26 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



any future events or high notions to his prophets, he then carried 

 them either to the deserts or the sea-sliore, that having so sepa- 

 rated them from amidst the press of people and business, and the 

 cares of the world, he might settle their mind in a quiet repose, 

 and there make them fit for revelation. 



And this seems also to be intimated by the children of Israel, 

 Psal. 137, who having in a sad condition banished all mirth and 

 music from their pensive hearts, and having hung up their then 

 mute harps upon the willow-trees growing by the rivers of Baby- 

 Ion, sat down upon those banks bemoaning the ruins of Sion, and 

 contemplating their own sad condition. 



And an ingenious Spaniard* says, that " rivers and the inha- 

 bitants of the watery element were made for wise men to con- 

 template, and fools to pass by without consideration." And 

 though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet 

 give me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a 

 short contemplation, first of rivers and then of fish ; concerning 

 which I doubt not but to s'lve vou many observations that will 

 appear very considerable : I am sure they have appeared so to 

 me, and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, as I 

 have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and contem- 

 plated what I shall now relate to you. 



And first, concerning rivers ; there be so many wonders re- 

 ported and written of them, and of the several creatures that be 

 bred and live in them ; and those by authors of so good credit, 

 that we need not to deny them an historical faith. 



Controversy. The passage referred to by Walton, occurs in the preface to 

 a treatise on " The Accomplishnaent of Prophecies," translated by Heath, 

 Oxford, 1G13. In the sime volume of the Phoenix, the reader will find a 

 curious paper, xvi., tending to show that Charles H. died a Catholic. — .hn. 

 E,l. 



* This passage is supposed to be quoted by memory from John VaLlesso, 

 an old soldier of Charles V., who after his mister's abdication retired to 

 Naples, where he wrote in Spanish "The Hundred and Ten Considera- 

 tions of Signor Valdesso," whicli were translated into Italian by Curio, 

 and thence into English by Nicholas Farrar, Jr., Oxford, 163S, 4to. 

 (Mijor.) Hawkins could not find the passage in Valdesso, and therefore 

 doubted Browne's opinion that Valdesso was the " ingenious Spaniard ;" 

 but Walton, as we have said, quoted from memory and incorrectly. — Am. 

 Ed, 



