pax or snipe tribe, in like manner, search for worms and larvæ,-flying from those countries where either frost or dryness prevents them from boring,-making generally small flights at a time, and resting on their travels where they find food. And a journey from England to Africa, is no more for an animal that can fly, with the wind, one hundred miles in an hour, than a journey for a Londoner to his seat in a distant province. And the migrations of smaller fishes or birds always occasions the migration of larger ones, that prey on them. Thus, the seal follows the salmon, in summer, to the mouths of rivers; the hake follows the herring and pilchard; hawks are seen in great quantities, in the month of May, coming into the east of Europe, after quails and landrails; and locusts are followed by numerous birds, that, fortunately for the agriculturist, make them their prey.

HAL. It is not possible to follow the amusement of angling, without often having your attention directed to the modes of life of fishes, insects, and birds, and many cu

rious and interesting facts, as it were, forced upon your observation. I consider you, (Physicus,) as pledged to make one of our fishing party; and I hope, in a few days, to give you an invitation to meet a few worthy friends on the banks of the Colne. And you, (Poietes,) who, I know, are an initiated disciple of Walton's school, will, I trust, join us. We will endeavour to secure a fine day; two hours, in a light carriage with good horses, will carry us to our ground; and I think I can promise you green meadows, shady trees, the song of the nightingale, and a full and clear river.

POIET. This last is, in my opinion, the most poetical object in nature. I will not fail to obey your summons. Pliny has, as well as I recollect, compared a river to human life. I have never read the passage in his works, but I have been a hundred times struck with the analogy, particularly amidst mountain scenery. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque

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country, nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind in which fancy and strength of imagination are predominantit is more beautiful than useful. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions; it is applied to move machinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately barge;-in this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters.

HAL.-One might pursue the metaphor still further, and say, that in its origin—its thundering and foam, when it carries down clay from the bank, and becomes impure, it resembles the youthful mind, affected by dangerous passions. And the influence of a lake, in calming and clearing the turbid water, may be compared to the effect of reason in more mature life, when the calm,

A RIVER THE EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE. 19

deep, cool and unimpassioned mind is freed from its fever, its troubles, bubbles, noise and foam. And, above all, the sources of a river,—which may be considered as belonging to the atmosphere, and its termination in the ocean, may be regarded as imaging the divine origin of the human mind, and its being ultimately returned to, and lost in, the Infinite and Eternal Intelligence from which it originally sprung.

SECOND DAY.

HALIEUS-POIETES-ORNITHER-
PHYSICUS.

TROUT FISHING.-DENHAM, MAY, 1810.

Morning.

HAL. I AM delighted to see you, my wor

thy friends, on the banks of the Colne; and am happy to be able to say, that my excellent host has not only made you free of the river for this day's angling, but insists upon your dining with him,--wishes you to try the evening fishing, and the fishing to-morrow morning, and proposes to you, in short, to give up twenty-four hours to the delights of an angler's May-day.

POIET.-We are deeply indebted to him; and I hardly know how we can accept his offer, without laying ourselves under too great an obligation.