COMMENDATORY VERSES. 



For he that views it with judicious looks 

 Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks. 



The world the river is ; both you and I, 

 And all mankind, are either fish or fry. 

 If we pretend to reason, first or last. 

 His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast. 

 Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme, 

 If not at first, will doubtless take's in time. 



Here sits, in secret, blest Theology, 

 Waited upon by grave Philosophy, 

 Both natural and moral ; History, 

 Deck'd and adom'd with flowers of Poetry, 

 The matter and expression striving which 

 Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem rich. 

 There is no danger in his baits ; that hook 

 Will prove the safest, that is surest took. 



Nor are we caught alone, but, which is best. 

 We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome drest ; 

 Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon : 

 And danger of a surfeit here is none. 

 The solid food of serious contemplation 

 Is sauced, here, with such harmless recreation; 

 That an ingenuous and religious mind 

 Cannot inquire for more than it may find 

 Ready at once prepared, either t' excite. 

 Or satisfy, a curious appetite. 



More praise is due : for 'tis both positive 

 And truth, which once was interrogative, 

 And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest — 

 " Et piscatorem piscis amare potest." 



Ch. Harvie, Mr. of Arts.* 



TO MY DEAR FRIEND, MR IZ. WALTON, IN PRAISE OF 

 ANGLING, WHICH WE BOTH LOVE. 



Down by this smooth stream's wandering side," 

 Adom'd and perfumed with the pride 

 Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill 

 Aerial choir' express their skill, 

 First, in alternate melody,* 

 And, then, in chorus all agree. 

 Whilst * the charm'd fish, as ecstasied 

 With sounds, to his own throat denied, 



VARIATIONS. 



6 Down by this wand'ring stream's smooth side. — zdedii. 



7 Choir of the air. — Ihid. 8 harmony. — Ibid. 9 Where. — Ihid. 



• In the second and ikird editions the initials C. H. only occur ; the name was 

 printed at length in the fifth edition for the first time. An account of Harvey will be 

 found in a subsequent note. 



