NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



wash the cheeks of those pallid rocks; from 

 whence they gently glide along with generous 

 dews, to moisten the florid marly banks; and 

 tinged as you may see with a rubido, they strike 

 a vivid tincture into the flourishing streams: 

 and thus the complexion of the water was chan- 

 ged, (once upon a time), when I fished those 

 streams, where the trouts, to divert me, and 

 augment my entertainment, came ashore to 

 court me ; and courteous beyond curiosity, laid 

 their lives in my hand. 



Theopli. Then they gave you handsel, I per- 

 ceive : but this is some amigma, pray explain it. 



Am. It's no more an ^enigma than a trout is 

 a trout; for you must suppose him an active 

 fish, who no sooner finds himself intangled, but 

 he plunges, and breaks the surface of the streams, 

 thinking thereby to disintangle himself, and re- 

 prieve himself from the danger of death, that al- 

 ready has laid an arrest upon him. Thus by 

 picking and casting, he casts his life away ; so 

 swims ashore to hear the angler's doom, in whose 

 breast lies the sentence of life and death. On a 

 certain solitary and gloomy day, the face of the 

 firmament was sullied with clouds, that rolTd to 

 and fro, but did not melt. I remember I arm- 

 ed with a glittering fly, the body composed of 

 red twisted silk, intermingled with silver, and 

 an eye of gold, the water in temper, (as you now 



