Excerpt from Songs for Fishermen

To the curious, the romantic, and the devout, the fish has yet another interest - it was formerly used as a symbol of Christ. This use was due to the accident that the initials of the Greek names and titles of Jesus (jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior spell ichthys, the Greek word for fish.

When we come to the literature of fishing, we think unavoidably of Walton. His book, perchance in an expensively illustrated edition, lies on every true fish erman's table. It is - after the lapse of nearly three centuries - still an authority on the general princi ples, and even on many of the details, of fishing. Bet ter still, it catches and reflects the cool, serene life and spirit of the angler as no other book does or perhaps ever shall. What shrewd distinctions are drawn by old Izaak: Fishing is an art, or, at least, it is an art to catch fish. What love of nature's delights does he show: Turn out of the way a little, good scholar, towards yonder high honeysuckle hedge; there we'll sit and sing, whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant meadows. What honest emulation he feels: I envy nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do.

What enjoyment he finds in his simple recreation: There be many that have forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it to be healthful and cheerful like us; who, with the expense of a little money, have eat and drank, and laughed, and angled, and sung, and slept securely; and rose next day and cast away care, and sung, and laughed, and angled again What humble contentment informs his daily life: We may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, 'doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did'; and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling. The Cavaliers of seventeenth century England have often been traduced; but judgment must many a time have been softened because this loved and lovable brother of the angle was of the Cavalier party. Walton was very long of life, as all good anglers should be, and his spirit yet lingers among us. He is not simply a man; he is an institution.

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