IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



That man is happy in his share, 

 Who is warm clad and cleanly fed ; 



Whose necessaries bound his care, 

 And honest labour makes his bed : 



Who, free from debt, and clear from crimes, 

 Honours those laws that others fear : 



Who ill of princes, in worst times, 

 Will neither speak himself, nor hear : 



Who from the busy world retires, 



To be more useful to it still, 

 And to no greater good aspires. 



But only the eschewing ill : 



Who, with his angle and his books. 

 Can think the longest day well spent. 



And praises God, when back he looks. 

 And finds that all was innocent. 



This man is happier far than he 

 Whom public business oft betrays, 



Through labyrinths of policy, 

 To crooked and forbidden ways : 



The world is full of beaten roads, 



But yet so slippery withal. 

 That where one walks secure, 'tis odds 



A hundred and a hundred fall. 



