at a blow: they will never enable us to understand, but they can teach us
to endure, and even to enjoy, the world. Their example is alluring:--

'Even the ashes of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.'




THE COMPLEAT ANGLER


Franck, as we saw, called Walton 'a plagiary.' He was a plagiary in the
same sense as Virgil and Lord Tennyson and Robert Burns, and, indeed,
Homer, and all poets. _The Compleat Angler_, the father of so many
books, is the child of a few. Walton not only adopts the opinions and
advice of the authors whom he cites, but also follows the manner, to a
certain extent, of authors whom he does not quote. His very exordium,
his key-note, echoes (as Sir Harris Nicolas observes) the opening of _A
Treatise of the Nature of God_ (London, 1599). The _Treatise_ starts
with a conversation between a gentleman and a scholar: it commences:--

_Gent_. Well overtaken, sir!

_Scholar_. You are welcome, gentleman.

A more important source is _The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle_,
commonly attributed to Dame Juliana Barnes (printed at Westminster,
1496). A manuscript, probably of 1430-1450, has been published by Mr.
Satchell (London, 1883). This book may be a translation of an unknown