Ixxxviii ADDRESS TO OFFLEY. 



At which time, if common anglers should attend you, and be 

 eye-witnesses of the success, not of your fortune, but your skill, 

 it would doubtless beget in them an emulation to be like you, and 

 that emulation mi^lu beget an industrious diligence to be so : but 

 I know it is not attainable by common capacities.^ And there 

 be now many men of great wisdom, learning, and experience, 

 which love and practise this art, that know I speak the truth. 



Sir, this pleasant curiosity of fish and fishing, of which you 

 are so great a master, has been thought worthy the pens and 

 practices of divers in other nations, that have been reputed men 

 of great learning and wisdom ; and amongst those of this nation, 

 I remember Sir Henry Wotton (a dear lover of this art) has told 

 me, that his intentions were to write a discourse of the art, and 

 in praise of angling ; and doubtless he had done so, if death had 

 not prevented him ; the remembrance of which hath often made 

 me sorry ; for if he had lived to do it, then the unlearned 

 angler* had seen some better treatise of this art, a treatise^ that 

 miglit have proved worthy his perusal, which, though some have 

 undertaken, I could never yet see in English. 



But mine may be thought as weak, and as unworthy of common 

 view ; and I do here freely confess, that I should rather excuse 

 myself, than censure others, my own discourse being liable to so 

 many exceptions ; against which you. Sir, might make this one, 

 that it can contribute nothing to your knowledge. And lest a 

 longer epistle may diminish your pleasure, I shall* make this no 

 longer than to add this following truth, that I am really, sir, 



Your affectionate friend, 



and most humble servant, 



IzAAK Walton. 



• All following " capacities," to the end of the paragraph, added in the 

 second edition. 



2 Of which I am one. After Angler, first edition. 



•' Worthy his perusal. First edition. 



4 Shall not adventure to make this epistle longer. First four editions. 



1 



