and we learn from good authority, that Mr. GEORGE HERBERT loved angling; a circumstance that is rather to be believed, "because he had a spirit suitable to anglers, and to those primitive Christians who are so much loved and commended." Let not these remarks provoke the chastisement of censure. Let them not be condemned as nugatory and insignificant. Amidst our disquietudes and delusive cares, amidst the painful anxiety, the disgustful irksomeness, which are often the unwelcome attendants on business and on study, an harmless gratification is not merely excusable, it is in some degree necessary. In the skilful management of the angle, Isaac Walton is acknowledged to bear away the prize from all his contemporaries. The river which he seems principally to have frequented, for the purpose of pursuing his inoffensive amusement, was the Lea, which, rising above the town of Ware, in Hertfordshire, falls into the Thames a little below Blackwall; "unless we will suppose that the vicinity of the New River to the place of his habitation might sometimes tempt him out with his friends, honest Nat and R. Roe, whose loss he so pathetically mentions, to spend an afternoon there."m In his tract of The Complete Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, he has comprised the clearest and fullest instructions for the attainment of a thorough proficiency in the art. JAMES DUPORT, the Greek Professor at Cambridge, who was far from being a novice in the use of the rod, disdained not, on this occasion, to address our author in a beautiful Latin Iambic Ode.

In this volume of The Complete Angler, which will be always read with avidity, even by those who entertain no strong relish for the art which it professes to teach, we discover a copious vein of innocent pleasantry and good humor. The scenes descriptive of rural life are inimitably beautiful. How artless and unadorned is the language! The dialogue is diversified with all the characteristic beauties of colloquial composition. The songs and little poems, which are occasionally inserted, will abundantly gratify the reader, who has a taste for the charms of pastoral poesy. And, above all,

Biographical Dictionary, in the article WALTON, ISAAC.

those lovely lessons of religious and moral instruction, which are so repeatedly inculcated throughout the whole work, will ever recommend this exquisitely pleasing performance."

In the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the violence of faction burst forth with renovated fury. The discontents of the Nonconformists were daily increasing; while Popery assumed fresh hopes of re-establishing itself by fomenting and encouraging the divisions that unhappily subsisted among Protestants. A tract, entitled The Naked Truth, or the True State of the Church, was published in 1675, and attributed to Dr. HERBERT CROFT, Bishop of Hereford. Eager to accomplish a union of the Dissenters with the Church of England, and to include them within its pale, this prelate hesitated not to suggest the expediency of proposing several concessions to them, with respect to the rites and ceremonies then in use, and even to comply with their unrea sonable demand of abolishing episcopacy. It may be easily presumed, that these proposals met with no very favorable reception. They were animadverted upon with much spirit and ability, in various publications. In the mean time, animosities prevailed without any prospect of their termination. From fanaticism on one side, and from superstition on the other, real danger was apprehended. Those who exerted themselves in maintaining the legal rights and liberties of the estab lished Church, were denominated "Whigs." Most of

"Content will

I venture to quote the following beautiful passage. never dwell but in a meek and quiet soul. And this may appear if we read and consider what our Saviour says in St. Matthew's gospel : For there he says, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy: Blessed be the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD: Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of GOD: and blessed be the ineek, for they shall possess the earth.' Not that the meek shall not also obtain mercy, and see GOD, and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom of heaven; but in the mean time he, and he only, possesses the earth as he goes toward that kingdom of heaven, by being humble, and cheerful, and content with what his good God has allotted him. He has no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that he deserves better; nor is vext, when he sees others possest of more honor, or more riches than his wise GOD has allotted for his share: But he possesses what he has with a meek and contented quietness, such a quietness as makes his very dreams pleasing both to GoD and himself." Complete Angler, P. I. ch. xxi.

0

them were persons eminent for their learning, and very cordially attached to the established Constitution. Others, who opposed the Dissenters, and were thought to be more in fear of a republic than a Popish successor, were distinguished by the name of "Tories." At this critical period, Isaac Walton expressed his solicitude for the real welfare of his country, not with a view to embarrass himself in disputation,-for his nature was totally abhorrent from controversy, but to give an ingenuous and undissembled account of his own faith and practice, as a true son of the Church of England. His modesty precluded him from annexing his name to the treatise, which he composed at this time; and which appeared, first, in 1680, under the title of Love and Truth, in two modest and peaceable Letters, concerning the Distempers of the present Times; written from a quiet and conformable Citizen of London, to two busie and factious shopkeepers in Coventry. But let none of you suffer as a busie-body in other Men's Matters'. I Pet. iv. 15,-1680. The style, the sentiment, the argumentation, are such as might be expected from a plain man, actuated only by an honest zeal to promote the public peace. And if we consider that it was written by him in the eighty-seventh year of his age, a period of life when the faculties of the mind are usually on the decline, it will be scarce possible not to admire the clearness of his judgment, and the unimpaired vigor of his memory. The real purport of this work, which is not altogether unapplicable to more recent times, and which breathes the genuine spirit of benevolence and candor, is happily expressed in the author's own. words to the person whom he addresses in the second letter.

"This I beseech you to consider seriously: and, good cousin, let me advise you to be one of the thank

The author, in the choice of the title affixed to his tract, might allude to Ephes. iv. 15., "Speaking the Truth in Love."

This tract is assigned to Mr. Isaac Walton, on the best authority, that of ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT, who, in a volume of Miscellanies-(Miscellanea 14, 2, 34.)—in the library of Emmanuel College, in Cambridge, has, with his own hand, marked its title thus: IS. WALTON's two Letters conc. the Distemps. of the Times, 1680.

ful and quiet party; for it will bring peace at last. Let neither your discourse nor practice be to encourage, or assist in making a schism in that Church, in which you were baptized and adopted a Christian; for you may continue in it with safety to your soul; you may in it study sanctification, and practice it to what degree God, by his grace, shall enable you. You may fast as much as you will; be as humble as you will; pray, both publicly and privately, as much as you will; visit and comfort as many distressed and dejected families as you will; be as liberal and charitable to the poor as you think fit and are able. These, and all other of those undoubted Christian graces that accompany salvation, you may practise either publicly or privately, as much and as often as you think fit; and yet keep in the communion of that Church, of which you were made a member by your baptism. These graces you may practise, and not be a busie-body in promoting schism and faction; as God knows your father's friends, Hugh Peters and John Lilbourn did, to the ruine of themselves, and many of their disciples. Their turbulent lives and uncomfortable deaths are not, I hope, yet worn out of the memory of many. He that compares them with the holy life and happy death of Mr. George Herbert, as it is plainly, and, I hope, truly writ by Mr. Isaac Walton, may in it find a perfect pattern for an humble and devout Christian to imitate. And he that considers the restless lives and uncomfortable deaths of the other two, (who always lived like the salamander, in the fire of contention), and considers the dismal consequences of schism and sedition, will (if prejudice and a malicious zeal have not so blinded him that he cannot see reason) be so convinced, as to beg of God to give him a meek and quiet spirit; and that he may, by his grace, be prevented from being a busie-body in what concerns him not."

Such admonitions as these could only proceed from a

Such kind advice accorded with his usual sentiments.

"VEN. This is my purpose, and so let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Let the blessing of St. Peter's Master be with mine. "PISC. And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in his Providence, and be quiet, and go an angling. 'Study to be quiet.* I Thess. iv. 11." Complete Angler, P. I. ch. 2.

heart overflowing with goodness, a heart, as was said concerning that of Sir HENRY WOTTON, "in which Peace, Patience, and calm Content did inhabit."

A life of temperance, sobriety, and cheerfulness, is not seldom rewarded with length of days, with an healthful, honorable, and happy old age. Isaac Walton retained to the last a constitution unbroken by disease, with the full possession of his mental powers. In a letter to Mr. Cotton from London, April 29, 1676, he writes; "Though I be more than a hundred miles from you, and in the eighty-third year of my age; yet I will forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon." He wrote The Life of Dr. Sanderson, when he was in his eighty-fifth year. We find him active with his pen, after this period, at a time when, "silvered o'er with age," he had a just claim to a writ of ease. On the ninetieth anniversary of his birth-day, he declares himself in his will to be of perfect memory.' In the very year in which he died, he prefixed a Preface to a work edited by him: The alma and Clearchus, a Pastoral History, in smooth and easy verse: written long since by JOHN CHALKHILL, Esq., an Acquaintant and Friend of EDMUND SPENSER."

When LEONICENI, one of the most profound scholars in Italy, in the fifteenth century, was asked by what art he had, through a period of ninety years, preserved a sound memory, perfect senses, an upright body, and a vigorous health, he answered, "by innocence, serenity of mind, and temperance." Isaac Walton, having uniformly enjoyed that happy tranquillity, which is the

FLATMAN, who is known both as a poet and a painter, hath in such true colors delineated the character of his much-esteemed friend, that it would be injurious not to transcribe the following lines:

"Happy old man! whose worth all mankind knows,
Except himself; who charitably shows,

The ready road to virtue and to praise,
The road to many long and happy days,
The noble arts of generous piety,
And how to compass true felicity.
Hence did he learn the art of living well;
The bright Thealma was his oracle:
Inspired by her he knows no anxious cares,

Through near a century of pleasant years:
Easy he lives, and cheerful shall he die
Well spoken of by late posterity."