204 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part r. 



told you, that you also may join with me in thankfulness to the 

 Giver of every good and perfect gift, for our happiness. And 



. that our present happiness may appear to be the greater, and we 

 the more thankful for it, I will beg you to consider with me how 

 many do, even at this very time, lie under the torment of the 

 stone, the gout, and toothache ; and this we are free from. And 

 every misery that I miss is a new mercy ; and therefore let us be 

 thankful. There have been, since we met, others that have met 

 disasters of broken limbs ; some have been blasted, others thunder- 

 strucken : and we have been freed from these, and all those many 

 other miseries that threaten human nature ; let us therefore rejoice 

 and be thankful. Nay, which is a far greater mercy, we are free 

 from the insupportable burthen of an accusing tormenting con- 

 science ; a misery that none can bear : and therefore let us praise 

 Him for His preventing grace, and say. Every misery that I miss 

 is a new mercy. Nay, let me tell you, there be many that have 



^forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it to 

 be healthful and cheerful like us, who, with the expense of a little 



I money, have eat and drunk, and laughed, and angled, and sung, 



\and slept securely ; and rose next day and cast away care, and 

 sung, and laughed, and angled again ; whichare_bls55i]isa_rich_ 

 ISD-JiaJiSot PiJ^chase with all their money. Let me tell you, 

 Scholar, I have a rich neighoour that is always so busy that he 

 bas no leisure to laugh ; the whole business of his life is to get 

 money, and more money, that he may still get more and more 

 money ; he is still drudging on, and says, that Solomon says, 

 " The diligent hand maketh rich ; " and it is true indeed : but he 

 considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make a man 

 happy ; for it was wisely said, by a man of great observation, " That 

 there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them." 

 And yet God deliver us from pinching poverty ; and grant, that 

 having a competency, we may be content and thankful. Let not 

 us repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, 

 if we see another abound with riches ; when, as God knows, the 

 cares that are the keys that keep those riches hang often so heavily 

 at the rich man's girdle, that they^ clog him with weary days 

 and restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. We see but 

 the outside of the rich man's happiness : few consider him to be 

 like the silkworm, that, when she seems to play, is, at the very 

 same time, spinning her own bowels, and consuming herself; and 

 this many rich men do, loading themselves with corroding cares, 

 ta keep what they have, probably, unconscionably got. Let us, 



