86 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



between boredom and incredulity. He is sometimes 

 inclined to boast of his ignorance. He doesn't 

 know a trout from a grayling, or a pike from a 

 salmon. He thinks fishing an absolute waste of 

 time, and is apt to quote Byron or Dr. Johnson on 

 the point of cruelty. 



On the other hand, your true and truthful angler 

 looks upon his art as the climax of all earthly 

 enjoyment, " a cheerer of the spirits, a diverter of 

 sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts in those that 

 profess and practise it." 



Of these two classes, surely IZAAK Walton 

 may be called the patron saint of the one class 

 and Thomas Ken of the other. It may, I think, 

 be safely averred that the tender-hearted Ken, who 

 would not knowingly have trodden upon a worm, 

 would certainly never have impaled him on a hook, 

 and that he never handled a fishing-rod or hooked 

 a trout. Walton was an angler of fish, Ken was 

 a fisher of men ; and they were united in the 

 common love of the Church to which they both 

 belonged. 



Izaak Walton was in his eighty-fourth year 

 when he wrote his " Life of Bishop Sanderson." 

 Have I not justified myself, now in my eighty-fourth 

 year, for spending the evening of my days in the 



