120 FOURTEENTH TO THE 



" His certain life, which never can deceive him, 

 Is full of thousand sweets and rich content ; 

 The smooth-leav'd beeches in the field receive him 

 With coolest shade, till noontide's heat be spent. 

 His life is neither tost on boist'rous seas 

 Of the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease ; 

 Pleas'd and full blest he lives, when he his G-od can please." 



" His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps,* 

 While by his side his faithful spouse has place ; 

 His little son into his bosom creeps, 

 The lively picture of his father's face. 



Never his humble roof nor state torment him, 



Less he could like, if less his fate had lent him, 



And when he dies, green turfs with grassy tomb content him." 



Fletcher was likewise the author of Sicelides, a pis- 

 catory drama. 



The next epoch in our sketch, is the work of Izaak 

 Walton. It made its appearance in 1613. It will readily 

 be conceded, even by the most devoted of the disciples of 

 ' good Izaak/ that there were many materials strewed about 

 in all directions by previous writers, calculated to aid him 

 considerably in the getting up of his performance. He was 

 not, in fact, the creator of what may be termed Piscatory 

 Waltonianism. He certainly greatly improved and deve- 

 loped it ; but he owed more to his predecessors than is 

 commonly imagined. Neither his sentiments, his quaint- 

 ness, his poetical vein, nor his religious reflections, are 

 entirely his own. They had all been brought to bear in 



