INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxi 



equally parsimonious respecting this extraordinary 

 man ; wherever conjecture, therefore, supplies of 

 necessity, the place of fact, let us in the name of 

 goodness, (which were but synonymous with saying 

 in the name of Izaak Walton !) regulate our deci- 

 sions with one constant view to his immortal ho- 

 nour ! There is, at least, one delightful reflection 

 to be drawn from the internal evidence of his own 

 work; — he did really and substantially enjoy, in 

 his own person, that true happiness which he would 

 teach us all to acquire : with that genuine, philo- 

 sophical spirit which is worthy of universal imita- 

 tion, he sought his beloved independence, in the 

 limitation of his wants, rather than by aiming at 

 the acquirement of large possessions ; his book, as 

 he himself tells us, is a picture of his own mind, 

 and had that book been called " The Divine Art of 

 Contentment," or " the True Christian Philoso- 

 pher, " its principal contents would have justified 

 either of those titles, equally with that in which his 

 modesty dictated its setting forth. 



Thus has this delightful work, notwithstanding 

 its unassuming title, excited from the first a most 

 commanding attention ; and may be said to have 

 risen in public estimation, even to this very hour. 



The selection of a few passages from his various 

 editors and disinterested eulogists, will best prove 

 the assertion ; a slight glance, however, at the ear- 

 liest English work on Angling, seems to be first ne- 

 cessary, for the sake of those of our readers who 



