But, master, first let me tell you, that very hour which you were
absent from me, I sat down under a willow tree by the waterside, and
considered what you had told me of the owner of that pleasant meadow in
which you then had left me; that he had a plentiful estate, and not a
heart to think so; that he had at this time many law-suits depending,
and that they both damped his mirth and took up so much of his time and
thoughts that he had no leisure to take the sweet content that I, who
pretended no title to them, took in his fields: for I could there sit
quietly; and looking on the water, see some fishes sport themselves in
the silver streams, others leaping at flies of several shapes and
colours; looking on the hills, I could behold them spotted with woods
and groves; looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy gathering
lilies and lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping culverlocks and
cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of May.
These and many other field-flowers so perfumed the air that I thought
that very meadow like that field in Sicily of which Diodorus speaks,
where the perfumes arising from the place make all dogs that hunt in it
to fall off and lose their hottest scent. I say, as I thus sat, joying
in my own happy condition, and pitying this poor rich man that owned
this and many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I did
thankfully remember what my Saviour said, that the meek possess the
earth; or rather they enjoy what the others possess and enjoy not; for
Anglers and meek quiet-spirited men are free from those high, those
restless thoughts which corrode the sweets of life; and they, and they
only can say as the poet has happily exprest it:

'Hail, blest estate of lowliness!
Happy enjoyments of such minds
As, rich in self-contentedness,
Can, like the reeds in roughest winds,