VII. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS.
RICHARD LOVELACE.--1618-1658.
Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such As you, too, shall adore,-- I could not love thee, dear, so much, Lov"d I not honor more.
VIII. ANGLING.
IZAAK WALTON.--1593-1683.
_From_ THE COMPLETE ANGLER.
_Venator._--O my good master, this morning walk has been spent to my great pleasure and wonder; but I pray, when shall I have your direction how to make artificial flies, like to those that the trout loves best, and also how to use them?
_Piscator._--My honest scholar, it is now past five of the clock; we will fish till nine, and then go to breakfast. Go you to yon sycamore-tree, and hide your bottle of drink under the hollow root of it; for about that time, and in that place, we will make a brave breakfast with a piece of powdered beef, and a radish or two, that I have in my fish-bag: we shall, I warrant you, make a good, honest, wholesome, hungry breakfast, and I will then give you direction for the making and using of your flies; and in the meantime, there is your rod and line, and my advice is, that you fish as you see me do, and let"s try which can catch the first fish.
_Venator._--I thank you, master; I will observe and practise your direction as far as I am able.
_Piscator._--Look you, scholar, you see I have hold of a good fish: I now see it is a trout. I pray put that net under him, and touch not my line, for if you do, then we break all. Well done, scholar! I thank you.
Now for another. Trust me, I have another bite: come, scholar, come, lay down your rod, and help me to land this as you did the other. So now we shall be sure to have a good dish for supper.
_Venator._--I am glad of that; but I have no fortune: sure, master, yours is a better rod and better tackling.
_Piscator._--Nay, then, take mine; and I will fish with yours. Look you, scholar, I have another. Come, do as you did before. And now I have a bite at another. Oh me! he has broke all: there"s half a line and a good hook lost.
_Venator._--Ay, and a good trout too.
_Piscator._--Nay, the trout is not lost; for pray take notice, no man can lose what he never had.
_Venator._--Master, I can neither catch with the first nor second angle: I have no fortune.
_Piscator._--Look you, scholar, I have yet another. And now, having caught two brace of trouts, I will tell you a short tale as we walk towards our breakfast. A scholar, a preacher I should say, that was to preach to procure the approbation of a parish that he might be their lecturer, had got from his fellow-pupil the copy of a sermon that was first preached with great commendation by him that composed it; and though the borrower of it preached it, word for word, as it was at first, yet it was utterly disliked as it was preached by the second to his congregation; which the sermon borrower complained of to the lender of it; and thus was answered: "I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but not my fiddle-stick; for you are to know, that every one cannot make music with my words, which are fitted to my own mouth." And so, my scholar, you are to know, that as the ill p.r.o.nunciation or ill accenting of words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot in a right place, makes you lose your labor; and you are to know, that though you have my fiddle, that is, my very rod and tacklings with which you see I catch fish, yet you have not my fiddle-stick, that is, you yet have not skill to know how to carry your hand and line, nor how to guide it to a right place; and this must be taught you; for you are to remember, I told you angling is an art, either by practice or a long observation, or both. But take this for a rule: when you fish for a trout with a worm, let your line have so much and not more lead than will fit the stream in which you fish; that is to say, more in a great troublesome stream than in a smaller that is quieter; as near as may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, and keep it still in motion, and not more.
But now let"s say grace and fall to breakfast. What say you, scholar, to the providence of an old angler? does not this meat taste well? and was not this place well chosen to eat it? for this sycamore-tree will shade us from the sun"s heat.
_Venator._--All excellent good, and my stomach excellent good too. And now I remember and find that true which devout Lessius says: "That poor men, and those that fast often, have much more pleasure in eating than rich men and gluttons, that always feed before their stomachs are empty of their last meal, and call for more; for by that means they rob themselves of that pleasure that hunger brings to poor men." And I do seriously approve of that saying of yours, "that you would rather be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor angler, than a drunken lord." But I hope there is none such: however, I am certain of this, that I have been at many very costly dinners that have not afforded me half the content that this has done, for which I thank G.o.d and you.
And now, good master, proceed to your promised direction for making and ordering my artificial fly.
_Piscator_.--My honest scholar, I will do it; for it is a debt due unto you by my promise....
... Look how it begins to rain!--and by the clouds, if I mistake not, we shall presently have a smoking shower, and therefore sit close: this sycamore-tree will shelter us; and I will tell you, as they shall come into my mind, more observations of fly-fishing for a trout....
... And now, scholar, my direction for fly-fishing is ended with this shower, for it has done raining: and now look about you, and see how pleasantly that meadow looks; nay, and the earth smells as sweetly too.
Come, let me tell you what holy Mr. Herbert says of such days and flowers as these; and then we will thank G.o.d that we enjoy them, and walk to the river and sit down quietly, and try to catch the other brace of trouts.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky: The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave, Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, Thy root is ever in its grave; And thou must die.
Sweet Spring, full of sweet days and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie; Thy music shows ye have your closes; And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like season"d timber, never gives; But, though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.
_Venator._--I thank you, good master, for your good direction for fly-fishing, and for the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day, which is so far spent without offence to G.o.d or man; and I thank you for the sweet close of your discourse with Mr. Herbert"s verses, who, I have heard, loved angling; and I do the rather believe it, because he had a spirit suitable to anglers, and to those primitive Christians that you love and have so much commended.
_Piscator._--Well, my loving scholar, and I am pleased to know that you are so well pleased with my direction and discourse.... And now, I think it will be time to repair to our angle-rods, which we left in the water to fish for themselves: and you shall choose which shall be yours; and it is an even lay, one of them catches.
And, let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead rod, and laying night-hooks, are like putting money to use; for they both work for the owners, when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or rejoice; as you know we have done this last hour, and sat as quietly, and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil"s t.i.tyrus and his Meliboeus did, under their broad beech tree. No life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant, as the life of a well-governed angler; for when the lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us. Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless, G.o.d could have made a better berry, but doubtless, G.o.d never did;" and so, if I might be judge, "G.o.d never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."
IX. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST"S NATIVITY.
(1629).
JOHN MILTON.--1608-1674.
I.
This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven"s Eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
II.
That glorious form, that light unsufferable, And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, Wherewith he wont at Heaven"s high council-table To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid aside; and, here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
III.
Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant G.o.d?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome him to this his new abode, Now while the heaven, by the Sun"s team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
IV.
See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet!
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel Choir, From out his secret altar touch"d with hallow"d fire.