xxx The Complete Angler 



farmer from the greed of an extortionate landlord, 

 Walton tells in his Life of the prelate, adding this 

 reflection : ) 



44 It may be noted that in this age there are a sort of people so 

 unlike the God of mercy, so void of the bowels of pity, that they 

 love only themselves and their children ; love them so as not to 

 be concerned whether the rest of mankind waste their days in 

 sorrow or shame ; people that are cursed with riches, and a mis- 

 take that nothing but riches can make them and theirs happy ". 



Thus Walton appears, this is " the picture of his 

 own disposition," in the Lives. He is a kind of 

 antithesis to John Knox. Men like Walton are not 

 to be approached for new " ideas ". They will 

 never make a new world at a blow : they will never 

 enable us to understand, but they can teach us to 

 endure, and even to enjoy, the world. There ex- 

 ample is alluring : - 



" Even the ashes of the just 

 Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust ". 



THE COMPLEAT ANGLER 



Franck, as we saw, called Walton " a plagiary ". 

 He was a plagiary in the same sense as Virgil and 

 Lord Tennyson and Robert Burns, and, indeed, 

 Homer, and all poets. The Compleat Angler y the 

 father of so many books, is the child of a few. 

 Walton not only adopts the opinions and advice of 

 the authors whom he cites, but also follows the 

 manner, to a certain extent, of authors whom he 

 does not quote. His very exordium, his key-note, 

 echoes (as Sir Harris Nicolas observes) the open- 

 ing of A Treatise of the Nature of God (London, 

 1599). The Treatise starts with a conversation be- 

 tween a gentleman and a scholar : it commences : 



Gent. Well overtaken, sir ! 



Scholar. You are welcome, gentleman. 



