172 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 



of the stone, the gout, and tooth-ache ; and this we are free 

 from. And every misery that I miss is a new mercy, and 

 therefore let us be thankful. There have been, since we met, 

 others that have met disasters of broken limbs ; some have 

 been blasted, others thunder-strucken ; and we have been 

 freed from these, and all those many other miseries that 

 threaten human nature ; let us therefore rejoice, and be thank- 

 ful. Nay, which is a far greater mercy, we are free from the 

 unsupportable burthen of an accusing tormentiiig^conscience, a 

 misery that none can bear ; and therefore let us praise him for 

 his preventing grace, and say, every misery that I miss is a new 

 mercy : nay, let me tell you, there be many that have forty times 

 our estates, that would give the greatest part of it to be health- 

 ful and cheerful like us ; who, with the expense of a little money, 

 have eat and drank, and laught, and angled, and sung, and slept 

 securely ; and rose next day, and cast away care, and sung, and 

 laught, and angled again ; which are blessings rich men cannot 

 purchase with all their money. Let me tell you, scholar, I have 

 a rirh "^'^hn" r *Hf is ^"^y g ^ v.,my tv.n<- 1^ i-.Q C V. n leisure 

 to laugh : the whole business of his life i^ tn ^\ mnnpy, and 

 more money, that he may still get more and more mpney ; he 

 is^ strTTdrttdgT^g- on, and says that Solomon says, " The diligent 

 hand maketri ncn : " and it is true indeed ; but he_considers 

 not that it is not inmeppwer of riches to make a majrThappy : 

 fork was wisely said 1 by a "man nf ^rp^' nhservaTjonT" That 

 tk^rebe as many miseries beyond riches, as on this side them : " 

 and yet G_QiL deliver us from pin ching~pp_v_erty._; _anjd- grant that 

 h nvTng_ a jytrnjipf p n ry } \v Q_ rn n y be content, and thankful. Let 

 us not repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally 

 j* fTpalfr, if_ we see ^nnflipr abound with riches, wlierl. as God 

 ff knows, the cares that are the keyslrTal keep those rffbes hang 

 Z? nfTfri fit i in i illy nt Thf ^'^h^titan^gir^^; th af th^^c]^ him 

 with wearydays n.nd r^^less nights, even wj^n others sleee 

 y qiiietlv.^ \Vesee but theyutside ot the rich man's haprjiness \ 

 few^consi9er1iim to be like thesilk^worm. that, when^she seems 

 t(?"pfay ? is, at the very same^une, spinning her own bowels, and 

 consuming herself; and this many rich men do, loading them- 



