Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by

WILEY & PUTNAM,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET.

T. B. SMITH, STEREOTYPER,

216 WILLIAM STREET.

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small]

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE reader is here presented with the first American edition of Izaak Walton's Complete Angler, which, from the bare title, might be thought only a sporting book, but will be recognised by every student of English literature as one of the most precious gems in the language. Written by a simple but strong-minded man, eminent for his meek piety and unaffected love of God and his works, a companion of the learned and the good, in the leisure of a life devoted to the record and practice of Christian virtues, it is full of persuasions to contemplative enjoyment, pious trust, and benevolent action, expressed with such natural eloquence, that it has found a most hearty welcome to the table of the scholar, the moralist, and the divine. Very few works have passed through so many editions in England, where it has been illustrated with much care and elegance by several editors; and the memory of no English author has been more affectionately revered than that of honest father Walton.

The American Editor has made a pleasant recreation of preparing the work anew for the American public, with all the additional literary information which a long acquaintance with his author and an extensive library enabled him to gather, the references, with few exceptions, having been verified by his own search. Various hands have contributed such piscatorial lore as, it was thought, might not be unwelcome to those who joined with their admiration of Walton's character and writings a love of his favorite amusement; but for the literary annotations the editor is alone responsible to the reader, who can scarcely be a severe critic upon one whose only aim was to give him pleasure not unmixed with profit.

July, 1847.

[graphic]

FAC-SIMILE OF ILLUSTRATION IN THE "TREATYSE OF FYSSHYNGE WYTH AN ANGLE."-Vide Page xxviii.

« PreviousContinue »