The Philosophy of Angling. 309 



" He maketh me to lie down in green pastuxes : he leadeth 

 me beside the still waters." 



But the question : where ean rest be found ? has already 

 been answered in the crowds of tired pilgrims — they are 

 called pleasure-seekers, but they are looking for rest — who 

 are seen each summer-time wending their ways by rail and 

 steamer to the mountains, to the sea-shore, to the Adiron- 

 dacks, to the Great Lake region, to the wilds of Maine and 

 Canada, to the charming streams and lakelets of Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, and Minnesota, or simply to " the country " — 

 any place in fact is their Mecca where may be found rest 

 and quiet, green fields, green hills, green trees, and clear, 

 cool water. 



Then, the season for angling coming as it does during 

 the midsummer vacation, in the pleasantest weather and 

 during the lull in active business matters, presents at once 

 the means and the opportunity for enjoyment and rest, for 

 recreation and peace. Horace Greeley once said to the 

 writer that he had been for years eagerly looking forward 

 to the time when he could lay down his pen, for a few days, 

 and "go-a-fishing;" but that time never came during his 

 busy life. His dreams of a brief season of what he con- 

 sidered the very essence of rest and contentment were never 

 realized — he died a martyr to an overworked brain. 



Eest and recreation to the active mind does not mean 

 mere idleness, or as it is more poetically expressed: doles 

 far nientej this, to many, would be more irksome than the 

 hardest work. Many men have a horror of going into 

 the woods, to the wilderness, to the lakes, or the sea-shore, 

 because there is nothing to do, nothing to occupy their 

 minds, nothing to save them from ennui after the novelty 

 wears off. The busy, active man can secure rest only by 

 diverting the muscular and nervous energies in new and 



