REMARKS PRELIMINARY. 39 



except the bordering willows of Dryburgh, or those 

 skirting the rivers of Babylon, where the Israelites 

 hung their harps in the days of their captivity. 



By no poetical feeling whatever should the free 

 swing of line be ever interrupted. Let sketchers 

 put imaginary trees in their landscapes as they please, 

 yet such are ever the true angler's real feelings, dis- 

 guise them as he may : KEEP TREE, ROCK, AND 



IVY FULL LINE-SWING FROM THE MARGIN OF LAKE AND 



STREAM. One truth is worth fifty of these fishing 

 authors' sickly preachments. If our tractates on 

 the subject should never sell, let us not heap disgrace 

 on our own poor head by feigning sanctity we never 

 feel. Such would be worse than prevalent supersti- 

 tion or common hypocrisy. I can see no more 

 sentimentality in angling for fish than in the rural 

 sports of Fox or Otter hunting.* The excitement is 

 kept up by the solicitude of success, and this the 

 same in fishing for reputation in the sport, as in 

 fishing for a dinner ; the true angler being always 

 intent in the pursuit, however passive he may appear. 

 The fertility of Isaac's imagination, and the in- 

 genuity of his mind, would have made him to excel 



* There is at least a charm, a romance, felt in the prospect or the 

 remembrance of angling which almost every one feels, and which 

 John himself must have felt hundreds of times. [EDE.j 



