36 Ifcfnss of tbe 1Rcto, IRtfle, anb (Bun 



and soothing anodyne. How sweet and reposeful and 

 altogether redolent of that " Old Leisure," gone now 

 for ever, is such a picture as this: 



" I sat down under a willow-tree by the water-side, and 

 considered what you had told me of the owner of that 

 pleasant meadow in which you had then left me : that 

 he had a plentiful estate and not a heart to think so ; 

 that he had at this time many law-suits depending, and 

 that they .both damped his mirth and took up so much 

 of his time and thoughts that he himself had not leisure 

 to take the sweet content that I, who pretended no title 

 to them, took in his fields : for I could sit there quietly : 

 and looking on the water, see some fishes sport them- 

 selves in the silver streams, others leaping at flies of 

 several shapes and colours : looking on the hills, I 

 could behold them spotted with woods and groves : 

 looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy 

 gathering lilies and lady-smocks, and there a girl 

 cropping culverkeys and cowslips, all to make garlands 

 suitable to this present month of May : then the 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 others possess 

 and enjoy not : for anglers and meek quiet-spirited 



