ADVERTISEMENT. 



FOE some years past I have been taming over in my mind the 

 possibility, having been long clearly convinced of the necessity, of 

 publishing, a new, a cheap, a pleasantly and profusely and profitably 

 illustrated edition of the " COMPLETE ANGLES," with what I will 

 call " modernizing" notes and additions. I have ever found all 

 things reasonable in desire, possible of execution : and happily, the 

 thorough fulfilment of this last aspiration of mine has proved no 

 exception to my experience. 



Having been not altogether a silent observer of the successful 

 progress through the reading world of the cheap series of books, old 

 and new, published by Messrs. Ingram, Cooke, & Co., under the 

 general and appropriate title of " The Illustrated National Library," 

 I resolved to try and add one more to the number. To the above 

 firm, full of public spirit and intelligent energy, I communicated 

 my intentions and projects. They were approved of; and the offer 

 on my part to carry them into effect, under certain conditions and 

 with aid specified, was as freely accepted and ratified by the gentle- 

 men named, as it was conscientiously and hopefully proposed. 

 Hence Walton and Cotton in a modern dress, ornamental and 

 useful. 



Eeader, fear not. I have touched with no profaning pen the 

 sacred text of those venerable writers. You have it here in its 

 primitive purity word after word, as it was printed in the fifth and 

 last edition, published in the year 1676, under the eyes and hands 

 of the authors. What more have I done ? A great deal which I 

 will briefly tell you. 



The first edition of the " COMPLETE ANGLER" appeared in 1653, 

 exactly two hundred years ago, and though during Walton's life- 

 time four subsequent editions were published, with additions and 

 improvements, original errors in the natural history of quadrupeds, 

 birds, fishes, and insects, not only remained, but were augmented. 

 Those errors must be imputed to the general ignorance of the time 

 in which Walton wrote, in matters of natural history, and not to his 

 specifically. The most glaring and dangerous of those errors I have 

 cleared away by means of foot-notes. 



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