6 Ffy'Fifhing. 



rambled along the banks of the ftreams he loved 

 to frequent.* 



And not only trifling but cruel ! So fays the 

 noble bard (by inference at leaft) in his memorable 

 couplet. Fit judge indeed of cruelty ! Perhaps 

 there is no ftronger evidence of ignorance and 

 prefumption in another, than to hear him vo- 

 lunteer a decided opinion on a fubjecl: he can 

 know nothing about. How few reflect when 

 they charge the angler with cruelty, how clofely, 

 if not abfolutely, they trench upon the femblance 

 of the like charge, in the cafe of Him who faid to 

 Peter, " Go thou to the fea and caft an hook, 

 and take up the fim that firft cometh up ? " If 

 ought that was unufual attended this mode of fifh- 

 ing, fuch as our dainty accufers do not hefitate 

 to allege, would our Lord thus dire6tly have com- 

 manded his difciple to pra&ife it? Again, the 



* " We feldom take the name of God into our mouths 

 but it is either to praife Him or to pray to Him : if others 

 uie it vainly in the midft of their recreations, fo vainly as if 

 they meant to conjure, I muft tell you it is neither our fault 

 nor our cuftom ; we proteft againft it. But pray remember 

 I accufe nobody ; for as I would not make a watery dif- 

 courfe, fo I would not put too much vinegar into it ; nor 

 would I raife the reputation of my own art by the diminu- 

 tion or ruin of another's." IZAAK WALTON. 



