Hi COMMENDATORY VERSES. 



TO THE 



READER OF THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



FIRST mark the Title well: my Friend that gave it 

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

 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 1, 

 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 Phylosophy 

 Both natural and moral; History, 

 Deck'd and adorn 'd with flowers of Poet i \ , 

 The matter and expression striving which 

 Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem 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 ; 

 Hi.st 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 inquire for more than it may find 

 Ready at once preparM cither t'excite 

 Or satisfy a curious appetite. 



More praise is due: tor 'tis both positive 

 And truth, which once was interrogative, 

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

 fit pitcatorem piscis amare potest. 



CH. HARVIE, Mr. of Arts. 1 



(I) Suppoaed to be Christopher Harvie, for whom see Athcn. Oion. Vol. f. 

 vide ittfra, chap. v. 



