The
sweetness and serenity of Nature and the quiet watchfulness of
the sport gradually bring on pleasant fits of musing, which are
now and then agreeably interrupted by the song of a bird, the
distant whistle of the peasant, or perhaps the vagary of some
fish leaping out of the still water and skimming transiently
about its glassy surface. "When I would beget content," says
Izaak Walton, "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 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."
I cannot forbear to give another quotation from one of those
ancient champions of angling which breathes the same innocent and
happy spirit:
Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink
Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place:
Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink
With eager bite- of Pike, or Bleak, or Dace;
And on the world and my Creator think:
Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t' embrace:
And others spend their time in base excess
Of wine, or worse, in war or wantonness.
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