

CHAPTER XVI 



ANIMALS OF TO-DAY 



HEN I was young I saw visions, and when I 

 grew old I dreamed dreams of some time 

 or other, always in the dim vista of a 

 distant future, breaking the chain which binds me 

 to the "madding crowd's ignoble strife," and of 

 taking my departure to some rural spot where I 

 might uninterruptedly devote my leisure to the 

 study of Nature, and particularly to that form 

 of it which Izaak Walton calls " the contemplative 

 man's recreation." It is many years since I 

 crossed the Rubicon, beyond whose limits the 

 Psalmist declares our " strength to be but labour and 

 sorrow," and I yet, foolish dreamer ! still dream on of 



"Meadows trim and daisies pied, 

 Shallow brooks and rivers wide," 



where the chief employment of my idle time, 

 " not idly spent," would be the practice of the art 

 of angling; "a rest to the mind, a cheerer of 

 the spirits, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a diverter 



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