IZAAK WALTON. 83 



the dewy lawns," and who will perceive the 

 various and curious contrivances of nature to 

 preserve even a little fragile and delicate moss on 

 some bleak and barren rock. In viewing the 

 " ample sky," or following the windings of some 

 pretty streamlet, as it waters its banks, gay with our 

 native flowers, we may learn to be humble, and 

 by reflecting on our own insignificance, may be 

 taught the grand secret of human existence 

 that of preparing for our last great change. The 

 very revolutions of nature, the ephemerae, dancing 

 in the sun-beams, independent of all other con- 

 siderations, must teach us to expect it. 



Amongst those who found 6i books in the run- 

 ning brooks/* was Izaak Walton. He, perhaps, 

 more than any other writer, appreciated the delight 

 of strolling on the banks of a river. His charming 

 pastoral is a proof of this, and we are convinced 

 that he merely made angling a secondary conside- 

 ration in describing those scenes in which he so 

 much delighted. While he amuses, he at the 

 same time instructs his readers ; and his fervent 

 and unaffected piety, the simplicity of his taste, 

 the benevolence of his mind, and the contented- 

 ness of his spirit, are apparent in all he thought, 

 and in all he wrote. No lover of the rod can find 

 himself on the banks of a river, without thinking of 

 Walton. His name is so connected with anglers 

 and angling, that they have become inseparable. 



