THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 247 



Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike justice dumb. 



As well as blind and lame, or give a tongue 



To stones by epitaphs ; be called great master 



In the loose rhymes of every poetaster : 



Could 1 be more than any man that lives, 



Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives : 



Yet I more freely would these gifts resign. 



Than ever fortune would have made them mine ; 



And hold one minute of this holy leisure. 



Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 



Welcome, pure thoughts, welcome, ye silent groves ; 

 These guests, these courts my soul most dearly loves ; 

 J\^ow the iving'd people of the sky shall sing 

 My cheerful anthems to the gladsome Spring: 

 A Pray'r-bouk now shall be my looking-glass. 

 In which I will adore sioeet Virtue's face. 

 Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, 

 JVo broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fears : 

 Then here Vll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly. 

 And learn V affect an holy melancholy : 



And if contentment be a stranger, then 



ril ne'er look for it, but in heaven again. 



Ven. Well, Master, these verses be worthy to keep a room in 

 every man's memory. I thank you for them ; and I thank you 

 for your many instructions, which, God willing, I will not forget : 

 and as St. Austin in his Confessions, Book 4, Chap. 3,* comme- 



And oftentimes it was proved most plaine, 



For the gentleman's one the beggar dropt twayne ; 



" So that the place wherein they did sitt 

 With gold it was covered every whitt. 

 The gentlemen then having droppt all their store, 

 Sayd, Now, beggar, hold, for we have noe more. 



" Thou hast fulfilled thy promise aright ; 



Then marry, quoth he, my girl to this knight ; 



And heere, added hee, I will throw you now downe 



A hundred pounds more to buy her a gowne." — Am. Ed. 



* The passage to which Walton alludes, will be found in a translation of 

 the Life of St. Augustine, printed for John Crook, and sold at the sign of 

 the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard, IGGO, lib. 9, cap. 3.— Sir H. JSTicholas. 



