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which I doubt not but to give you many observations that will appear very considerable: I am sure they have appeared so to me, and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, as I have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and contemplated what I shall now relate to you.

And first concerning Rivers; there be so many wonders reported and written of them, and of the several creatures that be bred and live in them, and those by authors of so good credit, that we need not to deny them an historical faith.

As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts out any lighted torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some waters being drank cause madness, some drunkenness, and some laughter to death. The river Selarus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to stone; and our Camden mentions the like in England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland. There is also a river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that drink thereof have their wool turned into a vermilion color. And one of no less credit than Aristotle tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, that dances at the noise of music, for with music it bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, and so continues till the music ceases, but then it presently returns to its wonted calmness and clearness. And Camden tells us of a well near to Kirby in Westmoreland, that ebbs and flows several times every day; and he tells us of a river in Surrey, it is called Mole, that after it has run several miles, being opposed by hills, finds or makes itself a way under ground, and breaks out again so far off, that the inhabitants thereabouts boast, as the Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they feed divers flocks of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly, for I would not tire your patience, one of no less authority than Josephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in Judæa that runs swiftly all the six days of the week, and stands still and rests all their Sabbath.

But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you some things of the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, that they breed and feed in them. Pliny the philosopher says, in the third chapter of his ninth book, that in the Indian Sea the fish called the Balana, or Whirlpool, is so long and broad as to take up more in length and breadth than two acres of ground, and of other fish of two hundred cubits long; and that in the river Ganges, there be Eels of thirty foot long. He says there, that these monsters appear in that sea only when the tempestuous winds oppose the torrents of waters falling from

the rocks into it, and so turning what lay at the bottom to be seen on the water's top. And he says, that the people of Cadara, an island near this place, make the timber for their houses of those fish-bones. He there tells us, that there are sometimes a thousand of these great Eels found wrapped or interwoven together. He tells us there, that it appears that Dolphins love music, and will come, when called for, by some men or boys, that know and use to feed them, and that they can swim as swift as an arrow can be shot out of a bow; and much of this is spoken concerning the Dolphin, and other fish, as may be found also in learned Dr. Casaubon's discourse "Of Credulity and Incredulity," printed by him about the year 1670.

I know we islanders are averse to the belief of these wonders; but there be so many strange creatures to be now seen, many collected by John Tradescant, and others added by my friend Elias Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them carefully and methodically at his house near to Lambeth near London, as may get some belief of some of the other wonders I mentioned. I will tell you some of the wonders that you may now see, and not till then believe, unless you think fit.

You may there see the Hog-fish, the Dog-fish, the Dolphin, the Coney-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, the Poison-fish, Sword-fish, and not only other incredible fish, but you may there see the Salamander, several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan geese, the Bird of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such birds'-nests, and of so various forms, and so wonderfully made, as may beget wonder and amusement in any beholder: and so many hundred of other rarities in that collection, as will make the other wonders I spake of the less incredible; for you may note, that the waters are Nature's storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.

But, Sir, lest this discourse may seem tedious, I shall give it a sweet conclusion out of that holy poet, Mr. George Herbert, his divine "Contemplation on God's Providence."

"Lord! who hath praise enough? Nay, who hath any?
None can express thy works but he that knows them;

And none can know thy works, they are so many
And so complete, but only he that owes them!

"We all acknowledge both thy power and love
To be exact, transcendent, and divine;
Who dost so strongly and so sweetly move,

Whilst all things have their end, yet none but thine.

"Wherefore, most sacred Spirit, I here present

For me, and all my fellows, praise to thee;
And just it is that I should pay the rent,

Because the benefit accrues to me."

Fishing with a dead-rod, and laying night-hooks, are like putting money to use; for they both work for the owners when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or rejoice; as you know we have done this last hour, and sat as quietly and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's Tityrus and his Melibæus did under their broad beech-tree. No life, my honest Scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the life of a wellgoverned Angler; for when the lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us. Indeed, my good Scholar, 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."

I'll tell you, Scholar, when I sat last on this primrose-bank, and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the Emperor did of the city of Florence," that they were too pleasant to be looked on, but only on holy-days: " as I then sat on this very grass, I turned my present thoughts into verse: 't was a Wish, which I'll repeat to you.

THE ANGLER'S WISH.

I IN these flowery meads would be;
These crystal streams should solace me;
To whose harmonious, bubbling noise
I with my angle would rejoice:

Sit here, and see the turtle-dove
Court his chaste mate to acts of love:

Or, on that bank, feel the west wind
Breathe health and plenty; please my mind
To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers,
And then washed off by April showers:
Here, hear my Kenna sing a song;
There, see a blackbird feed her young,

1

1 Like Hermit poor.

Or a leverock build her nest;
Here, give my weary spirits rest,

And raise my low-pitched thoughts above
Earth, or what poor mortals love:

Thus free from lawsuits, and the noise
Of princes' courts, I would rejoice :

Or, with my Bryan, and a book,
Loiter long days near Shawford Brook;
There sit by him, and eat my meat,
There see the sun both rise and set:
There bid good morning to next day,
There meditate my time away:
And angle on, and beg to have

A quiet passage to a welcome grave.

When I had ended this composure, I left this place, and saw a Brother of the Angle sit under that honeysuckle hedge, one that will prove worth your acquaintance.

ELIZABETH STUART (PHELPS) WARD.

WARD, ELIZABETH STUART (PHELPS), an American novelist and poet; born at Andover, Mass., August 13, 1844. She commenced writing at an early age. Her works, some of which had already appeared in periodicals, are: "Ellen's Idol" (1864); "Up Hill" (1865); "Mercy Gliddon's Work" (1866); "Tiny Stories" (4 vols., 1866-69); "Gipsy Stories" (4 vols., 1866-69); "The Gates Ajar" (1868); "Men, Women, and Ghosts" (1869); "The Silent Partner" (1870); "Trotty's Wedding Tour" (1873); "The Good-Aim Series" (1874); "Poetic Studies" (1875); "The Story of Avis" (1877); "My Cousin and I" (1879); "Old Maid's Paradise" (1879); "Sealed Orders" (1879); "Friends, a Duet" (1881); "Beyond the Gates" (1883); "Songs of the Silent World" (1884); "Dr. Zay" (1884); "Burglars in Paradise" (1886); "The Gates Between" (1887); "Jack the Fisherman " (1887); "The Struggle for Immortality" (1889); "Memoirs of Austin Phelps" (her father) (1891); "Fourteen to One" (1891); "Donald Marcy" (1893); "Hedged In;" "The Supply at Saint Agatha's;""A Singular Life" (1896); and "The Life of Christ" (1897). In 1888 Miss Phelps married Mr. Herbert D. Ward, with whom she published "The Master of the Magicians" (1890); "Come Forth" (1891).

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AUNT WINIFRED was weeding her day-lilies this morning, when the gate creaked timidly, and then swung noisily, and in walked Abinadab Quirk, with a bouquet of China pinks in the button-hole of his green-gray linen coat. He had taken evident pains to smarten himself up a little, for his hair was combed into two horizontal dabs over his ears, and the green-gray coat and bluechecked shirt-sleeves were quite clean; but he certainly is the most uncouth specimen of six feet five that it has ever been my privilege to behold. I feel sorry for him, though. I heard Meta

1 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.

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