. Pleasures of angling with rod and reel for trout and salmon . ANGLEEB VINDICATED. We care not who says, And intends it dispraise,That an angler to a fool is next neighbor. Let him prate ; what care we ; Were as honest as he,And so let him take that for his labor ! — \Charles Cotton. HAT good Sir Izaak Walton saidtwo hundred years ago, of thosewho scoff at angling as aheavy, contemptible, dull recre-ation, is quite as appropriatefor their successors of to-day. You know, gentlemen, it is aneasy thing to scoff at any art or recre-ation: a little wit, mixed with ill-nature, confidence and malice
. Pleasures of angling with rod and reel for trout and salmon . ANGLEEB VINDICATED. We care not who says, And intends it dispraise,That an angler to a fool is next neighbor. Let him prate ; what care we ; Were as honest as he,And so let him take that for his labor ! — \Charles Cotton. HAT good Sir Izaak Walton saidtwo hundred years ago, of thosewho scoff at angling as aheavy, contemptible, dull recre-ation, is quite as appropriatefor their successors of to-day. You know, gentlemen, it is aneasy thing to scoff at any art or recre-ation: a little wit, mixed with ill-nature, confidence and malice, willdo it; but though they often ventureboldly, yet they are often caught, even in their own trap,according to that of Lucian, the father of the family ofscoffers: Lucian well skilled in scoffing, this hath writ:Friend, thats your folly which you think your wit;This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear,Meaning another, when yourself you jeer! If to this you add what Solomon says of scoffers, that they are an abomination to mankind, let him that thinks. PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 9 fit scoff on, and be a scoffer still; but I account them ene-mies to me and to all that love angling. And for you that have heard many grave, serious menpity anglers, let me tell you, sir, that there are many whoare taken by others to be serious and grave men, whichwe contemn and pity,—men that are taken to be gravebecause nature hath made them of a sour complexion,money-getting men, men that spend all their time first ingetting and next in anxious care to keep it; men that arecondemned to be rich, and then always busy or discon-tented ; for such poor-rich men, we anglers pity them per-fectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts tothink ourselves so happy. No, no, sir, we enjoy a con-tentedness above the reach of such dispositions. * * * And for our simplicity, if you mean by that a harm-lessness, or that simplicity which was usually found in theprimitive Christians, who were, as most an
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