The First Day 41 



ments in the service of this nation, and whose 

 experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made 

 his company to be esteemed one of the delights of 

 mankind. This man, whose very approbation of 

 Angling were sufficient to convince any modest 

 censurer of it, this man was also a most dear lover, 

 and a frequent practiser of the art of Angling ; of 

 which he would say, " it was an employment for his 

 idle time, which was then not idly spent " ; for 

 Angling was, after tedious study, "a rest to his 

 mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, 

 a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of 

 passions, a procurer of contentedness ; and that it 

 begat habits of peace arid patience in those that 

 professed and practised it ". Indeed, my friend, you 

 will find Angling to be like the virtue of humility, 

 which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other 

 blessings attending upon it. 



Sir, this was the saying of that learned man. 

 And I do easily believe, that peace, and patience, 

 and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful 

 heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that 

 when he was beyond seventy years of age, he made 

 this description of a part of the present pleasure that 

 possessed him, as he sat quietly, in a summer's 

 evening, on a bank a-fishing. It is a description of 

 the spring ; which, because it glided as soft and 

 sweetly from his pen, as that river does at this time, 

 by which it was then made, I shall repeat it unto 

 you: 



This day dame Nature seem'd in love ; 

 The lusty sap began to move ; 

 Fresh juice did stir th' embracing vines; 

 And birds had drawn their valentines. 



The jealous trout, that low did He, 

 Rose at a well-dissembled fly ; 

 There stood my Friend, with patient skill, 

 Attending of his trembling quill. 



