CHAPTER XVIIL 

 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANGLING. 



The art of angling, with the improvements and appli- 

 ances thereunto pertaining, will not suffer by a comparison 

 with the progress of any other out-door recreation. The 

 love of angling increases with the lapse of years, for its 

 love grows by what it feeds on. 



Wiser and more healthful and more humane sentiments 

 now prevail among the guild than formerly, so that its prac- 

 tice more nearly approaches and deserves its appellation of 

 the " gentle art." 



Fishing for count, and the slaughter of the innocents, and 

 the torturing of the fish, when caught, by a lingering death, 

 now meet Avith the opprobrium of all true disciples of the 

 craft, and have become abhorrent and despicable practices. 



The genuine angler " loves " angling for its own sake ; 

 the pot-fisher " likes " /s/im^ for the spoils it brings, 

 whether captured by the hook, spear or seine. 



The angler wending his way by the silvery stream, or 

 resting upon its grassy banks, has an innate love for all his 

 surroundings — the trees, the birds, the flowers — which be- 

 come part and parcel of his pursuit ; become true and tried 

 friends and allies without whom he could no more love his 

 art, nor practice it, than the astronomer could view the 

 heavens with pleasure on a cloudy, starless night. 



It is the love of the stream in its turnings and windings, 

 its depths and its shallows, its overhanging branches and 



(159) 



