Ffy-Fifhing. 



appendages you cannot difpenfe with, will not, however, 

 content me in your cafe, without a hint or two as to 

 their nature and ufe. 



You have feen, haply with fome furprife, how reluc- 

 tant an acquaintance of the fine old Englifh gentleman 

 ftamp (lefs common, alas ! than formerly) has been, to 

 caft oft" that part of his clothing yclept a hat, though 

 fcarcely a veftige remained of what it once was, when 

 it came fo fleek and fhapely into his poffeffion ! Some- 

 thing of peculiar value mutt have belonged to it thus to 

 endear it fo much in the days of its decrepitude. Habit, 

 I would fuggeft, might, in no flight degree, have been 

 at the bottom of the fecret habit that fo foon changes 

 the very cut and fhape of deformity itfelf into beauty's 

 niceft proportions habit, that firft familiarifes and then 

 endears things that we originally thought nothing of 

 habit, without whofe fociety we Ihould be indeed a 

 ftrange fet, more fo in facl: than at prefent eternally 

 refllefs, eternally bent on change, and eternally unhappy, 

 I believe, in confequence. Thus it muft have been habit 

 (I can attribute it to nothing elfe) that fixed fo forcibly 

 in my affections the rod I fell in with fome years ago, 

 and which I confidered, I believe, without a rival for a 

 long time, until I was perfuaded (though with many 

 mifgivings) to order a new one. At leaft fourteen feet 

 long, and heavy in proportion, I can well remember 

 now the charm is broken how I ufed to blunder on 

 when fifhing fome little bufhy brook with it. It never 

 occurred to me that the many mifhaps I met with con- 

 tinually were owing, in nine cafes out of ten, to this 



