52 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Pisc. The best I can get in London, I assure you. But, Sir, 

 now you have thus far complied with my designs, as to take a 

 troublesome journey into an ill country, only to satisfy me ; how 

 long may I hope to enjoy you ? 



ViAT. Why, truly. Sir, as long as I conveniently can ; and 

 longer, I think, you would not have me. 



Pisc. Not to your inconvenience by any means, Sir : but I 

 see you are weary, and therefore I will presently wait on you to 

 your chamber, where take counsel of your pillow, and to-mor- 

 row resolve me. Here, take the lights, and pray follow them, 

 Sir. Here you are like to lie ; and now I have showed you your 

 lodging, I beseech you command anything you want : and so I 

 wish you good rest. 



ViAT. Good night. Sir. 



ban Vin. excommunicated all who took it within consecrated walls. The 

 Czar condemned any who used it to the loss of the nose, and even death. 

 So did the King of Persia ; and in Transylvania all who planted tobacco 

 were threatened with the confiscation of their estates. Since then, the 

 monarchies of Europe have derived no small part of their revenue from a 

 luxury more valued than a necessary of life ; and the high duties upon 

 tobacco in Great Britain laid by James L (as some think out of mean 

 revenge upon Raleigh) continue, with little reduction, to this day. In 

 modern times, tobacco has had its zealous opposers, among not the least of 

 whom were John Wesley and Adam Clarke. On the other hand, it has 

 had its strenuous defenders, and the pious quaint Ralph Erskine has left 

 among his (so called) Gospel Sonnets, some devout meditations upon his 

 pipe, every verse of which ends with, 



" Thus think and smoke tobacco." 



There are not a few anglers who will think the stern Scotch Calvinist 

 more orthodox in this respect than the founder or the Achilles of Metho- 

 dism, and enjoy the cloud of their own blowing the more from having the 

 sanction of Izaak Walton. — im. Ed. 



