238 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



Bleat silent groves, oh may you be, 

 For ever, miiih's best nursery ! 



May pure contents 



For tver pitch their tents 



Upon these downs, these mends, these rucks, these mountains, 

 And peace stilt slumber by tUvae purling fountains : 



Which we my every year 



Meet, when we come a fishing here. 



Pise. Trust me, Scholar, I thank you heartily for these 

 Verses : they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a 

 lover of angling. Come, now, drink a glass with me, 

 and I will requite you with another very good copy : it 

 is a farewell to the vanities of the world, and some say 

 written by Sir Harry Wotton, who I told you was an 

 excellent angler. But let them be writ by whom they 

 will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs 

 be possest with happy thoughts at the time of their com- 

 posure. 



Farewell ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles; 

 Farewell ye hoaonr'd rigs, ye, glorious bubbles ; 

 Fame's but a hollow echo ; Gold, pure clay; 

 Honour the darling but of one short day ; 

 Beauty, (th* eye's idol,) but a damatk'd skin ; 

 State, but a golden prison, to live in 

 And torture free-born minds ; embroidered Trains, 

 Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins; 

 And Blood allied to greatness is alone 

 Inherited, not porrnas'd, nor our own. 



Fane, Honour, Beauty, State. Train, Blood and Birth, 



Arc but the fading blossoms of the eaith. 



I would be great, but that the snn doth still 



Level his rays against the rising hill : 



I would be high, but see the proudest oak 



Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke : 



I would be rich, but see men, (too unkind,) 



Dig in the bowels of the richest mind : 



I would be wise, but that I often see 



The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free : 



I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, 



Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud : 



I would be poor, but know the humble grass 



Still trampled on by each unworthy ass : 



Rich, hated ; wise, suspected; scorn'd, if poor; 



Great, fear'd ; fair, tempted ; high, still envy'd more. 

 I have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither, 

 Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair: poor I'll be rather. 



