24 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



TO THE 



READER OF THE "COMPLETE ANGLER." 



FIRST mark this title well : my friend that gave it 

 Has made it good ; this book deserves to have it. 

 For he that views it with judicious looks, 

 Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks. 



(The world the river is ; both you and I, 

 And all mankind, are either fish or fry.) 

 If we pretend to reason, first or last 

 His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast. 

 Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme, 

 If not at first, will doubtless take in time. 



Here sits, in secret, blest theology, 

 Waited upon by grave philosophy 

 Both natural and moral ; history, 

 Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of poetry 

 The matter and expression striving which 

 Shall most excell in worth, yet seem not rich. 

 There is no danger in his baits ; that hook 

 Will prove the safest that is surest took. 



Nor are we caught alone, but, which is best, 

 We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome, drest, 

 Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon : 

 And danger of a surfeit here is none. 

 The solid food of serious contemplation 

 Is sauc'd, here, with such harmless recreation, 

 That an ingenuous and religious mind 

 Cannot enquire for more than it may find 

 Ready at once prepared, either t' excite 

 Or satisfy a curious appetite. 



