an angler will also be too anxiously employed on the object he is endeavouring to procure, to admit the exercise of his mental powers on dissimilar fubjects. Of this amusement, Thomson has given a description full of masterly strokes; a description, which shews that he must either have practised it himself, or attended very closely on the practice of it by others.

Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks,
Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away;
And whitening, down their moffy-tinctur'd
stream

Descends the billowy foam; now is the time,
While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile,
To tempt the trout. The well dissembled fly,
The rod fine-tapering with elastic spring,
Snatch'd from the hoary steed the floating line,
And all thy flender watery stores prepare.

The proper season for the sport, and the implements requisite for it, are here detailed with a most striking particularity, though not with the greatest correctness

of

of language. The compound ‘mossy

،

tinctur'd,' seems improperly introduced; one should suppose it was designed to convey the idea of a greenish colour, but we are told, that the water is 'dark' brown.' 'To tempt the trout,' is profaick. The 'well-dissembled fly,' is fimple and just; and the ' rod fine tapering ' with elastic Spring,' is expressive; but to have mentioned the 'floating line,' would furely have been fufficient, without intimating that it was made of white horse-hair; and that in a manner so obscure, Snatch'd from the hoary steed, &c.' that, if the circumstance was not generally known, the verse would be unintelligible. The next line is an excrescence; it is not easy to guess what ' other flender watry stores,' were intended for preparation.

But let not on thy hook the tortur'd worm,
Convulfive, twist in agonizing folds;
Which by rapacious hunger swallow'd deep,
Gives as you tear it from the bleeding breaft

1

Of the weak helpless uncomplaining wretch,
Harsh pain, and horror to the tender hand.

The man of humanity, who reads this, however fond of fishing he may be, will furely never impale a worm again. The picture is indeed drawn with such force, as almost to shock imagination.

High to their fount, this day amid the hills,

And woodlands warbling round,† trace up the

brooks;

The next pursue their rocky chanell'd maze
Down to the rivers, in whose ample wave
Their little naiads love to sport at large.
Just in the dubious point, where with the pool

Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it
boils

Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank
Reverted plays in undulating low,
There throw nice-judging the delufive fly;

+ Woodlands warbling round. This is an instance of poetical boldness, without impropriety: the woods are, without any great violence, substituted for the birds who inhabit them.

And

And as you lead it round in artful curve,
With eye-attentive mark the springing game.

The Poet has here described the places
proper for angling, with uncommon ac-
curacy: our fancy is delighted with his
' hills and woods,' and 'rocky channell'd
' brooks; and a painter could not have
given a water scene, with all its minute
diversities, more exactly than he has in
his ' pool mixing with the stream,' and his
'Stream boiling around the stone,' or
'verted from the hollow bank.'

Strait as above the surface of the flood

They wanton rise, or urg'd by hunger leap,

're

Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook:

Some lightly-toffing to the graffy bank,

And to the shelving shore flow-dragging some,

With various hand proportion'd to their force.

The motions of the fish, and the operations of the angler, are here detailed

with wonderful precision. The com

pound epithets, lightly toffing,' 'Now'dragging,' are strikingly expressive of the actions; but some may think them wanting in poetical dignity.

If yet too young, and easily deceiv'd,
A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod,
Him piteous of his youth, and the short space
He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven,
Soft disengage, and back into the stream
Thespeckled infant throw.*

The praise bestowed on the preceding passage, cannot be justly given to this. There is in it an attempt at dignity above the occafion. Pathos seems to have been intended, but affectation only is produced.