20 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



not wasted, in any sense deserving of the term. If, for 

 his favourite pursuit, he renounce the marts of gain, and 

 surrender the opportunities of accumulation, and so leave 

 less of the world's wealth behind him when he goes to 

 his long home ; he affirms that he has sufficient for all his 

 rational wants, that, if his means be shorter, his desires 

 are limited in proportion ; and he contends that worldly 

 appliances may be obtained at too costly a price; that 

 in his estimation, they are not worth the daily sacrifices 

 which are made for them ; that they confer no happiness 

 which cannot be procured without them ; that, judging by 

 the examples which crowd around him, he dreads their 

 corroding influence on the affections, and deems them a 

 poor exchange for that equanimity of mind, independence 

 of thought, and elevation of sentiment, which are en- 

 gendered by a close intercourse and secret communing 

 with the mysterious agencies of nature. At all events, the 

 gentle craft is liable to no objections on this score, which 

 are not also strictly applicable to every other pursuit 

 which passes under the name of a " recreation." What, 

 we may ask, can be more absorbing than modern " fox- 

 hunting"? The fascinations of this amusement are 

 admitted on all sides. In the hands of our nobility and 

 gentry, it has actually become a mere matter of ordinary 

 business, one of the necessary occupations of life; and 

 expensive establishments are kept up for its indulgence 

 and gratification. All this necessarily engenders a taste 

 for expense and display in the matter; and the habits of 

 our youth are not, we imagine, very materially benefited 

 by the mode in which the " brilliant day" is too frequently 

 terminated. Will any one seriously contend that this is a 

 more innocent, more soul-elevating, and less time- wasting 

 amusement, than the angler's calumniated occupation? 



