their mind in a quiet repose, and there make them fit for revelation.

And this seems also to be intimated by the children of Israel, (Ps. 137.) who having in a sad condition banished all mirth and music from their pensive hearts, and having hung up their then mute harps upon the willow-trees growing by the rivers of Babylon, sat down upon those banks, bemoaning the ruins of Sion, and contemplating their own sad condition.

And an ingenious Spaniard1 says, that "rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration." And though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet give me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a short contemplation, first of rivers, and then of fish; concerning 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 sate 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

(1) It has been said that the person here meant was John Valdesso, mentioned in the Life of Walton preceding, and that the passage in the text occurs in his Considerations; but upon a careful perusal of that book for the purpose, no such sentiment has been found.

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 colour. 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 thereabout 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 Judea 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 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 feet 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 wrapt, 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 the learned Dr. Casaubon's Discourse of Credulity and Incredulity, printed by him about the year 1670.

1

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

2

(1) Meric, son of Isaac Casaubon, born at Geneva in 1599, but educated at Oxford, was, for his great learning, preferred to a Prebend in the Cathedral of Canterbury, and the Rectory of Ickham near that city. Oliver Cromwell would have engaged him, by a pension of 3007. a year, to write the history of his time, but Casauboo refused it. Of many books extant of his writing, that mentioned in the text is one. He died in 1671, leaving behind him the character of a religious man, loyal to his Prince, exemplary in his life and conversation, and very charitable to the poor.-Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. 485, edit. 1721.

(2) There were, it seems, three of the Tradescants, grandfather, father, and son: the son is the person here meant: the two former were Gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles the First. They were all great botapists, and collectors of natural and other curiosities, and dwelt at South Lambeth, in Surrey; and dying there, were buried in Lambeth Church-yard. Mr. Ashmole contracted an acquaintance with the last of them, and, together with his wife, boarded at his house for a summer, during which Ashmole agreed for the purchase of Tradescant's collection, and the same was conveyed to him by a deed of gift from Tradescant and his wife. Tradescant soon after died, and Ashmole was obliged to file a bill in Chancery for the delivery of the curiosities, and succeeded in his suit. Mrs. Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with what additions he afterwards made to it, Mr. Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford, and so became the Founder of the Ashmolean Museum. A monument for the three Tradescants, very curiously ornamented with sculptures, is to be seen in Lambeth Church-yard; and a representation thereof, in four plates, and also some particulars of the family, are given in the Philosophical Transactions, Volume LXIII. Part I. p. 79, et seq. The monument, by the contribution of some friends to their memory, was, in the year 1773, repaired; and the following Lines, formerly intended for an epitaph, inserted thereon:

Know, stranger! ere thou pass, beneath this stone
Lies John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son.

The last dy'd in his spring: the other two
Liv'd till they had travell'd art and nature thro';

As by their choice collections may appear,

Of what is rare in land, in seas, in air;

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 Cony-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 Bird's-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

Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad, in a nut)

A world of wonders iu one closet shut.

These famous Antiquariaus-that had been,
Both Gardeners to the Rose and Lilly Queen-

Transplanted now themselves, sleep here. And when

Angels shall with their trumpets waken meu,

And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise,
And change their gardens for a Paradise.

The Tradescants were the first collectors of natural curiosities in this kingdom; Ashmole, and Sir Hans Sloane, were the next; the generous spirit of these persons seems to have been transfused into, and at present (1784) to reside in, a private Gentleman of unbounded curiosity and liberality, Sir Ashton Lever; whose collections, for beauty, variety, and copiousness, exceed all description, and surpass every thing of the kind in the known world. Hawkins. After Sir Ashton Lever's death, this collection was disposed of by lottery, and came into the hands of Mr. Parkinson, who, (in 1806) sold the whole, in separate lots, by public auction.

(1) Ashmole was, at first, a Solicitor in Chancery: but marrying a lady with " large fortune, and being well skilled in history and antiquities, he was promoted to the office of Windsor Herald, and wrote the History of the Order of the Garter, published in 1672, in folio. But addicting himself to the then fashionable studies of chemistry and judicial astrology; and associating himself with that silly, crack-brained enthusiast, John Aubrey, Esq of Surrey, and that egregious impostor, Lilly the Astrologer, he became a dupe to the knavery of the one, and the follies of both; and lost in a great measure the reputation he had acquired by this, and other of his writings. Of his weakness and superstition, he has left on record this memorable instance: "11th April, 1681, I took, early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck; and they drove my ague away. Deo gratias." See Memoirs of the Life of that Antiquarian, Elias Ashmole, Esq. drawn up by himself by way of diary, published by Charles Burman, Esq. 12mo. 1717.

wonders I spake of the less incredible; for, you may note, that the waters are Nature's store-house, 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, transcendant, and divine;

Who dost so strangely 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.

And as concerning fish, in that psalm, Psal. 104. wherein, for height of poetry and wonders, the prophet David seems even to exceed himself; how doth he there express himself in choice metaphors, even to the amazement of a contemplative reader, concerning the sea, the rivers, and the fish therein contained! And the great naturalist Pliny says, "That nature's great and wonderful power is more demonstrated in the sea than on the land." And this may appear, by the numerous and various creatures inhabiting both in and about that element; as to the readers of Gesner, Rondeletius,3 Pliny, Ausonius,*

(1) Equivalent to whom they are owing.

(2) Conrade Gesner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was born at Zurich in 1516. His skill in botany and natural history was such as procured him the appellation of the Pliny of Germany: and Beza, who knew him, scruples not to assert, that he concentered in himself the learning of Pliny and Varro. Nor was he more distinguished for his learning, than esteemed and beloved for that probity and sweetness of manners, which rendered him conspicuous through the course of his life.

(3) Guillaume Rondelet, an eminent physician, born at Montpelier in Languedoc, 1507. He wrote several books; and a treatise De Piscibus marinis, where all that Walton has taken from him is to be found. He died-very poor -of a surfeit, occasioned by eating figs to excess, in 1566.

(4) Decius Ausonius, a native of Bourdeaux; was a Latin Poet, Consul of Rome, and Preceptor to the Emperor Gratian. He died about 390.