THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 233 



Welcome, pure thoughts ! welcome, ye silent groves ! 



These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves ! 



Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing 



My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring : 



A prayer-book, now, shall be my looking-glass, 



In which I will adore sweet virtue's face. 



Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace cares, 



No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears ; 



Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 



And learn t' affect a holy melancholy : 



And if contentment be a stranger, then 



I'll ne'er look for it, but in heaven, again. 



VEX. Well, master, these verses be worthy to keep a room, 

 in every man's memory. I thank you for them ; and I thank 

 yon for your many instructions, which (God willing) I will 

 not forget. And as St. Austin, in his " Confessions" (book iv. 

 chap. 3) commemorates the kindness of his friend Verecundus, 

 for lending him and his companion a country house ; because 

 there they rested and enjoyed themselves, free from the 

 troubles of the world : so, having had the like advantage, 

 both by your conversation and the art you have taught me, 

 I ought ever to do the like ; for indeed, your company and 

 discourse have been so useful and pleasant, that, I may truly 

 say, I have only lived since I enjoyed them and turned angler, 

 and not before. Nevertheless, here I must part with }^ou, 

 here in this now sad place where I was so happy as first to 

 meet you : but I shall long for the ninth of May ; for then 

 I hope again to enjoy your beloved company, at the appointed 

 time and place. And now I wish for some somniferous 

 potion, that might force me to sleep away the intermitted 

 time, which will pass away with me as tediously, as it does 

 with men in sorrow ; nevertheless, I will make it as short as 

 I can by my hopes and wishes. And, my good master, I will 

 not forget the doctrine which you told me Socrates taught his 

 scholars, that they should not think to be honoured so much \ 

 for being philosophers, as to honour philosophy by their vir- 

 tuous lives. You advised me to the like concerning angling, 

 and I will endeavour to do so ; and to live like those many 

 worthy men of which you made mention in the former part 

 of your discourse. This is my firm resolution ; and as a pious 

 man advised his friend, that to beget mortification he should 

 frequent churches, and view monuments, and charnel-houses, 

 and then and there consider, how many dead bodies time had 

 piled up at the gates of death : so when I would beget I 

 content, and increase confidence in the power, and wisdom,! 



