COMMENDATIONS OF WALTON. 95 



eluding passage, could only have been conceived 

 by a good man. How well has Mr. Moxon de- 

 scribed him- 



WALTON ! when weary of the world, I turn 

 My pensive soul to thee, and soothing find 

 The meekness of thy plain contented mind, 

 Act like some healing charm. From thee I learn 

 To sympathize with nature. 



Methinks, ev'n now 



I hear thee 'neath the milk-white scented thorn 

 Communing with thy pupil, as the morn 

 Her rosy cheek displays ; while streams that flow, 

 And all that gambol near their rippling source, 

 Enchanted listen to thy sweet discourse. 



The publication of his " Complete Angler," 

 enlarged the circle of Walton's acquaintance and 

 admirers. It is evident that men of the highest 

 character, both for piety and learning, had a vene- 

 ration and affection for him, and paid that tribute 

 to his virtues they sowell deserved. Nor has time 

 had any diminishing influence upon this feeling. 

 Here do we find ourselves, after a period of more 

 than one hundred and sixty years from the appear- 

 ance of his " Angler," sitting down to pay, with no 

 small degree of affection and pleasure, our own 

 trifling meed of applause to one whose works have 

 afforded us not only instruction, but gratification 

 of no ordinary kind. 



Walton afforded an example, which cannot be 

 too often inculcated and followed, that early 



