240 SALMONIA. 



not live in a house, nor wear any clothes, and 

 his whole life is spent in this one business — 

 making and managing a fleet of wooden 

 boats, of which he is sole admiral. How 

 near this mad youth is to a genius, a hero, 

 or to an angler, who injures his health and 

 risks his life by going into the water as 

 high as his middle, in the hope of catching 

 a fish which he sees rise, though he already 

 has a pannier full. 



Hal. — Or a statesman, working by all 

 means, fair and foul, to obtain a blue riband ; 

 or a fox-hunter, risking his neck to see 

 the hounds destroy an animal which he pre- 

 serves to be destroyed, and which is good 

 for nothing. Or an aged licentious volup- 

 tuary, using all the powers of a high and 

 cultivated intellect to destroy the innocence 

 of a beautiful virgin — for a transient gratifi- 

 cation to render her miserable, and by 

 making a flaw in an inestimable and brilliant 

 gem, utterly to destroy its value. 



Phys. — You might go on and give almost 

 all the objects of pursuit of rational beings, 

 as they are called. But to return to your 



