2 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



but the tire of enthusiasm kindled in youth is 

 never extinguished. The time, however, does 

 come when one is reluctant to parade the sources 

 of even his innocent pleasures, except, perhaps, to 

 those " simple wise men " whom he knows to be 

 in sympathy with him, and who can appreciate 

 the too generally unappreciated truth that that 

 pleasure is only worthy the pursuit of men or of 

 angels which " worketh no evil." 



But so many kind friends, who find delight in 

 the pursuit of the gentle art, have importuned 

 me to forego my purpose to be silent, and to 

 permit them, just this once, to enjoy what they 

 are pleased to characterize as " the pleasure they 

 derive " from these rambling jottings, that I have 

 reluctantly consented to gratify the few with 

 whom I know I shall be en rapport from the start, 

 at the hazard of displeasing the many whose high- 

 est conceptions of angling have been derived from 

 that libelous old adage of " a rod and line, with a 

 fool at one end and a fish at the other," and who, 

 because of this misconception, have neither sym- 

 pathy with nor respect for a recreation which the 

 wisest and gentlest and most lovable men of all 

 ages have recognized as the best and simplest and 

 most effective medicine for mind and body which 

 a kind Providence has vouchsafed erring and ailing 

 humanity. 



