HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 



and you shall choose which shall be yours; and it is an even 

 lay, one of them catches. 



And let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead-rod, and 

 laying night hooks, are like putting money to use, for they 

 both work for the owners, when they do nothing but sleep, or 

 eat, or rejoice ; as you know we have done this last hour, and 

 sate as quietly and as free from cares under this Sycamore, as 

 Virgil's Tityrus and his Meliboeus did under their broad Beech- 

 tree. No life, my honest Scholar, no life so happy and so 

 pleasant, as the life of a well-governed Angler ; for when the 

 Lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the Statesman is 

 preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on cowslip-banks, 

 hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness 

 as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so 

 quietly by us. Indeed, my good Scholar, we may say of Angling, 

 as Dr. Boteler said of Strawberries ; * Doubtless God could 

 have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ' : and so, 

 if I might be judge, 'God never did make a more calm, quiet, 

 innocent recreation, than Angling.' 



I '11 tell you, Scholar, when I sat last on this primrose-bank, 

 and looked down these Meadows, I thought of them as Charles 

 the Emperor did of the city of Florence : ' That they were too 

 pleasant to be looked on, but only on holidays ' : as I then sat 

 on this very grass, I turned my present thoughts into verse: 

 'twas a wish which I '11 repeat to you, 



THE ANGLER'S WISH 



I in these flow'ry meads would be: 



These crystal streams should solace me; 



To whose harmonious bubbling noise, 



I with my Angle would rejoice, 

 Sit here, and see the Turtle-dove, 

 Court his chaste mate to acts of love : 



Or on that bank, feel the west wind 

 Breathe health and plenty, please my mind 

 To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers, 

 And then, wash'd off by April-showers : 

 Here, hear my Kenna sing * a song, * L&e Her- 



There see a black-bird feed her young, nut poor. 



75 



