Here from old Izaak Walton's book again we find such a pleasant picture of a contemplative fisherman's peace of mind that we cannot resist laying it before our readers. "My next and last example"-the good old man is pleading eloquently though quaintly, for the morality of his favourite sport-"shall be that undervaluer of money the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have often fished and conversed, a man whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind; this man, whose very approbation of angling were sufficient to convince any modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear lover and frequent practiser of the art of angling; of which he would say, 'Twas an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent: for angling was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness; and that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that possessed and practised it. Indeed, my friend, you will find angling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of other blessings attending upon it. 66 Sir, it was the saying of that learned man, and I do easily believe that peace and patience and a calm content did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know, when he was beyond seventy years of age, he made this description of a part of the present pleasures that possessed him, as he sate quietly in a summer's evening on a bank a-fishing; it is a description of the spring, which because it glided as softly and sweetly from his pen, as that river does at this time, by which it was then made, I shall repeat it unto you: This day Dame Nature seem'd in love; Fresh juice did stir th' embracing vines, There stood my friend with patient skill, With the swift pilgrim's daubéd nest: APRIL SHOWERS AND SUNSHINE. The groves already did rejoice The showers were short, the weather mild, And now, though late, the modest rose 171 And now in parting company with the old fisherman, let us turn to our poets and hear what they have to tell us of April showers and sunshine, rainbows and blossom : The showers of the spring Rouse the birds and they sing; If the wind do but stir for his proper delight, A RAINBOW. The flowers live by the tears that fall Love thou thy sorrow; grief shall bring The rainbow! see how fair a thing WORDSWORTH. HENRY SUTTON. TO THE RAINBOW. Triumphal arch that fill'st the sky Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that Optics teach, unfold When Science from creation's face And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, When o'er the green undeluged earth Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's grey fathers forth To watch thy sacred sign! And when its yellow lustre smiled Methinks, thy jubilee to keep, Nor ever shall the Muse's eye |