sed its interest. The garrulity and
sentiments of an octogenarian are very apparent in some of the
alterations; and the subdued colouring of religious feeling which
prevails throughout the former editions, and forms one of the charms of
the piece, is, in this impression, so much heightened as to become
almost obtrusive."_

_There is a third raison d'etre for this facsimile, which to name with
approbation will no doubt seem impiety to many, but which, as a
personal predilection, I venture to risk--there is no Cotton! The
relation between Walton and Cotton is a charming incongruity to
contemplate, and one stands by their little fishing-house in Dovedale
as before an altar of friendship. Happy and pleasant in their lives, it
is good to see them still undivided in their deaths--but, to my mind,
their association between the boards of the same book mars a charming
classic. No doubt Cotton has admirably caught the spirit of his master,
but the very cleverness with which he has done it increases the sense
of parody with which his portion of the book always offends me. Nor can
I be the only reader of the book for whom it ends with that gentle
benediction--"And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in
his providence, and be quiet, and go a Angling"--and that sweet
exhortation from 1 Thess. iv. 11--"Study to be quiet."_

_After the exquisite quietism of this farewell, it is distracting to
come precipitately upon the fine gentleman with the great wig and the
Frenchified airs. This is nothing against "hearty, cheerful Mr.
Cotton's strain" of which, in Walton's own setting and in his own
poetical issues, I am a sufficient admirer. Cotton was a clever
literary man, and a fine engaging figure of a gentleman, but, save by
the accident of friendship, he has little more claim to be printed
along with Walton than the gallant Col. Robert Venables, who, in the
fifth edition, contributed still a third part, entitled "The
Experienc'd Angler: or, Angling Improv'd. Being a General Discourse of
Angling," etc., to a book that was immortally complete in its first._

_While "The Compleat Angler" was regarded mainly as a text-book for
practical anglers, one can understand its publisher wishing to make it
as complete as possible by the addition of such technical appendices;
but now, when it has so long been elevated above such literary
drudgery, there is no further need for their perpetuation. For I
imagine that the men to-day who rea