48 



with who talks about it as if it were the 

 serious business of his life. The Doctor's 

 imperfect sight would always be a hindrance 

 to his becoming an expert angler, even had 

 he felt an inclination to the sport; and this 

 defect of vision, his insensibility to melody, 

 for he could scarcely distinguish one tune 

 from another, and his confirmed habits of 

 town life, rendered him indifferent and insen- 

 sible to the charms of the country, which 

 have so powerful an influence on the angler's 

 pleasures. Conversation and argument, in 

 which he excelled, the sharp encounter of 

 wits, the discussion of principles of criticism 

 and morals, were his delight ; and, while he 

 drank his dozen dishes of tea, to display his 

 stores of knowledge or confute an opponent, 

 was to him the summit of earthly enjoyment. 

 It is not however likely that Doctor Johnson 

 in reality thought meanly of angling as an 

 amusement, for it was at his instigation that 

 the Rev. Moses Brown published, in 1750, 

 an edition of Walton and Cotton's " Com- 



