THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 239 



with woods and groves ; looking down the mead- 

 ows, could see here a boy gathering lilies and 

 lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping culverkeyes 

 and cowslips > all to make garlands suitable to this 

 present month of May. These and many other 

 field-flowers so perfumed the air that I thought 

 that very meadow like that field in Sicily, of which 

 Diodorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from 

 the place make all dogs that hunt in it to fall off, 

 and to lose their hottest scent. I say, as I thus 

 sat, joying in my own happy condition, and pitying 

 this poor rich man that owned this and many 

 other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I 

 did thankfully remember what my Saviour said, 

 that the meek possess the earth, or rather they 

 enjoy what the other possess and enjoy not ; for 

 anglers, and meek, quiet-spirited men are free 

 from those high, those restless thoughts which cor- 

 rode the sweets of life, and they, and they only, 

 can say as the poet has happily expressed it, 



" Hail ! blest estate of lowliness ! 

 Happy enjoyments of such minds 

 As, rich in self-contentedness, 

 Can, like the reeds in roughest winds, 



By yielding make that blow but small, 

 At which proud oaks and cedars fall." 



There came also into my mind at that time cer- 

 tain verses in praise of a mean estate and an hum- 

 ble mind. They were written by Phineas Fletcher, 

 an excellent divine and an excellent angler, and 

 the author of excellent Piscatory Eclogues, in 



