66 26 "Elsay your art's fupreme addrefs, By many an active lesson bought, "And thus at once the peopled brook "While angling on fome ftreamlet's brink In this volume of "The Complete Angler," which will be always read with avidity, even by those who entertain no ftrong 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 artless 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 tafte for the charms of pastoral poefy. And, above all, thofe lovely lefsons of religious and moral inftruction, which are fo repeatedly inculcated throughout the whole work, will ever recommend this exquifitely pleafing performance. It was firft printed in 1653, with the figures of the fifhes very elegantly engraved, probably by Lombart, on plates of fteel; and was fo generally read as to pafs 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 additious, and improvements. The lovers of angling, to whom this treatife is familiar, are apprised, that the art of fishing with the fly is not difcufsed with fufficient accuracy; the few directions that are given, having been principally communicated by Mr. Thomas Barker, who has written a very entertaining tract on the fubject. To remedy this defect, and to give lessons how to angle for a trout or grayling in a clear ftream, a fifth and much improved edition was published in 1676, with a fecond part by Charles Cotton, of Beresford, in Staffordshire, Efq. This gentle. cl venture to quote the following beautiful passage. "Content will never "dwell but in a meek and quiet foul. And this may appear, if we read and con"fider what our Saviour fays in St. Matthew's Gofpel: For there he fays, 'Blefsed "are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy: Blefsed be the pure in heart, "for they fhall fee God: Blessed be the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom "of God: And blefsed be the meek, for they shall pofsefs the earth. Not that "the meek shall not alfo obtain mercy, and fee God, and be comforted, and at "laft come to the kingdom of heaven; but in the mean time he, and he only, "pofselses the earth as he goes towards that kingdom of heaven, by being hum"ble, 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 pofselt of more honour, or more riches than his wife "God has allotted for his fhare: But he possesses what he has with a meek and "Contented quietness, such a quietness as makes his very dreams pleafing both to “God and himself." (Complete Angler, P. I. Ch. xxi.) ·· ་་ Dr. Plot, in "The Natural History of Staffordshire," p. 48, ftyles Charles Cotton, of Beresford, Efq. "his worthy, learned, and moft 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. man, who is reprefented as the most laborious trout catcher, if not the most experienced angler for trout and grayling that England ever had, to teftify 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 ufually spent his vernal months, carrying with him the beft and choiceft of all earthly blessings, a contemplative mind, a cheerful difpofition, an active and an healthful body. So beauteous did the fcenery of this delightful spot appear to him, that, to use his own words, "the plea"fantnefs of the river, mountains, and meadows about it, cannot "be described, 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 difcontents of the Nonconformifts were daily increafing; while Popery assumed fresh hopes of re-establishing itfelf 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, Bifhop of Hereford. Eager to accomplish an union of the Dissenters with the Church of England, and to include them within its pale, this Prelate hefitated not to fuggeft the expediency of propofing several concefsions to them, with refpect to the rites and ceremonies then in ufe, and even to comply with their unreasonable demand of abolishing Episcopacy. It may be eafily prefumed, that these propofals met with no very favourable reception: They were animadverted upon with much fpirit and ability, in various publications. In the mean time, animofities prevailed without any prof pect of their termination. From fanaticifm on one fide, and from fuperftition on the other, real danger was apprehended. Thofe, who e "Oh my beloved nymph, fair Dove! "Upon thy flow'ry banks to lie, "And view thy filver ftream "When gilded by a fummer's beam! And, with my angle upon them, "I ever learnt industriously to try." (The Retirement, by Mr. Cotton, St. vi.} f Three celebrated tracts on this fubje&t were anonymous. 1. "Animadverfions on a pamphlet, entitled The Naked Truth,' London, 1676." This was written by Dr. Francis Turner, Mafter of St. John's College, Cambridge; and afterwards fuccefsively Bishop of Rochester and Ely. 2. "Lex Talionis, or the Author of The Naked Truth ftripped naked, 1676." This work is attributed to Mr. Philip Fell, one of the Fellows of Eton College. 3. "A Modeft 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. 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 oppofed the Dissenters, and were thought to be more in fear of a republic than a Popish fuccefsor, were diftinguished by the name of Tories.' At this critical period, Ifaac Walton exprefsed 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 controversy,— but to give an ingenuous and undifsembled 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 treatife, which he compofed at this time; and which appeared, firft, in 1680, under the title of "Love and Truth, in two modeft and 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 ufually on the decline, it will be scarce possible 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 expressed in the author's own words to the perfon, whom he addresses in the fecond letter. "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 lafti. Let neither your difcourfe nor prac"tice be to encourage, or afsift in making a fchifm in that church, "in which you were baptized and adopted a Christian; for you "may continue in it with fafety to your foul; you may in it ftudy "fanctification, and practice it to what degree God, by his grace, "all enable you. You may fat as much as you will; be as "humble as you will; pray both publicly and privately as much as you will; vifit and comfort as many distressed and g The author, in the choice of the title affixed to his tract, might allude to Ephes. iv. 15. "Speaking the Truth in Love." h This tract is afsigned to Mr. Ifaac Walton, on the best authority, that of Archbishop Sancroft, who, in the volume of Miscellanies -(Miscellanea 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. ye Distemps 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 praise "the Lord. Let the blessing of St. Peter's Mafter be with mine. · "Pisc. And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in his Provi "dence, and be quiet, and go an angling. Study to be quiet,' " 1 Thess. iv. 11. (Complete Angler, P. I. c. 2.) "dejected families as you will; be as liberal and charitable to the 66 poor as you think fit and are able. Thefe, and all other of those "undoubted Chriftian graces, that accompany falvation, you may "practife either publicly or privately, as much and as often as you "think fit; and yet keep in the communion of that church, of "which you were made a member by your baptism. Thefe graces you may practife, and not be a buffe-body in promoting schism "and faction; as God knows your father's friends, Hugh Peters "and John Lilbourn did, to the ruine of themselves, and many of "their difciples. Their turbulent lives and uncomfortable deaths 66 are not, I hope, yet worn out of the memory of many. He that compares them with the holy life and happy death of Mr. George "Herbert, as it is plainly, and, I hope, truly writ by Mr. Isaac "Walton, may in it find a perfect pattern for an humble and de"vout Chriftian to imitate: And he that confiders the restless lives "and uncomfortable deaths of the other two (who always lived "like the falamander, in the fire of contention), and confiders the "difmal confequences of fchifm and fedition, will (if prejudice "and a malicious zeal have not so blinded him that he cannot fee reafon) be so convinced, as to beg of God to give him a meek "and quiet fpirit; and that he may, by his grace, be prevented "from being a bufie-body, in what concerns him not." An edition of "Love and Truth" was published in 1795. Such admonitions as thefe could only proceed from a heart overflowing with goodness,-a heart, as was faid concerning that of Sir Henry Wotton," in which Peace, Patience, and calm Content "did inhabit." His intercourse with learned men, and the frequent and familiar converfations which he held with them, afforded him many opportunities of obtaining several valuable anecdotes relative to the hiftory of his contemporaries. The following literary curiofity is preferved in the Afhmolean Mufeum, at Oxford: "ffor yr ffriends que this: "I only knew Ben Johnfon: But my Lord of Winton knew "him very well; and fays, he was in the 6o, that is, the upper"moft fforme in Westminster fcole, at which time his father "dyed, and his mother married a brickelayer, who made him "(much against his will) help him in his trade; but in a fhort "time, his fcole-maister, Mr. Camden, got him a better im"ployment, which was to atend or acompany a fon of Sir "Walter Rauley's, in his travills. Within a fhort time after their re"turn, they parted (I think not in cole bloud) and with a loue "futable to what they had in their travilles (not to be commended). "And then Ben began to fet up for himfelfe in the trade by which " he got his fubfiftance and fame, of which I need not give any ac"count. He got in time to have a 1001. a yeare from the king, "alfo a penfion from the cittie, and the like from many of the no"bilitie and fome of the gentry, wch was well pay'd, for love or "fere of his railing in verfe, or profe, or boeth. My lord told me, k Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, in the early part of his life, was 66 "Ben Jonfon's fons." one of |