xlvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1653, 



Some commendatory verses by Walton were prefixed to his 

 " worthy friend " Edward Sparke's " Scintillula Altaris, or a Pious 

 Reflection on Primitive Devotion, as to the Feasts and Fasts of 

 the Christian Church," which was printed in 1652 ; but they are 

 inferior to his other compositions of that description, and the only 

 lines deserving of being quoted are : 



" Each Saint's day 

 Stands as a land-mark in an erring age, 

 To guide frail mortals in their pilgrimage 

 To the Celestial Canaan ; and each fast. 

 Is both the soul's direction, and repast." 



Walton attained his sixtieth year in 1653, and then published 

 the first edition of " The Complete Angler," a work to which he is 

 more indebted for the admiration of posterity than to his biogra- 

 phical labours. It cannot be necessary to enter into a critical 

 disquisition on a work so universally known as " The Complete 

 Angler," which, whether considered as a treatise upon the art of 

 Angling, or as a beautiful pastoral, abounding in exquisite descrip- 

 tions of rural scenery, in sentiments of the purest morality, and 

 in an unaffected love of the Creator and His vyorks, has long 

 ranked amongst the most popular compositions in our language ; 

 but some observations upon its construction and merits will be 

 submitted, when adverting to the second edition. 



The first edition differs materially from all the others, as the 

 dialogue is between two persons only, " Piscator " and " Viator," 

 and the extracts from books are less frequent. Long before the 

 appearance of " The Complete Angler," numerous works had 

 been published, in which the subjects of them were related in 

 dialogue ; and the plan appears to have been a favourite one with 

 the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As might 

 be supposed, Walton framed his treatise upon one of those 

 examples ; and there is reason to believe that he adopted as 

 his model " A Treatise on the Nature of God," a small volume 

 first printed in 1599, which not only commences in nearly the 

 identical words of, but bears, in other places,^ a great similarity 

 to " The Complete Angler ; " and there is so much resemblance 

 between many passages of Walton's work and Heresbachius' 

 Husbandry by Gpoge, which was first printed in 1577,* as to 

 render it probable that he was indebted to that work for some of 

 his ideas. Though intended to be a practical Treatise on Angling, 

 Walton seems to have been aware that the subject itself was not 



' See "The Complete Angler," Note, p. i. 



* This work was reprinted in 1586, and again in 1614. 



