CHAPTER VI 



FISHING AND PHILOSOPHY 



" A ND though this discourse may be hable 

 /\ to some exceptions yet I cannot doubt 



X \. but that most readers may receive so 

 much pleasure or profit by it as may make it 

 worth the time of their persual, if they be not 

 too grave or too busy men. Concerning the 

 merit of what is here offered to their considera- 

 tion and censure, and if the cast prove too severe 

 as I have a Hberty, so I am resolved to use it 

 and neglect all sour censures . . . yet the whole 

 discourse is, a picture of my disposition, especially 

 in such ways and times as I have laid aside 

 business and gone a fishing." 



Never was there written such a classic " Epistle 

 to the Reader" as the above. It is a quotation 

 from Izaak Walton's The Complcat Ang/cr, and 

 no apology do I offer for placing it at the head 

 of this chapter. It may be that young folk who 

 come after us may not be aware of the beauties 

 of the writinors of Walton until some of these be 

 pointed out to them. At any rate, my humble 

 endeavour is here to show that the pleasure to be 



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