io8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part I. 



know that you are so well pleased with my direction and dis- 

 course.^ 



And since you like these verses of Mr Herbert's so well, let me 

 tell you what a reverend and learned divine that professes to 

 imitate him, and has indeed done so most excellently, hath writ 

 of our Book of Common Prayer ; which I know you will like the 

 better, because he is a friend of mine, and I am sure no enemy 

 to angling.* ^ 



What ! Pray'r by th' book ? and Common ? Yes ; why not ? 

 The spirit of grace 

 And supplication 

 Is not left free alone 

 For time and place, 

 But manner too : to read, or speak, by rote, 

 Is all alike to him that prays, 

 In's3 heart, what with his mputh he says. 



They that in private, by themselves alone, 



Do pray, may take 

 What liberty they pleasp, 

 In chusing of the ways 

 Wherein to make 

 Their soul's most intimate affections known 

 To him that sees in secret, when 

 Th' are most conceal'd from other men. 



But he, that unto others leads the way 



In public prayer, 

 Should do it so,* 

 As all, that hear, may know 

 They need not fear 

 To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say 

 Amen ; not^ doubt they were betray'd 

 To blaspheme, when they n;eant to have pray'd.6 



Devotion will add life unto the letter : 



And why should not 

 That, which authority 

 Prescribes, esteemed be 

 Advantage got? 

 If th* prayer be good, the commoner the better. 

 Prayer in the Church's words, as well 

 As sense, of all prayers hears the bell-f Ch. Harvie. 



VARIATIONS. 



2 and I hope you will be pleased too if you find a trout at one of our angles which we 

 left in the water to fish for itself, &c. — ist edit. 



3 Witli's. * Should choose to do it so. ^ nor. 



^ To blaspheme, when they should have pray'd. 



* This passage goes very near to unfold the name of the author of the Synagofffie, a 

 collection of poems, suppletory to that of Mr George Herbert entitled the Temple. For we 

 pee " Ch. Harvie " subscribed to the ensuing eulogium on the Coimnon Prayer, which is 

 also to be found in the Syiiag-o^rue- And I find in the A then, Oxon. vol. i. 267, a Christopher 

 Harvey : a Master of Arts, Vicar of Clifton in Warwickshire ; born in 1597, and who 

 lived to 1G63, and perhaps after. Further, the second copy of commendatory verses, 

 prefixed to this book, has the subscription " Ch. Harvie, M. A." The presumption there- 

 fore is very strong, that both were written by the Christopher Harvey above mentioned. 

 At the end of the Synagog^te are some verses subscribed "Iz. Wa." — H. Anthony 

 Wood says the Synagogue was written by Thoinas Harvey. A then. Oxon. by Bliss. 



t These verses were written at or near the time when the Liturgy was abolished by 



