THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 193 



both damped his mirth and took up so much of his time and 

 thoughts, that he himself had not leisure to take the sweet 

 content that I, who pretended no title to them, took in his 

 fields :* for I could sit there quietly ; and looking on the 

 water, see some fishes sport themselves in the silver streams, 

 others leaping at flies of several shapes and colours ; looking 

 on the hills, I could behold them spotted with woods and 

 groves ; looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy 

 gathering lilies and lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping 

 culverkeys and cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this 

 present month of May : these, and many other field-flowers, 

 so perfumed the air, that I thought that very meadow like 

 that field in Sicily of which Diodorus speaks, where the 

 perfumes arising from the place make all dogs that hunt 

 in it to fall off, and to lose their hottest scent. I say, as I 

 thus sat, joying in my own happy condition, and pitying this 

 poor rich man that owned this and many other pleasant 

 groves and meadows about me, I did thankfully remember 

 what my Saviour said, that the meek possess the earth ; or 

 rather, they enjoy what the others possess and enjoy not ; for 

 anglers and meek quiet- spirited men are free from those high, 

 those restless thoughts, which corrode the sweets of life ; and 

 they, and they only, can say, as the poet has happily ex- 

 pressed it : 



Hail blest estate of lowliness ! 



Happy enjoyments of such minds 

 As, rich in self-contentedness, 



Can, like the reeds in roughest winds, 

 By yielding make that blow but small, 

 At which proud oaks and cedars fall. 



There came also into my mind, at that time, certain verses 

 in praise of a mean estate and an humble mind ; they were 

 written by Phineas Fletcher, an excellent divine, and an 

 excellent angler, and the author of excellent piscatory eclogues, 



* There is so much fine and useful morality included in this sentiment, that 

 to let it pass would be inexcusable in one who pretends to illustrate the 

 author's meaning, or display his excellence. The precept which he evidently 

 meant to inculcate, is a very comfortable one, viz., that some of the greatest 

 pleasures human nature is capable of, lie open and in common to the poor as 

 well as the rich. It is not necessary that a man should have the fee-simple of 

 all the land in prospect from Windsor Terrace or .Richmond Hill, to enjoy the 

 beauty of those two delightful situations ; nor can we imagine that no one but 

 Lord Burlington was ever delighted in the view of his most elegant villa at 

 Chiswick, now his grace the Duke of Devonshire's. H. 



TSf 



