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PREFACE. 



WALTON'S ' Complete Angler ' ranks, by common 

 consent, among the choicest morsels of our early 

 literature, not as a mere manual of the piscatorial art, 

 but as a work of imagination and truth, full of fine 

 sentiment and virtuous precepts. Many of our best 

 writers Sir Walter Scott, Sheridan, Hallam, Washington 

 Irving, Miss Mitford have rung its praises ; and Charles 

 Lamb says, that "it would sweeten a man's temper at 

 any time to read it, and Christianize every discordant 

 passion." 



It is, therefore, no matter of surprise that the demand for 

 this beautiful pastoral is continuous, and that there are so 

 many editions of it before the public ; indeed so many, and 

 some so recent, that it would at first view almost seem 



