A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 



picture he is drawn leaning on a desk with his Bible before 

 him, and on one hand of him his lines, hooks, and other tack- 

 ling lying in a round ; and on his other hand are his Angle- 

 rods of several sorts : and by them this is written, * That he 

 died 13 Feb. 1601, being aged 95 years, 44 of which he had 

 been Dean of St. Paul's Church ; and that his age had neither 

 impaired his hearing, nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his 

 memory, nor made any of the faculties of his mind weak or 

 useless.' 'Tis said that Angling and Temperance were great 

 causes of these blessings, and I wish the like to all that imitate 

 him, and love the memory of so good a man. 



My next and last example shall be that under-valuer of 

 money, the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, 

 a man with whom I have often fished and conversed, a man 

 whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and 

 whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his 

 company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind : this 

 man, whose very approbation of Angling were sufficient to con- 

 vince any modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear 

 lover, and a frequent practiser of the Art of Angling ; of which 

 he would say, "Twas an employment for his idle time, which 

 was then not idly spent ' : for Angling was, after tedious study, 

 * a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sad- 

 ness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a 

 procurer of contentedness ' : and * that it begat habits of peace 

 and patience in those that professed and practised it.' Indeed, 

 my friend, you will find Angling to be like the virtue of 

 Humility, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other 

 blessings attending upon it. 



Sir, this was the saying of that learned man, and I do 

 easily believe that peace, and patience, and a calm content, 

 did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because 

 I know that when he was beyond seventy years of age, he 

 made this description of a part of the present pleasure that 

 possessed him, as he sat quietly in a Summer's evening on a 

 bank a-fishing ; it is a description of the Spring, which, because 

 it glided as soft and sweetly from his pen, as that river does 

 at this time, by which it was then made, I shall repeat it 

 unto you. 

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