Of silly fish, which (worldling like) still look
Upon the bait, but never on the hook;
Nor envy, 'less among

The birds, for price of their sweet song.

Go, let the diving Negro seek
For gems, hid in some forlorn creek:
We all pearls scorn,

Save what the dewy morn

Congeals upon each little spire of

grass,

Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass;

And gold ne'er here appears,

Save what the yellow Ceres bears.

Bless'd silent groves, oh, may you be,
For ever, mirth's best nursery!
May pure contents

For ever pitch their tents

Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains.
And peace still slumber by these purling fountains;

Which we may every year

Meet, when we come a-fishing here.

Piscator. Trust me, scholar, I thank you heartily for these verses; they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover of angling. Come now, drink a glass to me, and I will requite you with another very good copy: it is a farewell to the vanities of the world, and some say written by Sir Harry Wotton, who, I told you, was an excellent angler. But let them be writ by whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be possessed with happy thoughts at the time of their composure:

Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles!
Farewell, ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles!
Fame's but a hollow echo-gold, pure clay -
Honour, the darling but of one short day-
Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin
State, but a golden prison, to live in,
And torture free-born minds

embroider'd trains,

Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins-
And blood allied to greatness is alone

Inherited, not purchased, nor our own.

Fame, honour, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth,
Are but the fading blossoms of the earth.

I would be great, but that the sun doth still
Level his rays against the rising hill-
I would be high, but see the proudest oak
Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke-
I would be rich, but see men, too unkind,
Dig in the bowels of the richest mind.

I would be wise, but that I often see
The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free.
I would be fair, but see the fair and proud,
Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud-
I would be poor, but know the humble grass
Still trampled on by each unworthy ass,-
Rich, hated-wise, suspected scorn'd, if poor-
Great, fear'd-fair, tempted high, still envied more :
I have wish'd all; but now I wish for neither,
Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair, poor I'll be rather.

Would the world now adopt me for her heir-
Would beauty's queen entitle me the fair ---
Fame speak
me fortune's minion could I "vie
Angels" with India* with a speaking eye

-

Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike justice dumb,
As well as blind and lame, or give a tongue
To stones by epitaphs- be called "great master,"
In the loose rhymes of every poetaster-
Could I be more than any man that lives,
Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives, —
Yet I more freely would these gifts resign,
Than ever Fortune would have made them mine,
And hold one minute of this holy leisure
Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure!

Welcome, pure thoughts! welcome, ye silent groves!
These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves!
Now, the wing'd people of the sky shall sing
My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring:
A prayer-book, now, shall be my looking-glass,
In which I will adore sweet virtue's face.
Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace cares,
No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears;
Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly,
And learn t' affect a holy melancholy:

And if contentment be a stranger, then,

I'll ne'er look for it, but in heaven again.

Venator. Well, master, these verses be worthy to keep a room in every man's memory. I thank you for them; and I thank you for your many instructions, which (God willing) I will not forget. And as St Austin, in his Confessions, (book

An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to "vie angels" are a metonomy, and signify to "compare wealth." In the old ballad of The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green, a competition of this kind is introduced: a young knight, about to marry the beggar's daughter, is dissuaded from so unequal a match by some gentlemen, his relations, who urge the poverty of her father; the beggar challenges them to "drop angels" with him, and fairly empties the purses of them all.

The neighbourhood of Bethnal Green is seldom without a public house with a sign representing the Beggar, and the dissuaders of the match, dropping gold; the young woman, and the knight, her lover, standing between them.

iv. chap. 3) commemorates the kindness of his friend Verecundus, for lending him and his companion a country house, because there they rested and enjoyed themselves, free from the troubles of the world: so, having had the like advantage, both by your conversation and the art you have taught me, I ought ever to do the like; for, indeed, your company and discourse have been so useful and pleasant, that, I may truly say, I have only. lived since I enjoyed them and turned angler, and not before. Nevertheless, here I must part with you, here in this now sad place where I was so happy as first to meet you: but I shall long for the ninth of May; for then I hope again to enjoy your beloved company at the appointed time and place. And now I wish for some somniferous potion, that might force me to sleep away the intermitted time; which will pass away with me as tediously as it does with men in sorrow; nevertheless, I will make it as short as I can, by my hopes and wishes: and, my good master, I will not forget the doctrine which you told me Socrates taught his scholars, that they should not think to be honoured so much for being philosophers, as to honour philosophy by their virtuous lives. You advised me to the like concerning angling, and I will endeavour to do so; and to live like those many worthy men, of which you made mention in the former part of your discourse. This is my firm resolution. And as a pious man advised his friend, that, to beget mortification, he should frequent churches, and view monuments and charnel-houses, and then and there consider how many dead bones time had piled up at the gates of death: so when I would beget content, and increase confidence in the power, and wisdom, and providence of Almighty God, I will walk the meadows, by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the lilies that take no care, and those very many other various little living creatures that are not only created, but fed (man knows not how) by the goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore trust in him. This is my purpose: and so, "let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord." And let the blessing of St Peter's Master be with mine.

Piscator. And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in His providence, and be quiet, and go a-angling.

"STUDY TO BE QUIET."-1 Thess. iv. 11.

END OF PART I.

Ir is imagined that the several descriptions of River Fish, contained in the foregoing pages, are abundantly sufficient for the information of any mere angler. But those who are curious to know the essential differences between the various species, are hereby recommended to a work entitled Ichthyographia, s. Historia Piscium, by Francis Willoughby, Esq. fol. Oxon. 1686; and to a posthumous work of that learned man and excellent naturalist, the Rev. Mr John Ray, entitled Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium, published by Dr Derham, in octavo, 1713.

And whereas, in page 194, &c. n. it is hinted, that the history of aquatic insects is but little known; and this stupendous branch of natural science is well worthy of farther investigation; the reader is hereby directed to the perusal of the Life of the Ephemeron, an insect little differing from our green and gray drake, translated from the Low Dutch of Dr Swammerdam, by Dr Edward Tyson, London, quarto, 1681. And for his farther information on this subject, we have added, as the first number of the Appendix to this work, a translation of a Synopsis of these creatures, drawn out from the observations of the above Mr Willoughby, and exhibited in Mr Ray's Methodus Insectorum, mentioned by Dr Derham in his Physico- Theology, page 234.*

It is not for the improvement of angling alone, that the above authors are referred to: the study of the works of nature is the most effectual way to open and enlarge the mind, and excite in us the affections of reverence and gratitude towards that Being whose wisdom and goodness are discernible in the structure of the meanest reptile. Farther, "The wisdom of God receives small honour from those vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and, with a gross rusticity, admire his works: those highly magnify him, whose judicious inquiry into his acts, and deliberate research into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration."- Religio Medici, sec. 13.

The fullest and plainest account. for the use of general readers, of every species of insects, hitherto published in English, may be found in Insect Architecture, Insect Trans formations, Insect Miscellanies, and Alphabet of Insects. -J. R.