THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 285 



Like the bright sun oft setting in a cloud; 



I would be poor, but know the humble grass 



Still trampled on by each unworthy ass: 



Rich hated ; wise suspected ; scorned if poor ; 



Great feared ; fair tempted ; high still envied more, 

 I have wished all ; but now I wish for neither, 

 Great, High, Rich, Wise, nor Fair ; Poor I '11 be 

 rather. 



" Would the World now adopt me for her heir, 

 Would Beauty's queen entitle me the fair, 

 Fame speak me fortune's minion ; could I vie 

 Angels l with India ; with a speaking eye 

 Command bare heads, bowed knees, strike justice dumb, 

 As well as blind and lame ; or give a tongue 

 To stones by epitaphs ; be called great master 

 In the loose rhymes of every poetaster : 

 Could I be more than any man that lives, 

 Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives ; 

 Yet I more freely would these gifts resign 

 Than ever fortune would have made them mine, 

 And hold one minute of this holy leisure 

 Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 



" Welcome, pure thoughts ! Welcome, ye silent groves ! 

 These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves. 

 Now the winged people of the sky shall sing 

 My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring: 

 A prayer-book, now, shall be my looking-glass, 

 In which I will adore sweet virtue's face. 

 Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, 

 No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears- 

 Then here I '11 sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 

 And learn t' affect an holy melancholy ; 



And, if Contentment be a stranger, then 

 I Ml ne'er look for it but in heaven again." 



1 " Angel," a coin of the value of ten shillings. 



