189 



THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 



My Good Friend — I cannot but tender my 

 particular thanks to you, for that you have been 

 pleased, by three editions of your Complete 

 Angler, freely to dispense your dear-bought ex- 

 perience to all the lovers of that art ; and have, 

 thereby, so excellently vindicated the legality 

 thereof as to divine approbation, that if I should 

 go about to say more in that behalf, it indeed 

 were to light a candle to the sun. But since all 

 pleasures, though never so innocent in them- 

 selves, lose that stamp when they are either pur- 

 sued with inordinate aifections, or to the pre- 

 judice of another, therefore, as to the former, 

 every man ought to endeavour, through a serious 

 consideration of the vanity of worldly content- 

 ments, to moderate his affections thereunto, 

 whereby they may be made of excellent use, as 

 some poisons allayed are in physic ; and, as to 

 the latter, we are to have recourse to the known 

 laws, ignorance whereof excuseth no man, and 

 therefore, by their directions, so to square our 

 actions, that we hurt no man, but keep close to 



