INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 



and was attentively watching my float which stood pertly erect in 

 the water, when could it be real ? yes it was ! bob went my 

 cork, and then disappeared under water, when I whacked rod, line, 

 fish, and all right over my head, and to my inexpressible delight 

 on turning round beheld my scaly captive kicking about on the 

 grass, still firmly fastened to the hook. Thus the height of my 

 then ambition, and the accomplishment of my most anxious wishes, 

 were both attained at the same moment. Yes, I had actually 

 caught a fish ! the bare anticipation of which had so long kept my 

 hopes alive, and induced me to persevere in a pursuit in which I 

 had hitherto met with so little to encourage me; and yet the fish 

 that afforded me all this delight was but a little roach of six or 

 seven inches long, and one of the most worthless species of the 

 finny tribe. 



The delight this insignificant capture afforded me may appear 

 both childish and absurd, nor can I hope to place it in any other 

 point of view before the eyes of any one unpossessed of a sports- 

 man-like spirit : the latter however will I trust make every chari^ 

 table allowance for my tender age at the time, for I was not then 

 ten years old, whilst it must be remembered that the real value of 

 many things so highly prized in this world, rests in a great mea- 

 sure in the mere imagination, and that these things owe much more 

 to their great scarcity, and the difficulty of procuring them, than to 

 any actual utility they possess. Thus, for example, the brightest 

 jewel, which in my humble opinion has in itself far less real beauty 

 than the flower of the field, which to-day blooms, and on the mor- 

 row fades, and dies, and is forgotten, would be scarcely more looked 

 upon or prized, were it not for the value that others set upon it, or 

 the money it would fetch in the market ; and evea money itself, 

 which the miser so anxiously gathers up, denying himself not only 

 all the comforts, but even most of the common necessaries of the 

 present life, to say nothing of the awful doom he thus hoards up 

 for himself throughout eternity, is of no more real utility to him 

 than the meerest rubbish he could pick up by the wayside, could he 

 but bring his soul to love it as well. 



But to return to my subject. I need hardly say that having now 

 broken the ice I wanted no further encouragement to proceed ; and 

 before many more weeks had passed away I began to catch a few 

 perch, and to think far less highly of roach fishing than formerly. 

 But my grand triumph was yet to come, and which was at length 



