rather increases my compunctions. Do you not see that it is in the agonies of death? Drawn rudely from its native element, it cannot live in air. Prove to me, Charles, that neither this worm nor the fish feels pain, and I will still angle.”

"Why, what has come to you all in a moment ?" inquired Charles. "What would Izaak Walton say of you could he hear these odd sentiments of yours? Do you think for a moment that that meek and gentle spirit would have continued devoted to the art had there been the slightest cruelty in it? But even if this worm and this fish should feel, philosopher—and I cannot prove that they do not-you must recollect that every creature was made for the use of man."

"I grant, Charles," I replied, "that the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea are all given by a wise and beneficent Creator to his creature man, for his sustenance and service; but notwithstanding this, I am not sure that I do right in inflicting pain on any of his creatures. The lawfulness of the act in my opinion, now I have reflected upon the matter, depends upon its necessity. The question is, whether I sit by the side of this stream in order to catch a fish for my dinner, or whether I sit here simply for amusement? Now I fear I cannot say that I fish for a dinner, and therefore I also fear that I am wantonly sporting with God's creatures."

"But you know you will assist in eating that fine fellow by our sides," replied Charles, "and that is all one as though you fished for a dinner."

"Not exactly, Charles," I rejoined; "I can

have my dinner without it; and if I had wanted a trout I could have sent to old Jortin's the fisherman, and he would willingly have sold me one, and at a reasonable price."

"And so, then, it is cruelty in you and not in old Jortin to catch a trout," said Charles archly.

"It is his calling," I replied; "he rents this stream that he may fish it for the public. Necessity knows no law; but pleasure should be kept within due bounds. I have often reflected upon this subject, and have endeavoured to justify myself for indulging in this sport, from the fact that many good men in all ages of the world have solaced themselves by it: the gentle Walton, and the philosopher Paley, for instance. But I have lately thought that we must not be guided in our actions altogether even by the examples of great and good men. The mind is so constituted that it may, even in good and pious men, be led to adopt an error. But the question is not, whether these men did wrong, but whether I am doing right. Believe me, Charles, the subject has much perplexed me of late, and causes me now much uneasiness; and you must not be surprised if, on some future day when you visit me, and you ask me to go a fishing, I should repeat these significant lines in your ears:

"Patient, on yonder bridge, in boyhood's days,
I strove with art the finny tribe to raise,
The silvery eel, the perch, the cautious roach,
The ravenous pike, that darts at near approach,-
Till on a sultry day, excessive heat

Drove me for shelter to a neighbouring seat:
Beneath the umbrageous oak the poet read,
Who first my thoughts to this reflection led-
'Why seek thy pleasure in another's pain?'
Ne'er could I throw the artful line again,

Or view the prey, without compunction, lie,
Gasping for breath, with tedious torments die;
Nor all the eloquence of Walton's book
Could fix one tortur'd worm upon the hook :-
And thus arous'd, I first was taught to rove
For purer pleasures in the peaceful grove.'

MORGAN.

"I see you have studied the subject deeply," continued Charles, "and I only wish for your sake that I could convince you there was no cruelty in the art of angling, for if you go on at this rate you will have no pleasures left. You neither like the pleasures of the field nor the turf, and now I plainly see you will give up angling."

66 When you say, Charles," I replied, "that I shall have no pleasures left if I go on at this rate, as you are pleased to phrase it, you forget the various sources of enjoyment that man has at his command. I cannot glance my eyes toward the beautiful sky above our heads, or over the surface of the fair earth on which we tread, but I find the sensations of pleasure thrill through my heart. Then, again, I have my books and my friends to resort to for solace and enjoyment. If you think that life cannot be enjoyed without scenes of excitement, such as shooting, racing, hunting, and angling, you must indeed have formed a low estimate of man's capacity for enjoying the banquet of pleasures which God daily provides for him. For my own part, I much question whether those who look for enjoyment in these sports alone, find any pleasure in them except for the passing moment. At all events, I can speak for myself that in the more harmless sport of angling-for I hold it to be more harm

less than racing or hunting, or any sports of that description-I have never found any solid pleasure. My mind may have been solaced while in the act of waiting for my prey, but I have rarely gone home with feelings of self-complacency; that is, I have rarely felt satisfied with myself. Indeed I am not sure that Dr. Johnson's definition of angling is not a tolerably correct one."

"And what might that be?" asked Charles: "I dare say from the bearish disposition of the man it is not very complimentary.'

"You dare say correctly," I rejoined; "for it is neither more nor less than a rod with a fool at one end and a worm at the other. But granting this to be a rude definition and an emanation of an ungentle mind, I must think that much time is thrown away in this sport which might be much more profitably employed. And you know, my dear Charles, that the art of well employing time is the only art of being happy. No man can, in fact, be truly happy who sleeps away his time, or who kills time by immersing in the pleasures of this world. I have read a very pretty story which will well illustrate my meaning. The story relates that a dervise entered into the shop of a confectioner, and the master, to regale the holy man, presented him with a bowl of honey. Scarce, however, had the confectioner uncovered it when a legion of flies made a descent upon it. He took up his fan to disperse them, when such as had feasted themselves on the edge of the bowl easily escaped, but those who, more greedy, had precipitated themselves

into the middle, caught by the tenacious honey, could not take flight. The dervise fell into a deep meditation as he viewed this scene, and recovering from his reverie, he fetched a deep sigh. The confectioner, in surprise, asked the reason of his sorrow. This bowl,' said the dervise, is the world, and the flies are its inhabitants. They that lodge on the rim of it resemble prudent persons who, prescribing bounds to their desires, do not madly immerse themselves in pleasures, but rest content with tasting them. The flies that rushed into the middle of the bowl, represent such as, giving a loose to their inordinate appetites, abandon themselves without restraint to every species of enjoyment. When the angel of death, traversing with rapid motion the surface of the earth, shall shake his wings, they who have stopped on the edge of this world will, free and unencumbered, take their flight towards a celestial country; but such as are enslaved by their passions, shall have plunged themselves into the poisoned bowl of sensuality, will sink deeper still, and be precipitated into the abyss.""

"This is a very pretty and significant story," resumed Charles, "but I think, philosopher, you may fairly conclude that you are only a fly on the edge of the bowl."

"I may flatter myself, Charles," I rejoined, "that I have yet proceeded no farther, and that I will not venture farther than the edge of the bowl; but who can tell that, if left alone, I shall not plunge headlong into its honied contents? Had the confectioner delayed using his fan for