NOTIOES OF THE WORK. 



[hVom Hallams Literature of Europe. '\ 



•' Walton's Complete Angler, published in 1653, seems by the title a 

 strange choice out of all the books of half a century ; yet its simplicity, 

 its sweetness, its natural grace, and liappy intermixture of grave strains 

 with the precepts of anglinir, have rendered this book deservedly popular, 

 and a model which one of the most famous among our late philosophers, 

 amd a successful disciple of Isaac Walton in his favorite art, has conde- 

 scended to imitate." 



[Charles Lamb, in an early Letter to Coleridge.} 

 " Among all your quaint readings, did you ever light upon Walton's 

 Complete Angler ? I asked you the question once before ; it breathes the 

 very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of heart ; there are many 

 choice old verses interspersed in it ; it would sweeten a man's temper at 

 any time to read it; it would Christianize every discordant angry passion; 

 pray make yourself acquainted with it." 



[From William Hazlitt — in a paper of the Round Table.} 

 " We have another English author, very different from the author of 

 John Buncle, but e«jual in naiveti, and in the perfect display of personal 

 diaracter ; we mean Isaac Walton, who wrote the Complete Angler. That 

 well-known \York has an extreme simplicity, and an extreme interest, 

 arising out of its very simplicity. In the description of fishing-tackle you 

 j)erceive the piety and humanity of the author's mind. His is the best 

 pastoral in the language, not excepting Pope's or Phillips's, We doubt 

 whether Sannazarius's Piscatory Eclogues are equal to the scenes de- 

 scribed by Walton on the banks of the River Lea. He gives the feeling 

 of tlie open air. We walk with him along the dusty road-side, or repose 

 <»n the banks of the river under a sliady tree, and, in watching for the 

 tinny prey, imbibe wliat he beautifully calls ' tlie patience and simplicity 

 of poor, honest fishermen.' We accompany them to their inn at night, 

 and partake of their simple, but delicious fare, while Maud, the pretty 

 milk-maid, at her mother's desire, sings the classical ditties of«Sir Walter 

 Raleigh. Good cheer is not neglected in this work, any more than in John 

 Buncle, or any other liistory which sets a proper value on the good tilings 

 of life. The prints in tlic ' Complete Angler' give an additional reality 

 and interest to the scenes it describes. While Tottenliam Cross shall 

 ptand. and longer, thv work, amiabln and hnppy old man, shall la.st!" 



