202 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



looking on the hills, I could behold them spotted with 

 woods and groves ; looking down the meadows, could see, 

 here a boy gathering lilies and lady-smocks, and there a 

 girl cropping culverkeys and cowslips, all to make garlands 

 suitable to this present month of May : these, and many 

 other field-flowers, so perfumed the air, that I thought 

 that very meadow like that field in Sicily of which Dio- 

 dorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place 

 make all dogs that hunt in it to fall off, and to lose their 

 hottest scent. I say, as I thus sat, joying in my own 

 happy condition, and pitying this poor rich man that 

 owned this and many other pleasant groves and meadows 

 about me, I did thankfully remember what my Saviour 

 said, that the meek possess the earth ; or rather, they 

 enjoy what the others possess and enjoy not ; for anglers 

 and meek quiet-spirited men are free from those high, 

 those restless thoughts, which corrode the sweets of life ; 

 and they, and they only, can say, as the poet has happily 

 expressed it : 



Hail ! blest estate of lowliness ; 



Happy enjoyments of such minds 

 As, rich in self-contentedness, 



Can, like the reeds in roughest winds, 

 By yielding make that blow but small, 

 At which proud oaks and cedars fall. 



There came also into my mind, at that time, certain 

 verses in praise of a mean estate and an humble mind ; 

 they were written by Phineas Fletcher, an excellent divine, 

 and an excellent angler, and the author of excellent pisca- 

 tory eclogues, in which you shall see the picture of this 

 good man's mind, and I wish mine to be like it.* 



* It would be great injustice to the memory of this person, whose 

 name is now hardly known, to pass him by without notice. He 

 was the son of Giles Fletcher, doctor of laws, and ambassador from 

 Queen Elizabeth to the Duke of Muscovy ; a fellow of King's 

 College, Cambridge, and the author of a fine allegorical poem, 

 entitled, " The Purple Island," printed at Cambridge, with other of 

 his poems, in 4to, 1633 ; from whence the passage in the text, 

 with a little variation, is taken. H. 



