tolls his reasons resemble rope-walks in length, and he is generous to a fault in withholding his own views of policy and money-making, except to secretaries of the treasury and presidents of banks, with whom no biped is more frank and communicative. He provides in his will for the descent of his property, a little farther than the law allows; and this is his mode of being remembered, and his last act of foresight.

There is the WOULD-BE MAN OF LITERATURE; so big a target that every body hits it. He sends out from his brain a neat-looking duodecimo, as a feeler after something: the public do not read it with the haste or the zest with which it was prepared. The lady he would win sees no beauty in it; the drapery of her mind assimilating more readily with a shawl from cashmere, and even the gossamer texture of one of 'Beck's' capes, surpassing it in strength and grace. He resolves at last to throw up his profession, and for a time balances between dry-goods and groceries, adopting the former as being the most feminine in character, and most nearly corresponding with his own.

There is THE BACHELOR, of landed estate, who has never been adrift on the world. His robbery of time is so uniform and methodical, that he is esteemed a marvellously honest man. As a consumer, he is exemplary; as a producer, he quotes Cowper: How various are the employments of him whom the world calls idle!' At a certain age the thought pops in upon him that he has been a mere sentinel on the out-works of creation, and has made no mark on his passage through this age of wonders. Among his last acts he contemplates the extent of his domain, and resolves to cultivate notice and popularity by the acre, and consequently bequeaths ten or twenty to a society for the propagation of knowledge. Thus oblivion spares his name.

There is the MAN OF SCIENCE, the genial aspect of whose life seems beyond disturbance; yet he is known to grieve because the spirit of discovery is torpid, and no second Bacon appears to open new fountains of thought, and descend with his diving-bell into the secret abysses of nature. This man so philosophic, so enlightened, may have been fascinated (as many good and great men have been before him) by a lady who proves a jealous wife; turns all the keys of charity against him, and endeavors to rope-in his giant course to the orbit of a pigmy. He is comforted by the reflection at last, that though truth may languish, it can never die.'

There is THE POET, fearfully and wonderfully made, sometimes; Life hanging in festoons of richest flowers all about him, and his aspirations partaking of their hue. To him the true and beautiful seem always approaching, but never arrived: he works days and nights in constructing a monument to the Muses, and though summoned, they come not to its consecration. He sighs over the apathy and insensibility of his fellows, until want turns his choice Helicon into common Croton. On this fare he thrives, and soon marries into the extensive family of the Magazines, and has a very respectable progeny of essays. He succeeds now in walking the earth like

other people, occasionally mourning over the declining taste for poetry, especially his own.

There is the MAN OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY, always complaining of the shortness of time; a nice observer of men and manners, at what they aim and to what they tend. The timid interrogate him, the wicked fear, the unfortunate court, and his seniors consult him. If he is a lawyer, his chief delight is, to be associated with first causes, the alliance continuing until it is skilfully and profitably dissolved in the Court of Errors.' His children generally go alone a month earlier than others, and when they are grown, they slide by arrangement into good places. If he is a physician, he goes back to the Genesis of families, and traces their history; whether they died by defect of constitution or physic. No person more easily approached, or more difficult to be kept at a distance; they abhor lean kitchens; they cannot separate patients and larders; they are so sure of their affinity with the condition of man, that they are recognized as both judge and jury.

There is the BANKER, who enters his office with head up and head full, over-shoes on his feet, and his whole bearing indicating a discreet sensitiveness, having an eye to endurance. He views the universe chiefly as a depository of hidden ore, and his genius, the destined recipient and crucible in which it is to be fashioned into shape and exchangeable value. He feels a Macænas-like pride, not so much in wits and poets as in Rothschilds and Barings. He entertains no opinions that are not bankable; the sum of his popularity enlarges, strange to say, with his power at a discount. He is occasionally forced into a reverie, and becomes richly disturbed, as his fancy roves among the monied pyramids of Lombard-street. He awakes to a new impression, fascinating as it is foreign, and he carries it out as far as the London Exchange. He soon feels the conservative influence of the English climate, except on exotics. He requires firmer support than 'American Trust,' and for better security returns home, but not without a life-insurance.

There is the BORE, who has had the fortune or misfortune to be born without sensibility. To him private dwellings are public houses,' to be pumped and drained. Though he wears out his welcome, he still goes on like great discoverers, until age arrests his career, and locks him up for other uses. The literary bore is a biped of more discrimination. He is seemingly overlaid with accomplishments, and conceits to match. The napless vesture of humility' he despises; preferring and practising the transcendental motto, 'Re-produce yourself as much and as often as possible.' He never gets ill, except on principle, and that always occurs in July or August, when country houses are open, and board gratis. He fails not to push intimacies, and returns home with an enlarged chart, which may govern his campaign for the next season.

There is the MECHANIC, emphatically the artificer of his own fortune. His mind so runs on timber, iron, brick and leather, that it is not strange he should think his wife and children composed of the same materials, and to be treated accordingly: hence the joints that

connect his domestic ark are subjected to no small wear and tear; but the panacea of many ills, money, is coming in, while temper is going out; and if they miss an average share of this world's goods it is because the boss' aspires to and secures a seat in the assembly, where he is very likely to assist in plane-ing down opinions that have essentially contributed to his elevation.

The sketches we have thrown together can hardly claim a natural alliance with what follows. They are intended to be rather suggestive, than germane to our leading subject: it remains with the reader to marry them, if possible, and then grant them a blessing and a recommendation to a freer and more generous fellowship with the rod and reel. We have for a long time beheld with regret the indifference manifested by our countrymen in relation to all out-of-door sports; so promotive as they are of the proper development of bone and muscle, and so conservative in their effects on the understanding and the heart. Having full faith in the benign and healing influence exerted on him who cultivates intelligently the art of angling, we propose on the present occasion to run out our line, happy if in trailing along the shore our readers may strike at the offered fly.

The soft and peaceful tenor of the angler's life was delineated with great elegance and truth, near two centuries ago, by one IZAAK WALTON; a name that stands almost as much alone and as distinct in the eye of the English world as that of ISAAC NEWTON. This mild, contemplative, joyous-hearted man little dreamed that he was bequeathing to posterity a work that would never attain its growth; it is so charged with life that it cannot die, and so full of heart that it carries captive our affections. No striking conquests, no dazzling expeditions, no startling experiences, no remote ends of gain, such as usually attract and bewilder the public mind, embellish the Waltonian narrative; it is nevertheless, to one and all who may become its votary, a very present help, whether in times of need or prosperity; and in swearing allegiance to this code-piscatorial there is safety for the rest of life; for there is a genius in its laws and spirit that schools and disciplines the most rugged and robust natures, elevating them above all petty annoyances, and to an atmosphere too pure for the conflicting cares of life to enter. The public sentiment of our country is too active for a healthy growth; it requires a new organization or direction. Whatever does not procure immediate gain, or political distinction, is deemed a bore; and whatever promises the greatest wear and tear to both body and mind is most eagerly sought. Premiums for over-action and exhausting labor are multiplying with alarming rapidity; but the payment is too often an early grave.

'One defect,' says Coombe, 'in the American institutions and social training at present appears to me to be, that they do not suffi ciently cultivate habits of deference, prudence and self-restraint. If their external circumstances stimulate acquisitiveness with a power equal to ten, they should put on a power of moral, religious and intellectual cultivation equal to fifteen, to guide and restrain it.'

What is termed now-a-days 'living up to the age' means dying for it. If the stimulating objects of ambition must be breathlessly pursued, and years roll on unrelieved by pause or pastime, and the race is to interrogate nothing but the Moloch of Gain, then we can fancy a future age free of Apollos and abundant of pigmies. Who that has passed any time in England could fail to remark the influence of manly sports on the physique of both nobility and gentry? The peculiar charm that attaches to our numberless inland seas and mountain lakes, and consecrates their silver waters to a pastime the most healthful and invigorating, can never depart. Suppose, gentle reader, we take you into our company for a while, especially if you are an unbeliever and seek conversion? We must ask you to doff your city suit for one that will annoy you less and protect you better forget your bill-book and ledger, and forbid any letters or orders to be written till you have gazed for a fortnight on the wonders of Nature, and opened an account with her that will make you a debtor for the rest of your life. We will first ascend the river that knows no rival in this hemisphere, and land you at Troy, where you may avail of rail-roads, soon to be exchanged for fourwheeled wagons: having oiled well your joints, go bravely on and up the Sacondaga' mountains. As you languidly ascend, cast an occasional glance at the awful ravines, looking like the mouths of hungry leviathans. What you have already achieved, and what you have not, will rekindle the least spark of romance, how long soever it may have been dormant within you, and in asserting its influence over the imagination, will people it with undying impressions. You will now have ascended near two thousand feet, and will readily confess that each step of your progress has proved a new measure of wonder and delight.

Having achieved the mountain, the angler's Mecca' now breaks in view. We are there. With rod and reel in hand the cry is now To boat! to boat!' Well laden with provisions, landing-net and gaff, each in his dory launches upon the lake; and as you glide along, your lines falling in pleasant places, and your rod describing the curve of beauty, with a departing shore every moment becoming less distinct, you begin to feel the genius of the place. The rude but grand combinations of land and water that open upon the eye; the music of the thousand tributary rills; the huge trees with their expanding boughs, seeming like sentinels placed over this rich deposit of God's bounty; and beyond, rising on all sides in majestic beauty and in thick array, the maple, the beech, the spruce and the mountain-ash, whose trunks are only brushed by the moose, the deer and the panther; while in the distance you distinguish a noble neighborhood of Alpine monarchs, whose bending brushy tops seem to whisper that they are coming; all these ennobling and varied aspects which the face of nature here wears cannot fail to prompt the heart to adoration, while the fancy may dance itself to death in a circle of enchantments as boundless as the domain of thought.

Let us now tighten the reins of description, and repair like the

patriarch Jacob to our tent, to ruminate, ruralize and realize, well persuaded that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.' As we approach, the savory odor that circulates about the bushes and border of the lake gives proof strong as 'Chetney-sauce' that some skilful hand is engaged in illustrating the conservative influence and humanizing tendency of the noble art dietetic. At three o'clock the miracle of a compound comes forth:

'OH, great and glorious! oh, trouterian treat!
"T would tempt the dying anchorite to eat!
Back to the world he'd turn his weary soul,'
And risk his future in the chowder-bowl.

Close at hand, and ever bubbling over in a natural basin, is the nectar that we sip either in cup of leather or tin; and as the smoke of our last regalia' wreathes upward, we begin to contemplate the outward prospect, which is always resistless; we shove off from the shore admirably prepared to appreciate the declining day, which in such a place is one of the finest things in nature; and what adds sensibly to the attractions of the hour, is the increased 'spirit of inquiry' among the fish. In proportion as the sun goes down, they

come up.

The honest mountaineers of this region, free to use God's wilderness as the spirit moves, may launch into the lake, sink their bait or float it, as they choose, and secure an abundant return; or if they prefer more active sports, the hounds are put on track, the deer come rushing to the water, plunge in, and are soon captured.

The only regret that such a trip involves is the stunning announcement, The Last Day! Having colloquized liberally on Limericks' and Kirbys,' single 'leaders' and double,' sinkers' and no sinkers, stiff rods and limber, and speculated not a little on the cause of the highly-colored flesh of the trout, we prepare to return, but not omitting a bumper to the Naiades and Dryades of that balmy region. With our piscatory pride elevated, and thoughts clarified, we re-trace the road, re-mount the cars, and again reach the great high-way of steam-boats, and descend to the dirty, dingy prison, called a city, where conventionalisms surround us as the polluted air we breathe, and where infinite importance is attached to little things, and little things enlarged into big nothings. Whatever may be one's occupation in the busy Babel, the triumphant spirit of the wilderness will remain strong within him; and when the melodious days of June shall return, he will not fail to go up to the mountain and the lake, as the 'Greeks of old did, in peace to their Olympia.' We accord to angling a high rank; perhaps the highest in the category of liberal and humanizing pastimes. Its votary carries, on each visit to the interior wilds, a sort of new revelation: he will, in a day's row, impart more valuable information and inspire with loftier purposes the rude denizen of the forest, than your learned pedant could in a week, backed by all the appliances of quartos, manuscripts and quills; hence your enlightened angler is among the most influential of home-missionaries.* Instruction, incident

*THEIR expenses should be paid by the 'Central Educational Society.'