IV ADVERTISEMENT TO 



It would probably never have occurred to any mind, 

 but one so chastely and purely constituted, as that of 

 old Izaak Walton, to make instructions in the Art of 

 Angling a vehicle for inculcating the doctrines of 

 rational piety and the purest morality : and yet this 

 he has done. His book comprises a course of Moral 

 Philosophy, and while its principles are laid down in 

 the most convincing manner, they are enforced with 

 an irresistible gentleness. The agreeable simplicity 

 of the style, its colloquial ease, and the innocent 

 mirth which pervades it, form a combination of the 

 useful and the agreeable, which is equally rich and 

 rare. 



If that axiom of the Epicurean School be true, 

 that it is the business of man on earth to pursue hap- 

 piness, then is Izaak Walton the first of philosophers, 

 and the best, because he improves upon that system 

 by adding to it the benevolent principles of the Chris- 

 tian Religion. He leads his readers and disciples to 

 the purest gratification, but he never fails to prove to 

 them, chemin faisant, that it can only be attained by 

 the exercise of patience and humility. He persuades 

 to the paths of virtue, by shewing that they are those 

 of pleasantness and peace ; and, in this respect alone, 

 his illustrations are " worth a thousand homilies." 



