will abundantly gratify the reader, who has a taste for the charms of paftoral poefy. And, above all, those lovely leffons of religious and moral inftruction, which are fo repeatedly inculcated throughout the whole work, will ever recommend this exquifitely pleafing performance. It was first printed in 1653, with the figures of the fishes very elegantly engraved, probably by Lombart, on plates of steel; and was fo generally read as to pass through five editions during the life of the author. The fecond edition is dated in 1655, the third in 1661; and in 1668, the fourth appeared with many valuable additions, and improvements. The lovers of angling, to whom this treatise is familiar, are apprised, that the art of fishing with the fly is not difcuffed with fufficient accuracy; the few directions that are given, having been principally

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I venture to quote the following beautiful paffage. "Content will never dwell but in a meek and quiet foul. And this may appear, if we read and confider what our Saviour fays in St. Matthew's Gofpel: For there he fays, Bleffed are the merciful, for they fhall obtain mercy: Bleffed be the pure in heart, for they fhall fee God: Bleffed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God: And bleffed be the meek, for they fhall poffefs the earth.' Not that the meek fhall not alfo obtain mercy, and fee God, and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom of heaven; but in the mean time he, and he only, poffeffes the earth as he goes towards that kingdom of heaven, by being humble, and cheerful, and content with what his good God has allotted him. He has no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that he deferves better; nor is vext, when he fees others poffeft of more honour, or more riches than his wife God has allotted for his fhare: But he poffeffes what he has with a meek and contented quietnefs, fuch a quietnefs as makes his very dreams pleafing both to God and himself." (Complete Angler, P. I. Ch. xxi,)

cipally communicated by Mr. Thomas Barker, who has written a very entertaining tract on the fubject. To remedy this defect, and to give leffons how to angle for a trout or grayling in a clear stream, a fifth and much improved edition was published in 1676, with a fecond part by Charles Cotton", of Beresford, in Staffordshire, Efq. This gentleman, who is represented as the most laborious trout-catcher, if not the most experienced angler for trout and grayling that England ever had, to testify his regard. for Mr. Walton, had caused the words PISCATORIBUS SACRUM, with a cypher underneath, comprehending the initial letters of both their names, to be inscribed on the front of his fishing-house. This little building was fituated near the banks of the river Dove, which divides the two counties of Stafford and Derby. Here Mr. Walton usually spent his vernal months, carrying with him the best and choiceft of all earthly bleffings, a contemplative mind, a cheerful difpofition, an active and an healthful body. So beauteous did the scenery of this delightful spot appear to him, that, to use his own words, "the pleafantnefs of the river, mountains, and meadows about it, cannot be defcribed, unless Sir Philip Sidney, or Mr. Cotton's father were again alive to do it."

In the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the violence of faction burst forth with renovated fury. The discontents of the Nonconformists were daily increasing; while Popery affumed fresh hopes of re-establishing itself by

Dr. Plot, in "The Natural Hiftory of Staffordshire," p. 48, ftyles Charles Cotton, of Beresford, Efq. "his worthy, learned, and most ingenious friend." Beresford lies in the county of Stafford, on the banks of the river Dove; and not far from Dovedale; of the beauties of which, fee " Aikin's Defcription of the Country round Manchester," p. 501.

"Oh my beloved nymph, fair Dove!
"Princess of rivers! how I love

"Upon thy flow'ry banks to lie,

"And view thy filver stream

"When gilded by a fummer's beam!

"And in it all thy wanton fry

Playing at liberty:

"And, with my angle upon them,

"The all of treachery

"Lever learnt industriously to try,"

(The Retirement, by Mr. Cotton, St. vi.)

by fomenting and encouraging the divifions, that unhappily fubfifted among Proteftants. A tract, entitled "The Naked Truth, or the True State of the Church," was published in 1675, and attributed to Dr. Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford. Eager to accomplish an union of the Diffenters with the Church of England, and to include them within its pale, this prelate hesitated not to fuggeft the expediency of proposing several conceffions to them, with respect to the rites and ceremonies then in ufe, and even to comply with their unreasonable demand of abolishing Epifcopacy. It may be easily presumed, that these proposals met with no very favourable reception: They were animadverted upon with much spirit and ability, in various publications. In the mean time, animofities prevailed without any profpect of their termination. From fanaticifm on one fide, and from fuperftition on the other, real danger was apprehended. Thofe, who exerted themselves in maintaining the legal rights and liberties of the established Church, were denominated 'Whigs.' Moft of them were perfons eminent for their learning, and very cordially attached to the established Conftitution: Others, who opposed the Diffenters, and were thought to be more in fear of a republic than a Popish fucceffor, were diftinguished by the name of 'Tories.' At this critical period, Ifaac Walton expreffed his folicitude for the real welfare of his country, not with a view to embarrass himself in disputation,— for his nature was totally abhorrent from controverfy,—but to give an ingenuous and undiffembled account of his own faith and practice, as a true fon of the Church of England. His modesty precluded him from annexing his name to the treatise, which he composed at this time; and which appeared, first, in 1680, under the title of "Love and Truth, in two modest and peaceable

1. "Animadverfions on a pam

f Three celebrated tracts on this fubject were anonymous. phlet, entitled 'The Naked Truth,' London, 1676." This was written by Dr. Francis Turner, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge; and afterward fucceffively Bishop of Rochester and Ely. 2. "Lex Talionis, or the Author of The Naked Truth stripped naked, 1676." This work is attributed to Mr. Philip Fell, one of the fellows of Eton College. 3. "A Modest Survey of the moft Confiderable Things, in a Difcourfe lately published, entitled 'Naked Truth.' In a Letter to a Friend, 1676." Dr. Burnet owned himself to be the author of this. laft tract.

8 The author, in the choice of the title affixed to his tract, might allude to Ephef. iv. 15. "Speaking the Truth in Love."

peaceable Letters, concerning the Distempers of the prefent Times; written from a quiet and conformable Citizen of London, to two bufie and factious Shopkeepers in Coventry, But let none of you fuffer as a bufie-body in other Men's Matters", 1 Pet. iv. 15. 1680." The ftyle, the fentiment, the argumentation, are fuch as might be expected from a plain man, actuated only by an honeft zeal to promote the public peace. And if we confider that it was written by him in the 87th year of his age, a period of life when the faculties of the mind are usually on the decline, it will be fcarce poffible not to admire the clearness of his judgment, and the unimpaired vigour of his memory. The real purport of this work, which is not altogether unapplicable to more recent times, and which breathes the genuine fpirit of benevolence and candour, is happily expreffed in the author's own words to the perfon, whom he addreffes in the second letter.

you.

"This I beseech you to confider ferioufly: And, good coufin, let me advise you to be one of the thankful and quiet party; for it will bring peace at laft'. Let neither your difcourfe nor practice be to encourage, or affist in making a schism in that church, in which you were baptized and adopted a Chriftian; for you may continue in it with fafety to your foul; you may in it ftudy fanctification, and practise it to what degree God, by his fhall enable grace, faft as much as you will; You may be as humble as you will; pray both publicly and privately as much as you will; vifit and comfort as many diftreffed and dejected families as you will; be as liberal and charitable to the poor as you think fit and are able. These, and all other of thofe undoubted Chriftian graces, that accompany falvation, you may practise either publicly or privately, as much and as often as you think fit; and yet keep in the communion of E that

This tract is affigned to Mr. Ifaac Walton, on the beft authority, that of Archbishop Sancroft, who, in a volume of Mifcellanies-(Mifcellanea 14, 2, 34.)-in the library of Emanuel College, in Cambridge, has, with his own hand, marked its title thus: "If. Walton's 2 letters conc. y Diftemps of ye Times, 1680.”

i Such kind advice accorded with his ufual fentiments.

"VEN. This is my purpose, and fo let every thing that hath breath praife the Lord. Let the blefling of St. Peter's Mafter be with mine.

"Pisc. And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare truft in his Providence, and be “quiet, and go an angling. Study to be quiet,'" 1 Theff. iv. 11. (Complete Angler, P. I. c. 2.)

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