NINTH DAY] ANGLING. 239 



amusement with a stick and a string ; a worm at one 

 end, and a fool at the other." And to yourself you 

 would apply it with this change : " a fly at one end, 

 and a philosopher at the other." Yet the pleasure of 

 the Cockney angler appears to me of much the same 

 kind, and perhaps more continuous than yours ; and 

 he has the happiness of constant occupation and 

 perpetual pursuit in as high a degree as you have ; 

 and if we were to look at the real foundations of your 

 pleasure, we should find them, like most of the 

 foundations of human happiness vanity or folly. I 

 shall never forget the impression made upon me some 

 years ago, when I was standing on the pier at 

 Donegal, watching the flowing of the tide : I saw a 

 lame boy of fourteen or fifteen years old, very 

 slightly clad, whom some persons were attempting to 

 stop in his progress along the pier ; but he resisted 

 them with his crutches, and, halting along, threw 

 himself from an elevation of five or six feet, with his 

 crutches, and a little parcel of wooden boats, that he 

 carried under his arm, on the sand of the beach. He 

 had to scramble or halt at least 100 yards, over hard 

 rocks, before he reached the water, and he several 

 times fell down and cut his naked limbs on the bare 

 stones. Being in the water, he seemed in an ecstasy, 

 and immediately put his boats in sailing order, and 

 was perfectly inattentive to the counsel and warning 



