According to these principles of interpretation, let us inquire, who
is the happy angler? To such a question any body who, in the former
case, prefers Cæsar's claim to ours, will not fail to reply by bawling
out the name of Stoddart. The parallel is a very good one. There is
nothing in the science of angling theoretically of which Mr Stoddart
is ignorant; there is nothing in the art of angling practically which
Mr Stoddart has not tried with his own hand. He has been writing the
annals of a laborious, persevering, incessant, and successful
experience. He tells others what they may do, by showing them vividly
and precisely what he has himself done. It is the record of a
conqueror whose career exhibits occurrences so numerous, various, and
striking, that the simple narrative of events teaches general
principles; the mere accumulation of facts causes theory to
vegetate--the movements which lead to victory on a particular occasion
are adopted as laws to regulate subsequent operations in similar
circumstances; the strategy of the emergency is accepted as
universally normal. In a history so instructive, there must
necessarily be a remarkable amount of patience and zeal, assiduity and
skill, quick apprehension, and sagacious reflection. And where, as in
the present instance, it happens that all this information is
communicated with healthy racy vigour, and picturesque effect of
language, while a dewy freshness of enthusiasm exhilarates the whole
composition, it is not surely very surprising that, comfortably
pendulous in our rocking-chair, conscious of never having encountered
a billionth part of the fatigues undergone by Mr Stoddart, and
possessing, in the manageable volume in our hand, a complete repertory
of the fruits of the toil, experience, and judgment of that "admirable
Triton," we should thus complacently believe that we are the happy
angler--leaving it of course to Mr Stoddart, if he likes, to be a
Julius Cæsar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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