CHAPTER XXII. 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
We cannot omit inserting the following elegant and appro- 
priate defence of our art, from the aspersions cast upon it by 
a great man, by a mild and enthusiastic amateur, who occa- 
sionally seeks enjoyment, from the cares and vexations of 
business, in more pleasant pursuits. 
“The great and learned Dr. Johnson satirically described 
ailing thus: ‘A stick and a string, with a worm at one end 
and a fool at the other.’ Dr. Johnson never sat in a boat, 
surrounded by a beautiful landscape, playing a basse of three, 
four, or five pounds ; nor stood on the green bank, contend- 
ing with a trout of like weight ; nor struck an Oswego basse, 
one hundred feet astern of his trolling boat, in Lake George, 
or he would never have penned such a severe though stupid 
satire. There is no recreation so admirably adapted to re- 
cruit the body and mind of the toiling citizen, as angling. 
Breaking away from his confining and exhausting toil in the 
counting-house, office, or workshop, leaving all care behind. 
