THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 75 



whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness 

 made his company to be esteemed one of the de- 

 lights of mankind. This man, whose very appro- 

 bation of angling were sufficient to convince any 

 modest censurer of it, this man was also a most 

 dear lover and a frequent practiser of the art of 

 angling ; of which he would say, " 'T was an em- 

 ployment for his idle time, which was not then 

 idly spent ; " for angling was, after tedious study, 

 u a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a 

 diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, 

 a moderator of passions, a procurer of contented- 

 ness ; " and " that it begat habits of peace and 

 patience in those that professed and practised it." 

 Indeed, my friend, you will find angling to be like 

 the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of 

 spirit, and a world of other blessings attending 

 upon it. 



Sir, this was the saying of that learned man, and 

 I do easily believe that peace and patience and a 

 calm content did cohabit in the cheerful heart of 

 Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that when he 

 was beyond seventy years of age, he made this 

 description of a part of the present pleasure that 

 possessed him, as he sat quietly in a summer's 

 evening on a bank a-fishing. It is a description 

 of the spring, which because it glided as soft and 

 sweetly from his pen as that river does at this time, 

 by which it was then made, I shall repeat it unto 

 you : 



