LIFE OF COTTON. 257 



excepting in a flood, 1 would I had laid a thousand pounds that I did 

 not kill fish, more or less, with it, winter or summer, every day in the 

 year; those days always excepted that upon a more serious account 

 always ought so to be :" ' whence it is but just to infer, that the de- 

 light he took in fishing was never a temptation with him to profane 

 the sabbath. 



The inconsistencies above pointed out, we leave the perusers of his 

 various writings to reconcile ; with this remark, that he must have 

 possessed a mind well stored with ideas, and habituated to reflections, 

 who could write such verses as immediately follow this account, and, 

 in many respects, have been an amiable man, whom WALTON could 

 choose for his friend, and adopt for his son. 



J. H. 



(1) Chap. 11. 



