CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 237 



Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, 

 Anxious bighs, uutiinely tears, 



Fly, fly to courts, 



Fly lo fond worldlings' sports, 

 Where strain' d Sardonic smiles i are glosiug still, 

 And Grief is forc'd to laugh against her will : 



Where mirth's but mummery, 



And sorrows only real be. 



Fly from our country pastimes, fly. 

 Sad troops of human misery. 



Come, serene looks, 



Clear as the crystal brooks, 

 Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see 

 The rich attendance on our poverty : 



Peace and a secure mind, 



Which all men seek, we only find. 



Abased mortals ! did you know 



Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow, 



You'd scorn proud towers, 



And seek them in these bowers ; 



Where winds, sometimes, our woods perhaps may shake, 

 But blust'ring care could never tempest make, 



Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 



Saving of fountains that glide by us. 



Here's no fantastic mask, nor dance, 

 Bat of our kids that frisk and prance ; 



Nor wars are seen, 



Unless upon the green 



Two harmless lambs are butting one the other, 

 Which done, both bleating run, each to his mother: 



Aud wounds are never found, 



Save what the plough-share gives the ground. 



Here are no entrapping baits, 

 To hasten too, too hasty Fates, 



Unless it be 



The fond credulity 



Of silly fish, which (worldling like) still look 

 Upon the bait, but never on the book ; 



Nor envy, unless among 



The birds, for price of their sweet song. 



Go, let the diving negro seek 



For gems, hid in some forlorn creek : 



We all pearls scorn, 



Save what the dewy morn 

 Congeals upon each little spire of grass, 

 Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass ; 



And gold ne'er here appears, 



Save what the yellow Ceres bean. 



(1) Feigned, or forced smiles, from the word-Sardon, the name of a herb, resem- 

 bling smallage, and* growing in Sardinia, which being eaten by men, contracts 

 the muscles, and exciUs laughter, even to death. Vide Erasmi Adagia, tit. Ristu. 



