t especial touch of
nature which always went to the heart of the Complete Angler, a love of
fishing--for Vaughan was wont, at times, to skim the waters of his native
rivers.

He was born in Wales; the old Roman name of the country conferring upon
him the appellation "Silurist"--for in those days local pride and
affection claimed the honor of the bard, as the poet himself first
gathered strength from the home, earth and sky which concentrated rather
than circumscribed his genius. His family was of good old lineage,
breathing freely for generations in the upper atmosphere of life, warmed
and cheered in a genial sunlight of prosperity. It could stir, too, at the
call of patriotism, and send soldiers, as it did, to bite the heroic dust
at Agincourt. Another time brought other duties. The poet came into the
world in the early part of the seventeenth century, when the great
awakening of thought and English intellect was to be followed by stirring
action. He was not, indeed, to bear any great part in the senate or the
field; but all noble spirits were moved by the issues of the time. To some
the voice of the age brought hope and energy; to others, a not ignoble
submission. It was perhaps as great a thing to suffer with the Royal
Martyr, with all the burning life and traditions of England in the
throbbing heart, as to rise from the ruins into the cold ether where the
stern soul of Milton could wing its way in self-reliant calmness. Honor is
due, as in all great struggles, to both parties. Vaughan's lot was cast
with the conquered cause.

His youth was happy, as all poets' should be, and as the genius of all
true poets, coupled with that period of life, will go far to make it.
There must be early sunshine far the first nurture of that delicate plant:
the storm comes afterward to perfect its life. Vaughan first saw the
light in a rural district of great beauty. His songs bear witness to it.
Indeed he is known by his own designation, a fragrant title in the sweet
fields of English poesy, as the Swan of the Usk, though he veiled the
title in the thin garb of the Latin, "Olor Iscanus." Another fortunate
circumstance was the personal character of his education, at the hands of
a rural Welsh rector, with whom, his twin brother for a companion, he
passed the years of youth in what, we have no doubt, were pleasant paths
of classical literature. How inexhaustible are those old wells of Greek
and Roman Letters! The world cannot afford to