270] A TOPOGRAPHICAL, &c. 



pected, and as an angler, will never cease to be consulted and re- 

 ferred to. To one of the most pleasing and useful branches of lite- 

 rature, and one of the most primitive of recreations, he devoted a 

 long and valuable life.* The Complete Angler is indeed unique 

 in its kind ; and while it simply professes to initiate in the mys- 

 teries of angling, by a happy combination of ideas, apt allusions, 

 and beautiful imagery, seduces the reader from the low aud unsatis- 

 factory amusements of the throng to the more stable and rational 

 enjoyments of primitive time, that involuntarily lead to a train of 

 thought embracing the contemplation of the Creator, and filling the 

 mind with admiration of the stupendous works of creation. Its 

 praise-worthy aim seems to have been to impress man with a just 

 estimate of himself; and in the pursuit of an innocent recreation, 

 to " look through Nature up to Nature's God." 



WE have now concluded our BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ; and it 

 will be seen that STAFFORDSHIRE is rich in Worthies. In the nobler 

 walks of life, and in almost every department of science, Stafford- 

 shire has her representative. She has been illustrious in the Field, 

 eloquent at the Bar, persuasive and dignified in the Pulpit : the 

 graces and essentials of our native language, the flowers of poetry, 

 the intricacies of science, the soundest maxims of morality, the 

 philosophy of faith, and the benign and healing influence of Christi- 

 anity have been expounded, adorned, and illustrated by her com- 

 bined and luminous intellect, the works of her academic mas- 

 ters will descend like " precious ointment" upon posterity, 

 to the edification of the mind, the improvement of the heart to the 

 well-being of Man and the exaltation of Deity. It will be the 

 duty of some future biographer to add other exalted names to 

 this phalanx of wisdom ; and, whilst pausing to admire, we feel 

 at once unequal to the task of fully estimating their worth, and an 

 adequate sense of the emptiness of human praise. 



* See Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, and the Gen. Biog. Diet ia 

 Beauties. 



