36 COMMENDATORY VERSES. 



For are we caught alone, but, which is best, 

 We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome dress'd ; 

 Dress'd to be fed, not to be fed upon : 

 And danger of a surfeit here is none. 

 The solid food of serious contemplation 

 Is sauced here, with such harmless recreation, 

 That an ingenuous and religious mind 

 Cannot inquire for more than it may find 

 Ready at once prepared, either t' excite 

 Or satisfy a curious appetite. 



More praise is due : for 'tis both positive 

 And truth, which once was interrogative, 

 And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest, 

 Et piscatorem piscis amare potest. 



CH. HARVIE,* Master of Art*. 



10 MY DEAR FRIEND, MR IZAAK WALTON, 



DOWN by this smooth stream's wandering side, 

 Adorn'd and perfumed with the pride 

 Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill 

 Aerial choir express their skill, 

 First, in alternate melody, 

 And then in chorus all agree. 

 Whilst the charm'd fish, as eestasied 

 With sounds, to his own throat denied,2 

 Scorns his dull element, and springs 

 I' th' air, as if his fins were wings. 



'Tis here that pleasures sweet and high. 

 Prostrate to our embraces lie : 

 Such as to body, soul, or fame, 

 Create no sickness, sin, or shame : 

 Roses, not fenced with pricks, grow here ; 

 No sting to th' honey bag is near : 

 But, what 's perhaps their prejudice, 

 They difficulty want and price. 



An obvious rod, a twist of hair, 

 With hook hid in an insect, are 

 Engines of sport would fit the wish 

 O' th' epicure, and fill his dish. 



In this clear stream let fall a grub, 

 And straight take up a dace or chub. 

 I' th' mud, your worm provokes a snig, 

 Which being fa-t, if it prove big, 

 The Gotham folly will be found 

 Discreet, ere ta'en she must be tlrown'd. 

 The tench, physician of the brook, 

 In yon dead hole expects your hook : 



* Supposed to be Christopher Harvie, for whom see Athcn. Qxon. vol. I 

 t vide infra, chap. v. 



