IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 245 



dost with bait betray the healing tench or gudgeon, 

 palate pleasing gudgeon, it matters little what the 

 fish is ; or perhaps thy prey is the less wholesome 

 but larger mysteriously marked barbel. These are 

 thy pursuits when time and weather allow and 

 no day passes without a line. And not the 

 practice only but the theory of this art is known 

 to thee. Whence it comes that thou art at once 

 a good angler and a good writer : and thy mastery 

 of both rod and pen dost show thy good sense. 

 Be thou then indeed the instructor of the young 

 fisherman. In graceful style thou dost write a 

 second Oppian, of all things fishing, and dost duly 

 set forth the angler's precepts and his methods and 

 the various kinds of bait and the different kinds of 

 fish and their habits. Nor dost think it enough to 

 hand down the art of angling (though this indeed 

 form a sort of school and teaches patience and 

 soberness) but dost give greater proofs of loftier 

 art, the ever fresh examples of character and noble 

 patterns of life. Thou hast written of deep 

 Hooker and of learned and pious Donne, and of 

 Herbert, holy priest. We see these, Izaac, painted 

 in living colours by trained brush. By thee these 

 Heroes though dead live once more. O what 

 pleasure it is to read thy books ! Thus by thy 

 books thou dost catch us fish as with lines and 

 dost combine in wondrous wise fishing and the 

 pursuit of the muses. 



