LIFE OF WALTON. 7 



hunting, hawking, and fowling, which the authoress shows, 

 are attended with great inconveniences and disappointments ; 

 whereas in fishing, if his sport fail, him, the angler, says she, 

 "atte the leest, hath his holsom walke, and mery at his ease, 

 a swete ayre of the swete sauoure of the meede floures, that 

 makyth him hungry ; he hereth the melodyous armony of 

 flowles ; he seeth the yonge swaunes, heerons, duckes, cotes, 

 and many other fowles, wyth theyr brodes ; whyche rne semyth 

 better than alle the noyse of houndys, the blastes of hornys 

 and the scrye of foulis, that hunters, fawkeners, and foulers 

 can make. And if the angler take fysshe : surely, thenne, is 

 there noo man merier than he is in his spyryte." 



But to return to the work of our author, "The Complete 

 Angler : " it came into the world attended with encomiastic 

 verses by several writers of that day ; and had in the title-page, 

 though Walton thought proper to omit it in the future editions, 

 this apposite motto : 



" Simon Peter said, I go a-fishing ; and they said, we also will 

 go with thee." John xxi. 3. 



And here occasion is given us to remark, that the circumstance 

 of time, and the distracted state of the kingdom at the period 

 when the book was written, reaching indeed to the publication 

 of a third edition, are evidences of the author's temper and 

 disposition ; for who, but a man whose mind was the habi- 

 tation of piety, prudence, humility, peace, and cheerfulness, 

 could delineate such a character as that of the principal 

 interlocutor in this dialogue ; and make him reason, contemplate, 

 instruct, converse, jest, sing, and recite verses, with the sober 

 pleasantry, and unlicentious hilarity of " Piscator," and this, 

 too, at a time when the whole kingdom was in. arms ; and 

 confusion and desolation were carried to an extreme sufficient to 

 have excited such a resentment against the authors of them, as 

 might have soured the best temper, and rendered it, in no small 

 degree, unfit for social intercourse. 



Walton's stock of learning, properly so called, was not great ; 

 yet his attainments in literature were far beyond what could be 

 expected from a man bred to trade, and not to a learned profes- 

 sion ; for, let it be remembered, that, besides being well versed in 

 the study of the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the most 

 eminent divines of his time, he appears to have been well 

 acquainted with history, ecclesiastical, civil and natural, to have 

 acquired a very correct judgment in poetry : and by phrases of 

 his own combination and invention, to have formed a style so 

 natural, intelligible, and elegant, as to have had more admirers 

 than successful imitators. 



What reception the book met with, may be inferred from the 



