270 SALMONIA. 



all have a happy meeting in England in the 

 winter. I have made you idlers at home 

 and abroad, but I hope to some purpose; 

 and, I trust, you will confess the time be- 

 stowed upon angling has not been thrown 

 away. The most important principle per- 

 haps in life is to have a pursuit a useful 

 one if possible, and at all events an innocent 

 one. And the scenes you have enjoyed 

 the contemplations to which they have led, 

 and the exercise in which we have indulged, 

 have, I am sure, been very salutary to the 

 body, and, I hope, to the mind. I have 

 always found a peculiar effect from this kind 

 of life ; it has appeared to bring me back to 

 early times and feelings, and to create again 

 the hopes and happiness of youthful days. 



PHYS. I felt something like what you 

 described, and were I convinced that in the 

 cultivation of the amusement, these feelings 

 would increase, I would devote myself to it 

 with passion; but, I fear, in my case this is 

 impossible. Ah! could I recover any thing 

 like that freshness of mind which I possessed 

 at twenty-five, and which, like the dew of 



