CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 103 



But he that unto others leads the way 



ID public prayer, 

 Should do it so, 

 As all, that hear, may know 



They need not fear 



To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say 

 Amen ; not doubt they were betray'd 

 To blaspheme, when they meant to have pray'd. 



Devotion will add life unto the letter: 



And why should not 

 That which authority 

 Prescribes, esteemed be 



Advantage got ? 



If tli' prayer be good, the commoner the better, 

 Prayer in the Church'* WORDS as well 

 As SENSE, of all prayers bears the bell. 1 



CH. HARVIE. 



And now, scholar, I think it will be time to repair to 

 our angle-rods, which we left in the water to fish for 

 themselves ; and you shall choose which shall be yours ; 

 and it is an even lay, one of them catches. 



And, let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead 

 rod, and laying night-hooks, are like putting money to 

 use; for they both work for the owners when they do 

 nothing but sleep, or eat, or rejoice, as you know we have 

 done this last hour, and sat as quietly and as free from 

 cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's Tityrus and his 

 Melibo2us did under their broad beech-tree. No life, my 

 honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the 

 Afe of a well-governed angler; for when the lawyer is 

 swallowed up with business, and the statesman is pre- 



Harvie, M. A." The presumption, therefore, is very strong, that both were 

 written by the Christopher Harvey above-mentioned. At the end of the Syna- 

 gogue are some verses subscribed ' Iz. Wa." 



(]) These verses were written at or near the time when the Liturgy was 

 abolished by an ordinance of parliament, and while it was agitating, as a theo- 

 logical question, whether, of the two, pre- conceived or extemporary prayer 

 be most agreeable to the sense of Scripture ? In favour of the former, I have 

 heard it asserted by a very eloquent person, and one of the ablest writers both 

 in prose and verse now living, that he never, without premeditation, could 

 address his Maker in terms suited to his conceptions; and that of all written 

 composition he had found that of prayer to be the most 'difficult. Of the same 

 opinion is a very eminent prelate of this day; who, (being himself an excellent 

 judge of literature), in a conversation on the subject, declared it to me, at the 

 same time saying, that, excepting those in the Liturgy, he looked on the 

 prayers of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, that occur in the course of his works, as by (of 

 the most eloquent and energetic of any in our language. 



